Larry Jones is driving the minivan across the Utah desert on Highway 163, with Sally in the passenger seat and the two kids dozing in the back.
William Scaggs forScientific American
In this case we are the helpless passengers in the back, and our parliamentarians are the driver.
If Larry refuses to slow down, then it is up to us the passengers, to do everything we can to make sure he listens to us.
Tonight at 7pm in Auckland, probably the biggest ever meeting called by Generation Zero on climate change is due to take place. Held in the Owen Glen complex in the Fisher &Paykel Auditorium, Auckland University, Wynyard Street. Make sure you are there.
The National government are Larrys. Determined to take a chance.
Labour and the Greens are Sallys, frightened and worried, but too intimidated by Larry to speak up.
On the plus side.The Green Party did call a conference on climate change at parliament. Which was boycotted by Shearer. This was a brave attempt to drag the reluctant Labour Party to the table.
They need to do more of the same.
But the Greens still refuse to make climate change a leading election issue.
And they are still determined to get seats in a Shearer cabinet, even though they know the cost will be to drop their opposition to deep sea oil drilling, fracking and Denniston. The three big things that symbolise BAU. And the three big things that the National and the Labour Parties are deathly committed to.
I have maintained and still maintain that if the Greens do go into coalition with Labour on these terms, they will be finished as an electoral force.
Is this title biased or what?
Only in the 3rd paragraph do we read…”The Green Party was the big winner, lifting from 9 per cent to 14. After several weeks of debate and protest over the GCSB Bill, National fell to 46 per cent – down three points since the May poll.”
Maybe headline should have been….
“Government’s spying policies bleed support to the Greens’.
The editor of the Herald must be paid a lot by the foreign corporates taking our country over.
FFS, Jenny, we need a review of the entire intelligence system in NZ before we can make informed decisions. You’ve been told this. As I said above, you’re just not listening.
Draco, don’t include me in your “we” thanks.
Don’t tell me I can’t make an informed decision right now without a bunch of parliamentary hacks telling me what information I am entitled to.
After Waihopai, Manning, Doctom, Snowden et al what more information do you need to condemn the whole surveillance state?
Liberal commentators have been forced to admit that surveillance is a euphemism for the political repression of all the blowback from numerous colonial wars and invasions. The US is creating Jihadis in its own suburbia for gods sake.
I don’t want a review by any of these professional politicians.
That’s just a formula for doing nothing on full pay for a year or two while our privacy is wiped and the the globe is destroyed.
I want a ‘repeal’ though its unlikely that Labour will make it into Government unless the other left parties can make up for its pathetic crawling to the establishment.
If Labour campaigned right now for Kill the Bill it might just create the support it needs to Kill the Act.
You’re talking about two issues. The bill that NACT are passing which needs to be repealed if not stopped and a review which sets out to clearly define the purpose of the intelligence apparatus and it’s limits. I agree that Labour should come out and say that they will repeal the legislation that NACT are presently passing and going to the status quo ante. We’ll still need that review as well so as to make a better intelligence apparatus.
Jenny, we need a review of the entire intelligence system in NZ before we can make informed decisions. You’ve been told this. As I said above, you’re just not listening.
Draco T Bastard
What’s to review?
You either support the mass surveillance of the population. or you don’t. Which is what this legislation is about.
Just like Shearer. Draco it is you, who are not listening.
The collecting, storing, and transmission of mass surveillance (metadata) on the general population by police and spy agencies needs to be made a criminal offence punishable by law.
David Shearer the leader of the Labour Party says that on becoming the government he will have “a review”. Not an inquiry mind you “a review”.
A review is not an inquiry. Most people know what an inquiry is, they know what a review is. Most people know “review” is code for “do nothing”.
The broad spectrum surveillance and collection and dissemination and transfer of metadata on every single New Zealander needs to be kept illegal.
There is no middle ground.
John Key;“because the alternative here would be either we don’t collect this data at all.”
David Cunliffe; “based upon what we have heard here tonight. I personally, and I am sure my caucus colleagues would be of the view that this legislation, must not, will not, and cannot stand.”
David Shearer; “We will have a review.”
There is no alternative, there is no middle ground. Key acknowledges it, Cunliffe does too. You either collect metadata, or you don’t.
There is no fence to sit on here Draco, no matter how much you claim it.
To support a review over an inquiry and/or a ban, is to normalise the collection of metadata.
Will a review stop the corruption?
Will a review identify the guilty?
Will a review identify the wronged?
Will a review stop the collection of metadata?
I think we can all agree that the answer to each of these questions is no it will not.
Therefore a review will be a farce and an insult to the intelligence of most New Zealanders.
Until David Shearer promises to reveal the identities of the 88 New Zealanders illegally spied on, so that we can all judge the validity of the need for this legislation, then his promised review will be nothing but a cover up for Business As Usual.
It probably needs a Royal Commission of Inquiry so that findings and recommendations aren’t buried and forgotten in some lowly status report and instead remain in perpetuity and can be referred to easily when future governments try to attack rights of citizens in the way Key and his mates are currently doing.
No he didn’t. He mentioned it, and probably supports it, but he didn’t call for it, he said that Shearer had. What Cunliffe clearly called for was the repeal of this legislation
Cunliffe said that the Leader of the Labour Party has promised a “thorough review”. He obviously wants to go further than the review promised by his leader. Because he followed this statement up, by saying this legislation “cannot stand”.
David Shearer yelled out “We will be having a review”.
The implication being, that’s all you’re gonna get Cunliffe. No, cannot stand nonsense.
The further implication is that David Shearer would be comfortable with allowing the collection of metadata spying on every New Zealander to stand.
And by his silence on the withholding of the information about the illegal spying on the 88 New Zealanders, David Shearer is quite happy to let this situation stand as well.
To convince the public that he can be trusted, David Shearer needs to make a statement that on taking charge of the secret services he will order them to release this information to those affected if they request it.
Simple, clear, honest.
Yet not being done.
P.S. TRP, Draco maybe you and other Shearer apologists might like to further try and justify Shearer’s refusal to commit to releasing the names of the 88?
I suppose you might say that releasing this information could reveal the identities of the spies responsible, thereby compromising their ability to continue their under cover work. Lawbreakers guilty of crimes against members of the public are not above the law just because they are members of the secret service. So what if it costs them their jobs. By allowing the secret police officers to remain above the law if they are discovered breaking it, is a very dangerous precedent to set.
If it does come to court, as many of these cases undoubtably will, these accused spies can ask for name suppression and I am sure that they will be granted it.
“David Shearer yelled out “We will be having a review”.
The implication being, that’s all you’re gonna get Cunliffe.”
You’re a slow learner, Jenny. You have miserably failed to back up your fantasy and the presence of hundreds of people in the hall who didn’t see any such exchange doesn’t appear to have put you off continuing to talk crap about Shearer and Cunliffe. Were you even there? Nah, I guess not, eh.
“P.S. TRP, Draco maybe you and other Shearer apologists might like to further try and justify Shearer’s refusal to commit to releasing the names of the 88?”
Nope, I doubt anyone is going to waste much time pissing on your feeble strawman.
The people who watched TV3 on 26 July saw and heard Shearer say “We will be having a review”, after Cunliffe’s speech. Go and watch TV3 news on that day.
The difference between me and you, Jenny, is that I know what the review is for.
The intelligence services aren’t going away and so a review of just what they’re for and what powers they have is a reasonable action. This is what Labour have promised. As I say above, I would be more comfortable if they promised to drop the legislation that NACT are presently putting through but either way I still support a review of the intelligence services.
You, on the other hand, are focusing solely upon a single bit of legislation. It is this focus that has you being completely wrong about what people are saying.
Until David Shearer promises to reveal the identities of the 88 New Zealanders illegally spied on,
If I was one of those 88 I’d prefer it if the government told me and then let me decide if I told the rest of NZ and didn’t just go out and tell the rest of NZ.
If I was one of those 88 I’d prefer it if the government told me and then let me decide if I told the rest of NZ and didn’t just go out and tell the rest of NZ.
Draco T Bastard
Goes without saying. At present if you suspect you are being illegally spied on, if you request this information from the government you are told you are not allowed to know.
Currently the government are shielding the lawbreakers from their victims. Draco do you personally support the continuation of this criminal government policy?
Has David Shearer promised to, as future head of the secret security services allow people to access this information about themselves?
Let us see who the GCSB are spying on. If as many suspect they are not terrorists at all and that innocent people are being illegally victimised then this needs to come out so that they can get some redress.
Onnit Paul. Utterly shameless blatancy. No mention forever of Roy Morgan – until it favours the Natsies last week. Deliberate distortion (Gran) and totally ignored (Stuff) of yesterday’s Left lift.
On the silver lining side, concrete confirmation of the “self-fulfilling prophesy” power of polls. A fact long ago twigged of course by the Continuous Propaganda Party, its organs and their bottomless pockets.
A comparative analysis of MSM coverage of blue-friendly polls versus red-friendly over the past few years would be staggering.
Lolz the pic the Herald used today has David Shearer looking like He is starring in the movie ”Revenge of the Lizard People”,
i don’t see the Colmar-Brunton painting Labour in that bad a position, the Green Party on 14% has the bloc level with National who have 1% more of support to lose which would make that Party pretty much unable to form a Government on those numbers,
Between them, the Mana Party and the dying Maori Party hold the other 3% of the left’s support if we view the electorate on the basis of 50/50,
i can see the Mana Party entering the 2015 Parliament with 3 MP’s and the Maori Party with zero, not a bad position to be in this far out from November 2014,
The interest now will be what sort of damage has been inflicted upon National from the sordid little and long running GCSB affair…
Labour has wasted far too much time on this nonsense, I don’t know if it’s just desperation and the Labour HQ thinks this is all they’ve got to attack National with or it’s just arrogance and the intellectuals in the party just can’t admit the strategy sucks and just persevere because of ego.
Ah here it is back from a weekend being ‘primed’ with the Farrar, Hooten, Blubber boy line that no-body cares about the deliberate unlawful accessing of private email and phone information by the Office of the Prime Minister,
Keep singing that song Boyo, a mere 1-2% of right wing voters need only ‘care’ deeply enough about the executive misuse of power to in November 2014 give you something that will really make you care,
The opposition parties, by objecting to the GCSB, are highlighting the now typical disregard that Nat govt shows toward democratic principles. This is what the opposition parties need to be doing, because it is vital that voters are aware that there is another, better, way of doing things. Hopefully NZers will see these options loud and clear and not be bamboozled by the slogans ‘that it isn’t important’.
I would be ripping my hair out even more than I already am if the opposition parties were not presenting strong objections to the GCSB; I would have thought there would be many others who feel the same way.
Thing is anyone with half a brain can see that Labour isn’t really against what is been proposed.
From what I’ve read the bill will pretty much stay in it’s current form if Labour gets into power, which makes all the shrieking and carry on is just a shitty attempt to try and smear Key and pin blame on him because some public servant fucked up again not because this bill is all that’s evil.
If you’re going to treat the voting population like idiots at least try to be clever about it.
That is the brilliant thing about strong opposition. If the opposition parties go on record strongly opposing a certain approach, then if they get into power and do the self-same thing they can be called on it.
If voters continue to vote for a party that shows severe disrespect toward democratic principles it is hard not to see them as idiots because they are giving up the safeguards they would have had, had they voted for parties that opposed such undemocratic actions.
For this reason, suspecting Labour is much the same as National is not a good reason to not vote against National at this point.
Politicians need to be given the clear message as to what is acceptable and what is not. What is going on at present is simply not acceptable and only a complete fool would continue to vote for such behaviour.
John Key’s aim here is not the security and defence of the realm… It is self-preservation.
This is a classic cover up. It has all the hallmarks:
i) Denials
ii) Stone-walling
iii) Misinformation
iv) Obfuscation
v) Scapegoating
John Key and his advisors are following, almost word for word, the Watergate script.
It’s by Winston so obviously don’t agree with everything he says but he does make some good points about the GCSB and other things so worth reading.
@DTB
Only just read the speech – yes it is interesting.
I rate Mr Peters very highly on the skills he has shown as an opposition MP. Before NZF got back the Greens were doing a fair job -yet were alone in this. The overall opposition was insipid. I view Winston as having had a huge impact on the strength of the opposition this term.
Key and Co. didn’t put all that effort years ago into discrediting NZ First for no good reason.
Relating to this I believe it is worth looking around to see where that type of effort is going now.
So far my search provides me with the result of Mr Hone Harawira. There seems to have been a inordinate amount of interest in condemning his family (around Waitangi, housing protest and the nephew’s court case)
Is that the Helen Clark who said this: ”If beneficiaries want to get working for Families payments they should get a job”,
As bad if not worse than the current leaders ‘roof-painting bene bludger’ speech,a sentence i could well imagine coming from the lips of Richardson or Shiply,
Refusing to uphold the principle tenet of the welfare state, that it is based around the greatest need, will always cause Labour trouble in the electorate until such time as it has shaken the last vestiges of the left of the party from it’s rump,
Mind you at 33% of polled support it could be considered to have mostly achieved the above…
bad12
Yes I come back to middle class Labourites with jobs and favourable future visions talking simplistic and unhelpful shit about beneficiaries, and so-called non-working. When Steve Maharey was in government I thought his background in social sciences would result in more intelligent and wide-ranging innovations in getting positive returns from the unemployed and beneficiary payouts, that were helpful to them and the country, but nothing startling shook the scene.
He didn’t seem to have absorbed or was capable of triumphing over the middle-class stodge with new ideas despite his closeness to the thinkers in the social policy field. We can notice the same lack of independent thought about our economy emanating from financial wizard Kay.
“Who will rid us of these turbulent politicians?” (and bring in some good ones dedicated to doing good policies for the people and the country that actually bring benefits, not vague or fiery promises that just leave a sweet hopeful smell of roses hanging in the air.)
