Craig Murray reveals more as the lies about spies by bumbling Boris unfold.
Sources in Foreign and Commonwealth Office told me 2 weeks ago that Porton Down were unable to say it was Russia but were under pressure by Conservatives to say it was” says Craig Murray as scientists have been unable to prove Russia made the nerve agent A-234 used to poison the Skripals.”
. . . the government advised those who may have been in contact to wash their clothes and wipe surfaces with warm water and wet wipes. Suspect locations were hosed down by the fire brigade.
But if the substance was in a form that could be washed away, why was it placed on an external door knob? It was in point of fact raining heavily in Salisbury that day, and indeed had been for some time.
Can somebody explain to me the scenario in which two people both touch the exterior door handle in exiting and closing the door? And if it transferred from one to the other, why did it not also transfer to the doctor who gave extensive aid that brought her in close bodily contact, including with fluids?
The second problem is that the Novichok family of nerve agents are instant acting. There is no such thing as a delayed reaction nerve agent. Remember we have been specifically told by Theresa May that this nerve agent is up to ten times more powerful than VX, the Porton Down developed nerve agent that killed Kim’s brother in 15 minutes.
But if it was on the doorknob, the last contact they could possibly have had with the nerve agent was a full three hours before it took effect. Not only that, they were well enough to drive, to walk around a shopping centre, visit a pub, and then – and this is the truly unbelievable bit – their central nervous systems felt in such good fettle, and their digestive systems so in balance, they were able to sit down and eat a full restaurant meal. Only after all that were they – both at precisely the same time despite their substantially different weights – suddenly struck down by the nerve agent, which went from no effects at all, to deadly, on an alarm clock basis.
This narrative simply is not remotely credible….
. . . Boris lied about the certainty of the provenance of the nerve agent, and his fall back evidence is at present highly unconvincing. None of which proves it was not the Russian state that was responsible. But there is no convincing proof that it was, and there are several other possibilities. Eventually the glaring problems with the official narrative might be resolved, but what is plain is that Johnson and May have been premature and grossly irresponsible.
We all need to take a damn good dose of scepticism! [My conclusion].
Craig Murray is a brave hero, just as Jon Stephenson is as he stands up to the lies by the establishment here about the murder of civilians in Afghanistan.
Their courage stands in stark contrast to the simpering sycophants Luke Soper, duplicity and the rest of the wretched crew.
People also need to know our ‘murder raid’, was just one of thousands of ‘night raids’ …. where Afghani civilians lives count for nothing.
The smear campaign against Jon Stephenson and Nicky Hagar appears like a well used script of warmongers, when this movie … primary about Afghan ‘night raids’ is viewed
A senior scientist was also testifying on the media last night saying that type of nerve agent was quite simple to produce and could be done anywhere for $30 000 dollars if do it carefully with safeguards to avoid exposure while making the nerve agent.
“This narrative simply is not remotely credible. Nerve agents – above all “military grade nerve agents” – were designed as battlefield weapons. They do not leave opponents fighting fit for hours. There is no description in the scientific literature of a nerve agent having this extraordinary time bomb effect. “
Personally, anything with a little green RT in the corner needs a pinch of salt….I don’t mean I anticipate lies. I put on my ‘So what are the Kremlin saying now’ glasses.
This story has mileage for a number of reasons, the slow recuperation of the victims is the least of them. The strongest motivating force is the potential for major changes in the narrative with just tiny tweaks of the sketchy evidence that’s in the public arena.
Personally I haven’t encountered anything that has changed my view, which is: The ex KGB officer Putin knows more than he is saying. Leopards/spots.
Evidently Murray would have preferred that they (Porton Down) had stated that it was of Russian origin, which is what they would have done had they actually been liars.
It’s safe to dismiss Murray as a thoroughly compromised propagandist.
“Evidently Murray would have preferred that they (Porton Down) had stated that it was of Russian origin, which is what they would have done had they actually been liars.”
And you know that’s what Craig Murray preferred? How do you know that?
You’ve missed the point he is making entirely.
I think you, with all due respect, don’t have the wit to understand what Craig Murray is implying.
Yes it’s true, one must be a halfwit to be persuaded by Murray.
Murray is calling a bunch of chemists liars because they made an appropriately truthful statement about their results.
They could not at that time determine the source of the agent. There are a number of reasons for that, possibly including access to representative samples of Russian Novichok stocks. The scientists concerned however mentioned that they had some hope of determining origin using less esoteric tracing procedures like pollen analysis.
Murray merely pointed to the fact that the Porton Down scientist had not identified the source of th nerve agent. this contradicted the May government hyperbole.
The issue is being polarised. We need a clear reporting of the evidence and to avoid getting sucked into bot the Putin/Kremlin or May/Tory opportunist hyperbole.
Of course Putin’s mob will pick up on Murray’s criticism. That doesn’t make him a Putin dupe.
And on the anti-Putin side, media are not giving Murray very much MSM space.
So the cold war style polarisation continues. I’d rather just wait for hard evidence.
Team May’s over blown anti-Russian rhetoric is starting to unravel somewhat.
If Murray is not a Putin dupe, one must question his determination to smear Porton Down.
Science doesn’t necessarily give the results a political situation would prefer – to identity the agent as part of the Novichok family but not attribute sources was entirely proper on the part of Porton Down.
I don’t believe the theory that Murray was a propagandist as we all saw the other side begin this fairy tale in the exact manner that professional Propagandists do and not the way murray did it.
Wake up Kiwis. This is the elitists now war-mongering for wanting to get russia destabilised so they can get their hands ion russia’s massive oil reserves as happened during the last war around 1942.
Probably this has been hatched at the ‘Bilderberg Group’ by their many ‘black ops’.
You’ll only find pollen on the means of delivery, the container if you like.
So far no one has a clue where or what that was
Any pollen at present will be thoroughly British pollen (wrong time of year incidentally) adhering to the sticky gel…well it must be damn sticky to have persevered after three weeks of rain and snow… on the Skripals door knob
Incidentally, I notice the garage of the Skripal house is attached, so entry from the house, obviating the need to go out the front door to access the car
Maybe the assassin was blindly following the dictates of Boris’s assassin handbook…how to apply poison to doorknobs…recently discovered at a garage sale no doubt
Mmm, I expect the scientists concerned would be able to sort representative pollen samples from Russia or England without enormous difficulty, depending on what material they have to test.
Let’s suppose for the moment an agent weaponized as a sticky gel on a door handle – it might indeed contain traces of a “Salisbury Series” of local pollens – but, depending on its conditions of manufacture, it might also contain a foreign series identifiable by experienced palynologists.
That’s about as far as we can go at this point – they haven’t asserted anything further yet.
Because Yulia has been traveling to Russia recently some articles in the Skripal household likely innocently contain a Russian series.
Stuart… on your assertion that Murray smears the Porton Down scientists, thats not true
He wrote that the Porton Down scientists were reluctant to declare the nerve agent was from Russia, and were resentful at having to compromise with “of a type developed by Russia” etc
No way is he calling them liars, he;’s calling Boris and Theresa liars
He is critical of the formula “of a type developed by Russia” which is true, and which the scientists will have had to insist on despite a May & Johnson preference that they “sex up the dossier” by making a direct attribution to Russia.
Craig’s position was that it was not the scientists insisting, as you say, on the formulation “of a type developed by Russia” but that that was a compromise insisted on by May, to bring in the word “Russia”
Its pretty clear that that phrase is a politicisation of the science, that the Porton Down scientists would rightly feel resentful of
They did it IOT test anti-pen drug post attack, post attack drills, testing CBRN suits and decom drills. They also tested LSD etc on the troops as well back with some very interesting results and if you get to see any of the training films they were funny to watch, but bloody scary as well.
Did see one where they gave a cat some LSD and threw a mouse into the cage which made some interesting viewing.
The US and Soviet era CBRN films are quite shocking to watch especially when they let off a can of instant sunshine and the old Soviet ones were bloody awful to watch, but at were interesting to watch if you didn’t have big lunch.
A couple of NATO countries do still run a few CBRND cse’s, in a controlled environment where they use a Nerve argent so the students get to feel what the effects of Chemical attack/ post attack would be like also they conduct a full decom drill at an individual and at group level doing a vehicle.
I know a couple of people who have done theses cse’s and they found it to be one of the best post graduate cse’s they have ever done in their service career.
They post unsubstantiated nonsense with great frequency – One Two is a seething mass of personal attacks and claims to have a “superior imagination”.
I deal with facts.
The fact is that Putin is a cold war autocrat who would not hesitate to murder the Skripals for a moment. There are means, motive and opportunity. No other explanation is more than unsupported speculation at this time.
Most of the nonsense floated to confuse the case comes from Russian sources – the Putin dupes simply repeat the dezinformatsiya they have been provided.
Like the Stalin dupes two generations before they need to wake up to what it is they are defending.
The Soviet Union had a novichok program, a pretty loose program exploring new groups of nerve agent
The facility at Uzbekistan was dismantled and removed by the Americans
The facility at Shikhany (in Russia )that UK intelligence now pinpoints as the source of THE novichok, was declared by the Russians to the OPCW and was gone over with a fine tooth comb by the OPCW.during its supervision of chemical weapon destruction finalised in 2017.
It is subject to monitoring
Under the CWC Russia has agreed to monitoring by the OPCW
Yes – I think we need to be slightly careful of assertions from retired chemical weapons specialists because they won’t be based on current analysis of what is available of the agent that affected the Skripals.
But, it’s not an awfully long bow to draw to suggest that some part of Shikhany stocks may have been abstracted by FSB or a related agency prior to the wind up of that operation. The quantity of material used in the Salisbury attack seems not to have been great.
Whether the agent in fact came from there, and whether that is provable are quite different propositions. It is likely that professional British comment on such matters will be sparse while the OPCW is investigating – there’s no surer way to turn investigators against oneself than trying to press them to replicate one’s own results.
Well if we’re going to be drawing long bows…a little like shoehorning our theories to fit our prejudices…
First of all, after the breakup of the Soviet Union was the time Russia’s facilities would have been least secure, but thats what 30 years ago?The samples would be degraded
Then, if later , the protocols at Shikhany were able to be breached by the FSB, why wouldn’t that be possible for M16 at Porton Down, or indeed, the CIA through the Pentagon shared research program at Porton Down
And then theres Israel, not signed up to the CWC, secretive and unmonitored,rumoured to have a huge chemical weapons program , and to have assassinated Arafat with polonium.
https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/whatkilledarafat/
Israel most definitely would like to kick Russia out of Syria , what with the lucrative Golan Heights deal going with Genie Energy..Rothschild, Cheney , Woolsey, Murdoch consortium.Woolsey is the CIA connection https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genie_Energy
I note that the British and US are now bringing Syria in to the mix, as evidence of Russia’s dastardliness and chemical weapons
.
It seems that once novichoks are weaponised, binary elements mixed and a suitable method of delivery devised, they can’t really be stockpiled, as they degrade quickly
Binary elements can be stockpiled, but if they were filched the thieves would have the vast problem of keeping themselves alive when attempting to produce the compound
If the precursors are common insecticides etc, what say the blood samples show broken down organophosphates like good old carbamate, every wasp killer’s friend?
Skripal thought he’d try it on the slugs?
And re: your previous question
The PD scientists could equally and truthfully have said “of a type produced by Iran” Maybe Theresa’s saving that for another day
We all need to take a damn good dose of scepticism
I agree
And now Yulia is speaking and optimistic that all will be well
After all the dire predictions of being a vegetable. It seems there is even hope for the dad
the British newspapers are in damage control mode
Now there is talk of a Russian handbook for assassins on how to smear nerve agents on door handles!
I’m not joking, Boris has just rummaged around and found it
Beano comics anyone?
My apologies – looking at my post a good hour after submitting it, I realised I should have put the whole thing (except the first and last lines) in quotation marks.
Hang on, did Murray argue that a powder absorbed through the skin would be as instantaneously effective as a mist sprayed at someone’s face (like, where breathing happens)?
They are stable and easily dispersed, highly toxic and have rapid effects both when absorbed through the skin and via respiration. Nerve agents can be manufactured by means of fairly simple chemical techniques. The raw materials are inexpensive and generally readily available.
…
Poisoning takes longer when the nerve agent enters the body through the skin. Nerve agents are more or less fat-soluble and can penetrate the outer layers of the skin. However, it takes some time before the poison reaches the deeper blood vessels. Consequently, the first symptoms do not occur until 20-30 minutes after the initial exposure but subsequently the poisoning process may be rapid if the total dose of nerve agent is high.
At the risk of stating the bleeding obvious, but “20-30 minutes” and “may be rapid if the total dose of nerve agent is high” is a very different beast to Murray’s “instant acting”, no?
Not to mention that the initial symptoms include increased saliva and a runny nose. And if the “20-30 minutes” estimate is off by a factor of 6 simply because the substance or delivery method isn’t identical to, say, sarin, there’s absolutely no time problem at all.
I realised that the other thing that was pissing me off about the “instant death” theory was that it means that it was done in a british town centre (street cameras?) with people close enough on scene to clear airways before someone choked or suffocated, but delivery was specific enough that there were no traces airborne to affect the responders. So that theory also pretty much requires the first responders to be in on it and still decide to save the victims’ lives, as well as the police to be lying about where their officers were injured (for no reason whatsoever – why not just say the victims were poisoned in town, but there are no leads?). It’s bloody stupid.
Yes there are lots of ‘pile in’ attacks on the Labour led coalition by our partisan media….. some of it fed and lead by unethical Dirty politics embeds …. like attack politics specialists Farrar and Hooten.
Here’s the simple counter …
The simple fact /facts are NZ’s inequality widened … and hardship grew … the quickest in the western / developed world.
Particularly under Nation … We got worse the quickest … we were winning their race … to the bottom.
We have lead the world in getting worst the quickest … since the start of the neo -Lib rogernomics/ ruthenasia in the 1980’s…. we were quicker harder adopters than Aussies, Canadians etc.
The results …
To repeat our society got worst the quickest …
….with a slow down of the worst indicators and attacks on workers … when Helen Clarkes Labour coalition Government was in power.
But John Keys / Bill english;s government really were balls out … and ramped up pollution, homelessness, domestic violence, corruptions etc …. and we got worse the quickest in the world again.
Other countries should look to New Zealand when wanting to learn what to avoid ….
And New Zealand should be looking overseas to see which countries have the most successful ways of tackling the problems we are facing.
This should not be a left / right thing ,,, but evidence based policy of what actually works around the world …
National should be hung up as guilty vandals … for their part in creating and inflicting ‘worst practice’ … delivered upon New Zealanders with dishonest malice ….
Why would anyone take criticism seriously …. from the very people who made things the worst …. for everyone apart from the top 10% … water poisoning aside.
… 80% non-compliant and semi-legal seems to have been their moto for governing. And sir Johnny made-offs ‘creativity’ …. which got us a special mention in the Panama papers … or his guts … which got us a three year old dead Taliban girl.
But for the short KISS meme ….. New Zealands economic problems got worse in the developed world the quickest ….
And, we should be looking around the world for what works best for specific problems / areas … eg crime or housing as two examples
Finally, Heres a reminder of how far back Hootons been a dirty cock, ….and the false narrative attack politics that the Nats / media specialize in
,,,
Over the years of listening to Douglas i’ve come to the conclusion the guy is as thick as pigshit and as morally bereft and cunning as a starving rat. Thick because he clearly has only ever had one idea in his life, and the way he has fanatically clung to it indicates in my experience a limited imagination and intellect. Cunning and morally bereft because he set out to use the great institution of the welfare state, the Labour party, to destroy it’s legacy and he did so with no electoral mandate and no sense of guilt.
What original idea did he have? My understanding is that it was just neo-liberalism repackaged to look like something unique. Rogernomics in NZ; Thatcherism in UK; Reaganomics in USA.
Over the years of listening to Douglas i’ve come to the conclusion the guy is as thick as pigshit…
He was brainwashed by big business but thick? No he was not. I witnessed a scene many years ago where Douglas confounded all those present. Two former economists were attempting to solve a complex mathematical problem.They both proceeded to write down a long list of calculations and after 5 mins, they came up with the answer. Douglas happened along and he was asked to solve the same problem. He stood there thinking for a minute or so and came up with the correct answer. Everybody was gobsmacked.