Interesting possible fact got from google. About Henry 2, and his saying –
He initially said “Never again will I have to say “Who will rid me of this turbulent priest” (he had in fact had several of the previous archbishops murdered) …
That’s going a bit over the top I think!
Rosetinted, Lol, yes just slightly, over the top that is, considering to all extents and purposes we are in ‘a public place’, but, i do know the ‘feeling’,
My view for quite some time is that as ‘the left’ have hived off Labour in a continuing process under MMP Labour have along with its current support base ‘morphed’ into a middle class Party, how much of this is deliberate or a natural change is debatable,
What is of interest to me from the Colmar Brunton poll is that 2% of the fence sitters, registered voters who have previously refused to indicate a preference, have come down off of the fence in this poll and the Green Party seems to have picked up all these voters,
This would to a certain extent indicate the Prime Minister having labelled Labour/Green as the ‘devil beast’ has certainly had an effect upon the electorate, the opposite tho of what the Prime Minister intended,
The past couple of elections appear to me to have been fought mainly in the middle ground of the electorate, if as this poll indicates, those who have stayed at home whilst this middle class battle has run it’s course are now ‘seeing’ the necessity to become involved and the fact that such involvement as indicated by the Colmar Brunton has moved left to the Green Party is a great look for the left especially if the indicated trend continues…
bad12
Interesting thoughts. I referred to a discussion of Brit Labour recently, forgotten where. I’d have to look back over my comments archive, but so amazing that what we see in NZ parallels theirs so far away. Of course we have always followed Brit thinking and connections and education and politics so maybe not so amazing. But their progression or regression could perhaps be studied with an objective eye to give substance to theories of what has been behind the Labour movement’s change here.
(this was my reaction to her self-serving/past-glossing-over appearance on q & a..)
“…next up is helen clark..(and i am sorry..i have so many other questions for clark..(maybe starting with her govt. totally ignoring/marginalising the poorest/sickest for nine long years..
..and at the same time..so efficiently preparing the ground for the current pogrom against those poorest/sickest..
..that my mind glazes over at her current unctions..
..save to note she fully supports spooks/spooking..(but is anti-mass-trawling..)
(and of course after that wholesale ignoring of real poverty in new zealand for those nine long years..that she now is at the un..’fighting-poverty’..
..must cause irony-overdose/gastric-reflux in most watchers..)..”
Ad +1….and they should be sucking up all the Kiwi unemployed and training them on the job in the reconstruction of Christchurch…instead of importing labour
+ 1 Colonial Viper …..Youth unemployment is a tragedy !…..which will keep ricocheting for generations!…… It should be a number one priority.
I think the Germans have a lot to teach us on this….Kids from high school go directly into apprenticeships or internships …..so they can sort out what they want to do….eg get training in a line of work they like or become a university student…..I don’t think they are allowed to be unemployed …same in Switzerland
Massive turnaround in the one news poll for Labour and Shearer and a big hit for National which means Shearers showing what he can do, hes the right leader for Labour
I noted, in the last speech of his I heard on the radio, that he was no longer hesitating on hitting the decisive word in the sentence and was showing more conviction. ‘Necessity is the mother of invention’ may be a cliche, but there is some merit in that statement. Whether it will be enough is another matter ..
Yeah you have to give David Shearer a couple of brownie points when His current speech making is compared with His earlier efforts,
What i perceived from His ummm aaaah delivery’s after His ascension to the position of leader was that He was ‘self editing’, stopping mid-sentence to seek a ‘better’ word to use in the point He was making,
Obviously the media trainers have been at work and to a large extent corrected this bad habit, now all’s we need do is convince His advisers that the only required reading for the leader of the Labour Party is ‘Labour during the Norman Kirk years’ and we might actually get some decent policy from that Party which addresses the ‘bread and butter’ issues of those in our society that survive on the least amount of income…
Shearer just needs a little more time (like maybe when it comes to the election debates with John Key) to really show the people of NZ what hes made of 🙂
Probably won’t matter, Key will likely have banned TV and newspapers by then. Or hopefully people will awake and see the conman Key for what he is, all those used car sales types seem to have free-flowing bullshit in abundance.
[lprent: But Santi got banned until after the next election. I guess there could be a resumption of the strange RWNJ penis extender technique that involves getting banned from TS? Young shrivelled bucks do some really stupid things in the pursuit of coups. ]
This weekend 24 US embassies closed their doors because there was believable information that they were in eminent danger from a terrorist attack.
Problem is that this information seems to have sprung from an unlikely source. The mst important Qaeda leader going by the name of Ayman al Zawahiri ! Here is the link to the NZ News Website where I found this.
The same leader also alleged that the coup against Mursi the Egyptian Muslim brotherhood president was engineered by the US on the 3 August. Here is the link to the Guardian article.
Problem is that according to the MSM this Al Qaeda leader was killed during a drone attack on 9/12 2012.
See why I’m having trouble with these eminent terror attack announcements?
OOPPSS. Or it seems that Prism can speak to those who have died, Can they ask my Mother where she hid the recipes for the tiny cakes, that go with a cup of tea.
Um… It’s dudette for you and try this and know that reading is what I do very well but you are right that was the wrong article to link to as it didn’t detail the entire history of Zawahiri’s many reported deaths.
The trouble with following Shearer’s delivery to the media etc with bated breath is that once again it’s pinning hopes on getting any Labour government in, as if that is all there is to be concerned about.
What we are already getting is just more bene bashing coming from the left. In government it would be more self-satisfied ‘We’re running the country right and keeping it on an even keel’ stuff, and being happy with showing positive trends in the measurements of policies set in place with right wing advantages.
I was looking at a 2005 NZ Listener and the list of top 50 powerful people. Cullen was near the top, and mentioned was his 67c ‘chewing gum’ tax cut. He and Helen Clark didn’t have enough nous to institute something like sliding inflation indices on tax levels. When do the good people who are not comfortably off, get considered. Answer not often.
Such complacency about Labour’s vulnerable constituents will continue going by Shearer’s comments about the guy on the roof, and there must be more in the pot. In a previous Labour government Trevor Mallard went round slashing small rural schools and then that was followed by cuts to bus transport by him or the next lot and so on. It’s just a progression of lost services and rights and lost economic conditions and as confusing as that TV series Lost where everything seemed fluid and uncertain.
The program is run jointly with other agencies including Australia’s Defence Signals Directorate, and New Zealand’s Government Communications Security Bureau.
Greenwald said low level analysts can via systems like XKeyscore “listen to whatever emails they want, whatever telephone calls, browsing histories, Microsoft Word documents. And it’s all done with no need to go to a court, with no need to even get supervisor approval on the part of the analyst.”
And of course no need to worry in the slightest about sharing said transcripts with a joint agency. Or its head.
I didn’t think much of it and went about my merry way roaming the net. Amongst my first visits after I installed the plug in was the daily blog and to my surprise the Pink Floyd song “The dark side of the moon” the alert for NSA monitoring started to play!
I closed the page and went to the Standard blog where again the song started to play.
I again closed the page and this time I opened the Kiwiblog page and the Whaleoil page both pages opened without any problems and no dark side of the moon!
The Daily Blog and The Standard are two “left” wing blogs. The Standard is the third biggest blog in New Zealand for those of you who don’t know it and the Daily Blog is a blog run by prominent activist and journalist Martyn Bradbury to which a whole slew of left wing journalists and writers contribute.
Kiwiblog and Whaleoil are the two biggest blogs in New Zealand and both are closely aligned with the National party and aligned with the right wing.
Which begs the question: Are the Standard and the Daily blog monitored by the NSA and if so why?
Actually, I have to agree with TheConformist here. The code of the program isn’t reliable ie it doesn’t perform the task it says it’s meant to. There is a clear distinction between your computer and a website hosted elsewhere. It appears that you’re trying to deter people from viewing the two main leftwing blogs in New Zealand.
@travellerev: Interesting. Our similar topic posts crossed. Try opening the site I posted below: PACC PAMS 13 even if just for the love of Pink Floyd….
@David H on thread below, this site tries to install something on your computer, so don’t click through. A friend used my computer to find information about countries attending the conference and must have run the installation – I’m running my malware now. However, it looks like the site is down now.
The way the NSA do their monitoring (sweeping up full copies of internet traffic from fibre optic junctions) should be completely invisible to the end user machine.
Yes.
But I was thinking about the low-level wannabe types playing spy games rather than the NSA
The site looks like a twelve-year old group of boys playing around with WordPress rather than a US or NZ Defence Force production. Incongruous with an international conference for army chiefs.
Surely there should be delays that would indicate interference. Any telecommunications service that nows its latency should be able to detect such interference?
It takes a while for the Addon to sound the alerts when you open a page indicating it is interacting with something before it decides there is the possibility of NSA monitoring. For those of you curious about the addon here is the link for you to try it out yourself.
If you want to disable it again go to your addons under the tools dropdown menu and click disable.
Here is the link to the code of the addon for those of you so inclined and by invitation of the author of the addon Justin Binder. Seems fair to me.
It should but is it? Or is the addon reacting to something else on the main servers but before you go into that let me confess to you that with regards to software, code and other things that go bing in computers I am completely blond! (Although I did learn to put them together when I was a couple of decennia younger)
All I did was convey what happened. I have no opinion on what happened other than that we are all monitored (not necessarily in a personal way but more in a “lets get all the info and store it somewhere until someone becomes troublesome and we need to deal to that person” kind of way) and have been as a matter of course for years and that all they try to do now is to make it lawful so that they can act when needed within a legal framework so that the dotcoms of this world have no legal recourse anymore.
History reveals that most governments are so inclined and even more so in uncertain economic times and the internet is simply to good an opportunity to waste! It’s nothing personal, it’s just business as usual.
travellerev .. using your link, have a look at the comments on the app.
It is using sites that are publicly named as being monitored by Prism et al … still interesting in terms of the left wing blogs, but it is supposed to be for fun ….
Here for you from your link …
by Ken Saunders on June 17, 2013 · permalink
If you are thinking about using this add-on, keep these things in mind.
1) It’s for fun, and not some sort of magical NSA/Prism blocking add-on.
2) Purchase Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon album if you want to pause, mute, etc, the songs.
3) Here’s a list of the companies, http://www.pcworld.com/article/2040991/report-nsa-prism-program-spied-on-americans-emails-searches.html
4) Firefox button > Add-ons > Extensions > Dark Side Of The Prism > Disable, disables this add-on or you can choose Remove.
This is a brilliant and funny add-on!Thanks for developing it.
First of all I stated that this is just a claim made. I tried it out on a lot of sites though and it seems pretty consistent. And no it is not an add on to block NSA monitoring and neither does it purport to be all accurate either. Funny though how it sounded when accessing two left wing blogs in far away New Zealand and not Kiwiblog or Whaleoil two rightwing blogs closely aligned to National. It doesn’t sound with newspapers but it did sound on Max Keiser’s blog who is a fervent anti-banker RT TV Host.
It didn’t sound with Veterans today but it did sound when I opened the Global research site dedicated to studying globalism and the power elite. It also sounded when I opened Washington’s blog but not when I opened Zero hedge blog.
The fact that this application didn’t ‘alert’ when you visited Kiwiblog and Whaleoil is evidence that it wouldn’t be picking up NSA monitored sites. If I was an intelligence operative I would be trying to garner information from popular sites to ascertain what the mood of the politicised section of a country is. Kiwiblog and Whaleoil are the two most popular political blogs in the country. They would be prime targets for gathering intelliegence on NZ.
Gosman I’ve been reading the tripe you post for a while now and I can say with the utmost confidence that there is no chance of you ever doing anything involving intelligence.
“It is using sites that are publicly named as being monitored by Prism et al”
A link to that list of publicly named sites would be nice. I’m sure Martin Bradbury and Iprent would be delighted to know they are on a public list of Prism monitored sites!
Nope no list other than a few companies who are known to cooperate with the Prism program. Daily blog, the Standard, Kiwiblog, Whaleoil are all blogs based on wordpress blogging software but some of them are tagged ad someof them are not. Still does not explain why the two left wing blogs were singled out by the add on while the two right wing ones were not.
I would have thought the answer to your question was pretty obvious.
People who are concerned about the welfare of people (as opposed to the economic interests of the very wealthy) are now considered traitors to the interests that spy networks are working for.
This is very clear given the official reaction to Mr Snowden’s actions.
Which begs the question: Are the Standard and the Daily blog monitored by the NSA and if so why?
Maybe
For a laugh (its why I come here)
[lprent: I just assume that the site is monitored by someone(s). What I’m interested in is making it hard for material from the site to be able to be used in anything legal without requiring the means to be disclosed (take some time and think the logic through). ]
The NZDF is hosting the PACC PAM (?) conference in Auckland this year.
Searching for which countries belong to this group, and who will be attending – results in not a lot on Google. Although PACC PAM, links back to the US Defence Force via a couple of other organisations.
However, this bizarre site PACC PAMS 13 – Army Conference Agenda comes up in regards to the NZ conference this year. Has random NZ photos and strange layout. Looks like a site from a bad 70s spy movie, and heads up, you will get a couple of automatic messages if you click through.
A friend wanted to use my computer to find out the list of countries, and is Google-challenged. They must have clicked through the installation prompt – will run my malware programs to double check.
The rest of the site – which I will not return to after deleting whatever has been loaded – is pictures of the skytower, NZ currency, people at a restaurant etc. Just checked if the installation message comes up for me – and the site is now down.
1) Alanz …4 August 5.57pm (under “Friday Document Dump” August 2nd)…Stated i)that the media should keep digging because there are 3 key, pivotal issues not covered in the document dump.ii) Also there are nationally grave matters not yet public …
2) exitlane… 3 August 4.47pm ( under “Andrea Vance’s Privacy Breach” August 3rd)…. Stated that under the GCSB ( refs. Snowden / “NZL” docs / re Xkeystore ) phone calls and email content anywhere can be accessed with a few keystrokes without a warrant….Hence John Key would have known everything about Dunne and Vance even without the help of Parliamentary services !!!!…..sooner Dunne realises that this and what he is thinking of voting for are tied up inextricably ,the better)
My Question:
Is Dunne complicit in a cover up ….when Key had everything already?…..Does Dunne know this?….If so , Dunne’s squealing about Parliamentary breaches of his privacy are rather spurious…and it makes him a lot more complicit and tricky in the implementation of the GCSB bill than what many thought
Of course he is. Because he knows Key has seen all the emails. Key has him over a barrel. Jesus, have we ever had such a nasty piece of work for a prime-minister. It also shows Dunne is weak as dishwater.
@ Anne…yes but Dunne seems to be trying to keep the two issues separate …and it is also the case in the media ….ie Parliament breaches are being kept separate from GCSB breaches on privacy( ie John Key having access to the emails already via GCSB.) It is as if they want to keep the bigger picture of the GCSB and what it is doing under the carpet.
…..So Dunne is ‘outraged’ by Parliamentary services and one head has rolled there….But Dunne also wants to vote for the GCSB bill when he knows the bigger picture is that the Prime Minister had all this information independently via GCSB……( I feel sorry for the guy that got rolled unnecessarily)
And whereas before I just thought Dunne was being blackmailed and felt a wee bit sorry for him…..now I think he is a tricky Dicky
Probably everyone on this site knows this already…but I have just realised this could be the case….it sort of makes the outrage at the illegal spying on the 88 rather redundant….. everyone has been spied on…in which case why isnt the media saying so?…and why did the guy in Parliament services fall on his sword?
2. To have responded once the report was released.
Had Vance done 2. she would have implicated Dunne because in those emails Dunne has to have shot himself in the foot. Dunne must be feeling happy with himself that the chance of Vance releasing his emails is now remote as she would be branded a hypocrite if she did.
@ KJT…..Yes but did Key get it via Parliamentary services or independently via the GCSB…..even before a law has been passed ( with Dunne’s help) making it legal?
How the rich countries can screw the poor ones. Many consulates in Brit are being ordered to close their bank accounts under regulations to control money laundering. This comes from high law instigated by some high-minded countries with impeccable financial trading. Some countries are having difficulty finding ways to trade internationally.
I remember hearing a story about Rwanda I think, being left on the outer when the world financial system refused them membership. They determined to conduct some business in cash, one of their dignitaries took off from home with a caseful, and I don’t know if that transaction was ever completed, but I heard that the dignitary settled in I think France. Probably opened a consulate there in his home. So some good may have come out of the move, who knows. Nothing is straightforward in politics and finance.
Years ago, in Reagan’s time there was a bank that dealt illegally in funds connected with drug running venture capital, and though this was known it was allowed to remain in business, and was used to pay for arms used in some overseas destabilising action. Standards of probity have to be seen to remain in place, so that the exception can prove the rule I imagine. Some whistle blowing investigative journalist found out about it. Otherwise we would never have known, and probably most don’t anyway. I just was curious to check out a second hand book. If from now on there aren’t any accessible documents in hard copy extant, that will happen less.
Banking/debt based money supply/transaction systems are being used as a way to control and contain entire countries. If you are in the “in crowd” good for you, you get privileged access to these systems and your country (and government) can continue to survive; if you are not – then all bets are off the table, and if it means that tens of millions of your people have to suffer economic deprivation and hunger in the process, ah well too bad.
I was trying to get details on Steffan Browning , Greens who made a good point this morning that NZ is too dependent on one business type – ie dairy.
And from google going through Kiwiblog I got a message that – something to the server chain is incomplete and something is not registered and do I accept and I said no. Don’t know what that was about. Sounds like the vehicle needs its spark plugs cleaned!
Gleaned from Radionz Rural and Business News headings:
MPI under-staffed to cope with China trade
The Ministry for Primary Industries admitted that despite a tripling in New Zealand’s trade with China over the past five years, it did not have anywhere near enough staff in the ministry nor in China to cope with that escalating trade relationship.
Online tool to map stock theft
Farmers who have lost stock to rustlers have a new way of hitting back at them.
Signs of resistance to varroa bee mite treatments – assoc
The National Beekeepers Association says the battle against the varroa mite may cost almost $1 billion over the next three decades.
Chorus gets further debt facility
Chorus has secured further debt facilities, which the company says will support its funding needs to rollout of the ultra fast broadband over the next six years.
Hills Flooring in liquidation
Family-owned carpet retailer Hills Flooring is in liquidation, blaming the failure of the construction company Mainzeal and the tough retail market.
These are matters that should have oversight by ordinary NZs.
* Hills Flooring – established NZ company being lost – why?
* Chorus – is an arm of Telecom isn’t it? And its got further debt facility – from whom and why? Was that debt facility available to other contenders?
* Varroa bee mite – Bees and beekeepers – are they getting proper support and tax incentives and grants to pay for the costs of this terrible outcome of increased import risks without the concomitant spending on increased biosecurity?
* Help for farmers to combat stock theft – sounds good. The rural side, apart just from dairy, need support through proper services from government.
* MPI being understaffed to meet the needs that increased trade with Asia and China brings is just another of NZs failures to follow through on initiatives and new policies which need extra work, with increased money spent on them. This is to ensure that the money that is hoped to be made, and the business and contacts generated, are properly handled and treasured.
And that involves more than giving fast track visas to big spenders from Asian countries to come here and. hopefully, offload. That might be more profitable than before if countries trying to appear highly principled financially shut down on bank accounts for possibly dodgy dealers. Just the thing for a fresh-faced keen little country like us. We could welcome these poor refugees from the nasty big wide world financial system!
* Embassy accounts being closed by HSBC bank
HSBC, the biggest bank in Britain is reported to have given dozens of diplomatic missions in London 60 days to move their accounts elsewhere.
Debt ridden, and sabotaged primary sector – Should help bring NZ to its knees in short time,
Swelling national debt, private debt, spiraling living costs , decreasing incomes!, government books loaded with off balance sheet derivatives, just like the banks, all of them!
Nah she’s going sweet mate, the recovery is really just about to kick!
And now they are spinning spinning spinning through this fabulous land!!!
You have to wonder if the Slippery little Shyster we have as Prime Minister considers us all to be just plain dumb,
His claim now is that He did not know until Friday that the Dunne/Vance emails had been handed over to His Office/the Henry Inquiry from Parliamentary Services/the IT ‘contractor’ just takes spin to a whole new level,
The Prime Minister seems here to be attempting to dodge charges from the Opposition in the House that He the Prime Minister has mislead the Parliament,
Does the Slippery little Shyster live in some form of airless bubble,along with all of His executive officials occupying their own secular bubbles, under a rock each in other words miles apart in a vast desert without the communications of this modern world to disturb their meditations,
This claim from the Prime Minister is simply one serious piece of bullshit too far, at a time when the Henry Inquiry, the Chief executive of the Prime Minister’s own office, and the Prime Ministers own Chief of Staff all KNEW of the emails and KNEW that the emails had been obtained from Parliamentary Services/the IT ‘contractor’ this Prime Minister wishes us all to believe he knew nothing,
Now that is the Sergeant Shultz defence if i ever heard it, i know nothing nothing you hear, the contention that He, the Prime Minister only found out about the Dunne/Vance emails would have us believe that the document dump on Friday from the Prime Ministers own office of over 100 pages was all material that He had never once read,
Dodge,duck,dive, what the Prime Minister really ‘means’ is not that He had not the slightest notion until Friday that the Dunne/Vance emails had been released to the Henry Inquiry/Office of the Prime Minister, what He really ‘means’ is that he found out on the Friday that ‘we’ knew that He had reached the emails of Dunne/Vance and were discussing this openly here at the Standard on the Thursday night befor the document dump occurred from His office on the Friday,
it is not the prime minister’s chief executive of the prime ministers office that should be offering to resign here, there’s something rotten right at the core of this particular apple and it is the Prime Minister exhibiting all those signs of rot, it is Him who should be offering the resignation…
Just say what you mean instead of beating around the bush bad12. John Key has lied! His office, namely the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, has instructed Parliamentary Service to intercept three moths worth of communications between a journalist, Andrea Vance, and a Minister of the Crown, Peter Dunce. It is likely that this “contractor” supposedly employed by Parliamentary Service is actually the GCSB who was instructed by no other that John Key himself.
Despite that blatant breach of privacy, which has resulted in him resigning his Ministerial portfolios, Peter Dunce is going to support a bill that legalizes similar surveillance on us all. However, he will not allow his communications in this instance to be released to the public. 2+2 really does equal 4. What is the bouffant hiding? It is likely only his own scalp. Such is the way of politicians I suppose.
Conveniently for John Key there is now a more major story to take the attention off his administration. The Prime Minister can now appear the hero, admonishing Fonterra for not informing the public that their dairy supplies could be contaminated with BOTULISM. A delay that has only taken + 15 months to occur. Saved by the bell I suppose from some negative publicity…some negative spying allegations. Who really cares that their privacy now means nothing and that the scientist are also scratching their heads about how exactly this latest (convenient) sideshow can be real?
How much is it really costing New Zealand to protect John Keys credibility I wonder?
LOLZ, me beat around the bush, now that is funny, i think that you are wrong when you posit that the ‘IT contractor’ is likely to be the GCSB,
There is a distinction between the two arms of intelligence,(hah intelligence here being an oxymoron in terminology), what i have is the sneaking suspicion that this ‘contractor’ to Parliamentary Services is simply a front company for the SIS,
As far as i can ascertain it is the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet Chief Executive Andrew Kibblewhite who is probably carrying less guilt in the whole process of the initial obtaining of the Dunne/Vance phone/email records and Kibblewhite is simply being used as a convenient excuse, the toilet if you will, down which the Prime Minister is attempting to flush His knowledge of the illegally gained phone/email records,
It appears from what is known that Eaggleson, the Prime Ministers chief of Staff was the point man fronting the Parliamentary Service on behalf of the Prime Minister, and if threats were made in order to force Parliamentary Services to hand over anything, then Eaggleson would have been issuing such threats,
Did Andrew Kibblewhite know the full extent of the illegal information gathering occurring on behalf of the Henry Inquiry, you bet, along with everyone else on the Beehives 9th floor obviously including Eaggleson who strong armed Parliamentary Services into agreeing to the release,
Why if it is in fact the SIS acting in drag as a private IT contractor to Parliamentary Services go to all the trouble of strong-arming Parliamentary Services into ‘releasing’ the Dunne/Vance phone/email records???,
To provide a layer of protection to the 9th floor of the Beehive, the Prime Ministers Office, should the s**t, as it did, get caught in the ventilation system and the smell get spread far and wide, and, should my ‘sneaking suspicion’ that the Parliamentary Services ‘IT contractor’ is the SIS using a private company as a ‘front’ to monitor the communications into and out of the Parliaments precinct Parliamentary Services were to be shouldered with the blame creating a smokescreen within the furore where the ‘IT contractors’ actions were minimalized thus attracting scant attention,
i doubt Dunne, who’s every word must be suspect in this whole sordid little tale will appear befor the Privileges Committee hearing later this month and further doubt that any one of substance from the Prime Ministers office will either,
The Prime Minister suggesting that no-one, not Kibblewhite, not Eaggleson, who obviously had full knowledge of the email data, informed Him of this beggars belief and is simply one large slab of bullshit to far from the ever Slippery Prime Minister…
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Budget 2022 shows progress on conservation commitments in the Green Party’s cooperation agreement Green Party achievements in the last Government continue to drive investment in nature protection Urgent action needed on nature-based solutions to climate change Future budget decisions must reflect the role nature plays in helping reduce emissions ...
Landmark week for climate action concludes with climate budget Largest ever investment in climate action one of many Green Party wins throughout Budget 2022 Budget 2022 delivers progress on every part of the cooperation agreement with Labour Budget 2022 is a climate budget that caps a landmark week ...
Green Party welcomes extension to half price fares Permanent half price fares for Community Services Card holders includes many students, which helps implement a Green Party policy Work to reduce public transport fares for Community Services Card holders started by Greens in the last Government Budget 2022 should be ...
New cost of living payment closely aligned to Green Party policy to expand the Winter Energy Payment Extension and improvement of Warmer Kiwi Homes builds on Green Party progress in Government Community energy fund welcomed The Green Party welcomes the investment in Budget 2022 to expand Warmer Kiwi ...
Budget 2022 support to reduce homelessness delivers on the Green Party’s cooperation agreement Bespoke support for rangatahi with higher, more complex needs The Green Party welcomes the additional investment in Budget 2022 for kaupapa Māori support services, homelessness outreach services, the expansion of transitional housing, and a new ...
Green Party reaffirms call for liveable incomes and wealth tax Calls on Government to cancel debt owed to MSD for hardship assistance such as benefit advances, and for over-payments The Green Party welcomes the support for people on low incomes Budget 2022 but says more must be done ...
Our Government has just released this year’s Budget, which sets out the next steps in our plan to build a high wage, low carbon economy that gives economic security in good times and in bad. It’s full of initiatives that speed up our economic recovery and ease cost pressures for ...
A stronger democracy is on the horizon, as Golriz Ghahraman’s Electoral (Strengthening Democracy) Amendment Bill was pulled from the biscuit tin today. ...
Tomorrow, the Government will release this year’s Budget, setting out the next steps in our plan to build a high wage, low carbon economy that gives economic security in good times and in bad. While the full details will be kept under wraps until Thursday afternoon, we’ve announced a few ...
As a Government, we made it clear to New Zealanders that we’d take meaningful action on climate change, and that’s exactly what we’ve done. Earlier today, we released our next steps with our Emissions Reduction Plan – which will meet the Climate Commission’s independent science-based emissions reduction targets, and new ...
Emissions Reduction Plan prepares New Zealand for the future, ensuring country is on track to meet first emissions budget, securing jobs, and unlocking new investment ...