He was at the least a mathematical genius, even if his adopted ideology was fatally flawed.
And yet we still follow his basic reforms to this day despite you thinking they were fatally flawed. By the way fatally flawed means we should be dead.
You’re thinking of “mortality with a social gradient”, and it’s a health term. Treasury refer to it as the “integrated, phased removal of non-productive economic units”.
Kangaroo courts.. we already have them here… anyone who goes to court, gets arrested and is the wrong colour or class or gets the wrong lawyer, or puts in a complaint to the plethora of government commissions – knows that justice is two tier, and in the case of commissions it’s generally just a Kafka like exercise to keep people thinking for years that something might happen, justice might happen, democracy might happen until they realise that it’s just another way for government to pretend there is comeback in this country for injustice.
Because in general, nothing comes of all these commissions lasting for years and taking the injustice from the applicants even further by giving them hope and then it slowly sucking it away, while taking as much energy of the applicants as possible away with it.
Look at Pike River, it happened in 2010. Has justice been served yet? That is a big example, but our justice systems have stopped working a while ago because due to little and often not very public law changes over the years there is now huge power imbalance in this country to the people who live in this country.
an unofficial court held by a group of people in order to try someone regarded, especially without good evidence, as guilty of a crime or misdemeanour.
Whatever the problems with the current set-up, which I note Andrew Little appears to be taking stock of, they’re nothing compared to the sort of show-trials being proposed here.
How Dot com was treated was a Kangaroo court style as the original charges of copywrite were not even a criminal charge, but held by official sanction. Maybe we have our own official versions..
Kiwiaroo court,
Kaftka, meets officialdom meets Kangaroo court (as in the outcomes are often predetermined in NZ before the evidence is produced and it’s become a meaningless process).
Hello. Earth to Savenz. The so-called “kangaroo” court has given him leave to sue the government and judged the initial assault illegal. The then attorney general has been ruled to have broken the law.
It’s quite likely that the long list of state misdemeanours will see him walk free in due course.
The point is, that he should never have been charged in the first place. If Hollywood has a beef, they should have sued him themselves (and spent their time and money and liability on it).
70 armed defenders live to the US has the hallmarks of Kangaroo court.
And he’s only still here because he’s an incredible fighter and was able to make enough money to stall long enough to still be here in NZ after they removed his funds and stopped him even getting his own records held by government departments.
I don’t call that justice. And he’s still not a free man – years later. Destroying someones lives, kids, marriage for years, is not really what I consider justice.
Nor do I think Pike River families and dead received any justice either. There is a process of justice, but not justice in this country.
weasel words… justice is not working in NZ and there are plenty of high profile examples to choose from Hager, to Dotcom to Bradbury to Pike River, even Phil Goff and the SIS.
The Police are not the courts. The courts upheld Hager’s rights too.
These aren’t weasel words they’re facts. The Police and the government acted very badly in both cases, and were brought to heel by the justice system.
Are there big problems in the courts? Yes – mostly a consequence of “cost saving” measures by the previous government, but also institutional racism and as we’ve heard, rape culture.
Conflating the administrative arm with the judicial arm won’t help us solve these problems, it just adds to the confusion.
Copyright infringement is the least of Dotcom’s problems. We can watch Disney movies on utube.
It’s the racketeering aspect of the charges that are proving tricky. When he started paying money to those mainly teen boys that uploaded the most content onto Mega he committed a federal offence. It’s not Warner Bros after him anymore it’s the FBI. Those guys have a compelling paper trail, play a long game and seldom lose.
Key made his 0% tax havens legal.. and the EU were not happy, but hey he knows the Queen so that’s ok. One of China’s most wanted gambles 500 million at Sky City, but that’s ok too. Some kids upload some videos and 70 armed defenders at your door, Nice to see priorities are straight.
Campbell Live no longer either so between that and the Earthquake footage, justice seems a bit lacking.
It’s all about who you know (or pay) , these days.
Just quietly noting that the original comment suggests National should be hung up as guilty vandals and yet you guys (Solka and OAB) sling on the tired old boots to “go Ed” for suggesting a peoples court.
Oh, and look! Another sub thread of possibly worthwhile interaction trashed.
What’s “worthwhile interaction” about promoting show-trials? The idea is offensive and repugnant, and if enough people jumped on board, would start a civil war, which the proponents would lose.
It’s the same shitty rhetoric we see from the White House.
It’s like for some people history just doesn’t exist so they come up with the same stupid ideas that lead to the likes of Stalinism. These people are far more an enemy of democracy than the likes of Key.
I agree totally with you OAB (and Solka) re “worthwhile interactions” and promoting show trials – but the proponents of these here are just not worth giving any air to, OAB. They show themselves for what they are – and aren’t – as do their supporters and apologists. I know its hard (and as you well know I cannot help myself either from time to time!) but are they really worth raising your BP etc for? Nah.
Ed’s comment merely echoed one small snippet of that comment. And you decided to turn that into a big stick to beat him about the head with. No thought or consideration whatsoever for any possible interaction that might have flowed from the original comment. Just “get Ed”
I’m getting really tired of you trashing conversations on this site OAB. You don’t like what Ed says? Then stay away from him. It is not your role to decide who will and who will not comment on this site and it is not your role to police and harangue people.
If you really can’t understand that and persist, there’s a solution at hand.
As an aside. You do know that ordinary people administered courts of law in medieval times, and that they were very much not the “kangaroo” courts or platforms for “show trials” you imagine “people’s courts” to be?
I guess not. And that you don’t care. Because “get Ed”. Which I won’t be seeing thoughtless or knee-jerk instances of any more, right?
You do know that ordinary people administered courts of law in medieval times,
Would that be the same ‘courts’ that burnt witches?
But even if such a court were to work in a legal manner, what Ed is proposing would require a retrospective law to make what National MPs have done treason. That would totally fly in the face of the Principles of Natural Justice.
We have a thousand years of struggle to build up the common law that we all enjoy the freedom of. Ed would do away with all that on his whim.
Thanks Bill …. I meant hung up as examples of failure …. name and shame.
But I do think there could be charges brought … against ministers in particular …. eg a housing minister who deliberately makes decent housing harder for NZers to afford and get.
Or for Health ministers who deliberately run down our public health service and actually make our hospitals dangerous and unhealthy …
I’m not sure what their charter / contracts / obligations state …. but personal responsibility … by standing in front of a judge is the only thing I can think of which would have a big impact on their enacting blinkered ideological cluster fucks.
Breath test the buggers for booze as well … If your pissed at work, it should be one warning with offer of help for substance abuse …. Second time boot them out.
Reading Hansard convinced me Key was pissed in parliament a few times …. It’s when he got stupid and belligerent that gave his game away …. and that time when he couldn’t hammer a nail into soft pine.
Surely you remember Paula Bennett laughing about the Nats not collecting or collating poverty statistics Gosman ???
Thats what the worst sort of people do ….
A simple stat for a simple troll like yourself ….. Is home ownership rates declined …. for everyone but the top 10% …. what do you make of that Gosman ???.
I’ll drip feed you one item of their failure daily if you like.
For you I’ll try to concentrate on John Keys work …. there’s a lot of his rot to cut out …
… Well Gosman could you please explain Paula Bennett laughing in glee about not measuring poverty ….
Did she can it ????
Is she laughing because she has it and won’t release it ??
Does she find the fact that the hidden number of people living in sub standard housing or Garages .. or cars … a funny inside national joke ??.
Or is she just the worst sort of MP ….. stupid and malicious.
And She was a rabid pusher of the $50,000,000 ‘P contamination’ / evictions scam … as debunked by Massey University applied environmental chemist Dr Nick Kim
WTF is going on with our co-called “impartial” civil service?
We’ve had Iain Lees-Galloway being blindsided by racial profiling introduced under the previous government.
We have seen Shane Jones undermined by government officials who went out of their way to provide contradictory emails to the media.
We’ve got a National party crony in charge of RNZ in open rebellion against the new governments broadcasting policy.
We’ve had DHBs failing to disclose rotting building and run down infrastructure to the minister.
We’ve got officials delaying the release of a report to the minister that is critical of them and adding to the disaster of the mycoplasma bovis outbreak.
It seems the politically appointed National party cronies who make up the leadership of our so-called impartial civil service were donkey deep in collusion with the previous national government to delay, deny, and dissemble the gathering of information detailing the neglect and dysfunction of our state services.
A full clean out senior management in our civil service is now a requirement of any new incoming government.
Except if we are to believe the left’s narrative in relation to John Campbell his dismissal from TV3 came about as a result of pressure applied by business people behind the scenes. How will the leftist inspired purge be achieved without this path open to them?
The good ones sink and the bad ones float. Like wood.
“Ordeal by water was associated with the witch hunts of the 16th and 17th centuries: an accused who sank was considered innocent, while floating indicated witchcraft. Some argued that witches floated because they had renounced baptism when entering the Devil’s service”.
Whatever, good or bad, they were got rid of- aka “damned if you do and damned if you don’t.”
My reasoning was that relatively few rightwingers would prove lighter than ducks. The rest could not be burnt of course – they’ve contributed enough to global warming already – but might make a positive contribution to saving the Siberian tiger or the great white man-eating shark.
+1 Sanctuary – since Rogernomics the public system has been purged of anyone who does not agree with the strategy. And the civil service advice the governments and prepare the reports for government – it’s absolute bias.
Also how they get data is flawed. Take the census, someone was saying their partner who is Asian filled out the census, first they threw it out because it had to the occupier and they throw out all rubbish like that, then they wrote they were European, no job, no income and no assets. They live and control a multimillion dollar real estate portfolio in a trust (obviously not mentioned).
Essentially no answers will be coming out about what is truely happening in this country with the bureaucrats in charge because it seems to be collected by people who thinks everyone wants to give out their personal information, can understand the questions and will answer them honestly or correctly . Big assumption from the government and official yokels who lost control a while ago and don’t understand why nothing seems to be working any more when the data says it should.
Don’t worry about the Census.
I suspect they might have to do it all over again if they want to get any sensible numbers. Look for some quiet little retirements from Stats. The Minister should go too for allowing it to happen. Why didn’t he look after the only significant thing he was in charge of rather than having a jaunt to Paris?
I suspect they might have to do it all over again if they want to get any sensible numbers.
They won’t. If polls of a thousand are reasonably accurate then one with over 4 million in it will be more so.
The Minister should go too for allowing it to happen. Why didn’t he look after the only significant thing he was in charge of rather than having a jaunt to Paris?
I suspect that you’ll find that the planning for the census started a few years before the new minister got the job. This isn’t something you plan over night.
Of course the planning started years before hand. It appears that the main reason for the shambles is that they didn’t prepare for the huge number of people who either didn’t get a code number or who, if the did didn’t have access to or the ability to use a computer to answer the thing.
Advertising was also just about non-existent and it was well nigh impossible to get through to the people behind the system even if you knew the Census was on at all,
I know someone, now in her early eighties, who didn’t get a code and wasn’t even aware that the Census was on. Then, when she found out about it and did try and get a form she couldn’t find out how to contact them. I don’t think she has, or will, ever fill one out.
It was the advertising and organisation to get the forms and codes out that was lacking. There also hasn’t been any proper plan to do the follow up. Shaw should have questioned them on that. He didn’t, the Census is a mess.
You appear to think that a sample is sufficient. Are you aware that it is the Census data that sets the Electorate Boundaries, and enables the preparation of a Maori Seat Roll? Just how would a sample let you do that?
No, you can try and pin it on the previous Government. They weren’t there in the last four months when all the fine details on handling the probable shortfall in on-line data collection should have been sorted out.
Of course the planning started years before hand. It appears that the main reason for the shambles is that they didn’t prepare for the huge number of people who either didn’t get a code number or who, if the did didn’t have access to or the ability to use a computer to answer the thing.
Wrong.
As I said, I was on the Census Helpdesk so, yes, we did processes in place.
It was the advertising and organisation to get the forms and codes out that was lacking.
And how would you do any better?
The advertising was across social media, radio, TV and newspapers. If people aren’t looking at any of those then how do you suggest Stats to contact them, to inform them that a census is on?
There also hasn’t been any proper plan to do the follow up.
Wrong.
The census will be completed over several weeks as the follow up is done.
Just how would a sample let you do that?
It’s not a sample, it’s more than 90% of the population. Enough that algorithms can do the rest within reasonable margins of error.
No, you can try and pin it on the previous Government. They weren’t there in the last four months when all the fine details on handling the probable shortfall in on-line data collection should have been sorted out.
All the planning would have been done under the previous government. The new government wouldn’t have even had time to question what was already happening.
If you want to point fingers of blame then point them at National. Personally, I’d just put it down to inexperience in the new way, learn from the mistakes and do better next time.
You claim to be involved and therefore you should be able to answer this.
You state that
“The census will be completed over several weeks as the follow up is done”.
Right then.
It is now more than 4 weeks since Census day. After about 3 weeks there was a Press statement that 3.5 million people had been recorded I think it was 3.2 million on line and 300,000 forms.
We have had the several weeks which was supposed to complete it.
What is the current number? If less than “complete” when will it be complete?
I’m not going to blame you, if you were only on a Help-Desk. However it has still been a stuff-up and the people responsible should he held responsible.
Or is there no responsibility accepted by a Government and a Public Service?
Alwyn, in the last election about one million people did not vote. This is unacceptable and the people responsible should he held responsible. Who were responsible?
Yes, I know, Alwyn, voting is not compulsory in NZ but enrolling is and as at 31 March 2018 296,476 eligible people have/are not enrolled. This is unacceptable and the people responsible should he held responsible. Who are responsible?
Yawn.
If you can’t answer the question you just change the subject.
1. As you say voting is not compulsory in this country so your first question is totally irrelevant. Why on earth should it be “unacceptable” not to vote anyway. That is only your somewhat strange opinion.
2. Purely the people themselves. There aren’t any Public Servants charged with the duty of making sure that everyone is enrolled so it can only be the individual (prospective) voter.
Neither case is comparable to the Census where there are Public Servants, and a Minister, who ARE responsible for the counting of every person present in the country. If a reasonable percentage of the population (generally accepted as being about 98%) aren’t recorded they have failed.
I doubt if logic is going to have any effect on your opinions of course.
NZ is 90% Pakeha, we all live in a mansion with a conservatory apart from if you are a Pakeha renter and then your house is covered in more mould than the children ward at Middlemore.
All those workers living 10 people to a room will be actively filling in the forms. sarcasm – no doubt we will find out nothing to see here, we don’t have an out of control situation with our population growth, especially in Auckland.
That’s right, we should have storm troopers to go one house at a time and check on all this bogus information. Better still, randomly one house at a time with accountants in tow.
Yes because I was defiantly suggesting that. LOL. You have such an active imagination, Solkta but maybe put your suggestions under your own name instead of making up other peoples as your comment.
Also how they get data is flawed. Take the census, someone was saying their partner who is Asian filled out the census, first they threw it out because it had to the occupier and they throw out all rubbish like that, then they wrote they were European, no job, no income and no assets. They live and control a multimillion dollar real estate portfolio in a trust (obviously not mentioned).
Which is, of course, a crime.
Glad to see that you’re such an idiot as to support criminal actions – Just like National.
Essentially no answers will be coming out about what is truely happening in this country with the bureaucrats in charge because it seems to be collected by people who thinks everyone wants to give out their personal information, can understand the questions and will answer them honestly or correctly .
Most people will answer, will answer honestly and will understand the questions. The people who lie will most like be found out as they’ll be outliers and the algorithms will pick them up.
Big assumption from the government and official yokels who lost control a while ago and don’t understand why nothing seems to be working any more when the data says it should.
Well, we have people like you who support criminal actions about people lying on their census forms but the problem isn’t really the data. As I say, most people will answer honestly.
If you choose to round the number why don’t you do it honestly?
Either report it as 97.6% or round it honestly to 98%.