The Greens are calling for the Government to reconsider the immigration reset so that it better reflects our relationship with our Pacific neighbours. ...
Hamilton City Council and Whanganui District Council have both joined a growing list of Local Authorities to pass a motion in support of Green Party Drug Reform Spokesperson Chlöe Swarbrick’s Members’ bill to minimise alcohol harm. ...
Today, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced a major package of reforms to address the immediate skill shortages in New Zealand and speed up our economic growth. These include an early reopening to the world, a major milestone for international education, and a simplification of immigration settings to ensure New Zealand ...
Proposed immigration changes by the Government fail to guarantee pathways to residency to workers in the types of jobs deemed essential throughout the pandemic, by prioritising high income earners - instead of focusing on the wellbeing of workers and enabling migrants to put down roots. ...
Ehara taku toa i te toa takatahi, engari taku toa he toa takimano – my strength is not mine alone but the strength of many (working together to ensure safe, caring respectful responses). We are striving for change. We want all people in Aotearoa New Zealand thriving; their wellbeing enhanced ...
The Green Party is throwing its support behind the 10,000 allied health workers taking work-to-rule industrial action today because of unfair pay and working conditions. ...
The Government has today confirmed key details of the nationwide rollout of cameras on commercial fishing vessels. Up to 300 inshore fishing vessels will be fitted with the technology by the end of 2024, providing independent, accurate information about fishing activity and better evidence for decision-making,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
It is my pleasure to be here at TRENZ 2022. This is an event that continues to facilitate connection, collaboration and engagement between our businesses and key overseas markets. The conversations that happen here will play a crucial role in shaping New Zealand’s tourism recovery. That’s why TRENZ remains such ...
Māori businesses will play a vital role to help lift whānau Māori aspirations and dreams for a better life, while reinforcing New Zealand’s economic security. A successful Progressive Procurement initiative to diversify government spend on goods and services and increase Māori business engagement with government procurement is getting a further ...
The continued Budget 22 investment into the Cadetship programmes will ensure Māori thrive in the labour market, Minister for Māori Development Willie Jackson announced today. The Government will invest $25 million into the Cadetships programme, delivered by Te Puni Kōkiri. As the whole world struggles with rising inflation, the Government’s ...
Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta and Minister of Defence Peeni Henare today announced the extension of the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) deployment to Solomon Islands, as part of the Pacific-led Solomon Islands International Assistance Force (SIAF). “Aotearoa New Zealand and Solomon Islands have an enduring and long-standing partnership,” Nanaia Mahuta said. ...
Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta and Minister of Defence Peeni Henare today announced the extension of the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) deployment to Solomon Islands, as part of the Pacific-led Solomon Islands International Assistance Force (SIAF). “Aotearoa New Zealand and Solomon Islands have an enduring and long-standing partnership,” Nanaia Mahuta said. ...
Director-General, esteemed fellow Ministers, and colleagues, tēnā koutou katoa. Greetings to all. Aotearoa New Zealand is alarmed at the catastrophic and complex health crisis evolving in Ukraine. We reiterate our call for an immediate end to Russian hostilities against Ukraine. Chair, this 75th Session of the World Health Assembly comes at ...
As part of a regular review by the Department of Internal Affairs, the fees for New Zealand passports will increase slightly due to the decrease in demand caused by COVID-19. Internal Affairs Minister Jan Tinetti says that the Government has made every effort to keep the increase to a minimum ...
The Government is providing additional support to the Buller District Council to assist the recovery from the February 2022 floods, Minister for Emergency Management Kiri Allan announced today. “The Buller District has experienced two significant floods in short succession, resulting in significant impacts for the community and for Council to ...
New Zealand is a step closer to a more resilient, competitive, and sustainable coastal shipping sector following the selection of preferred suppliers for new and enhanced coastal shipping services, Transport Minister Michael Wood has announced today. “Coastal shipping is a small but important part of the New Zealand freight system, ...
Tēnā koutou katoa It’s a pleasure to speak to you today on how we are tracking with the resource management reforms. It is timely, given that in last week’s Budget the Government announced significant funding to ensure an efficient transition to the future resource management system. There is broad consensus ...
Education Minister Chris Hipkins and Associate Education Minister Kelvin Davis have welcomed the release of a paper from independent advisory group, Taumata Aronui, outlining the group’s vision for Māori success in the tertiary education system. “Manu Kōkiri – Māori Success and Tertiary Education: Towards a Comprehensive Vision – is the ...
The best way to have economic security in New Zealand is by investing in wāhine and our rangatahi says Minister for Māori Development. Budget 2022, is allocating $28.5 million over the next two years to strengthen whānau resilience through developing leadership within key cohorts of whānau leaders, wāhine and rangatahi ...
Whānau Ora Commissioning Agencies will receive $166.5 million over four years to help whānau maintain and build their resilience as Aotearoa moves forward from COVID-19, Minister for Whānau Ora Peeni Henare announced today. “Whānau Ora Commissioning Agencies and partners will remain a key feature of the Government’s support for whānau ...
The development of sustainable, plant-based foods and meat alternatives is getting new government backing, with investment from a dedicated regional economic development fund. “The investment in Sustainable Foods Ltd is part of a wider government strategy to develop a low-emissions, highly-skilled economy that responds to global demands,” said Stuart Nash. ...
With New Zealand expecting to see Omicron cases rise during the winter, the Orange setting remains appropriate for managing this stage of the outbreak, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “While daily cases numbers have flattened nationally, they are again beginning to increase in the Northern region and hospitalisation ...
Justice Minister Kris Faafoi today announced appointments to the independent panel that will lead a review of New Zealand’s electoral law. “This panel, appointed by an independent panel of experts, aim to make election rules clearer and fairer, to build more trust in the system and better support people to ...
Honourable Dame Fran Wilde will lead the board overseeing the design and construction of Auckland’s largest, most transformational project of a generation – Auckland Light Rail, which will connect hundreds of thousands of people across the city, Minister of Transport Michael Wood announced today. “Auckland Light Rail is New Zealand’s ...
Boost to Māori Medium property that will improve and redevelop kura, purchase land and build new facilities Scholarships and mentoring to grow and expand the Māori teaching workforce Funding to continue to grow the Māori language The Government’s commitment to the growth and development of te reo Māori has ...
On the eve of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s trade mission to the United States, New Zealand has joined with partner governments from across the Indo-Pacific region to begin the next phase of discussions towards an Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF). The Framework, initially proposed by US President Biden in ...
As part of New Zealand’s ongoing response to the war in Ukraine, New Zealand is providing further support and personnel to assist Ukraine to defend itself against Russia’s unprovoked and illegal invasion, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced today. “We have been clear throughout Russia’s assault on Ukraine, that such a ...
Budget 2022 is providing investment to crackdown on tobacco smuggling into New Zealand. “Customs has seen a significant increase in the smuggling of tobacco products into New Zealand over recent years,” Minister of Customs Meka Whaitiri says. This trend is also showing that tobacco smuggling operations are now often very ...
Prime Minister to lead trade mission to the United States this week to support export growth and the return of tourists post COVID-19. Business delegation to promote trade and tourism opportunities in New Zealand’s third largest export and visitor market Deliver Harvard University commencement address Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has congratulated Anthony Albanese and the Australian Labor Party on winning the Australian Federal election, and has acknowledged outgoing Prime Minister Scott Morrison. "I spoke to Anthony Albanese early this morning as he was preparing to address his supporters. It was a warm conversation and I’m ...
Tiwhatiwha te pō, tiwhatiwha te ao. Tiwhatiwha te pō, tiwhatiwha te ao. Matariki Tapuapua, He roimata ua, he roimata tangata. He roimata e wairurutu nei, e wairurutu nei. Te Māreikura mārohirohi o Ihoa o ngā Mano, takoto Te ringa mākohakoha o Rongo, takoto. Te mātauranga o Tūāhuriri o Ngai Tahu ...
Three core networks within the tourism sector are receiving new investment to gear up for the return of international tourists and business travellers, as the country fully reconnects to the world. “Our wider tourism sector is on the way to recovery. As visitor numbers scale up, our established tourism networks ...
The Minister of Customs has welcomed legislation being passed which will prevent millions of dollars in potential tax evasion on water-pipe tobacco products. The Customs and Excise (Tobacco Products) Amendment Act 2022 changes the way excise and excise-equivalent duty is calculated on these tobacco products. Water-pipe tobacco is also known ...
The Government is contributing $100,000 to a Mayoral Relief Fund to help the Levin community following this morning’s tornado, Minister for Emergency Management Kiri Allan says. “My thoughts are with everyone who has been impacted by severe weather events in Levin and across the country. “I know the tornado has ...
The Quintet of Attorneys General have issued the following statement of support for the Prosecutor General of Ukraine and investigations and prosecutions for crimes committed during the Russian invasion of Ukraine: “The Attorneys General of the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand join in ...
Morena tatou katoa. Kua tae mai i runga i te kaupapa o te rā. Thank you all for being here today. Yesterday my colleague, the Minister of Finance Grant Robertson, delivered the Wellbeing Budget 2022 – for a secure future for New Zealand. I’m the Minister of Health, and this was ...
Urgent Budget night legislation to stop major supermarkets blocking competitors from accessing land for new stores has been introduced today, Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs Dr David Clark said. The Commerce (Grocery Sector Covenants) Amendment Bill amends the Commerce Act 1986, banning restrictive covenants on land, and exclusive covenants ...
It is a pleasure to speak to this Budget. The 5th we have had the privilege of delivering, and in no less extraordinary circumstances. Mr Speaker, the business and cycle of Government is, in some ways, no different to life itself. Navigating difficult times, while also making necessary progress. Dealing ...
Budget 2022 provides funding to implement the new resource management system, building on progress made since the reform was announced just over a year ago. The inadequate funding for the implementation of the Resource Management Act in 1992 almost guaranteed its failure. There was a lack of national direction about ...
The Government is substantially increasing the amount of funding for public media to ensure New Zealanders can continue to access quality local content and trusted news. “Our decision to create a new independent and future-focused public media entity is about achieving this objective, and we will support it with a ...
$662.5 million to maintain existing defence capabilities NZDF lower-paid staff will receive a salary increase to help meet cost-of living pressures. Budget 2022 sees significant resources made available for the Defence Force to maintain existing defence capabilities as it looks to the future delivery of these new investments. “Since ...
More than $185 million to help build a resilient cultural sector as it continues to adapt to the challenges coming out of COVID-19. Support cultural sector agencies to continue to offer their important services to New Zealanders. Strengthen support for Māori arts, culture and heritage. The Government is investing in a ...
It is my great pleasure to present New Zealand’s fourth Wellbeing Budget. In each of this Government’s three previous Wellbeing Budgets we have not only considered the performance of our economy and finances, but also the wellbeing of our people, the health of our environment and the strength of our communities. In Budget ...
It is my great pleasure to present New Zealand’s fourth Wellbeing Budget. In each of this Government’s three previous Wellbeing Budgets we have not only considered the performance of our economy and finances, but also the wellbeing of our people, the health of our environment and the strength of our communities. In Budget ...
Four new permanent Coroners to be appointed Seven Coronial Registrar roles and four Clinical Advisor roles are planned to ease workload pressures Budget 2022 delivers a package of investment to improve the coronial system and reduce delays for grieving families and whānau. “Operating funding of $28.5 million over four ...
Establishment of Ministry for Disabled People Progressing the rollout of the Enabling Good Lives approach to Disability Support Services to provide self-determination for disabled people Extra funding for disability support services “Budget 2022 demonstrates the Government’s commitment to deliver change for the disability community with the establishment of a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Erik Eklund, Professor of History, Federation University Australia The recent federal election saw some close calls but few surprises in the regions, where wild electoral swings are rare. But we should look closer at two regional seats that straddle the NSW/Victorian ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Benjamin Moffitt, Associate Professor, Australian Catholic University Many commentators tipped Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party (UAP) and Pauline Hanson’s One Nation to perform well this election by scooping up the “freedom” and anti-vax vote from voters angry about how the pandemic was ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Matt McDonald, Associate Professor of International Relations, The University of Queensland Getty Before the 2019 federal election, many people expected Australia would vote for faster climate action. That, of course, didn’t happen. But just three years later, the climate election ...
The government is set to delay plans to improve the insulation of new homes in New Zealand, just days after including the measures in the much vaunted emissions reduction plan unveiled last week. The emissions reduction plan included a move to improve ...
The Reserve Bank has raised the official cash rate to 2% – but will that slay the inflationary beast roaming the countryside.? Point of Order doesn’t think so. Reserve Bank governor Adrian Orr made the right belligerent noises as he fired the bullet today but he needed a fiscal -policy ...
We were pleasantly surprised to catch up on the latest announcement from Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta – jointly issued with Defence Minister Peeni Henare – about the extension of the New Zealand Defence Force deployment to Solomon Islands. This is being done as part of the Pacific-led Solomon Islands ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul Griffin, Associate Professor, Infectious Diseases and Microbiology, The University of Queensland Shutterstock We’ve all become familiar with virus mutations over the course of the pandemic, and can all probably list off the COVID variants including Alpha, Delta and Omicron. ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has spoken with US TV host and comedian Stephen Colbert about the school shooting in Texas, as part of her trip to the United States. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tess Parker, Research Fellow, Monash University From February to May 2022, many places in Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia have seen record-breaking daily and monthly rainfall. Repeated periods of persistent and intense rain have caused devastating and widespread floods. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra New treasurer Jim Chalmers has been in multiple briefings since Sunday, and the message he sends in this podcast is that he is not going to try to gild the economic lily with the Australian ...
The Monetary Policy Committee today increased the Official Cash Rate (OCR) to 2.0 percent. The Committee agreed it remains appropriate to continue to tighten monetary conditions at pace to maintain price stability and support maximum sustainable employment. ...