Willing to bet that, instead of being about the normal 98% it will be, after about 3 months from Census day, in the low 90’s? Say less that 93%?
And do you think they will ever announce it?
Of course they will announce the result of the post-enumeration survey. No, I don’t know what the result will be.
But I am pretty confident of two things: if the result were not announced, you lot would move heaven and earth to get it announced; and if the calculated undercount is below 2 or 3% you won’t be issuing an apology for your constant allegations that the entire thing has been a cockup.
But I guess that’s sort of fair, because if the undercount actually turns out to be significant I’d probably still think your wanking on the issue was more about your soulless desire to corrode and abrade the support of the government by any means necessary, rather than any desire you have for reliable statistical information about the population of NZ.
Wow. You certainly have a vivid imagination, don’t you?
Out of curiosity what would it take to get you to accept that Ardern is not the reincarnation of The Virgin Mary?
The so-called impartial public service hasn’t existed for decades if it ever did exist. As a former public servant I can attest to that. In 1990 I had a superior say to me… my lack of promotion was all my own fault because I joined the Labour Party in the 1970s. I was too cowered to respond. I wasn’t even a member of any political party at the time but that apparently counted for nothing.
The treatment of me still sticks in my throat but the bosses were able to get away with it because there was nowhere employees could go for help. The PSA was next to useless… but to be fair to them they were still emerging shell-shocked after years of abuse by Rob Muldoon. In fact he set the culture of bullying and abuse inside the public service by personal example.
The flood gates of politicisation of the public service was made easy by the creation of SOEs and corporations which began in the 1980s and continues to this day.
This new government has an opportunity to clean it out once and for all.
Good summary, Anne. It was certainly my experience that since the mid 1980s there has a major change with the “corporatisation” of the public service with the private sector as the model and the loss of understanding that the public service is, and should be, a very different beast as its goals are/should be very different.
But re your comment as to whether an impartial public service ever did exist, I also grew up as the daughter of a long serving public servant (in sensitive areas) and was well drilled in the ethics of the impartial and confidential public servant well before reaching adulthood due to the nature of my father’s work, overseas postings etc; and I do think that a much more impartial public service did exist prior to the 1980’s.
By that I mean politically impartial. There were certainly a lot of ‘partiality’ in respect of gender, race, religion, including protestant/catholic etc and other forms of inequality, and sometimes this varied from department to department. (Alcoholism also seem rife at the very top levels of the PS when I first started work in the early 1970s – but that is a whole different subject!)
My perceptions over the years was that the politicization of the PS was much more evident and progressive during National governments than Labour ones, with National governments/MPs much less willing to trust or respect public servants and their advice. English was an example of this.
But how you clean this out and turn around this behemoth in a short period of time is mind blowing – requiring a lot of shifting of mindsets as well as people and practices.
The only good thing is that my impressions/experience was also that some Nat people in high level PS positions were good at reading the wind and tended to remove themselves quietly to positions in the private sector or overseas etc when Labour govts came in. LOL.
Hello @ Sanctuary, AND @ SaveNZ and @Anne (below), and probably a few others. YES @ Anne, this cronyism, or whatever you want to call it has been going on for years, and as I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I think I recall you having had an employment dispute of some sort in the past.
The big difference is that in those ‘olden days’ there was actually a lot more accountability – such that if a senior PS had majorly fucked up, they’d have the good grace to resign (or agree to a Peter Principle shunt sideways)
Now, not only can they fuckup, but they don’t actually fear any sort of admonishment, and nor do they have any sort of sanction. They are corporate ‘masters of the Universe. They can even leave with a big severance payout – that is of course, unless they end up at Madge’s pleasure and they get bitten by karma.
In this latest case …. probably seen as some sort of ‘incident’, it is quite unbelievable that a senior PS thought it OK to begin such a data mining programme without consulting his Minister (and YES ….. ‘his’), then failed to see it as relevant in Ministerial Briefing to his Minister in the incoming government, THEN to drip feed the details of its use and extent.
I’m currently reading through the briefing to the ‘incoming Minister for Immigration’
(and as a former PS, I can gloss over the wesel words and spin, and the Sir Humphrey shit). I hope Iain Lees-Galloway is equally as equipped – especially after having been told of his knowledge of the horrific stories he was aware of and which he conveyed to a close relative at that little Martinborough post-election soiree)
I’m halfway through it, and sure as shit, I hope I L-G has the nouse to ask ‘his officials’ certain questions in some detail.
And I wonder what tomorrow might bring. Initially this demographic profiling was innocuous enough (apparently), and only a ‘pilot’ or test. Then we learn it has actually already been used to round up people to deport (which kind of fits with certain raids I’m aware of, and the agencies involved, and the methods used. It also fits with the idea that certain ethnic groups felt they were being targeted).
The briefing ALSO tells the incoming Minister of the M5 data sharing (Australia, Canada, UK, US, NZ).
WHO has this ‘test/pilot’ data been shared with?,
AND what other purpose has this data been used for?
Has it already been used as the basis for processing VISA applications? because IF it has, that could (POSSIBLY) explain some of the Ministry’s determinations.
(otherwise some of those determinations would have to be put down to the use of inexperienced contractors, staff biases, nudge nudges and wink winks, or just general incompetence).
This is basically because basically FB et al operate outside NZ legal jurisdiction. They could intervene in elections and politics in ways illegal here, but which our laws cannot touch.
What we have here is the poisoning of electoral democracy on an industrial scale.
So, could this happen here? Absolutely it could. Facebook is our most popular online destination after Google Search. Over two million New Zealanders check Facebook daily and its attractiveness for advertisers is growing rapidly.
Under MMP our small voting public effectively constitutes a single manipulable seat. The psychographic dispositions of swing voters could be identified , targeted and manipulated without difficulty.
This is an area that fascinates me Carolyn, it lends itself to ‘What if’s’
I can’t decide where I stand with the essence of it. On one hand it’s merely the increasing sophistication of marketing and on the other…I keep thinking there’s someone standing behind me.
Marketers can zero in on the individual like never before. How far will it go? Could I have 4 new fridges on my Trademe watchlist and get an out of the blue call from a sweet talking white-goods salesperson at Harvey Leemings? Before ringing they would know what I’m after, how much I want to pay etc.
With politics, The question is becoming: Do we allow election campaigners access to all of the marketing options available to the open market?
I think it will require some sort of legislation to rein it in at some stage. Nearly all of us leave an electronic footprint that says heaps about who we are, what we like, what we are for and against.
Just as an algorithm could create the ‘Buy this X’ ad most likely to prompt me into action a similar system could produce the ‘Vote for Joe’ ad to present to me that has the best chance of working. I might be the only person that sees the exact ad as made to target my personal sentiments…. Few ads would headline with ‘Faults and all, Joe’s a good bastard most of the time.’
Manipulation, yeah, that’s always been the job of marketing. The VW Beetle only got traction in the US when some Madison Ave creatives sold it to them. Manipulated Americans into the ugly little German car in their millions.
On the current trajectory I think at some point persuasion will become creepy stalking. We’ll need to decide where we want those lines drawn. A moral dilemma. Sometimes it’s best to leave the technology on the shelf. We have the where-with-all to create gene perfect clones but I wouldn’t wish 2 of me upon you Draco.
That US Beetle advertising campaign is sector folklore.
The persuasion potential of a simple idea. I thought this ad from the campaign was genius. A solution for those many Americans in the early 60’s that had to cope with a bit of snow but didn’t want one of the dog to drive SUVs of the era.
That’s a good sign. How we change is going to be important and it shouldn’t be left up to those captains of whatever. We need to be ready to have influence in what change we do.
or maybe a not so good sign….if even the bankers can see the future problems and are publicly speaking about them what does that say about their confidence in the public and political response?
You need a comparison about how much oil is being used against how much is being discovered.
But to eliminate Peak Oil we need to be discovering, and bringing on line, 100m barrels per day. That is not what is happening:
New discoveries have fallen every year since 2014, when oversupply triggered an oil crash that cut its price by more than half. The plunge forced many upstream oil producers to reduce their spending, and helps explain why discoveries are also down.
But that’s not the only reason: explorers are finding less oil resources per field, according to Rystad. An average offshore discovery held about 100 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe) in 2017, down from 150 million boe in 2012.
The last time oil and gas companies added to their reserves by as much as they were producing was in 2006, when the so-called reserve replacement ratio reached 100%. It was down to 50% in 2012, and 11% in 2017.
As per normal for a RWNJ – your ignorance comes through loud and clear.
BTW: We’re presently using 100 million barrels per day. That means that that field, if it could supply 100m barrels per day, would last 800 days – a little over two years.
They adjusted their timeframes esp once they understood that Climate Change was happening much sooner than expected.
But I think what you mean is to do is push the silly notion that Peak Oil is about running out of oil. It’s not, and I’m fairly certain you know this (have had it explained to you before).
Also shale oil is technically difficult to get out of the ground and expensive, i.e drilling horizontally. That cost will be passed on. If this new oil field was valuable it would have been found decades ago because it would of been cheap and easy to get at and therefore lots of profit in it. The fact global oil finds are reducing year on year is not a good sign for the industry. Of course we should expect that the announcement of finding a large amount of dregs gets the media all excited though. It means they can tell the world nothing is changing.
We have more than a death a week on Waikato roads. It is therefore not a coincidence that this accident happened in the same week that the government announced it would divert funds from fixing these killer roads, to creating a 20th century tram system in Auckland.
Yep – and a central concrete median between the two lanes will prevent that driver error causing a head on crash and the the death of someone driving in the opposite direction.
You should come aboard the rail in Waikato as a train track was engineered through your patch just to take the freight so think about that now that the “National Party hidden rail study “The Value of rail in NZ” – by Ernest Young for NZTA/Kiwirail.
This was hidden by National for 18 months and now discovered by Labour, and has proven rail is viable and saves us $1.3 billion each year so look at the document and get wise.
The vast majority ofNZ drivers cannot be trusted with good judgment on our highways, they are like children and need to be looked after and guided, like fencing off pools. Our highways should be separated by barriers the length and breath of the country. We have no patience and are like children and do things before thinking. Our drivers display a lack of courtesy, tail gate aggressively and are menacing. Its like the wild west when you get out on the roads.
Sheer volume of traffic everywhere in the past 10 years means that there is a huge chance of you having a head on anywhere when overtaking. Many times we see traffic crashes in the media and yellow lines are right there – its self explanatory we cannot be trusted to be considerate drivers.
As for the expressway I do not think it is a white elephant, at least people can now travel that road where it has barriers and know they won’t end up in the Waikato River or under a car or truck. It used to be terrible and many times we would divert and go through Ohinewai on our way to Hawkes Bay to avoid the busy road – the Government should finish the highway – it will save lives.
Speak for yourself whispering Kate.
How many kms do you do on the open road?
We need less armchair traffic cops, better roads, less heavy freight on roads and better control of tourist drivers in the south.
Most of the country isn’t downtown Auckland BTW.
I travel enough to know that I witness many countless stupid idiots who endanger people’s lives and to me they many times look like local people, in utes, SUV’s, tradie vans, all hogging the roads and making life a misery for drivers who drive defensively. And, by the way I am no slow coach on the road but I know to keep on my side of the road and not up the backside of the driver in front of me. Bye the way I also drive to the conditions, it beggars belief in foul wet weather how some road users drive so recklessly. Selfish buggers that’s what they are.
Drive in some provincial towns in NZ and you take your life in your own hands, there but for the grace of God sometimes as you drive through them – don’t always blame Auckland – you obviously think you are a good driver, well you can think it.
Actually WK and Carolyn below there is a minority of dangerous drivers on the road but a majority of selfish drivers.
Interesting that it is YOU who claimed to be the good driver and everyone else were children, arrogant, ignorant or bullies to be told what to do- you entirely sum up the arrogance of a number of kiwi drivers.
🙂
We should not have to give over the roads to the bullies, and the arrogant who over estimate their driving skills.
I do more Ks on the open road than I do in Auckland. Most drivers are courteous. Most drivers do above the speed limit. That makes it hard when I’m in a work car with GPS tracking. I try to stick to the speed limit, but the pressure is always to go a lot faster. Whatever the limit, there’s always those who do much faster.
And, as WK says, many drivers don’t drive to the conditions.
It is not necessary to speed everywhere. It’s as much an addiction as a need.
The question is not Auckland’s “poor” be stung by the fuel taxes, it is the poor being stung by sitting in worsening traffic (burning more fuel) by inaction and thumb twiddling as National would like us to do and have done since the 60s
Ultimately, the change in accessibility caused by the CRL appears to be positively correlated with prevailing socioeconomic deprivation, with a statistically significant effect across a range of travel-time values. It seems clear the accessibility benefits of the CRL are distributed in such a way that they favour the less well-off.
Well designed public transport is better for those less well off than cars.
But that should be expected as it has far better economies of scale.
As it is 3pm on Friday, the sun is shining, its not raining or cold, and we all need a uplifting, heartwarming interlude from time to time, here is a wonderful short conversation between John Campbell and Sophie Pascoe’s Nana recorded on Wednesday before Sophie carried the NZ flag and led the NZ team into the Commonwealth Games.
Nana was the best in keeping Sophie’s big secret! If you haven’t heard this, you must!
@VV… yes we do. Have look at 4.5 (above tho’)
Even though there’s a panel to the right … it’s often the case that people debating each other miss responses if they’re not around in the same time bracket …. and in your case I missed including you entirely.
It relates to your observations re the current state of the PS initiated by @ Sanctuary
(just like the 4th E, a bloody sorry state at that)
Is Richard a man of honour or just waiting for the right moment?
RNZ board chairman Richard Griffin says he’s “not interested” in releasing a voicemail broadcasting minister Clare Curran left on his phone, despite MPs formally requesting it.
The voicemail, left last Thursday by the embattled minister, was the latest piece of evidence in the evolving saga which had seen Carol Hirschfeld resign as the broadcaster’s head of content and Curran apologise to the prime minister.
It was formally requested by a select committee, who could ask the Speaker to legally demand it if they were refused. …..
…Griffin wouldn’t comment on whether or not the message was deleted, saying that was immaterial. It’s understood that the message had been deleted and there was now work underway to recover it.
…I think the issue has come to an end as far as I’m concerned,” he said.
“It’s my recording and I’m not too interested in handing it over. I’m not too interested in this continuing and it’s become a farce.
“I really find the whole thing quite distressful.”
Hello ianmac, I was about to link to the same item. Interesting isn’t it. My reaction: he doesn’t want anyone to hear it because it’s not as cut and dried as he claimed yesterday. In other words, the language and tone suggest the message could be interpreted both ways – his way or Clare Curran’s way.
On the other hand Griffin comes across to me as a good actor. He is capable of working the story for all its worth until finally capitulating… then sitting back and watching the fallout.
No doubt he will coordinate with Miss Lee to time a release if it will damage Curran. or never release it if it is innocent but thus leaving a poisonous doubt.
Or he might be an honest man who as he says, he is fed up with the “farce.” Hope he is.
Yes ianmac. I agree it could be the latter. He’s been around the traps for many years and has seen this sort of crap time and again. It’s possible he’s telling the truth when he says he’s fed up with the farce because “farce” it certainly is.
It beggars belief that the MSM in all its guises should spend so much time on the prattlings of a couple of Nat yuppies… I refer to Simon Bridges and Melissa Lee.
Sorry, from my knowledge and firsthand experience of Griff, he will be loving what is happening. It is the going out with a bang that he was hoping for. He loves the limelight and controversy. He may be calling it a farce, but he is usually the one who has instigated this type of crap, and will play it for all it is worth, as you suggested earlier. Curran being away allows him to drag the voicemail element out, leaving people in suspense. It remains to be seen whether or not,he does or does not release it. IMO I don’t think he will really care whether he wins or loses. It is the game, the theatre, being in the limelight for probably the last time that counts, no matter what he says about farces, being fed up etc. He has used that line before.
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It’s becoming a classic case study for why lobbying deals with politicians need greater scrutiny. Former National Minister Steven Joyce runs a lobbying company with a major client – the University of Waikato. The University desperately wants $300m+ of taxpayer funding to establish a third medical school in New Zealand, ...