A $30 million investment by the Government to improve coastal shipping services is great news for jobs, the economy and the environment, said the Council of Trade Unions. “A viable coastal shipping service has huge advantages for New Zealand, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Imogene Smith, Casual academic, provisional psychologist and Doctor of Psychology (Clinical) candidate, Deakin University Shutterstock For many dads, having a child is unplanned. What happens next can vary. One man said: We broke up and she called me soon ...
Coastal shipping has received a $30 million boost from the government, aimed at improving local supply chains and helping move freight off the roads. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Carolyn Hill, Teaching Fellow, Environmental Planning, University of Waikato Getty Images A minor culture war has broken out over Auckland’s urban identity since Auckland Council responded to the government’s new housing rules: on one side, defenders of “special character” areas ...
New Zealand’s biggest company by capitalisation on the NZX, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare which sells its products in 120 countries, has supplied $880 million of hospital hardware over the past two years. That’s the equivalent of about 10 years’ hardware sales before COVID-19. This remarkable performance deserves the plaudits of ...
The Socialist Equality Group in New Zealand and the World Socialist Web Site will hold an online public meeting on Saturday, June 4, at 5:00 p.m. to launch the new book Pike River: The Crime and Cover-up , published by Mehring Books. ...
The Minister of Justice, Hon Kris Faafoi, announced on Tuesday morning the panel and terms of reference for the Independent Electoral Law Review. The voting age is at the top of the list of electoral laws the review will be considering. Make It ...
Ted Johnston, Coleader of New Conservative states “There are important changes needed to the Electoral laws, but we must beware Labour and National passing self-serving laws to further perpetuate their duopoly.” Our elections are just passing of the ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards. Political Roundup: Grant Robertson’s “sweet moderation” Grant Robertson is a big fan of British socialist folk-punk singer Billy Bragg. The finance minister even wrote an opinion column last year that started and ended with lyrics from Bragg’s iconic song “Between the Wars”, with its key line ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Aaron J. Snoswell, Post-doctoral Research Fellow, Computational Law & AI Accountability, Queensland University of Technology Shutterstock The first serious accident involving a self-driving car in Australia occurred in March this year. A pedestrian suffered life-threatening injuries when hit by a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Denis Muller, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of Melbourne Wes Mountain/The Conversation, CC BY-ND The nightly television news coverage of the 2022 federal election was among the most juvenile and uninformative in 50 years. Given that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Holden, Clinical Associate Professor, University of Sydney Shutterstock It’s a common scenario: you decide to go out for dinner and fancy something different. So, you look to online reviews to help you make your dining choice. If you ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Matthew Hornsey, Professor, University of Queensland Business School, The University of Queensland Former Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s shock loss to an independent running on a climate action platform wasn’t a fluke event. “Teal” independents have ousted five of Frydenberg’s colleagues, all harvesting votes ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jessica Holloway, Senior Research DECRA Fellow, Institute for Learning Sciences and Teacher Education, Australian Catholic University During the 2022 federal election campaign, schools barely rated a mention. While the Labor government’s cabinet will not be finalised until next week, we expect ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elaine Nash, PhD Candidate, University of South Australia Shutterstock There are many reasons to employ people living with intellectual disability. Most obvious is that it’s the right thing to do – it helps promote social justice, diversity, corporate social responsibility, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Debra Dudek, Associate professor, School of Arts and Humanities, Edith Cowan University Madman Australian writer and director Renée Webster’s new film How to Please a Woman turns much of what we think we know about sexual desire – especially for ...
Ardern's first event was a sit down with major American tourism media, as part of the drive to show the US market NZ is "open for business", and she will later meet meet with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jane Kelsey, Professor of Law, University of Auckland The uncertainty over whether Jacinda Ardern might land a White House meeting and photo opportunity with US President Joe Biden was perhaps fitting, given the lack of clarity about one of their main topics ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The QUAD summit in Tokyo has praised Australia raising its ambition on climate change, after Anthony Albanese told fellow leaders his government would do more to assist Pacific countries address it. Albanese stressed Australia’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra As well as her interviews with politicians and experts, Politics with Michelle Grattan includes “Word from The Hill”, where she discusses the news with members of The Conversation politics team. In this podcast Michelle and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Benjamin Clark, Deputy Engagement Editor, The Conversation Politics can be slow-moving, until all of a sudden it isn’t. As political scientist Simon Jackman says in today’s episode of Below the Line, “politics is very non-linear. You get these steady, secular ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By D. Bondy Valdovinos Kaye, Lecturer, Queensland University of Technology On Sunday, popular American singer songwriter Halsey shared a video on TikTok with tinny music in the background, the on-screen text reading: Basically I have a song that I love that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Crowley, Adjunct Associate Professor, Public and Environmental Policy, University of Tasmania During Saturday’s election, 31.5% of the voters deserted the major parties, with a swag of female teal independents tipping Liberal MPs out of their heartland urban seats. By contrast, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rita Matulionyte, Senior Lecturer in Law, Macquarie University Shutterstock Mastercard’s “smile to pay” system, announced last week, is supposed to save time for customers at checkouts. It is being trialled in Brazil, with future pilots planned for the Middle East ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Shutterstock Stand by for something “reckless and dangerous”. That’s what former prime minister Scott Morrison said Prime Minister Anthony Albanese would be if he asked the Fair Work Commission ...
Just in case the affected voters and constituencies haven’t bothered to check how much funding they are being given in Budget 2022 (or how much they have lost in some cases), ministers have been letting them know in post-Budget press statements. At least, they have been letting them know when ...
The Chair of the National Maori Authority, Matthew Tukaki, has called the way a New Zealand mother of two died in custody awaiting deportation from Australia was a disgrace and further evidence that the system is not just broken but responsible ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christian Moro, Associate Professor of Science & Medicine, Bond University Shutterstock You showered this morning, are wearing fresh clothes and having an otherwise normal day, when suddenly you notice that stench. Why do our armpits smell, and why more ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lucinda McKnight, Senior Lecturer in Pedagogy and Curriculum, Deakin University Pixabay The war in Ukraine is being described as the first social media war, even as “the TikTok war”. Memes, tweets, videos and blog posts communicate both vital information and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Stewart, John Bray Professor of Law, University of Adelaide Industrial relations issues were front and centre when federal Labor last won office from opposition in 2007. The backlash against John Howard’s “Work Choices” reforms cost both his government and his own ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Soutphommasane, Acting Director, Sydney Policy Lab & Professor of Practice (Sociology and Political Theory), University of Sydney The message from Saturday’s election result was clear: Australians want a political reset. And not just about issues such as government integrity and climate ...
The Education and Workforce Committee is calling for submissions on the Employment Relations (Extended Time for Personal Grievance for Sexual Harassment) Amendment Bill. This bill would extend the period of time available to raise a personal grievance ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kelly Menzel, Assistant Professor – First Nations Health, Bond University GettyImages Workplaces can be hostile, overwhelming and unwelcoming places for many First Nations Peoples. My research has explored how this is the case in many organisations, including universities. White organisations ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Breadon, Program Director, Health and Aged Care, Grattan Institute CDC/Unsplash Anthony Albanese campaigned on better pandemic management. Giving the vaccination program a shot in the arm will be his first test. Not long ago, every shipment of vaccines was ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simon Kingham, Professor, University of Canterbury Shutterstock/Tanya NZ The Dutch have long been recognised as leaders in cycling. Denmark is not far behind, with more bikes than cars in its capital Copenhagen. This is the result of many years of ...
Remaining in the orange traffic light setting is not a constraint or handbrake to accelerating business recovery, rebuilding, and planning for growth, says Auckland Business Chamber CEO Michael Barnett. “Businesses can do everything under Orange, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Breadon, Program Director, Health and Aged Care, Grattan Institute CDC/Unsplash Anthony Albanese campaigned on better pandemic management. Giving the vaccination program a shot in the arm will be his first test. Not long ago, every shipment of vaccines was ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jen Purdie, Senior Research Fellow, University of Otago Getty Images If your next car is not electric, then it must be much smaller than your last one. Scientists have warned that the world needs to halve emissions every decade to ...
Not many New Zealanders may have noticed what is happening in China or India – but their economies appear to be tracking in opposite directions. Those movements could have a powerful impact in turn on NZ’s economic fortunes. Point of Order is indebted to two remarkable pieces of journalism for ...
Northland District Commander Superintendent Tony Hill: Police agree with the findings of an IPCA report, which concluded a Police officer was justified in using force against a man during an arrest in Northland. On 27 May 2021, Police were witness ...
Napier man, Alister Robertson, says the lack of any proper funding in the Budget for the proposed Dementia Mate Wareware Action Plan is really disappointing and concerning. “This Budget announcement is very underwhelming. It’s hardly a wellbeing Budget ...
Tauranga City Council’s commissioners have resolved to write directly to Government Ministers to detail their concerns that a lack of alignment between agencies and legislation is impacting the planning and funding of urban development in New Zealand’s ...
The Office for Seniors has released a new guide that will help inform the best urban design practices to benefit older people. The Age friendly urban places guide is a technical resource targeted at local and central government urban planning practice ...
RNZ Pacific A commemoration has been held in French Polynesia to mark the 20th anniversary of the disappearance of a leading opposition politician in the Tuamotus. Boris Léontieff, who headed the Fetia Api party, was among four politicians travelling in a small plane on a campaign trip when it disappeared ...
Feedback from our consultation on the rules governing policyholder security in our insurance legislation will help to shape the final policy. An important purpose of New Zealand’s insurance legislation is to promote a financially sound insurance ...
E tū/NZNO/PSA media release After rallying around Aotearoa for a better pay offer, care and support workers and their unions are delivering their messages to Parliament in a petition signed by thousands in just 10 days. They will hand over the petition, ...
“Jacinda Ardern’s visit comes immediately on the heels of Joe Biden’s trip to Japan for a meeting of the ‘Quad’ - the US, Australia, India and Japan - that intends to dramatically increase militarisation of the Pacific region. Ardern’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sam Baron, Associate professor, Australian Catholic University ShutterstockI’m curious about what will happen if, hypothetically, someone moves with speed (that is) twice the speed of light? – Devanshi, age 13, Mumbai Hi Devanshi! Thanks for this ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Frank Bongiorno, Professor of History, ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences, Australian National University Wes Mountain/The Conversation, CC BY-ND Political commentators often use the idea of a political spectrum from left to right as shorthand for understanding political ideologies, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patricia A. O’Brien, Faculty Member, Asian Studies Program, Georgetown University; Visiting Fellow, Department of Pacific Affairs, Australian National University; Adjunct Fellow, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington DC., Georgetown University The federal election has delivered a monumental win for Australia’s relations ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Hellewell, Research Fellow, Faculty of Health Sciences, Curtin University, and The Perron Institute for Neurological and Translational Science, Curtin University Shutterstock Loss or alteration of taste (dysgeusia) is a common symptom of COVID. It’s also a side effect of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Bell, Professor of Marine Biology, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington Despite New Zealanders’ close connection with the oceans, very few will have heard of “temperate mesophotic ecosystems” (TMEs). Even fewer will appreciate their importance for coastal fisheries, and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Eleanor Cowan, Lecturer in Ancient History, University of Sydney Francesco Solimena, Death of Messalina (about 1704/1712)The GettyReaders are advised this story includes depictions of domestic violence and violence against women. Domestic violence was endemic in the Roman world. Rome ...
23 May US President Biden unveiled his long-awaited Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) in Tokyo tonight, supported by a small group of allies, including New Zealand’s Prime Minister Arden by zoom. “The low-key event was overshadowed by the elephant ...
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2013/08/04/global-warming-the-folly-of-certainty/
In this case we are the helpless passengers in the back, and our parliamentarians are the driver.
If Larry refuses to slow down, then it is up to us the passengers, to do everything we can to make sure he listens to us.
Tonight at 7pm in Auckland, probably the biggest ever meeting called by Generation Zero on climate change is due to take place. Held in the Owen Glen complex in the Fisher &Paykel Auditorium, Auckland University, Wynyard Street. Make sure you are there.
The National government are Larrys. Determined to take a chance.
Labour and the Greens are Sallys, frightened and worried, but too intimidated by Larry to speak up.
FIFY, the Greens are speaking up – you’re just not listening.
On the plus side.The Green Party did call a conference on climate change at parliament. Which was boycotted by Shearer. This was a brave attempt to drag the reluctant Labour Party to the table.
They need to do more of the same.
But the Greens still refuse to make climate change a leading election issue.
And they are still determined to get seats in a Shearer cabinet, even though they know the cost will be to drop their opposition to deep sea oil drilling, fracking and Denniston. The three big things that symbolise BAU. And the three big things that the National and the Labour Parties are deathly committed to.
I have maintained and still maintain that if the Greens do go into coalition with Labour on these terms, they will be finished as an electoral force.
The Herald isn’t even pretending anymore.
What a headline…. ‘Foreigner ban fails to lift Labour” and what a picture of Shearer.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10908241
Is this title biased or what?
Only in the 3rd paragraph do we read…”The Green Party was the big winner, lifting from 9 per cent to 14. After several weeks of debate and protest over the GCSB Bill, National fell to 46 per cent – down three points since the May poll.”
Maybe headline should have been….
“Government’s spying policies bleed support to the Greens’.
The editor of the Herald must be paid a lot by the foreign corporates taking our country over.
….while Labour and United Future lobby for a “review”.
FFS, Jenny, we need a review of the entire intelligence system in NZ before we can make informed decisions. You’ve been told this. As I said above, you’re just not listening.
Draco, don’t include me in your “we” thanks.
Don’t tell me I can’t make an informed decision right now without a bunch of parliamentary hacks telling me what information I am entitled to.
After Waihopai, Manning, Doctom, Snowden et al what more information do you need to condemn the whole surveillance state?
Liberal commentators have been forced to admit that surveillance is a euphemism for the political repression of all the blowback from numerous colonial wars and invasions. The US is creating Jihadis in its own suburbia for gods sake.
I don’t want a review by any of these professional politicians.