Time To Choose: Like it or not, the Kiwis are either going into AUKUS’s “Pillar 2” – or they are going to China.HAD ZHENG HE’S FLEET sailed east, not west, in the early Fifteenth Century, how different our world would be. There is little reason to suppose that the sea-going junks ...
Henry Ergas writes – When in Randall Jarrell’s Pictures from an Institution, a college president is accused of being a hypocrite, the novel’s narrator retorts that the description is grossly unfair. After all, the man is still far from the stage of moral development at which the charge ...
David Farrar writes – Radio NZ reports: The Education Review Office says too many new teachers feel poorly prepared for their jobs. In a report published on Monday, the review office said 60 percent of the principals it interviewed said their new teachers were not ready. ...
New Zealand’s economic performance and the PM’s vision Michael Reddell writes – When I wrote yesterday morning’s post, highlighting how poorly both New Zealand and its Anglo peer countries have been doing in respect of productivity in recent times (ie, in the case of New ...
Hi all,Firstly - thank you! You guys are awesome. The response I’ve received to last night’s mail has been quite overwhelming. It’s a ghastly day outside, but there are no clouds in here.In case you didn’t read my email and are wondering what on earth I’m talking about you can ...
If there was still any doubt as to who is actually running this government – and it isn’t the buffoon from Botany – then this week’s announcement of a huge spend up on charter schools has settled the matter. While jobs and public services continue to be cut in the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Gaye Taylor As widespread drought raises expectations for a repeat of last year’s ferocious wildfire season, response teams across Canada are grappling with the rapidly changing face of fire in a warming climate. No longer quenched by winter, nor quelled by the ...
Half of Christchurch City Holdings Ltd’s directors and its chair resigned en masse last night in protest at Christchurch City Council’s demand to front-load dividends File Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The chair of Christchurch City Council’s investment company and four of its independent directors resigned in protest last ...
The University of Waikato has reworded an advertisement that begins the tender process for its new $300 million-plus medical school even though the Government still needs to approve it. However, even the reworded ad contains an architect’s visualisations of what the school might look like. ACT leader David Seymour told ...
As a follow-up to the Rings of Power trailer discussion, I thought I needed to add something. There has been some online mockery about the use of the same actor for both the Halbrand and Annatar incarnations of Sauron. The reasoning is that Halbrand with a shave and a new ...
This isn’t quite as dramatic as the title might suggest. I’m not going anywhere, but there is something I wanted to talk to you about.Let’s start with a typical day.Most days I send out a newsletter in the morning. If I’ve written a lot the previous evening it might be ...
Buzz from the Beehive The promise of tax relief loomed large in his considerations when the PM delivered a pre-Budget speech to the Auckland Business Chamber. The job back in Wellington is getting government spending back under control, he said, bandying figures which show that in per capita terms, the ...
Yesterday de facto Prime Minister David Seymour announced that his glove puppet government would be re-introducing charter schools, throwing $150 million at his pet quacks, donors and cronies and introducing an entire new government agency to oversee them (the existing Education Review Office, which actually knows how to review schools, ...
Seeing that, in order to discredit the figures and achieve moral superiority while attempting to deflect attention away from the military assault on Rafa, Israel supporters in NZ have seized on reports that casualty numbers in Gaza may be inflated … Continue reading → ...
David Farrar writes – Newstalk ZB report: The man responsible for a horror hit and run in central Wellington last year was on a suspended licence and was so drunk he later asked police, “Did I kill someone?” Jason Tuitama injured two women when he ran a red ...
Muriel Newman writes – Former US President Ronald Reagan once said, “Freedom is a fragile thing and it’s never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by way of inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation.” The fight for ...
Why Courts should have said Waitangi Tribunal could not summons Karen Chhour Gary Judd writes – In the High Court, Justice Isacs declined to uphold the witness summons issued by the Waitangi Tribunal to compel Minister for Children, Karen Chhour, to appear before it to be ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The number of voices raising concerns about the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill is rapidly growing. This is especially apparent now that Parliament’s select committee is listening to submissions from the public to evaluate the proposed legislation. Twenty-seven thousand submissions have been made to Parliament ...
An average of 166 New Zealand citizens left the country every day during the March quarter, up 54% from a year ago.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The economy and housing market is sinking into a longer recession through the winter after a slump in business and consumer confidence in ...
The government has made it abundantly clear they’re addicted to the smell of new asphalt. On Tuesday they introduced a new term to the country’s roading lexicon, the Roads of Regional Significance (RoRS), a little brother for the Roads of National (Party) Significance (RoNS). Driving ahead with Roads of Regional ...
School is outAnd I walk the empty hallwaysI walk aloneAlone as alwaysThere's so many lucky penniesLying on the floorBut where the hell are all the lucky peopleI can't see them any moreYesterday morning, I’d just sent out my newsletter on Tama Potaka, and I was struggling to make the coffee. ...
Hi,I wanted to check in and ask how you’re doing.This is perhaps a selfish act, of attempting to find others feeling a similar way to me — that is to say, a little hopeless at the moment.Misery loves company, that sort of deal.Some context.I wish I could say I got ...
I have hitherto been fairly quiet on the new season of Rings of Power, on the basis that the underwhelming first season did not exactly build excitement – and the rumours were fairly daft. The only real thing of substance to come out has been that they have re-cast Adar ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
“The thing is,” Chris Luxon says, leaning forward to make his point, “this has always been my thing.”“This goes all the way back to the first multinational I worked for. I was saying exactly the same thing back then. The name of our business needs to be more clear; people ...
Buzz from the Beehive It’s been a momentous few days for Children’s Minister Karen Chhour. The Court of Appeal has overturned a High Court decision which blocked a summons order from the Waitangi Tribunal for her. And today she has announced the Government is putting children first by introducing to ...
In 2014 former Australian army lawyer David McBride leaked classified military documents about Australian war crimes to the ABC. Dubbed "The Afghan Files", the documents led to an explosive report on Australian war crimes, the disbanding of an entire SAS unit, and multiple ongoing prosecutions. The journalist who wrote the ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – According to the respected Pew Research Centre, “In seven of eight [European] countries surveyed, the most trusted news outlet asked about is the public news organization in each country”. For example, “in Sweden, an overwhelming majority (90%) say they trust the public broadcaster SVT”. ...
David Farrar writes – Kata MacNamara reports: Details of Tony Blakely’s involvement in the New Zealand Government’s response to the pandemic raise serious questions about the work of the Covid-19 Royal Commission of Inquiry over which he presides. It has long been clear that Blakely, a ...
Chris Trotter writes – Are you a Brahmin or a Merchant? Or, are you merely one of those whose lives are profoundly influenced by the decisions of Brahmins and Merchants? Those are the questions that are currently shaping the politics of New Zealand and the entire West. ...
RNZ reports – It’s supposed to be a haven of healing and spiritual awakening but residents of the Kawai Purapura community say they’ve been hurt and deceived. It’s the successor to the former Centrepoint commune, and has been on the bush block opposite Albany shopping centre since 2008. It ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. Usually we have a video chat to go with this wrap, but were unable to do one this week. We’ll be back next week.Several reports ...
The Transport Minister has set a hard 'fiscal envelope' of $6.54 billion for transport capital spending. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The economy is settling into a state of suspended animation as the Government’s funding freezes and job cuts chill confidence and combine with stubbornly high interest rates to ...
To be precise, the term “anti- Zionism” refers to (a) criticism of the political movement that created a modern Jewish state on the historical land of Israel, and to (b)the subjugation of Palestinians by the Israeli state. By contrast, the term “anti-Semitism” means bigotry and racism directed at Jewish people, ...
This is a re-post from the Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler Because hurricanes are one of the big-ticket weather disasters that humanity has to face, climate misinformers spend a lot of effort muddying the waters on whether climate change is making hurricanes more damaging. With the official start to the hurricane ...
Yesterday the Mayor released what he calls his “plan to save public transport” which is part of his final proposal for the Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP). This comes following consultation on the draft version that occurred in March which showed, once again, that people want more done on transport, especially ...
And it's a pleasure that I have knownAnd it's a treasure that I have gainedAotearoa’s coalition government is fragile. It’s held together by the obsequious sycophancy of Christopher Luxon, who willingly contorts his party into the fringe positions of his junior coalition partners and is unwilling to contradict them. The ...
The Select Committee hearing submissions on the fast-track consenting legislation is starting to become a beat-up of regional councils. The inflexibility and slow workings of the Councils were prominent in two submissions yesterday. One, from the Coromandel Marine Farmers Association, simply said that the Waikato Regional Council’s planning decisions were ...
Back in April, the High Court surprised everyone by ruling that Ministers are above the law, at least as far as the Waitangi Tribunal is concerned. The reason for this ruling was "comity" - the idea that the different branches of government shouldn't interfere with each other's functions. Which makes ...
Buzz from the BeehiveTolling was mentioned when Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced the government was re-introducing the Roads of National Significance (RoNS) programme, with 15 “crucial” projects to support economic growth and regional development across New Zealand. All RoNS would be four-laned, grade-separated highways, and all funding, financing, and ...
or the past 14 years, ever since the Spanish government cheated on an autonomy deal, Catalonia has reliably given pro-independence parties a majority of seats in their regional parliament. But now that seems to be over. Catalans went to the polls yesterday, and stripped the Catalan parties of their majority. ...
David Farrar writes – Radio NZ report: Labour Party leader Chris Hipkins said the Electoral Commission should make sure the system ran smoothly and “taking away the right of thousands of people to vote” was not the answer. “Thousands of people enroled and voted on the day. If ...
Green Party co-leaders Marama Davidson and Chlöe Swarbrick have used their State of the Planet speeches to challenge the Government to prioritise people and planet over profit as the delivery of the Budget approaches. ...
The Government’s introduction of legislation that would enable landlords to end tenancies with no reason marks a dark day for the 1.4 million people who rent their home in Aotearoa. ...
The Minister for Mental Health has found the Suicide Prevention Office and mental health support for 111 calls slipping through his fingers, says Labour spokesperson for Mental Health Ingrid Leary. ...
Today’s justification from the Minister for Children for scrapping protections for our tamariki was either a case of ignorance or deliberate deception. ...
The Green Party says the Government’s misguided policy on gangs will fail, following the announcement of the establishment of a national gang unit and district gang disruption units to target gang activities. ...
“With Police pay negotiations still unresolved after six months in Government, Mark Mitchell has today rolled the Commissioner out for a rebrand of their approach to gang crime,” Labour police spokesperson Ginny Andersen said. ...
The Government bringing back 50 charter schools will not increase achievement and is a distraction from the core mission of the education system, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Te Pāti Māori is showing extreme concern over the Environment Select Committees adoption of a lucky dip draw to determine hearings for the Fast Track Approvals bill. Of the 27,000 submissions, 2,900 requested to present. All organisations will be heard; however, the remaining 2,350 submitters will be subject to a ...
Today New Zealand First will introduce a Member’s Bill that will protect women’s spaces. The ‘Fair Access to Bathrooms Bill’ will require, primarily in the interest and safety of women and girls, that all new non-domestic publicly accessible buildings provide separate, clearly demarcated, unisex and single sex bathrooms. This Bill ...
The Green Party is welcoming Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ continuation of Hon. James Shaw’s cross-party work on climate adaptation, now in the form of a Finance and Expenditure Committee Inquiry. ...
The National Government plans to cut 390 jobs at ACC, including roles in the areas of prevention of sexual violence, road safety and workplace safety. ...
The Government has been caught in opposition to evidence once again as it looks to usher in tried, tested and failed work seminar obligations for job-seeking beneficiaries. ...
The Green Party is welcoming the announcement by the Minister Responsible for RMA Reform Chris Bishop to approve most of the Wellington City Council’s District Plan recommendations. ...
David Seymour has failed to get the sweeping cuts he wanted to the free and healthy school lunch programme, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Hon Willie Jackson has been invited by the Oxford Union to debate the motion “This House Believes British Museums are not Very British’ on May 23rd. ...
Green Party MP Hūhana Lyndon says her Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill is an opportunity to right some past wrongs around the alienation of Māori land. ...
A senior, highly respected King’s Counsel with decades of experience in our law courts, Gary Judd KC, has filed a complaint about compulsory tikanga Māori studies for law students - highlighting the utter depths of absurdity this woke cultural madness has taken our society. The tikanga regulations will compel law ...
The Government needs to be clear with the people of the Nelson Marlborough region about the changes it is considering for the Nelson Hospital rebuild, Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced that the Government will make it easier for lines firms to take action to remove vegetation from obstructing local powerlines. The change will ensure greater security of electricity supply in local communities, particularly during severe weather events. “Trees or parts of trees falling on ...
Wairarapa Moana ki Pouakani were the top winners at this year’s Ahuwhenua Trophy awards recognising the best in Māori dairy farming. Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka announced the winners and congratulated runners-up, Whakatōhea Māori Trust Board, at an awards celebration also attended by Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Finance Minister ...
"On the 27th of March, I sought assurances from the Chief Executive, Department of Internal Affairs, that the Department’s correct processes and policies had been followed in regards to a passport application which received media attention,” says Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden. “I raised my concerns after being ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins has announced the appointment of three new District Court Judges, to replace Judges who have recently retired. Peter James Davey of Auckland has been appointed a District Court Judge with a jury jurisdiction to be based at Whangarei. Mr Davey initially started work as a law clerk/solicitor with ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour is calling on the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) to put ideology to the side and focus on students’ learning, in reaction to the union holding paid teacher meetings across New Zealand about charter schools. “The PPTA is disrupting schools up and down the ...
Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly today announced the appointment of Craig Stobo as the new chair of the Financial Markets Authority (FMA). Mr Stobo takes over from Mark Todd, whose term expired at the end of April. Mr Stobo’s appointment is for a five-year term. “The FMA plays ...
Surf Life Saving New Zealand and Coastguard New Zealand will continue to be able to keep people safe in, on, and around the water following a funding boost of $63.644 million over four years, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Associate Transport Minister Matt Doocey say. “Heading to the beach for ...
New Zealand and Tuvalu have reaffirmed their close relationship, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand is committed to working with Tuvalu on a shared vision of resilience, prosperity and security, in close concert with Australia,” says Mr Peters, who last visited Tuvalu in 2019. “It is my pleasure ...
New Zealand is gravely concerned about the situation in New Caledonia, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The escalating situation and violent protests in Nouméa are of serious concern across the Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “The immediate priority must be for all sides to take steps to de-escalate the ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon met today with Samoa’s O le Ao o le Malo, Afioga Tuimalealiifano Vaaletoa Sualauvi II, who is making a State Visit to New Zealand. “His Highness and I reflected on our two countries’ extensive community links, with Samoan–New Zealanders contributing to all areas of our national ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has announced that he has approved Waiheke Island ferry operator Island Direct to be eligible for SuperGold Card funding, paving the way for a commercial agreement to bring the operator into the scheme. “Island Direct started operating in November 2023, offering an additional option for people ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters today announced further sanctions on 28 individuals and 14 entities providing military and strategic support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “Russia is directly supported by its military-industrial complex in its illegal aggression against Ukraine, attacking its sovereignty and territorial integrity. New Zealand condemns all entities and ...
A year on from the tragedy at Loafers Lodge, the Government is working hard to improve building fire safety, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “I want to share my sincere condolences with the families and friends of the victims on the anniversary of the tragic fire at Loafers ...
Ka nui te mihi kia koutou. Kia ora and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you so much for having me here in the lead up to my Government’s first Budget. Before I get started can I acknowledge: Simon Bridges – Auckland Business Chamber CEO. Steve Jurkovich – Kiwibank CEO. Kids born ...
New Zealand and Vanuatu will enhance collaboration on issues of mutual interest, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “It is important to return to Port Vila this week with a broad, high-level political delegation which demonstrates our deep commitment to New Zealand’s relationship with Vanuatu,” Mr Peters says. “This ...
Minister for Land Information, Chris Penk will travel to Peru this week to represent New Zealand at a meeting of trade ministers from the Asia-Pacific region on behalf of Trade Minister Todd McClay. The annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Ministers Responsible for Trade meeting will be held on 17-18 May ...