That’s just a formula for doing nothing on full pay for a year or two while our privacy is wiped and the the globe is destroyed.
I want a ‘repeal’ though its unlikely that Labour will make it into Government unless the other left parties can make up for its pathetic crawling to the establishment.
If Labour campaigned right now for Kill the Bill it might just create the support it needs to Kill the Act.
/facepalm
You’re talking about two issues. The bill that NACT are passing which needs to be repealed if not stopped and a review which sets out to clearly define the purpose of the intelligence apparatus and it’s limits. I agree that Labour should come out and say that they will repeal the legislation that NACT are presently passing and going to the status quo ante. We’ll still need that review as well so as to make a better intelligence apparatus.
What’s to review?
You either support the mass surveillance of the population. or you don’t. Which is what this legislation is about.
Just like Shearer. Draco it is you, who are not listening.
The collecting, storing, and transmission of mass surveillance (metadata) on the general population by police and spy agencies needs to be made a criminal offence punishable by law.
David Shearer the leader of the Labour Party says that on becoming the government he will have “a review”. Not an inquiry mind you “a review”.
A review is not an inquiry. Most people know what an inquiry is, they know what a review is. Most people know “review” is code for “do nothing”.
The broad spectrum surveillance and collection and dissemination and transfer of metadata on every single New Zealander needs to be kept illegal.
There is no middle ground.
John Key;“because the alternative here would be either we don’t collect this data at all.”
David Cunliffe; “based upon what we have heard here tonight. I personally, and I am sure my caucus colleagues would be of the view that this legislation, must not, will not, and cannot stand.”
David Shearer; “We will have a review.”
There is no alternative, there is no middle ground. Key acknowledges it, Cunliffe does too. You either collect metadata, or you don’t.
There is no fence to sit on here Draco, no matter how much you claim it.
To support a review over an inquiry and/or a ban, is to normalise the collection of metadata.
Will a review stop the corruption?
Will a review identify the guilty?
Will a review identify the wronged?
Will a review stop the collection of metadata?
I think we can all agree that the answer to each of these questions is no it will not.
Therefore a review will be a farce and an insult to the intelligence of most New Zealanders.
Until David Shearer promises to reveal the identities of the 88 New Zealanders illegally spied on, so that we can all judge the validity of the need for this legislation, then his promised review will be nothing but a cover up for Business As Usual.
Cunliffe called for a review, too, but that’s not consistent with your worldview, so lets just leave that bit out, eh?
A review is exactly what’s needed. NZ needs to decide what kind of intelligence services it requires for the future and start again from there.
It probably needs a Royal Commission of Inquiry so that findings and recommendations aren’t buried and forgotten in some lowly status report and instead remain in perpetuity and can be referred to easily when future governments try to attack rights of citizens in the way Key and his mates are currently doing.
No he didn’t. He mentioned it, and probably supports it, but he didn’t call for it, he said that Shearer had. What Cunliffe clearly called for was the repeal of this legislation
Read the transcript.
Cunliffe said that the Leader of the Labour Party has promised a “thorough review”. He obviously wants to go further than the review promised by his leader. Because he followed this statement up, by saying this legislation “cannot stand”.
David Shearer yelled out “We will be having a review”.
The implication being, that’s all you’re gonna get Cunliffe. No, cannot stand nonsense.
The further implication is that David Shearer would be comfortable with allowing the collection of metadata spying on every New Zealander to stand.
And by his silence on the withholding of the information about the illegal spying on the 88 New Zealanders, David Shearer is quite happy to let this situation stand as well.
To convince the public that he can be trusted, David Shearer needs to make a statement that on taking charge of the secret services he will order them to release this information to those affected if they request it.
Simple, clear, honest.
Yet not being done.
P.S. TRP, Draco maybe you and other Shearer apologists might like to further try and justify Shearer’s refusal to commit to releasing the names of the 88?
I suppose you might say that releasing this information could reveal the identities of the spies responsible, thereby compromising their ability to continue their under cover work. Lawbreakers guilty of crimes against members of the public are not above the law just because they are members of the secret service. So what if it costs them their jobs. By allowing the secret police officers to remain above the law if they are discovered breaking it, is a very dangerous precedent to set.
If it does come to court, as many of these cases undoubtably will, these accused spies can ask for name suppression and I am sure that they will be granted it.
“David Shearer yelled out “We will be having a review”.
The implication being, that’s all you’re gonna get Cunliffe.”
You’re a slow learner, Jenny. You have miserably failed to back up your fantasy and the presence of hundreds of people in the hall who didn’t see any such exchange doesn’t appear to have put you off continuing to talk crap about Shearer and Cunliffe. Were you even there? Nah, I guess not, eh.
“P.S. TRP, Draco maybe you and other Shearer apologists might like to further try and justify Shearer’s refusal to commit to releasing the names of the 88?”
Nope, I doubt anyone is going to waste much time pissing on your feeble strawman.
The people who watched TV3 on 26 July saw and heard Shearer say “We will be having a review”, after Cunliffe’s speech. Go and watch TV3 news on that day.
“… saw and heard Shearer say …”
So not yelling at Cunliffe, then. Thanks for the back up, Jaymam.
Can someone please just make her stop with the stupid?
This is why a review is needed Jenny:
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2013/04/11/breaking-worse-than-we-thought-rebecca-kitteridge-and-the-new-community-of-spooks/
The difference between me and you, Jenny, is that I know what the review is for.
The intelligence services aren’t going away and so a review of just what they’re for and what powers they have is a reasonable action. This is what Labour have promised. As I say above, I would be more comfortable if they promised to drop the legislation that NACT are presently putting through but either way I still support a review of the intelligence services.
You, on the other hand, are focusing solely upon a single bit of legislation. It is this focus that has you being completely wrong about what people are saying.
If I was one of those 88 I’d prefer it if the government told me and then let me decide if I told the rest of NZ and didn’t just go out and tell the rest of NZ.
Goes without saying. At present if you suspect you are being illegally spied on, if you request this information from the government you are told you are not allowed to know.
Currently the government are shielding the lawbreakers from their victims. Draco do you personally support the continuation of this criminal government policy?
Has David Shearer promised to, as future head of the secret security services allow people to access this information about themselves?
Let us see who the GCSB are spying on. If as many suspect they are not terrorists at all and that innocent people are being illegally victimised then this needs to come out so that they can get some redress.
Jenny, you have repeatedly called for the names of the 88 to be made public. Have you changed your mind now?
Onnit Paul. Utterly shameless blatancy. No mention forever of Roy Morgan – until it favours the Natsies last week. Deliberate distortion (Gran) and totally ignored (Stuff) of yesterday’s Left lift.
On the silver lining side, concrete confirmation of the “self-fulfilling prophesy” power of polls. A fact long ago twigged of course by the Continuous Propaganda Party, its organs and their bottomless pockets.
A comparative analysis of MSM coverage of blue-friendly polls versus red-friendly over the past few years would be staggering.
Lolz the pic the Herald used today has David Shearer looking like He is starring in the movie ”Revenge of the Lizard People”,
i don’t see the Colmar-Brunton painting Labour in that bad a position, the Green Party on 14% has the bloc level with National who have 1% more of support to lose which would make that Party pretty much unable to form a Government on those numbers,
Between them, the Mana Party and the dying Maori Party hold the other 3% of the left’s support if we view the electorate on the basis of 50/50,
i can see the Mana Party entering the 2015 Parliament with 3 MP’s and the Maori Party with zero, not a bad position to be in this far out from November 2014,
The interest now will be what sort of damage has been inflicted upon National from the sordid little and long running GCSB affair…
Paul +1
what a great show
A passable wielder of the sonic screwdriver.
Anyone else miss Helen Clark right now?
Asked on National Radio yesterday what would be her highest priority if she were PM of the coutnry right now, she said, immediately: “Unemployment.”
For the amount of comparatively trivial bull that all parties are immersed in right now, she cut through it.
Agree
GSCB= beltway, no one cares.
Labour has wasted far too much time on this nonsense, I don’t know if it’s just desperation and the Labour HQ thinks this is all they’ve got to attack National with or it’s just arrogance and the intellectuals in the party just can’t admit the strategy sucks and just persevere because of ego.
Edit: don’t agree with the missing Clarkula bit.
Ah here it is back from a weekend being ‘primed’ with the Farrar, Hooten, Blubber boy line that no-body cares about the deliberate unlawful accessing of private email and phone information by the Office of the Prime Minister,
Keep singing that song Boyo, a mere 1-2% of right wing voters need only ‘care’ deeply enough about the executive misuse of power to in November 2014 give you something that will really make you care,
Another 9 on the opposition benches…
+1 Bad12
The opposition parties, by objecting to the GCSB, are highlighting the now typical disregard that Nat govt shows toward democratic principles. This is what the opposition parties need to be doing, because it is vital that voters are aware that there is another, better, way of doing things. Hopefully NZers will see these options loud and clear and not be bamboozled by the slogans ‘that it isn’t important’.
I would be ripping my hair out even more than I already am if the opposition parties were not presenting strong objections to the GCSB; I would have thought there would be many others who feel the same way.
Thing is anyone with half a brain can see that Labour isn’t really against what is been proposed.
From what I’ve read the bill will pretty much stay in it’s current form if Labour gets into power, which makes all the shrieking and carry on is just a shitty attempt to try and smear Key and pin blame on him because some public servant fucked up again not because this bill is all that’s evil.
If you’re going to treat the voting population like idiots at least try to be clever about it.
@ BM,
That is the brilliant thing about strong opposition. If the opposition parties go on record strongly opposing a certain approach, then if they get into power and do the self-same thing they can be called on it.
If voters continue to vote for a party that shows severe disrespect toward democratic principles it is hard not to see them as idiots because they are giving up the safeguards they would have had, had they voted for parties that opposed such undemocratic actions.
For this reason, suspecting Labour is much the same as National is not a good reason to not vote against National at this point.
Politicians need to be given the clear message as to what is acceptable and what is not. What is going on at present is simply not acceptable and only a complete fool would continue to vote for such behaviour.
Why Politics Matters – POLS 111 Lecture
It’s by Winston so obviously don’t agree with everything he says but he does make some good points about the GCSB and other things so worth reading.
@DTB
Only just read the speech – yes it is interesting.
I rate Mr Peters very highly on the skills he has shown as an opposition MP. Before NZF got back the Greens were doing a fair job -yet were alone in this. The overall opposition was insipid. I view Winston as having had a huge impact on the strength of the opposition this term.
Yep. Winston has lifted the class of the Opposition (which as you say the Greens were performing well at although alone) to a brand new level.
Key and Co. didn’t put all that effort years ago into discrediting NZ First for no good reason.
Key and Co. didn’t put all that effort years ago into discrediting NZ First for no good reason.
Relating to this I believe it is worth looking around to see where that type of effort is going now.
So far my search provides me with the result of Mr Hone Harawira. There seems to have been a inordinate amount of interest in condemning his family (around Waitangi, housing protest and the nephew’s court case)
Ah, so the GCSB bills are hurting National and so the astroturfers have been given their orders to try to divert from it.
+1 DtB
Is that the Helen Clark who said this: ”If beneficiaries want to get working for Families payments they should get a job”,
As bad if not worse than the current leaders ‘roof-painting bene bludger’ speech,a sentence i could well imagine coming from the lips of Richardson or Shiply,
Refusing to uphold the principle tenet of the welfare state, that it is based around the greatest need, will always cause Labour trouble in the electorate until such time as it has shaken the last vestiges of the left of the party from it’s rump,
Mind you at 33% of polled support it could be considered to have mostly achieved the above…
bad12
Yes I come back to middle class Labourites with jobs and favourable future visions talking simplistic and unhelpful shit about beneficiaries, and so-called non-working. When Steve Maharey was in government I thought his background in social sciences would result in more intelligent and wide-ranging innovations in getting positive returns from the unemployed and beneficiary payouts, that were helpful to them and the country, but nothing startling shook the scene.
He didn’t seem to have absorbed or was capable of triumphing over the middle-class stodge with new ideas despite his closeness to the thinkers in the social policy field. We can notice the same lack of independent thought about our economy emanating from financial wizard Kay.
“Who will rid us of these turbulent politicians?” (and bring in some good ones dedicated to doing good policies for the people and the country that actually bring benefits, not vague or fiery promises that just leave a sweet hopeful smell of roses hanging in the air.)
Interesting possible fact got from google. About Henry 2, and his saying –
He initially said “Never again will I have to say “Who will rid me of this turbulent priest”
(he had in fact had several of the previous archbishops murdered) …
That’s going a bit over the top I think!
Rosetinted, Lol, yes just slightly, over the top that is, considering to all extents and purposes we are in ‘a public place’, but, i do know the ‘feeling’,
My view for quite some time is that as ‘the left’ have hived off Labour in a continuing process under MMP Labour have along with its current support base ‘morphed’ into a middle class Party, how much of this is deliberate or a natural change is debatable,
What is of interest to me from the Colmar Brunton poll is that 2% of the fence sitters, registered voters who have previously refused to indicate a preference, have come down off of the fence in this poll and the Green Party seems to have picked up all these voters,
This would to a certain extent indicate the Prime Minister having labelled Labour/Green as the ‘devil beast’ has certainly had an effect upon the electorate, the opposite tho of what the Prime Minister intended,
The past couple of elections appear to me to have been fought mainly in the middle ground of the electorate, if as this poll indicates, those who have stayed at home whilst this middle class battle has run it’s course are now ‘seeing’ the necessity to become involved and the fact that such involvement as indicated by the Colmar Brunton has moved left to the Green Party is a great look for the left especially if the indicated trend continues…
bad12
Interesting thoughts. I referred to a discussion of Brit Labour recently, forgotten where. I’d have to look back over my comments archive, but so amazing that what we see in NZ parallels theirs so far away. Of course we have always followed Brit thinking and connections and education and politics so maybe not so amazing. But their progression or regression could perhaps be studied with an objective eye to give substance to theories of what has been behind the Labour movement’s change here.
“..Anyone else miss Helen Clark right now?..”…
..really..?..)
(this was my reaction to her self-serving/past-glossing-over appearance on q & a..)
“…next up is helen clark..(and i am sorry..i have so many other questions for clark..(maybe starting with her govt. totally ignoring/marginalising the poorest/sickest for nine long years..
..and at the same time..so efficiently preparing the ground for the current pogrom against those poorest/sickest..
..that my mind glazes over at her current unctions..
..save to note she fully supports spooks/spooking..(but is anti-mass-trawling..)
(and of course after that wholesale ignoring of real poverty in new zealand for those nine long years..that she now is at the un..’fighting-poverty’..
..must cause irony-overdose/gastric-reflux in most watchers..)..”
phillip ure..
Ad +1….and they should be sucking up all the Kiwi unemployed and training them on the job in the reconstruction of Christchurch…instead of importing labour
Absolutely. I want a Labour Party ready to recommit to policies of full employment, starting with full youth employment.
+ 1 Colonial Viper …..Youth unemployment is a tragedy !…..which will keep ricocheting for generations!…… It should be a number one priority.
I think the Germans have a lot to teach us on this….Kids from high school go directly into apprenticeships or internships …..so they can sort out what they want to do….eg get training in a line of work they like or become a university student…..I don’t think they are allowed to be unemployed …same in Switzerland
Massive turnaround in the one news poll for Labour and Shearer and a big hit for National which means Shearers showing what he can do, hes the right leader for Labour
I noted, in the last speech of his I heard on the radio, that he was no longer hesitating on hitting the decisive word in the sentence and was showing more conviction. ‘Necessity is the mother of invention’ may be a cliche, but there is some merit in that statement. Whether it will be enough is another matter ..
Yeah you have to give David Shearer a couple of brownie points when His current speech making is compared with His earlier efforts,
What i perceived from His ummm aaaah delivery’s after His ascension to the position of leader was that He was ‘self editing’, stopping mid-sentence to seek a ‘better’ word to use in the point He was making,
Obviously the media trainers have been at work and to a large extent corrected this bad habit, now all’s we need do is convince His advisers that the only required reading for the leader of the Labour Party is ‘Labour during the Norman Kirk years’ and we might actually get some decent policy from that Party which addresses the ‘bread and butter’ issues of those in our society that survive on the least amount of income…
Winston chanelling Santi, not a pretty site.
Shearer just needs a little more time (like maybe when it comes to the election debates with John Key) to really show the people of NZ what hes made of 🙂
Probably won’t matter, Key will likely have banned TV and newspapers by then. Or hopefully people will awake and see the conman Key for what he is, all those used car sales types seem to have free-flowing bullshit in abundance.
Oh good the old “hopefully the people will wake up” line, maybe the people have woken up already…
From observation, that seems very highly unlikely.
Winston is trying hard to take Santi’s place.
[lprent: But Santi got banned until after the next election. I guess there could be a resumption of the strange RWNJ penis extender technique that involves getting banned from TS? Young shrivelled bucks do some really stupid things in the pursuit of coups. ]
This weekend 24 US embassies closed their doors because there was believable information that they were in eminent danger from a terrorist attack.
Problem is that this information seems to have sprung from an unlikely source. The mst important Qaeda leader going by the name of Ayman al Zawahiri ! Here is the link to the NZ News Website where I found this.
The same leader also alleged that the coup against Mursi the Egyptian Muslim brotherhood president was engineered by the US on the 3 August. Here is the link to the Guardian article.
Problem is that according to the MSM this Al Qaeda leader was killed during a drone attack on 9/12 2012.
See why I’m having trouble with these eminent terror attack announcements?
OOPPSS. Or it seems that Prism can speak to those who have died, Can they ask my Mother where she hid the recipes for the tiny cakes, that go with a cup of tea.
Or were they talking to Achmed??
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uwOL4rB-go
“Problem is that according to the MSM this Al Qaeda leader was killed during a drone attack on 9/12 2012”
Dude, that article isn’t saying al-Zawahiri was killed. The man identified as a future successor to him was. Learn to read.
Um… It’s dudette for you and try this and know that reading is what I do very well but you are right that was the wrong article to link to as it didn’t detail the entire history of Zawahiri’s many reported deaths.
The trouble with following Shearer’s delivery to the media etc with bated breath is that once again it’s pinning hopes on getting any Labour government in, as if that is all there is to be concerned about.
What we are already getting is just more bene bashing coming from the left. In government it would be more self-satisfied ‘We’re running the country right and keeping it on an even keel’ stuff, and being happy with showing positive trends in the measurements of policies set in place with right wing advantages.
I was looking at a 2005 NZ Listener and the list of top 50 powerful people. Cullen was near the top, and mentioned was his 67c ‘chewing gum’ tax cut. He and Helen Clark didn’t have enough nous to institute something like sliding inflation indices on tax levels. When do the good people who are not comfortably off, get considered. Answer not often.
Such complacency about Labour’s vulnerable constituents will continue going by Shearer’s comments about the guy on the roof, and there must be more in the pot. In a previous Labour government Trevor Mallard went round slashing small rural schools and then that was followed by cuts to bus transport by him or the next lot and so on. It’s just a progression of lost services and rights and lost economic conditions and as confusing as that TV series Lost where everything seemed fluid and uncertain.
Labour doesn’t have any vulnerable constituents. Not these days.
What about Shearer, I hear hes pretty vulnerable…
XKeyscore. Intriguing name, eh what?
Intriguing guff too, worth reminding ourselves:
The program is run jointly with other agencies including Australia’s Defence Signals Directorate, and New Zealand’s Government Communications Security Bureau.
Greenwald said low level analysts can via systems like XKeyscore “listen to whatever emails they want, whatever telephone calls, browsing histories, Microsoft Word documents. And it’s all done with no need to go to a court, with no need to even get supervisor approval on the part of the analyst.”
And of course no need to worry in the slightest about sharing said transcripts with a joint agency. Or its head.
Yes, but can they open .pst ???
This took less time to find, than to type it up, So the answer is YES, they can open a .pst file
http://download.cnet.com/PST-Viewer/3000-2369_4-75289424.html
http://www.nucleustechnologies.com/pst-viewer.html
And just in case they had a Mac
https://answerqi.com/asq/1666/answermail/how-can-i-open-a-pst-file-without-microsoft-outlook-on-a-mac
thx david .. but maybe I shd have put a smiley face after it ….
OK this is worrying me:
Today I installed a firefox extension. The name of the extension is “Dark side of the prism” and purports to be able to alert users on the possibility that the NSA is monitoring websites they are visiting.
I didn’t think much of it and went about my merry way roaming the net. Amongst my first visits after I installed the plug in was the daily blog and to my surprise the Pink Floyd song “The dark side of the moon” the alert for NSA monitoring started to play!
I closed the page and went to the Standard blog where again the song started to play.
I again closed the page and this time I opened the Kiwiblog page and the Whaleoil page both pages opened without any problems and no dark side of the moon!
The Daily Blog and The Standard are two “left” wing blogs. The Standard is the third biggest blog in New Zealand for those of you who don’t know it and the Daily Blog is a blog run by prominent activist and journalist Martyn Bradbury to which a whole slew of left wing journalists and writers contribute.
Kiwiblog and Whaleoil are the two biggest blogs in New Zealand and both are closely aligned with the National party and aligned with the right wing.
Which begs the question: Are the Standard and the Daily blog monitored by the NSA and if so why?
Sounds like complete bullshit.
Your usual verbal elegance again I see!
Actually, I have to agree with TheConformist here. The code of the program isn’t reliable ie it doesn’t perform the task it says it’s meant to. There is a clear distinction between your computer and a website hosted elsewhere. It appears that you’re trying to deter people from viewing the two main leftwing blogs in New Zealand.
No J, I am just conveying what happened when I installed a firefox addon claiming to perform a certain action. And I asked the question: if… why…?
Nothing more and nothing less.
I also clicked on other sites such as yours and mine. Not a sausage! No bells and whistles and no Dark side of the moon!
@travellerev: Interesting. Our similar topic posts crossed. Try opening the site I posted below:
PACC PAMS 13 even if just for the love of Pink Floyd….
@David H on thread below, this site tries to install something on your computer, so don’t click through. A friend used my computer to find information about countries attending the conference and must have run the installation – I’m running my malware now. However, it looks like the site is down now.
The way the NSA do their monitoring (sweeping up full copies of internet traffic from fibre optic junctions) should be completely invisible to the end user machine.
[lprent: That is my understanding as well. ]
Yes.
But I was thinking about the low-level wannabe types playing spy games rather than the NSA
The site looks like a twelve-year old group of boys playing around with WordPress rather than a US or NZ Defence Force production. Incongruous with an international conference for army chiefs.
Another site like it is Warren Buffett’s massively rich investment thing Berkshire Hathaway. You wouldn’t think it makes USD22billion a year.
When you’re so big you don’t need to care about fripperies – like the Queen mucking around in wellies and old landrovers.
Surely there should be delays that would indicate interference. Any telecommunications service that nows its latency should be able to detect such interference?
It takes a while for the Addon to sound the alerts when you open a page indicating it is interacting with something before it decides there is the possibility of NSA monitoring. For those of you curious about the addon here is the link for you to try it out yourself.
If you want to disable it again go to your addons under the tools dropdown menu and click disable.
Here is the link to the code of the addon for those of you so inclined and by invitation of the author of the addon Justin Binder. Seems fair to me.
It should but is it? Or is the addon reacting to something else on the main servers but before you go into that let me confess to you that with regards to software, code and other things that go bing in computers I am completely blond! (Although I did learn to put them together when I was a couple of decennia younger)
All I did was convey what happened. I have no opinion on what happened other than that we are all monitored (not necessarily in a personal way but more in a “lets get all the info and store it somewhere until someone becomes troublesome and we need to deal to that person” kind of way) and have been as a matter of course for years and that all they try to do now is to make it lawful so that they can act when needed within a legal framework so that the dotcoms of this world have no legal recourse anymore.
History reveals that most governments are so inclined and even more so in uncertain economic times and the internet is simply to good an opportunity to waste! It’s nothing personal, it’s just business as usual.
travellerev .. using your link, have a look at the comments on the app.
It is using sites that are publicly named as being monitored by Prism et al … still interesting in terms of the left wing blogs, but it is supposed to be for fun ….
Here for you from your link …
by Ken Saunders on June 17, 2013 · permalink
If you are thinking about using this add-on, keep these things in mind.
1) It’s for fun, and not some sort of magical NSA/Prism blocking add-on.
2) Purchase Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon album if you want to pause, mute, etc, the songs.
3) Here’s a list of the companies, http://www.pcworld.com/article/2040991/report-nsa-prism-program-spied-on-americans-emails-searches.html
4) Firefox button > Add-ons > Extensions > Dark Side Of The Prism > Disable, disables this add-on or you can choose Remove.
This is a brilliant and funny add-on!Thanks for developing it.
First of all I stated that this is just a claim made. I tried it out on a lot of sites though and it seems pretty consistent. And no it is not an add on to block NSA monitoring and neither does it purport to be all accurate either. Funny though how it sounded when accessing two left wing blogs in far away New Zealand and not Kiwiblog or Whaleoil two rightwing blogs closely aligned to National. It doesn’t sound with newspapers but it did sound on Max Keiser’s blog who is a fervent anti-banker RT TV Host.
It didn’t sound with Veterans today but it did sound when I opened the Global research site dedicated to studying globalism and the power elite. It also sounded when I opened Washington’s blog but not when I opened Zero hedge blog.
The fact that this application didn’t ‘alert’ when you visited Kiwiblog and Whaleoil is evidence that it wouldn’t be picking up NSA monitored sites. If I was an intelligence operative I would be trying to garner information from popular sites to ascertain what the mood of the politicised section of a country is. Kiwiblog and Whaleoil are the two most popular political blogs in the country. They would be prime targets for gathering intelliegence on NZ.
Gosman I’ve been reading the tripe you post for a while now and I can say with the utmost confidence that there is no chance of you ever doing anything involving intelligence.
ROFL. Intelligence in you?
“It is using sites that are publicly named as being monitored by Prism et al”
A link to that list of publicly named sites would be nice. I’m sure Martin Bradbury and Iprent would be delighted to know they are on a public list of Prism monitored sites!
travellerev .. there is a link in my post 9.4 above to that very list .. point #3
Nope no list other than a few companies who are known to cooperate with the Prism program. Daily blog, the Standard, Kiwiblog, Whaleoil are all blogs based on wordpress blogging software but some of them are tagged ad someof them are not. Still does not explain why the two left wing blogs were singled out by the add on while the two right wing ones were not.
More than likely it is to do with who the sites are hosted with than the specific site.
@ Travellerev,
I would have thought the answer to your question was pretty obvious.
People who are concerned about the welfare of people (as opposed to the economic interests of the very wealthy) are now considered traitors to the interests that spy networks are working for.
This is very clear given the official reaction to Mr Snowden’s actions.
Which begs the question: Are the Standard and the Daily blog monitored by the NSA and if so why?
Maybe
For a laugh (its why I come here)
[lprent: I just assume that the site is monitored by someone(s). What I’m interested in is making it hard for material from the site to be able to be used in anything legal without requiring the means to be disclosed (take some time and think the logic through). ]
Typical taker, shame you never supply any laughs though, just ridiculous cheerleader slogans supplied to you by your shonkey idol.
Thats not true, I’ve supplied plenty of laughs (both deliberately and inadvertantly)
The NZDF is hosting the PACC PAM (?) conference in Auckland this year.
Searching for which countries belong to this group, and who will be attending – results in not a lot on Google. Although PACC PAM, links back to the US Defence Force via a couple of other organisations.
However, this bizarre site PACC PAMS 13 – Army Conference Agenda comes up in regards to the NZ conference this year. Has random NZ photos and strange layout. Looks like a site from a bad 70s spy movie, and heads up, you will get a couple of automatic messages if you click through.