Minister of Education Erica Stanford will head to the United Kingdom this week to participate in the 22nd Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers (CCEM) and the 2024 Education World Forum (EWF). “I am looking forward to sharing this Government’s education priorities, such as introducing a knowledge-rich curriculum, implementing an evidence-based ...
Minister of Education Erica Stanford has today thanked outgoing New Zealand Qualifications Authority Chair, Hon Tracey Martin. “Tracey Martin tendered her resignation late last month in order to take up a new role,” Ms Stanford says. Ms Martin will relinquish the role of Chair on 10 May and current Deputy ...
New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and President Emmanuel Macron of France today announced a new non-governmental organisation, the Christchurch Call Foundation, to coordinate the Christchurch Call’s work to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online. This change gives effect to the outcomes of the November 2023 Call Leaders’ Summit, ...
Distinguished public servant and former diplomat Sir Maarten Wevers will lead the independent review into the disability support services administered by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. The review was announced by Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston a fortnight ago to examine what could be done to strengthen the ...
Today’s announcement by Police Commissioner Andrew Coster of a National Gang Unit and district Gang Disruption Units will help deliver on the coalition Government’s pledge to restore law and order and crack down on criminal gangs, Police Minister Mark Mitchell says. “The National Gang Unit and Gang Disruption Units will ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today expressed regret at North Korea’s aggressive rhetoric towards New Zealand and its international partners. “New Zealand proudly stands with the international community in upholding the rules-based order through its monitoring and surveillance deployments, which it has been regularly doing alongside partners since 2018,” Mr ...
Air Vice-Marshal Tony Davies MNZM is the new Chief of Defence Force, Defence Minister Judith Collins announced today. The Chief of Defence Force commands the Navy, Army and Air Force and is the principal military advisor to the Defence Minister and other Ministers with relevant portfolio responsibilities in the defence ...
Legislation to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act has been introduced to Parliament. The Bill’s introduction reaffirms the Coalition Government’s commitment to the safety of children in care, says Minister for Children, Karen Chhour. “While section 7AA was introduced with good intentions, it creates a conflict for Oranga ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins will this week travel to the UK and Italy to meet with her defence counterparts, and to attend Battles of Cassino commemorations. “I am humbled to be able to represent the New Zealand Government in Italy at the commemorations for the 80th anniversary of what was ...
The upcoming Budget will include funding for up to 50 charter schools to help lift declining educational performance, Associate Education Minister David Seymour announced today. $153 million in new funding will be provided over four years to establish and operate up to 15 new charter schools and convert 35 state ...
“The results of the public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has now been received, with results indicating over 13,000 submissions were made from members of the public,” Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “We heard feedback about the extended lockdowns in ...
Foreign Minister, Defence Minister, other Members of Parliament Acting Chief of Defence Force, Secretary of Defence Distinguished Guests Defence and Diplomatic Colleagues Ladies and Gentlemen, Good afternoon, tēna koutou, apinun tru It’s a pleasure to be back in Port Moresby today, and to speak here at the Kumul Leadership ...
Health, infrastructure, renewable energy, and stability are among the themes of the current visit to Papua New Guinea by a New Zealand political delegation, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “Papua New Guinea carries serious weight in the Pacific, and New Zealand deeply values our relationship with it,” Mr Peters ...
The coalition Government is launching Roads of Regional Significance to sit alongside Roads of National Significance as part of its plan to deliver priority roading projects across the country, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The Roads of National Significance (RoNS) built by the previous National Government are some of New Zealand’s ...
A high-level New Zealand political delegation in Honiara today congratulated the new Government of Solomon Islands, led by Jeremiah Manele, on taking office. “We are privileged to meet the new Prime Minister and members of his Cabinet during his government’s first ten days in office,” Deputy Prime Minister and ...
New Zealand voted in favour of a resolution broadening Palestine’s participation at the United Nations General Assembly overnight, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The resolution enhances the rights of Palestine to participate in the work of the UN General Assembly while stopping short of admitting Palestine as a full ...
Introduction Good morning. It’s a great privilege to be here at the 2024 Infrastructure Symposium. I was extremely happy when the Prime Minister asked me to be his Minister for Infrastructure. It is one of the great barriers holding the New Zealand economy back from achieving its potential. Building high ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced the upcoming Budget will include new funding of $571 million for Defence Force pay and projects. “Our servicemen and women do New Zealand proud throughout the world and this funding will help ensure we retain their services and expertise as we navigate an increasingly ...
New Zealand’s ability to cope with climate change will be strengthened as part of the Government’s focus to build resilience as we rebuild the economy, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “An enduring and long-term approach is needed to provide New Zealanders and the economy with certainty as the climate ...
Jobseeker beneficiaries who have work obligations must now meet with MSD within two weeks of their benefit starting to determine their next step towards finding a job, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “A key part of the coalition Government’s plan to have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker ...
A new standalone Social Investment Agency will power-up the social investment approach, driving positive change for our most vulnerable New Zealanders, Social Investment Minister Nicola Willis says. “Despite the Government currently investing more than $70 billion every year into social services, we are not seeing the outcomes we want for ...
Check against delivery Good morning. It is a pleasure to be with you to outline the Coalition Government’s approach to our first Budget. Thank you Mark Skelly, President of the Hutt Valley Chamber of Commerce, together with your Board and team, for hosting me. I’d like to acknowledge His Worship ...
Your Excellency Ambassador Meredith, Members of the Diplomatic Corps and Ambassadors from European Union Member States, Ministerial colleagues, Members of Parliament, and other distinguished guests, Thank you everyone for joining us. Ladies and gentlemen - In diplomacy, we often speak of ‘close’ and ‘long-standing’ relations. ...
The Therapeutic Products Act (TPA) will be repealed this year so that a better regime can be put in place to provide New Zealanders safe and timely access to medicines, medical devices and health products, Associate Health Minister Casey Costello announced today. “The medicines and products we are talking about ...
On May 18, the Taiwanese community in Christchurch came together for the "Health for All, Taiwan Can Help" march, urging the World Health Organization (WHO) to grant Taiwan participation. ...
The instability comes as the party tries to refresh its brand after six years of being part of a right-wing, pro-imperialist government with both the Labour Party and, from 2017-2020, the far-right NZ First Party. ...
Based on the latest Treasury forecasts, New Zealand Government debt will tick above $90,000 per household for the first time ever at 10pm today, Sunday 19 May 2024. The Taxpayers’ Union is calling it “$90k Debt Day”. Commenting on this, Taxpayers’ ...
Arawata Shane Arawata Shane had wandered long In the wild tangled hills of the West Coast. He came to a stop on the mighty range And looked down at the wide river flats. He breathed in the clean air, And he took in the shadows playing across The face of ...
SPECIAL REPORT:Islands Business in Suva Today is the 24th anniversary of renegade and failed businessman George Speight’s coup in 2000 Fiji. The elected coalition government headed by Mahendra Chaudhry, the first and only Indo-Fijian prime minister of Fiji, was held hostage at gunpoint for 56 days in the country’s ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist and Kelvin Anthony, RNZ Pacific digital journalist Police have used tear gas and stun grenades on rioters at an airport near Nouméa as the chaos in New Caledonia stretched into its sixth day. Five people, including two police officers, have died and hundreds of ...
Asia Pacific ReportThe global human rights watchdog Amnesty International has called on France to not “misuse” a crackdown in the ongoing unrest in the non-self-governing French Pacific territory of Kanaky New Caledonia in the wake of a controversial vote by the French Parliament to adopt a bill changing the territory’s ...
A major provider of school lunches fears the government's new $3 limit for most students will see them eating more pre-packaged and processed food. ...
The star of Dark City: The Cleaner takes us through his life in TV, including the VHS revolution and the John Campbell impression that started it all. Best known for his comedic roles, Cohen Holloway says he struggled at times to maintain the stone cold facade of serial killer on ...
David Hill remembers an old friend, who you’ve probably never heard of. My friend Doug never travelled; he had little interest in the world beyond his own tiny rural town. I’ve rarely known anyone who radiated such contentment. Doug (I’ll call him that) died in March. You won’t know him. ...
Some of the earliest photos of life in Aotearoa are on display at Auckland Museum right now – but the identities of some of the people in them are a mystery.What was it like to be one of the first people in New Zealand to have their photo taken? ...
Since its founding almost a decade ago, Featherston Booktown has grown into one of the country’s most interesting and idiosyncratic literary events. Erin Banks reports from the audience. “Come in, have you had lunch? I’m about to make a cheese toastie.” Mary Biggs, operations manager of Featherston Booktown Karukatea Festival, ...
After 33 years abroad, Loveni Enari recently returned to Aotearoa and Samoa in what a friend joked was an “existential crisis”. He learnt and re-learnt so much about his family, friends and both countries. Almost as an afterthought, he got a Samoan tatau. This is his story. (Accompanying it are ...
Nearly 30 years ago, two people told me they’d killed a woman they knew. I thought the truth would come out, that others would tell it. In the end, I had to. The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.Fact: in 1995, Angela Blackmoore ...
Editor Madeleine Chapman looks back at the week and shines a light on some increasingly rare longform journalism. Mōrena and welcome to The Weekend where there will sadly be no aurora to see. After a busy week last week of short, sharp pieces, this week we swung the other way, ...
ANALYSIS:By David Robie, editor of Asia Pacific Report Jean-Marie Tjibaou, a revered Kanak visionary, was inspirational to indigenous Pacific political activists across Oceania, just like Tongan anthropologist and writer Epeli Hao’ofa was to cultural advocates. Tragically, he was assassinated in 1989 by an opponent within the independence movement during ...
Forget thin is in, apparently now bigger is better … or is it? After over a decade of body positivity, girls, teens and women are even more confused about what body positivity actually is. The movement began with women confronting unrealistic expectations of how their bodies should look. But sub-strands ...
Grace always sat at the bar at the back of The Cambridge, where she could watch who came in. A huge mirror ran the length of the pub, so you could sometimes watch people without them knowing. The mirror made the place seem a lot bigger than it really was. ...
MONDAY Sheriff Mark Mitchell rose at dawn. He had a long day’s ride ahead of him. He was headed for Waikeria. Waikeria! Even the name itself stirred his blood, and set root in his imagination. There was nothing and no one in Waikeria. But he would bend it to his ...
The first phase of the inquest into the death of Gore toddler Lachlan Jones finished this week, turning up plenty of revelations and few answers. But through all the confusion, heartbreak and antipathy on display, the simple fact at the heart of this case remains: if little Lachie’s body had ...
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Craig Murray reveals more as the lies about spies by bumbling Boris unfold.
Breaking news!
Its all over
Evidence found under the bench!
https://ic.pics.livejournal.com/a073irl/78622176/268527/268527_600.jpg
The Skripal affair:
I think its worth posting some paragraphs from the link Ed provided last night:
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2018/04/knobs-and-knockers/
We all need to take a damn good dose of scepticism! [My conclusion].
Craig Murray is a brave hero, just as Jon Stephenson is as he stands up to the lies by the establishment here about the murder of civilians in Afghanistan.
Their courage stands in stark contrast to the simpering sycophants Luke Soper, duplicity and the rest of the wretched crew.
Good grief!
Sad, eh.
People also need to know our ‘murder raid’, was just one of thousands of ‘night raids’ …. where Afghani civilians lives count for nothing.
The smear campaign against Jon Stephenson and Nicky Hagar appears like a well used script of warmongers, when this movie … primary about Afghan ‘night raids’ is viewed
What is the current government going to do about it?
Getting out of these illegal wars of false pretenses would be a good start Gosman …. there’s no guts in them .
Compensation for destroying homes and killing or injuring children and other civilians ….. would be a small measure of Justice.
Investigations ….. including Mark Mitchells war profiteering company….
….See if he has a hand in murder …. in the illegal violence and insecurity that his sort brought ….to the butchered and brutalized people of Iraq.
I presume you’d just like to carry on making money from others blood Gosman?….. or do you actually have any helpful suggestions ??
Yes Ed;
A senior scientist was also testifying on the media last night saying that type of nerve agent was quite simple to produce and could be done anywhere for $30 000 dollars if do it carefully with safeguards to avoid exposure while making the nerve agent.
Murray.
“This narrative simply is not remotely credible. Nerve agents – above all “military grade nerve agents” – were designed as battlefield weapons. They do not leave opponents fighting fit for hours. There is no description in the scientific literature of a nerve agent having this extraordinary time bomb effect. “
Game over bumbling Boris.
Craig Murray is a person whose views should be taken with a pinch of salt – his initial attack on Porton Down was rubbish.
I’d like you to be more specific. In all of Craig’s analysis of the SKripal affair, where do you think he’s made an unfounded assumption?
Personally, anything with a little green RT in the corner needs a pinch of salt….I don’t mean I anticipate lies. I put on my ‘So what are the Kremlin saying now’ glasses.
This story has mileage for a number of reasons, the slow recuperation of the victims is the least of them. The strongest motivating force is the potential for major changes in the narrative with just tiny tweaks of the sketchy evidence that’s in the public arena.
Personally I haven’t encountered anything that has changed my view, which is: The ex KGB officer Putin knows more than he is saying. Leopards/spots.
You may recall his column “Of a Type Developed by Liars”.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2018/03/of-a-type-developed-by-liars/
Evidently Murray would have preferred that they (Porton Down) had stated that it was of Russian origin, which is what they would have done had they actually been liars.
It’s safe to dismiss Murray as a thoroughly compromised propagandist.
“Evidently Murray would have preferred that they (Porton Down) had stated that it was of Russian origin, which is what they would have done had they actually been liars.”
And you know that’s what Craig Murray preferred? How do you know that?
You’ve missed the point he is making entirely.
I think you, with all due respect, don’t have the wit to understand what Craig Murray is implying.
Yes it’s true, one must be a halfwit to be persuaded by Murray.
Murray is calling a bunch of chemists liars because they made an appropriately truthful statement about their results.
They could not at that time determine the source of the agent. There are a number of reasons for that, possibly including access to representative samples of Russian Novichok stocks. The scientists concerned however mentioned that they had some hope of determining origin using less esoteric tracing procedures like pollen analysis.
Murray merely pointed to the fact that the Porton Down scientist had not identified the source of th nerve agent. this contradicted the May government hyperbole.
The issue is being polarised. We need a clear reporting of the evidence and to avoid getting sucked into bot the Putin/Kremlin or May/Tory opportunist hyperbole.
Of course Putin’s mob will pick up on Murray’s criticism. That doesn’t make him a Putin dupe.
And on the anti-Putin side, media are not giving Murray very much MSM space.
So the cold war style polarisation continues. I’d rather just wait for hard evidence.
Team May’s over blown anti-Russian rhetoric is starting to unravel somewhat.
If Murray is not a Putin dupe, one must question his determination to smear Porton Down.
Science doesn’t necessarily give the results a political situation would prefer – to identity the agent as part of the Novichok family but not attribute sources was entirely proper on the part of Porton Down.
I don’t believe the theory that Murray was a propagandist as we all saw the other side begin this fairy tale in the exact manner that professional Propagandists do and not the way murray did it.
Wake up Kiwis. This is the elitists now war-mongering for wanting to get russia destabilised so they can get their hands ion russia’s massive oil reserves as happened during the last war around 1942.
Probably this has been hatched at the ‘Bilderberg Group’ by their many ‘black ops’.
You’ll only find pollen on the means of delivery, the container if you like.
So far no one has a clue where or what that was
Any pollen at present will be thoroughly British pollen (wrong time of year incidentally) adhering to the sticky gel…well it must be damn sticky to have persevered after three weeks of rain and snow… on the Skripals door knob
Incidentally, I notice the garage of the Skripal house is attached, so entry from the house, obviating the need to go out the front door to access the car
Maybe the assassin was blindly following the dictates of Boris’s assassin handbook…how to apply poison to doorknobs…recently discovered at a garage sale no doubt
Mmm, I expect the scientists concerned would be able to sort representative pollen samples from Russia or England without enormous difficulty, depending on what material they have to test.