When i tried it, it wanted to install something on my computer. That was me gone. But from what i saw, it was an amateurish looking site.
@David H. Thanks for the heads up.
A friend wanted to use my computer to find out the list of countries, and is Google-challenged. They must have clicked through the installation prompt – will run my malware programs to double check.
The rest of the site – which I will not return to after deleting whatever has been loaded – is pictures of the skytower, NZ currency, people at a restaurant etc. Just checked if the installation message comes up for me – and the site is now down.
Interesting Posts:
1) Alanz …4 August 5.57pm (under “Friday Document Dump” August 2nd)…Stated i)that the media should keep digging because there are 3 key, pivotal issues not covered in the document dump.ii) Also there are nationally grave matters not yet public …
2) exitlane… 3 August 4.47pm ( under “Andrea Vance’s Privacy Breach” August 3rd)…. Stated that under the GCSB ( refs. Snowden / “NZL” docs / re Xkeystore ) phone calls and email content anywhere can be accessed with a few keystrokes without a warrant….Hence John Key would have known everything about Dunne and Vance even without the help of Parliamentary services !!!!…..sooner Dunne realises that this and what he is thinking of voting for are tied up inextricably ,the better)
My Question:
Is Dunne complicit in a cover up ….when Key had everything already?…..Does Dunne know this?….If so , Dunne’s squealing about Parliamentary breaches of his privacy are rather spurious…and it makes him a lot more complicit and tricky in the implementation of the GCSB bill than what many thought
Of course he is. Because he knows Key has seen all the emails. Key has him over a barrel. Jesus, have we ever had such a nasty piece of work for a prime-minister. It also shows Dunne is weak as dishwater.
@ Anne…yes but Dunne seems to be trying to keep the two issues separate …and it is also the case in the media ….ie Parliament breaches are being kept separate from GCSB breaches on privacy( ie John Key having access to the emails already via GCSB.) It is as if they want to keep the bigger picture of the GCSB and what it is doing under the carpet.
…..So Dunne is ‘outraged’ by Parliamentary services and one head has rolled there….But Dunne also wants to vote for the GCSB bill when he knows the bigger picture is that the Prime Minister had all this information independently via GCSB……( I feel sorry for the guy that got rolled unnecessarily)
And whereas before I just thought Dunne was being blackmailed and felt a wee bit sorry for him…..now I think he is a tricky Dicky
Probably everyone on this site knows this already…but I have just realised this could be the case….it sort of makes the outrage at the illegal spying on the 88 rather redundant….. everyone has been spied on…in which case why isnt the media saying so?…and why did the guy in Parliament services fall on his sword?
“tricky Dicky” lol.
Vance was fed by Dunne and Vance had a choice to,
1. Not release the report.
2. To have responded once the report was released.
Had Vance done 2. she would have implicated Dunne because in those emails Dunne has to have shot himself in the foot. Dunne must be feeling happy with himself that the chance of Vance releasing his emails is now remote as she would be branded a hypocrite if she did.
I am sure Key has something on what Dunne, done!
@ KJT…..Yes but did Key get it via Parliamentary services or independently via the GCSB…..even before a law has been passed ( with Dunne’s help) making it legal?
How the rich countries can screw the poor ones. Many consulates in Brit are being ordered to close their bank accounts under regulations to control money laundering. This comes from high law instigated by some high-minded countries with impeccable financial trading. Some countries are having difficulty finding ways to trade internationally.
I remember hearing a story about Rwanda I think, being left on the outer when the world financial system refused them membership. They determined to conduct some business in cash, one of their dignitaries took off from home with a caseful, and I don’t know if that transaction was ever completed, but I heard that the dignitary settled in I think France. Probably opened a consulate there in his home. So some good may have come out of the move, who knows. Nothing is straightforward in politics and finance.
Years ago, in Reagan’s time there was a bank that dealt illegally in funds connected with drug running venture capital, and though this was known it was allowed to remain in business, and was used to pay for arms used in some overseas destabilising action. Standards of probity have to be seen to remain in place, so that the exception can prove the rule I imagine. Some whistle blowing investigative journalist found out about it. Otherwise we would never have known, and probably most don’t anyway. I just was curious to check out a second hand book. If from now on there aren’t any accessible documents in hard copy extant, that will happen less.
Banking/debt based money supply/transaction systems are being used as a way to control and contain entire countries. If you are in the “in crowd” good for you, you get privileged access to these systems and your country (and government) can continue to survive; if you are not – then all bets are off the table, and if it means that tens of millions of your people have to suffer economic deprivation and hunger in the process, ah well too bad.
And we’re off – owner of a web host that aides internet anonymity arrested.
http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1rlo0uu
https://openwatch.net/i/200/anonymous-web-host-freedom-hosting-owner-arrested
http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/fbi-bids-to-extradite-largest-childporn-dealer-on-planet-29469402.html
Boom!
I was trying to get details on Steffan Browning , Greens who made a good point this morning that NZ is too dependent on one business type – ie dairy.
And from google going through Kiwiblog I got a message that – something to the server chain is incomplete and something is not registered and do I accept and I said no. Don’t know what that was about. Sounds like the vehicle needs its spark plugs cleaned!
Gleaned from Radionz Rural and Business News headings:
MPI under-staffed to cope with China trade
The Ministry for Primary Industries admitted that despite a tripling in New Zealand’s trade with China over the past five years, it did not have anywhere near enough staff in the ministry nor in China to cope with that escalating trade relationship.
Online tool to map stock theft
Farmers who have lost stock to rustlers have a new way of hitting back at them.
Signs of resistance to varroa bee mite treatments – assoc
The National Beekeepers Association says the battle against the varroa mite may cost almost $1 billion over the next three decades.
Chorus gets further debt facility
Chorus has secured further debt facilities, which the company says will support its funding needs to rollout of the ultra fast broadband over the next six years.
Hills Flooring in liquidation
Family-owned carpet retailer Hills Flooring is in liquidation, blaming the failure of the construction company Mainzeal and the tough retail market.
These are matters that should have oversight by ordinary NZs.
* Hills Flooring – established NZ company being lost – why?
* Chorus – is an arm of Telecom isn’t it? And its got further debt facility – from whom and why? Was that debt facility available to other contenders?
* Varroa bee mite – Bees and beekeepers – are they getting proper support and tax incentives and grants to pay for the costs of this terrible outcome of increased import risks without the concomitant spending on increased biosecurity?
* Help for farmers to combat stock theft – sounds good. The rural side, apart just from dairy, need support through proper services from government.
* MPI being understaffed to meet the needs that increased trade with Asia and China brings is just another of NZs failures to follow through on initiatives and new policies which need extra work, with increased money spent on them. This is to ensure that the money that is hoped to be made, and the business and contacts generated, are properly handled and treasured.
And that involves more than giving fast track visas to big spenders from Asian countries to come here and. hopefully, offload. That might be more profitable than before if countries trying to appear highly principled financially shut down on bank accounts for possibly dodgy dealers. Just the thing for a fresh-faced keen little country like us. We could welcome these poor refugees from the nasty big wide world financial system!
* Embassy accounts being closed by HSBC bank
HSBC, the biggest bank in Britain is reported to have given dozens of diplomatic missions in London 60 days to move their accounts elsewhere.
“a good point this morning that NZ is too dependent on one business type – ie dairy.”
There’s always tourism… until the big oil shock/next GFC hits.
“Beyond the Shroud”
For those who want to watch this but do not have Sky TV or access to Face TV, the documentary will be streamed live from 8pm on Scoop.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/multimedia.html
Addition to the above.
It will also be streamed on Live.TheDailyBlog and LiveNews.co.nz.
Yes. Must see viewing.
Zero Hedge: Kiwi Plunges, 15% of Exports at Stake
Congrats NZ, your very own story on Zero Hedge
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-08-04/kiwi-plunges-china-russia-suspend-new-zealand-powder-milk-exports-15-gdp-stake
Debt ridden, and sabotaged primary sector – Should help bring NZ to its knees in short time,
Swelling national debt, private debt, spiraling living costs , decreasing incomes!, government books loaded with off balance sheet derivatives, just like the banks, all of them!
Nah she’s going sweet mate, the recovery is really just about to kick!
OBR
http://www.maggiebarry.co.nz/index.php?/archives/225-Finance-and-Expenditure-Select-Committee-Deputy-Chair-Role.html
Sorry about the link location – TV Presenter Barry, deputy chair of the above!
Oh dear!
And now they are spinning spinning spinning through this fabulous land!!!
You have to wonder if the Slippery little Shyster we have as Prime Minister considers us all to be just plain dumb,
His claim now is that He did not know until Friday that the Dunne/Vance emails had been handed over to His Office/the Henry Inquiry from Parliamentary Services/the IT ‘contractor’ just takes spin to a whole new level,
The Prime Minister seems here to be attempting to dodge charges from the Opposition in the House that He the Prime Minister has mislead the Parliament,
Does the Slippery little Shyster live in some form of airless bubble,along with all of His executive officials occupying their own secular bubbles, under a rock each in other words miles apart in a vast desert without the communications of this modern world to disturb their meditations,
This claim from the Prime Minister is simply one serious piece of bullshit too far, at a time when the Henry Inquiry, the Chief executive of the Prime Minister’s own office, and the Prime Ministers own Chief of Staff all KNEW of the emails and KNEW that the emails had been obtained from Parliamentary Services/the IT ‘contractor’ this Prime Minister wishes us all to believe he knew nothing,
Now that is the Sergeant Shultz defence if i ever heard it, i know nothing nothing you hear, the contention that He, the Prime Minister only found out about the Dunne/Vance emails would have us believe that the document dump on Friday from the Prime Ministers own office of over 100 pages was all material that He had never once read,
Dodge,duck,dive, what the Prime Minister really ‘means’ is not that He had not the slightest notion until Friday that the Dunne/Vance emails had been released to the Henry Inquiry/Office of the Prime Minister, what He really ‘means’ is that he found out on the Friday that ‘we’ knew that He had reached the emails of Dunne/Vance and were discussing this openly here at the Standard on the Thursday night befor the document dump occurred from His office on the Friday,
it is not the prime minister’s chief executive of the prime ministers office that should be offering to resign here, there’s something rotten right at the core of this particular apple and it is the Prime Minister exhibiting all those signs of rot, it is Him who should be offering the resignation…
Just say what you mean instead of beating around the bush bad12. John Key has lied! His office, namely the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, has instructed Parliamentary Service to intercept three moths worth of communications between a journalist, Andrea Vance, and a Minister of the Crown, Peter Dunce. It is likely that this “contractor” supposedly employed by Parliamentary Service is actually the GCSB who was instructed by no other that John Key himself.
Despite that blatant breach of privacy, which has resulted in him resigning his Ministerial portfolios, Peter Dunce is going to support a bill that legalizes similar surveillance on us all. However, he will not allow his communications in this instance to be released to the public. 2+2 really does equal 4. What is the bouffant hiding? It is likely only his own scalp. Such is the way of politicians I suppose.
Conveniently for John Key there is now a more major story to take the attention off his administration. The Prime Minister can now appear the hero, admonishing Fonterra for not informing the public that their dairy supplies could be contaminated with BOTULISM. A delay that has only taken + 15 months to occur. Saved by the bell I suppose from some negative publicity…some negative spying allegations. Who really cares that their privacy now means nothing and that the scientist are also scratching their heads about how exactly this latest (convenient) sideshow can be real?
How much is it really costing New Zealand to protect John Keys credibility I wonder?
“It is not usual to test dairy products for the presence of Clostridium botulinum.”
That is interesting.
LOLZ, me beat around the bush, now that is funny, i think that you are wrong when you posit that the ‘IT contractor’ is likely to be the GCSB,
There is a distinction between the two arms of intelligence,(hah intelligence here being an oxymoron in terminology), what i have is the sneaking suspicion that this ‘contractor’ to Parliamentary Services is simply a front company for the SIS,
As far as i can ascertain it is the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet Chief Executive Andrew Kibblewhite who is probably carrying less guilt in the whole process of the initial obtaining of the Dunne/Vance phone/email records and Kibblewhite is simply being used as a convenient excuse, the toilet if you will, down which the Prime Minister is attempting to flush His knowledge of the illegally gained phone/email records,
It appears from what is known that Eaggleson, the Prime Ministers chief of Staff was the point man fronting the Parliamentary Service on behalf of the Prime Minister, and if threats were made in order to force Parliamentary Services to hand over anything, then Eaggleson would have been issuing such threats,
Did Andrew Kibblewhite know the full extent of the illegal information gathering occurring on behalf of the Henry Inquiry, you bet, along with everyone else on the Beehives 9th floor obviously including Eaggleson who strong armed Parliamentary Services into agreeing to the release,
Why if it is in fact the SIS acting in drag as a private IT contractor to Parliamentary Services go to all the trouble of strong-arming Parliamentary Services into ‘releasing’ the Dunne/Vance phone/email records???,
To provide a layer of protection to the 9th floor of the Beehive, the Prime Ministers Office, should the s**t, as it did, get caught in the ventilation system and the smell get spread far and wide, and, should my ‘sneaking suspicion’ that the Parliamentary Services ‘IT contractor’ is the SIS using a private company as a ‘front’ to monitor the communications into and out of the Parliaments precinct Parliamentary Services were to be shouldered with the blame creating a smokescreen within the furore where the ‘IT contractors’ actions were minimalized thus attracting scant attention,
i doubt Dunne, who’s every word must be suspect in this whole sordid little tale will appear befor the Privileges Committee hearing later this month and further doubt that any one of substance from the Prime Ministers office will either,
The Prime Minister suggesting that no-one, not Kibblewhite, not Eaggleson, who obviously had full knowledge of the email data, informed Him of this beggars belief and is simply one large slab of bullshit to far from the ever Slippery Prime Minister…