Let’s suppose for the moment an agent weaponized as a sticky gel on a door handle – it might indeed contain traces of a “Salisbury Series” of local pollens – but, depending on its conditions of manufacture, it might also contain a foreign series identifiable by experienced palynologists.
That’s about as far as we can go at this point – they haven’t asserted anything further yet.
Because Yulia has been traveling to Russia recently some articles in the Skripal household likely innocently contain a Russian series.
Stuart… on your assertion that Murray smears the Porton Down scientists, thats not true
He wrote that the Porton Down scientists were reluctant to declare the nerve agent was from Russia, and were resentful at having to compromise with “of a type developed by Russia” etc
No way is he calling them liars, he;’s calling Boris and Theresa liars
He is critical of the formula “of a type developed by Russia” which is true, and which the scientists will have had to insist on despite a May & Johnson preference that they “sex up the dossier” by making a direct attribution to Russia.
Craig’s position was that it was not the scientists insisting, as you say, on the formulation “of a type developed by Russia” but that that was a compromise insisted on by May, to bring in the word “Russia”
Its pretty clear that that phrase is a politicisation of the science, that the Porton Down scientists would rightly feel resentful of
Would you like to assert that Novichoks were not developed by Russia?
The following doco throws up the immediate question …. what the fuck were the brits doing testing Sarin / nerve gas on their own soldiers??.
even back in the 1950’s that’s seriously mucked up.
They did it IOT test anti-pen drug post attack, post attack drills, testing CBRN suits and decom drills. They also tested LSD etc on the troops as well back with some very interesting results and if you get to see any of the training films they were funny to watch, but bloody scary as well.
Did see one where they gave a cat some LSD and threw a mouse into the cage which made some interesting viewing.
The US and Soviet era CBRN films are quite shocking to watch especially when they let off a can of instant sunshine and the old Soviet ones were bloody awful to watch, but at were interesting to watch if you didn’t have big lunch.
A couple of NATO countries do still run a few CBRND cse’s, in a controlled environment where they use a Nerve argent so the students get to feel what the effects of Chemical attack/ post attack would be like also they conduct a full decom drill at an individual and at group level doing a vehicle.
I know a couple of people who have done theses cse’s and they found it to be one of the best post graduate cse’s they have ever done in their service career.
As you like, Stuart…
Do as you like…
If it makes you feel more comfortable about your position on this subject…
Your ‘initial view’ was, and is ‘rubbish’…taking sides is a recipe for a climb down…
No need to project on to others…yet again…
Oh please One Two – be a tragic Putin dupe on your own time – don’t flaunt your shame in public.
I’ve not taken a ‘side’ , Stuart…you have..and in no uncertain terms have stated it while rubbishing and insulting others…
The position which yourself and others here have taken…has now unravelled completely…
So not only are you ‘the dupe’…you don’t understand what projection is…
Have a good day…
Yes, yes, we’ve heard it all before.
You’re not fooling anyone except yourself.
Are you and oab attending the same master class?
Oh nooooossss
You’re one and the same!!
Does the tutor know?
Have you anything meaningful to add Brigid?
What an arrogant dupe you are Stuart
No need to snipe at those you don’t agree with!!!!.
Cleangreen
They post unsubstantiated nonsense with great frequency – One Two is a seething mass of personal attacks and claims to have a “superior imagination”.
I deal with facts.
The fact is that Putin is a cold war autocrat who would not hesitate to murder the Skripals for a moment. There are means, motive and opportunity. No other explanation is more than unsupported speculation at this time.
Most of the nonsense floated to confuse the case comes from Russian sources – the Putin dupes simply repeat the dezinformatsiya they have been provided.
Like the Stalin dupes two generations before they need to wake up to what it is they are defending.
Stuart, too much gabbing, the reply buttons gone
The Soviet Union had a novichok program, a pretty loose program exploring new groups of nerve agent
The facility at Uzbekistan was dismantled and removed by the Americans
The facility at Shikhany (in Russia )that UK intelligence now pinpoints as the source of THE novichok, was declared by the Russians to the OPCW and was gone over with a fine tooth comb by the OPCW.during its supervision of chemical weapon destruction finalised in 2017.
It is subject to monitoring
Under the CWC Russia has agreed to monitoring by the OPCW
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shikhany
Yes – I think we need to be slightly careful of assertions from retired chemical weapons specialists because they won’t be based on current analysis of what is available of the agent that affected the Skripals.
But, it’s not an awfully long bow to draw to suggest that some part of Shikhany stocks may have been abstracted by FSB or a related agency prior to the wind up of that operation. The quantity of material used in the Salisbury attack seems not to have been great.
Whether the agent in fact came from there, and whether that is provable are quite different propositions. It is likely that professional British comment on such matters will be sparse while the OPCW is investigating – there’s no surer way to turn investigators against oneself than trying to press them to replicate one’s own results.
Well if we’re going to be drawing long bows…a little like shoehorning our theories to fit our prejudices…
First of all, after the breakup of the Soviet Union was the time Russia’s facilities would have been least secure, but thats what 30 years ago?The samples would be degraded
Then, if later , the protocols at Shikhany were able to be breached by the FSB, why wouldn’t that be possible for M16 at Porton Down, or indeed, the CIA through the Pentagon shared research program at Porton Down
And then theres Israel, not signed up to the CWC, secretive and unmonitored,rumoured to have a huge chemical weapons program , and to have assassinated Arafat with polonium.
https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/whatkilledarafat/
Israel most definitely would like to kick Russia out of Syria , what with the lucrative Golan Heights deal going with Genie Energy..Rothschild, Cheney , Woolsey, Murdoch consortium.Woolsey is the CIA connection
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genie_Energy
I note that the British and US are now bringing Syria in to the mix, as evidence of Russia’s dastardliness and chemical weapons
.
It seems that once novichoks are weaponised, binary elements mixed and a suitable method of delivery devised, they can’t really be stockpiled, as they degrade quickly
Binary elements can be stockpiled, but if they were filched the thieves would have the vast problem of keeping themselves alive when attempting to produce the compound
If the precursors are common insecticides etc, what say the blood samples show broken down organophosphates like good old carbamate, every wasp killer’s friend?
Skripal thought he’d try it on the slugs?
And re: your previous question
The PD scientists could equally and truthfully have said “of a type produced by Iran” Maybe Theresa’s saving that for another day
No they couldn’t Francesca – Iran has not put it into production. Russia did, in defiance of their CWC agreements.
Someone has recreated it in a lab – not the same thing.
I disagree.
Murray is completely credible.
Do you think people presenting their opinions on RT do so with an underlying agenda? I think I’d be a mug to think otherwise.
No different to a British lab getting overly pointy finger but it’s silly to think that only some of those presenting opinions have a barrow to push.
I can not for the life of me think what Larry King’s agenda could be
Only to the credulous.
We all need to take a damn good dose of scepticism
I agree
And now Yulia is speaking and optimistic that all will be well
After all the dire predictions of being a vegetable. It seems there is even hope for the dad
the British newspapers are in damage control mode
Now there is talk of a Russian handbook for assassins on how to smear nerve agents on door handles!
I’m not joking, Boris has just rummaged around and found it
Beano comics anyone?
Same ‘producers’of the IsIs/AQ ‘handooks for terrorists’…
And the application forms for Al Qaeda found in Bin Ladens book shelf.
Who makes this stuff up ?
Quite likely the work dedicated teams of script writers..
That said, over many decades of overt western propaganda the level of it is so low it beggars belief…
The pristine undamaged passports found underneath the collapsed WTC buildings was a classic piece…
My apologies – looking at my post a good hour after submitting it, I realised I should have put the whole thing (except the first and last lines) in quotation marks.
My bad!
Duly tidied for the sake of clarification.
Assuming the weather report isn’t just another lie (oh look, noon seemed chilly but fine), the architectural features you’re thinking of are “eaves”.
Hang on, did Murray argue that a powder absorbed through the skin would be as instantaneously effective as a mist sprayed at someone’s face (like, where breathing happens)?
Totes legit lol
https://www.opcw.org/about-chemical-weapons/types-of-chemical-agent/nerve-agents/
At the risk of stating the bleeding obvious, but “20-30 minutes” and “may be rapid if the total dose of nerve agent is high” is a very different beast to Murray’s “instant acting”, no?
Not to mention that the initial symptoms include increased saliva and a runny nose. And if the “20-30 minutes” estimate is off by a factor of 6 simply because the substance or delivery method isn’t identical to, say, sarin, there’s absolutely no time problem at all.
I realised that the other thing that was pissing me off about the “instant death” theory was that it means that it was done in a british town centre (street cameras?) with people close enough on scene to clear airways before someone choked or suffocated, but delivery was specific enough that there were no traces airborne to affect the responders. So that theory also pretty much requires the first responders to be in on it and still decide to save the victims’ lives, as well as the police to be lying about where their officers were injured (for no reason whatsoever – why not just say the victims were poisoned in town, but there are no leads?). It’s bloody stupid.
3.3mm of rain on the day. Your weather report location is out by about 12 kilometres I think.
https://www.wunderground.com/personal-weather-station/dashboard?ID=IWILTSHI68#history/s20180304/e20180304/mdaily
‘Knobs and Knockers’ Should form the base of a post.
The government is now a proven liar.
As per Incognito’s comment at 2.4.1.1 below, absorption through the skin takes 20-30 minutes before symptoms start.
So much for Craig Murray. I wonder if the facts will even register with those who follow his pronouncements.
KISS … keep it simple smiley 🙂
Yes there are lots of ‘pile in’ attacks on the Labour led coalition by our partisan media….. some of it fed and lead by unethical Dirty politics embeds …. like attack politics specialists Farrar and Hooten.
Here’s the simple counter …
The simple fact /facts are NZ’s inequality widened … and hardship grew … the quickest in the western / developed world.
Particularly under Nation … We got worse the quickest … we were winning their race … to the bottom.
We have lead the world in getting worst the quickest … since the start of the neo -Lib rogernomics/ ruthenasia in the 1980’s…. we were quicker harder adopters than Aussies, Canadians etc.
The results …
To repeat our society got worst the quickest …
….with a slow down of the worst indicators and attacks on workers … when Helen Clarkes Labour coalition Government was in power.
But John Keys / Bill english;s government really were balls out … and ramped up pollution, homelessness, domestic violence, corruptions etc …. and we got worse the quickest in the world again.
Other countries should look to New Zealand when wanting to learn what to avoid ….
And New Zealand should be looking overseas to see which countries have the most successful ways of tackling the problems we are facing.
This should not be a left / right thing ,,, but evidence based policy of what actually works around the world …
National should be hung up as guilty vandals … for their part in creating and inflicting ‘worst practice’ … delivered upon New Zealanders with dishonest malice ….
Why would anyone take criticism seriously …. from the very people who made things the worst …. for everyone apart from the top 10% … water poisoning aside.
… 80% non-compliant and semi-legal seems to have been their moto for governing. And sir Johnny made-offs ‘creativity’ …. which got us a special mention in the Panama papers … or his guts … which got us a three year old dead Taliban girl.
But for the short KISS meme ….. New Zealands economic problems got worse in the developed world the quickest ….
And, we should be looking around the world for what works best for specific problems / areas … eg crime or housing as two examples
Finally, Heres a reminder of how far back Hootons been a dirty cock, ….and the false narrative attack politics that the Nats / media specialize in
,,,
The media have to lie.
Their owners would lose their control if people knew the truth.
I would actually put Key, English, Richardson, Douglas and a few others in front of a people’s court on the count of treason.
So would you change the law or just arbitrarily declare them guilty and ready for the gallows?
I would actually put Key, English, Richardson, Douglas and a few others in front of a people’s court…
This is after you’ve won the civil war you’re going to start, is it? Because that’s the only way you’re going to get a kangaroo court in New Zealand.
Roger Douglas is a definitely a traitor.
Funny, I’ve always thought of him as a jabbering dupe.
The two are not mutually exclusive.
Over the years of listening to Douglas i’ve come to the conclusion the guy is as thick as pigshit and as morally bereft and cunning as a starving rat. Thick because he clearly has only ever had one idea in his life, and the way he has fanatically clung to it indicates in my experience a limited imagination and intellect. Cunning and morally bereft because he set out to use the great institution of the welfare state, the Labour party, to destroy it’s legacy and he did so with no electoral mandate and no sense of guilt.
What original idea did he have? My understanding is that it was just neo-liberalism repackaged to look like something unique. Rogernomics in NZ; Thatcherism in UK; Reaganomics in USA.
Where did I use the word original? lol
Over the years of listening to Douglas i’ve come to the conclusion the guy is as thick as pigshit…
He was brainwashed by big business but thick? No he was not. I witnessed a scene many years ago where Douglas confounded all those present. Two former economists were attempting to solve a complex mathematical problem.They both proceeded to write down a long list of calculations and after 5 mins, they came up with the answer. Douglas happened along and he was asked to solve the same problem. He stood there thinking for a minute or so and came up with the correct answer. Everybody was gobsmacked.
He was at the least a mathematical genius, even if his adopted ideology was fatally flawed.
And yet we still follow his basic reforms to this day despite you thinking they were fatally flawed. By the way fatally flawed means we should be dead.
The Treasury Department calls it “morbidity with a social gradient”.
Nah, that’s just illness from black mould.
You’re thinking of “mortality with a social gradient”, and it’s a health term. Treasury refer to it as the “integrated, phased removal of non-productive economic units”.
…fatally flawed means we should be dead.
Fair point. I withdraw and apologise for the word “fatally”. 😕
Quite a literal chappie aren’t you gozza.
Kangaroo courts.. we already have them here… anyone who goes to court, gets arrested and is the wrong colour or class or gets the wrong lawyer, or puts in a complaint to the plethora of government commissions – knows that justice is two tier, and in the case of commissions it’s generally just a Kafka like exercise to keep people thinking for years that something might happen, justice might happen, democracy might happen until they realise that it’s just another way for government to pretend there is comeback in this country for injustice.
Because in general, nothing comes of all these commissions lasting for years and taking the injustice from the applicants even further by giving them hope and then it slowly sucking it away, while taking as much energy of the applicants as possible away with it.
Look at Pike River, it happened in 2010. Has justice been served yet? That is a big example, but our justice systems have stopped working a while ago because due to little and often not very public law changes over the years there is now huge power imbalance in this country to the people who live in this country.
A kangaroo court is defined as
Whatever the problems with the current set-up, which I note Andrew Little appears to be taking stock of, they’re nothing compared to the sort of show-trials being proposed here.
How Dot com was treated was a Kangaroo court style as the original charges of copywrite were not even a criminal charge, but held by official sanction. Maybe we have our own official versions..
Kiwiaroo court,
Kaftka, meets officialdom meets Kangaroo court (as in the outcomes are often predetermined in NZ before the evidence is produced and it’s become a meaningless process).
Hello. Earth to Savenz. The so-called “kangaroo” court has given him leave to sue the government and judged the initial assault illegal. The then attorney general has been ruled to have broken the law.
It’s quite likely that the long list of state misdemeanours will see him walk free in due course.
That’s the opposite of a kangaroo court.
The point is, that he should never have been charged in the first place. If Hollywood has a beef, they should have sued him themselves (and spent their time and money and liability on it).
70 armed defenders live to the US has the hallmarks of Kangaroo court.
And he’s only still here because he’s an incredible fighter and was able to make enough money to stall long enough to still be here in NZ after they removed his funds and stopped him even getting his own records held by government departments.
I don’t call that justice. And he’s still not a free man – years later. Destroying someones lives, kids, marriage for years, is not really what I consider justice.
Nor do I think Pike River families and dead received any justice either. There is a process of justice, but not justice in this country.
The judiciary didn’t deny him the right to see the files held about him – they upheld his right to access them.
https://thestandard.org.nz/finlayson-found-to-have-breached-dotcoms-rights/
weasel words… justice is not working in NZ and there are plenty of high profile examples to choose from Hager, to Dotcom to Bradbury to Pike River, even Phil Goff and the SIS.
If you excuse it, you enable it.
The Police are not the courts. The courts upheld Hager’s rights too.
These aren’t weasel words they’re facts. The Police and the government acted very badly in both cases, and were brought to heel by the justice system.
Are there big problems in the courts? Yes – mostly a consequence of “cost saving” measures by the previous government, but also institutional racism and as we’ve heard, rape culture.
Conflating the administrative arm with the judicial arm won’t help us solve these problems, it just adds to the confusion.
Copyright infringement is the least of Dotcom’s problems. We can watch Disney movies on utube.
It’s the racketeering aspect of the charges that are proving tricky. When he started paying money to those mainly teen boys that uploaded the most content onto Mega he committed a federal offence. It’s not Warner Bros after him anymore it’s the FBI. Those guys have a compelling paper trail, play a long game and seldom lose.
Key made his 0% tax havens legal.. and the EU were not happy, but hey he knows the Queen so that’s ok. One of China’s most wanted gambles 500 million at Sky City, but that’s ok too. Some kids upload some videos and 70 armed defenders at your door, Nice to see priorities are straight.
Campbell Live no longer either so between that and the Earthquake footage, justice seems a bit lacking.
It’s all about who you know (or pay) , these days.
Nope – US has no jurisdiction where he was doing it.
OAB,
Is this a joke ?we don’t think it is a laughing matter because we now are left with generations of harm coming to visit our doors and yours OAB.
Yes, Ed’s ranting rhetoric is a joke.
Beating people up for their opinions is a joke.
You just beat me up for my opinion of Ed’s rhetoric.
Yes Ed
We do need to jail them because of the crimes they willfully committed against us all and the harm they have placed on us all.
I have had enough of their lies and deceit.
Damn national to the dustbin of evil.
Just quietly noting that the original comment suggests National should be hung up as guilty vandals and yet you guys (Solka and OAB) sling on the tired old boots to “go Ed” for suggesting a peoples court.
Oh, and look! Another sub thread of possibly worthwhile interaction trashed.
What’s “worthwhile interaction” about promoting show-trials? The idea is offensive and repugnant, and if enough people jumped on board, would start a civil war, which the proponents would lose.
It’s the same shitty rhetoric we see from the White House.
It’s like for some people history just doesn’t exist so they come up with the same stupid ideas that lead to the likes of Stalinism. These people are far more an enemy of democracy than the likes of Key.
I agree totally with you OAB (and Solka) re “worthwhile interactions” and promoting show trials – but the proponents of these here are just not worth giving any air to, OAB. They show themselves for what they are – and aren’t – as do their supporters and apologists. I know its hard (and as you well know I cannot help myself either from time to time!) but are they really worth raising your BP etc for? Nah.
National are the sweetest smelling army of democracy are they now?
“Tommy rot” our forefathers would’ve said at this line of facility.
National left us all stone broke, and now leaving us with two generations burdened will now slave to pay back our debts.
So we have been delivered into servitude and economic slavery by your depicted heros such as Key ilk.
Did you even read the comment from”Reason”?
Ed’s comment merely echoed one small snippet of that comment. And you decided to turn that into a big stick to beat him about the head with. No thought or consideration whatsoever for any possible interaction that might have flowed from the original comment. Just “get Ed”
I’m getting really tired of you trashing conversations on this site OAB. You don’t like what Ed says? Then stay away from him. It is not your role to decide who will and who will not comment on this site and it is not your role to police and harangue people.
If you really can’t understand that and persist, there’s a solution at hand.
As an aside. You do know that ordinary people administered courts of law in medieval times, and that they were very much not the “kangaroo” courts or platforms for “show trials” you imagine “people’s courts” to be?
I guess not. And that you don’t care. Because “get Ed”. Which I won’t be seeing thoughtless or knee-jerk instances of any more, right?
You do know that ordinary people administered courts of law in medieval times,
Would that be the same ‘courts’ that burnt witches?
But even if such a court were to work in a legal manner, what Ed is proposing would require a retrospective law to make what National MPs have done treason. That would totally fly in the face of the Principles of Natural Justice.
We have a thousand years of struggle to build up the common law that we all enjoy the freedom of. Ed would do away with all that on his whim.
Would that be the same ‘courts’ that burnt witches?
No. Your away in the wrong time period.
The last time the term was used in Europe was somewhat more recently. Volksgericht, they were called, or perhaps народный суд.
+100
Thanks Bill …. I meant hung up as examples of failure …. name and shame.
But I do think there could be charges brought … against ministers in particular …. eg a housing minister who deliberately makes decent housing harder for NZers to afford and get.
Or for Health ministers who deliberately run down our public health service and actually make our hospitals dangerous and unhealthy …
I’m not sure what their charter / contracts / obligations state …. but personal responsibility … by standing in front of a judge is the only thing I can think of which would have a big impact on their enacting blinkered ideological cluster fucks.
Breath test the buggers for booze as well … If your pissed at work, it should be one warning with offer of help for substance abuse …. Second time boot them out.
Reading Hansard convinced me Key was pissed in parliament a few times …. It’s when he got stupid and belligerent that gave his game away …. and that time when he couldn’t hammer a nail into soft pine.
You just cant appeal to the narcissist, or expect them to stand back and view their behaviour; their ego is as delicate as cut glass.
They’re horrible people, but tragic.
National should be hung up as guilty vandals
I didn’t take this statement literally. Ed on the other hand clearly believes what he writes in favour of an authoritarian state.
“in favour of an authoritarian state”
You might like to take it up with Chris Trotter if Ed is too far beneath you
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2018/04/06/russia-an-alternative-view/
I gave up reading Trotter’s drivel years ago. Is he arguing in favour of a Stalinist state?
Nope, he’s arguing in favour of the Russian Federation. Francesca missed the point by a country mile.
Oh, that makes more sense. You never know with Trotter, he is one of those old and lost lefties.
I find him mercurial , but I have to say, I thought he made a lot of sense with that one
Bravo Chris!
What’s RNZ’s excuse then?
What was the change in inequality and poverty rates after 9 years of National?
Surely you remember Paula Bennett laughing about the Nats not collecting or collating poverty statistics Gosman ???
Thats what the worst sort of people do ….
A simple stat for a simple troll like yourself ….. Is home ownership rates declined …. for everyone but the top 10% …. what do you make of that Gosman ???.
I’ll drip feed you one item of their failure daily if you like.
For you I’ll try to concentrate on John Keys work …. there’s a lot of his rot to cut out …
The statistics you mention were never not collected.
… Well Gosman could you please explain Paula Bennett laughing in glee about not measuring poverty ….
Did she can it ????
Is she laughing because she has it and won’t release it ??
Does she find the fact that the hidden number of people living in sub standard housing or Garages .. or cars … a funny inside national joke ??.
Or is she just the worst sort of MP ….. stupid and malicious.
And She was a rabid pusher of the $50,000,000 ‘P contamination’ / evictions scam … as debunked by Massey University applied environmental chemist Dr Nick Kim
Jesus she was bad …..
WTF is going on with our co-called “impartial” civil service?
We’ve had Iain Lees-Galloway being blindsided by racial profiling introduced under the previous government.
We have seen Shane Jones undermined by government officials who went out of their way to provide contradictory emails to the media.
We’ve got a National party crony in charge of RNZ in open rebellion against the new governments broadcasting policy.
We’ve had DHBs failing to disclose rotting building and run down infrastructure to the minister.
We’ve got officials delaying the release of a report to the minister that is critical of them and adding to the disaster of the mycoplasma bovis outbreak.
It seems the politically appointed National party cronies who make up the leadership of our so-called impartial civil service were donkey deep in collusion with the previous national government to delay, deny, and dissemble the gathering of information detailing the neglect and dysfunction of our state services.
A full clean out senior management in our civil service is now a requirement of any new incoming government.
100% sanctuary.
Labour need to get real now as the civil service are now full of National sympathisers as national Party ‘sleeper cells’.
Nothing a good old fashioned left wing purge wouldn’t fix eh? 🙂
If it’s good enough for Key to purge Campbell it’s good enough for the Left to restore balance.
Except if we are to believe the left’s narrative in relation to John Campbell his dismissal from TV3 came about as a result of pressure applied by business people behind the scenes. How will the leftist inspired purge be achieved without this path open to them?
I like the witch’s trial myself.
Good rightwingers float: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3jt5ibfRzw
The other way round, Stuart Munro.
The good ones sink and the bad ones float. Like wood.
“Ordeal by water was associated with the witch hunts of the 16th and 17th centuries: an accused who sank was considered innocent, while floating indicated witchcraft. Some argued that witches floated because they had renounced baptism when entering the Devil’s service”.
Whatever, good or bad, they were got rid of- aka “damned if you do and damned if you don’t.”
Hmmm…
My reasoning was that relatively few rightwingers would prove lighter than ducks. The rest could not be burnt of course – they’ve contributed enough to global warming already – but might make a positive contribution to saving the Siberian tiger or the great white man-eating shark.
+1 Sanctuary – since Rogernomics the public system has been purged of anyone who does not agree with the strategy. And the civil service advice the governments and prepare the reports for government – it’s absolute bias.
Also how they get data is flawed. Take the census, someone was saying their partner who is Asian filled out the census, first they threw it out because it had to the occupier and they throw out all rubbish like that, then they wrote they were European, no job, no income and no assets. They live and control a multimillion dollar real estate portfolio in a trust (obviously not mentioned).
Essentially no answers will be coming out about what is truely happening in this country with the bureaucrats in charge because it seems to be collected by people who thinks everyone wants to give out their personal information, can understand the questions and will answer them honestly or correctly . Big assumption from the government and official yokels who lost control a while ago and don’t understand why nothing seems to be working any more when the data says it should.
Don’t worry about the Census.
I suspect they might have to do it all over again if they want to get any sensible numbers. Look for some quiet little retirements from Stats. The Minister should go too for allowing it to happen. Why didn’t he look after the only significant thing he was in charge of rather than having a jaunt to Paris?
They won’t. If polls of a thousand are reasonably accurate then one with over 4 million in it will be more so.
I suspect that you’ll find that the planning for the census started a few years before the new minister got the job. This isn’t something you plan over night.
I also suspect you knew that.
Of course the planning started years before hand. It appears that the main reason for the shambles is that they didn’t prepare for the huge number of people who either didn’t get a code number or who, if the did didn’t have access to or the ability to use a computer to answer the thing.
Advertising was also just about non-existent and it was well nigh impossible to get through to the people behind the system even if you knew the Census was on at all,
I know someone, now in her early eighties, who didn’t get a code and wasn’t even aware that the Census was on. Then, when she found out about it and did try and get a form she couldn’t find out how to contact them. I don’t think she has, or will, ever fill one out.
It was the advertising and organisation to get the forms and codes out that was lacking. There also hasn’t been any proper plan to do the follow up. Shaw should have questioned them on that. He didn’t, the Census is a mess.
You appear to think that a sample is sufficient. Are you aware that it is the Census data that sets the Electorate Boundaries, and enables the preparation of a Maori Seat Roll? Just how would a sample let you do that?
No, you can try and pin it on the previous Government. They weren’t there in the last four months when all the fine details on handling the probable shortfall in on-line data collection should have been sorted out.
Wrong.
As I said, I was on the Census Helpdesk so, yes, we did processes in place.
And how would you do any better?
The advertising was across social media, radio, TV and newspapers. If people aren’t looking at any of those then how do you suggest Stats to contact them, to inform them that a census is on?
Wrong.
The census will be completed over several weeks as the follow up is done.
It’s not a sample, it’s more than 90% of the population. Enough that algorithms can do the rest within reasonable margins of error.
All the planning would have been done under the previous government. The new government wouldn’t have even had time to question what was already happening.
If you want to point fingers of blame then point them at National. Personally, I’d just put it down to inexperience in the new way, learn from the mistakes and do better next time.
You claim to be involved and therefore you should be able to answer this.
You state that
“The census will be completed over several weeks as the follow up is done”.
Right then.
It is now more than 4 weeks since Census day. After about 3 weeks there was a Press statement that 3.5 million people had been recorded I think it was 3.2 million on line and 300,000 forms.
We have had the several weeks which was supposed to complete it.
What is the current number? If less than “complete” when will it be complete?
I’m not going to blame you, if you were only on a Help-Desk. However it has still been a stuff-up and the people responsible should he held responsible.
Or is there no responsibility accepted by a Government and a Public Service?
Alwyn, in the last election about one million people did not vote. This is unacceptable and the people responsible should he held responsible. Who were responsible?
Yes, I know, Alwyn, voting is not compulsory in NZ but enrolling is and as at 31 March 2018 296,476 eligible people have/are not enrolled. This is unacceptable and the people responsible should he held responsible. Who are responsible?
Surprise me, Alwyn.
Yawn.
If you can’t answer the question you just change the subject.
1. As you say voting is not compulsory in this country so your first question is totally irrelevant. Why on earth should it be “unacceptable” not to vote anyway. That is only your somewhat strange opinion.
2. Purely the people themselves. There aren’t any Public Servants charged with the duty of making sure that everyone is enrolled so it can only be the individual (prospective) voter.
Neither case is comparable to the Census where there are Public Servants, and a Minister, who ARE responsible for the counting of every person present in the country. If a reasonable percentage of the population (generally accepted as being about 98%) aren’t recorded they have failed.
I doubt if logic is going to have any effect on your opinions of course.
Nope, no surprise, none whatsoever 🙁
I’m just waiting for the new stats,
NZ is 90% Pakeha, we all live in a mansion with a conservatory apart from if you are a Pakeha renter and then your house is covered in more mould than the children ward at Middlemore.
All those workers living 10 people to a room will be actively filling in the forms. sarcasm – no doubt we will find out nothing to see here, we don’t have an out of control situation with our population growth, especially in Auckland.
That’s right, we should have storm troopers to go one house at a time and check on all this bogus information. Better still, randomly one house at a time with accountants in tow.
Yes because I was defiantly suggesting that. LOL. You have such an active imagination, Solkta but maybe put your suggestions under your own name instead of making up other peoples as your comment.
So what were you suggesting then? Or were you just having a whinge for the sake of it?
Which is, of course, a crime.
Glad to see that you’re such an idiot as to support criminal actions – Just like National.
Most people will answer, will answer honestly and will understand the questions. The people who lie will most like be found out as they’ll be outliers and the algorithms will pick them up.
Well, we have people like you who support criminal actions about people lying on their census forms but the problem isn’t really the data. As I say, most people will answer honestly.
The problem is the neo-liberal ideology.
Good luck their Draco!
If a person can’t read English do you really think they will be filling out the census accurately or at all?
Or if you are displaced they will get everyone?
And how are those obstacles different from any census, ever?
Census coverages are never 100% perfect (97% in 2013). But they’re the best idea anyone’s come up with to describing a population and its needs.
If you choose to round the number why don’t you do it honestly?
Either report it as 97.6% or round it honestly to 98%.
Willing to bet that, instead of being about the normal 98% it will be, after about 3 months from Census day, in the low 90’s? Say less that 93%?
And do you think they will ever announce it?
Of course they will announce the result of the post-enumeration survey. No, I don’t know what the result will be.
But I am pretty confident of two things: if the result were not announced, you lot would move heaven and earth to get it announced; and if the calculated undercount is below 2 or 3% you won’t be issuing an apology for your constant allegations that the entire thing has been a cockup.
But I guess that’s sort of fair, because if the undercount actually turns out to be significant I’d probably still think your wanking on the issue was more about your soulless desire to corrode and abrade the support of the government by any means necessary, rather than any desire you have for reliable statistical information about the population of NZ.
Wow. You certainly have a vivid imagination, don’t you?
Out of curiosity what would it take to get you to accept that Ardern is not the reincarnation of The Virgin Mary?
Wow. Not even my vivid imagination came up with that bullshit. I yield to the corrosive leech in the blue corner.
Yes I do because there’s help available them to do so.
They will get most people as McFlock points out.
Really, you just come across as an ignoramus trying to invent excuses as to this one won’t work.
The so-called impartial public service hasn’t existed for decades if it ever did exist. As a former public servant I can attest to that. In 1990 I had a superior say to me… my lack of promotion was all my own fault because I joined the Labour Party in the 1970s. I was too cowered to respond. I wasn’t even a member of any political party at the time but that apparently counted for nothing.
The treatment of me still sticks in my throat but the bosses were able to get away with it because there was nowhere employees could go for help. The PSA was next to useless… but to be fair to them they were still emerging shell-shocked after years of abuse by Rob Muldoon. In fact he set the culture of bullying and abuse inside the public service by personal example.
The flood gates of politicisation of the public service was made easy by the creation of SOEs and corporations which began in the 1980s and continues to this day.
This new government has an opportunity to clean it out once and for all.
Good summary, Anne. It was certainly my experience that since the mid 1980s there has a major change with the “corporatisation” of the public service with the private sector as the model and the loss of understanding that the public service is, and should be, a very different beast as its goals are/should be very different.
But re your comment as to whether an impartial public service ever did exist, I also grew up as the daughter of a long serving public servant (in sensitive areas) and was well drilled in the ethics of the impartial and confidential public servant well before reaching adulthood due to the nature of my father’s work, overseas postings etc; and I do think that a much more impartial public service did exist prior to the 1980’s.
By that I mean politically impartial. There were certainly a lot of ‘partiality’ in respect of gender, race, religion, including protestant/catholic etc and other forms of inequality, and sometimes this varied from department to department. (Alcoholism also seem rife at the very top levels of the PS when I first started work in the early 1970s – but that is a whole different subject!)
My perceptions over the years was that the politicization of the PS was much more evident and progressive during National governments than Labour ones, with National governments/MPs much less willing to trust or respect public servants and their advice. English was an example of this.
But how you clean this out and turn around this behemoth in a short period of time is mind blowing – requiring a lot of shifting of mindsets as well as people and practices.
The only good thing is that my impressions/experience was also that some Nat people in high level PS positions were good at reading the wind and tended to remove themselves quietly to positions in the private sector or overseas etc when Labour govts came in. LOL.
You mean the Public service is telling the truth while people like Shane Jones tells porkies.
How notable that the right is now the defender of the public service.
Well someone’s got to do it since Labour and NZ First have abandoned them.
And all the other wage earners.
Maybe National could remember them too.
Gosman you really are a classic aren’t you, – do you think National never told any lies then?
Hello @ Sanctuary, AND @ SaveNZ and @Anne (below), and probably a few others. YES @ Anne, this cronyism, or whatever you want to call it has been going on for years, and as I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I think I recall you having had an employment dispute of some sort in the past.
The big difference is that in those ‘olden days’ there was actually a lot more accountability – such that if a senior PS had majorly fucked up, they’d have the good grace to resign (or agree to a Peter Principle shunt sideways)
Now, not only can they fuckup, but they don’t actually fear any sort of admonishment, and nor do they have any sort of sanction. They are corporate ‘masters of the Universe. They can even leave with a big severance payout – that is of course, unless they end up at Madge’s pleasure and they get bitten by karma.
In this latest case …. probably seen as some sort of ‘incident’, it is quite unbelievable that a senior PS thought it OK to begin such a data mining programme without consulting his Minister (and YES ….. ‘his’), then failed to see it as relevant in Ministerial Briefing to his Minister in the incoming government, THEN to drip feed the details of its use and extent.
I’m currently reading through the briefing to the ‘incoming Minister for Immigration’
(and as a former PS, I can gloss over the wesel words and spin, and the Sir Humphrey shit). I hope Iain Lees-Galloway is equally as equipped – especially after having been told of his knowledge of the horrific stories he was aware of and which he conveyed to a close relative at that little Martinborough post-election soiree)
I’m halfway through it, and sure as shit, I hope I L-G has the nouse to ask ‘his officials’ certain questions in some detail.
And I wonder what tomorrow might bring. Initially this demographic profiling was innocuous enough (apparently), and only a ‘pilot’ or test. Then we learn it has actually already been used to round up people to deport (which kind of fits with certain raids I’m aware of, and the agencies involved, and the methods used. It also fits with the idea that certain ethnic groups felt they were being targeted).
The briefing ALSO tells the incoming Minister of the M5 data sharing (Australia, Canada, UK, US, NZ).
WHO has this ‘test/pilot’ data been shared with?,
AND what other purpose has this data been used for?
Has it already been used as the basis for processing VISA applications? because IF it has, that could (POSSIBLY) explain some of the Ministry’s determinations.
(otherwise some of those determinations would have to be put down to the use of inexperienced contractors, staff biases, nudge nudges and wink winks, or just general incompetence).
On the good news front.
https://libcom.org/news/oklahoma-kentucky-tens-thousands-strike-03042018
Seems that these women have had enough, then the Governor decided to call them teenages who just wanted a nicer car.
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/381781-oklahoma-teachers-jingle-keys-chant-wheres-my-car-at-governor
Wayne Hope’s posts over at the Daily Blog are always worth a read on media and comms matters. His latest argues that Cambridge Analytica-FB style manipulations undermine democracy and could happen here.
This is basically because basically FB et al operate outside NZ legal jurisdiction. They could intervene in elections and politics in ways illegal here, but which our laws cannot touch.
This is an area that fascinates me Carolyn, it lends itself to ‘What if’s’
I can’t decide where I stand with the essence of it. On one hand it’s merely the increasing sophistication of marketing and on the other…I keep thinking there’s someone standing behind me.
Marketers can zero in on the individual like never before. How far will it go? Could I have 4 new fridges on my Trademe watchlist and get an out of the blue call from a sweet talking white-goods salesperson at Harvey Leemings? Before ringing they would know what I’m after, how much I want to pay etc.
With politics, The question is becoming: Do we allow election campaigners access to all of the marketing options available to the open market?
Should we even allow marketers and advertisers access to all the tools presently available and soon to come?
They are, after all, nothing but pure manipulation.
Yes, manipulation Draco…or timely persuasion.
I think it will require some sort of legislation to rein it in at some stage. Nearly all of us leave an electronic footprint that says heaps about who we are, what we like, what we are for and against.
Just as an algorithm could create the ‘Buy this X’ ad most likely to prompt me into action a similar system could produce the ‘Vote for Joe’ ad to present to me that has the best chance of working. I might be the only person that sees the exact ad as made to target my personal sentiments…. Few ads would headline with ‘Faults and all, Joe’s a good bastard most of the time.’
Manipulation, yeah, that’s always been the job of marketing. The VW Beetle only got traction in the US when some Madison Ave creatives sold it to them. Manipulated Americans into the ugly little German car in their millions.
On the current trajectory I think at some point persuasion will become creepy stalking. We’ll need to decide where we want those lines drawn. A moral dilemma. Sometimes it’s best to leave the technology on the shelf. We have the where-with-all to create gene perfect clones but I wouldn’t wish 2 of me upon you Draco.
That US Beetle advertising campaign is sector folklore.
The persuasion potential of a simple idea. I thought this ad from the campaign was genius. A solution for those many Americans in the early 60’s that had to cope with a bit of snow but didn’t want one of the dog to drive SUVs of the era.
“Some businesses and households will hold the view that adapting industrial and social practices too suddenly will present a substantial risk.
I understand that thinking, but would argue that the greater risk – commercially, financially and certainly environmentally – lies in inaction.
Change is coming.”
https://www.interest.co.nz/opinion/93043/westpacs-karen-silk-argues-new-zealands-government-and-businesses-including
Not Labour, not the Greens or even Greenpeace…the banking industry!…that bastion of radicalism.
That’s a good sign. How we change is going to be important and it shouldn’t be left up to those captains of whatever. We need to be ready to have influence in what change we do.
or maybe a not so good sign….if even the bankers can see the future problems and are publicly speaking about them what does that say about their confidence in the public and political response?
What happened to the peak oil Casandra’s?
http://business.financialpost.com/commodities/energy/update-2-bahrain-says-new-discovery-contains-an-estimated-80-bln-barrels-of-tight-oil
Not that I’m suggesting they should be exploited (Climate change yadda yadda) but they could be.
This too
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6386964045249028096
Absolutely meaningless.
You need a comparison about how much oil is being used against how much is being discovered.
But to eliminate Peak Oil we need to be discovering, and bringing on line, 100m barrels per day. That is not what is happening:
As per normal for a RWNJ – your ignorance comes through loud and clear.
BTW: We’re presently using 100 million barrels per day. That means that that field, if it could supply 100m barrels per day, would last 800 days – a little over two years.
And it’s even more complicated: Why the Standard Model of Future Energy Supply Doesn’t Work
Yep, we’re still heading for collapse.
“What happened to the peak oil Casandra’s?”
They adjusted their timeframes esp once they understood that Climate Change was happening much sooner than expected.
But I think what you mean is to do is push the silly notion that Peak Oil is about running out of oil. It’s not, and I’m fairly certain you know this (have had it explained to you before).
Shale oil is crap anyway. This article gives an indication that the recoverable oil will only be in the region of 5%, so that’s 4 billion barrels.
https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2018/04/bahrain-has-its-largest-oil-and-gas-find-at-80-billion-barrels-of-shale-oil.html
Also shale oil is technically difficult to get out of the ground and expensive, i.e drilling horizontally. That cost will be passed on. If this new oil field was valuable it would have been found decades ago because it would of been cheap and easy to get at and therefore lots of profit in it. The fact global oil finds are reducing year on year is not a good sign for the industry. Of course we should expect that the announcement of finding a large amount of dregs gets the media all excited though. It means they can tell the world nothing is changing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Pie
I have to admit I do find his videos amusing, especially this one on the Gender Pay Gap
https://youtu.be/J7GWHgVZJQU
Some people have been calling the Waikato expressway a White Elephant.
The extension south has been cancelled by the new government.
In the same week that is cancelled this happens on that same stretch of road.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/102835511/Fatal-crash-closes-highway-at-Karapiro
Coincidence is not an argument.
The Waikato has the deadliest roads in the country by quite a margin.
https://www.nzta.govt.nz/resources/road-deaths/toll.html
We have more than a death a week on Waikato roads. It is therefore not a coincidence that this accident happened in the same week that the government announced it would divert funds from fixing these killer roads, to creating a 20th century tram system in Auckland.
Something like 95% of a car crash is due to driver error.
Yep – and a central concrete median between the two lanes will prevent that driver error causing a head on crash and the the death of someone driving in the opposite direction.
And a train would remove it altogether while being cheaper.
Agreed
No-one is proposing a train from Taupo to Auckland though.
They are just taking the funds that were allocated for that region and redirecting them to Auckland.
[Citation Needed]
Enough is enough,
You should come aboard the rail in Waikato as a train track was engineered through your patch just to take the freight so think about that now that the “National Party hidden rail study “The Value of rail in NZ” – by Ernest Young for NZTA/Kiwirail.
This was hidden by National for 18 months and now discovered by Labour, and has proven rail is viable and saves us $1.3 billion each year so look at the document and get wise.
http://www.kiwirail.co.nz/uploads/Publications/The%20Value%20of%20the%20Rail%20in%20New%20Zealand.pdf
Have some good reading.
The vast majority ofNZ drivers cannot be trusted with good judgment on our highways, they are like children and need to be looked after and guided, like fencing off pools. Our highways should be separated by barriers the length and breath of the country. We have no patience and are like children and do things before thinking. Our drivers display a lack of courtesy, tail gate aggressively and are menacing. Its like the wild west when you get out on the roads.
Sheer volume of traffic everywhere in the past 10 years means that there is a huge chance of you having a head on anywhere when overtaking. Many times we see traffic crashes in the media and yellow lines are right there – its self explanatory we cannot be trusted to be considerate drivers.
As for the expressway I do not think it is a white elephant, at least people can now travel that road where it has barriers and know they won’t end up in the Waikato River or under a car or truck. It used to be terrible and many times we would divert and go through Ohinewai on our way to Hawkes Bay to avoid the busy road – the Government should finish the highway – it will save lives.
Speak for yourself whispering Kate.
How many kms do you do on the open road?
We need less armchair traffic cops, better roads, less heavy freight on roads and better control of tourist drivers in the south.
Most of the country isn’t downtown Auckland BTW.
I travel enough to know that I witness many countless stupid idiots who endanger people’s lives and to me they many times look like local people, in utes, SUV’s, tradie vans, all hogging the roads and making life a misery for drivers who drive defensively. And, by the way I am no slow coach on the road but I know to keep on my side of the road and not up the backside of the driver in front of me. Bye the way I also drive to the conditions, it beggars belief in foul wet weather how some road users drive so recklessly. Selfish buggers that’s what they are.
Drive in some provincial towns in NZ and you take your life in your own hands, there but for the grace of God sometimes as you drive through them – don’t always blame Auckland – you obviously think you are a good driver, well you can think it.
Actually WK and Carolyn below there is a minority of dangerous drivers on the road but a majority of selfish drivers.
Interesting that it is YOU who claimed to be the good driver and everyone else were children, arrogant, ignorant or bullies to be told what to do- you entirely sum up the arrogance of a number of kiwi drivers.
🙂
We should not have to give over the roads to the bullies, and the arrogant who over estimate their driving skills.
I do more Ks on the open road than I do in Auckland. Most drivers are courteous. Most drivers do above the speed limit. That makes it hard when I’m in a work car with GPS tracking. I try to stick to the speed limit, but the pressure is always to go a lot faster. Whatever the limit, there’s always those who do much faster.
And, as WK says, many drivers don’t drive to the conditions.
It is not necessary to speed everywhere. It’s as much an addiction as a need.
From this thread:
That comment is based upon this research:
Well designed public transport is better for those less well off than cars.
But that should be expected as it has far better economies of scale.
As it is 3pm on Friday, the sun is shining, its not raining or cold, and we all need a uplifting, heartwarming interlude from time to time, here is a wonderful short conversation between John Campbell and Sophie Pascoe’s Nana recorded on Wednesday before Sophie carried the NZ flag and led the NZ team into the Commonwealth Games.
Nana was the best in keeping Sophie’s big secret! If you haven’t heard this, you must!
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018639046/sophie-pascoe-s-nana-kept-flag-bearer-secret
@VV… yes we do. Have look at 4.5 (above tho’)
Even though there’s a panel to the right … it’s often the case that people debating each other miss responses if they’re not around in the same time bracket …. and in your case I missed including you entirely.
It relates to your observations re the current state of the PS initiated by @ Sanctuary
(just like the 4th E, a bloody sorry state at that)
Is Richard a man of honour or just waiting for the right moment?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/102877903/rnz-chair-richard-griffin-not-interested-in-releasing-clare-curran-voicemail
Hello ianmac, I was about to link to the same item. Interesting isn’t it. My reaction: he doesn’t want anyone to hear it because it’s not as cut and dried as he claimed yesterday. In other words, the language and tone suggest the message could be interpreted both ways – his way or Clare Curran’s way.
On the other hand Griffin comes across to me as a good actor. He is capable of working the story for all its worth until finally capitulating… then sitting back and watching the fallout.
If I’m wrong I will happily apologise.
No doubt he will coordinate with Miss Lee to time a release if it will damage Curran. or never release it if it is innocent but thus leaving a poisonous doubt.
Or he might be an honest man who as he says, he is fed up with the “farce.” Hope he is.
Yes ianmac. I agree it could be the latter. He’s been around the traps for many years and has seen this sort of crap time and again. It’s possible he’s telling the truth when he says he’s fed up with the farce because “farce” it certainly is.
It beggars belief that the MSM in all its guises should spend so much time on the prattlings of a couple of Nat yuppies… I refer to Simon Bridges and Melissa Lee.
All the more reason for Curran NOT to have called in the first place. She really is a numpty.
Sorry, from my knowledge and firsthand experience of Griff, he will be loving what is happening. It is the going out with a bang that he was hoping for. He loves the limelight and controversy. He may be calling it a farce, but he is usually the one who has instigated this type of crap, and will play it for all it is worth, as you suggested earlier. Curran being away allows him to drag the voicemail element out, leaving people in suspense. It remains to be seen whether or not,he does or does not release it. IMO I don’t think he will really care whether he wins or loses. It is the game, the theatre, being in the limelight for probably the last time that counts, no matter what he says about farces, being fed up etc. He has used that line before.
It’s the Interval. We await the next Act.
Yaeji