A thought-provoking read about some of the thinking behind attempts to sow mistrust towards media and institutions of society in general.
How to respond? The final paragraph seems worthwhile:
” If the left is to succeed in replacing the status quo with something better, then it must create an international movement and reject all the worst impulses of postmodernism and once again get behind what German philosopher Jürgen Habermas has called the “project of modernity.” Most importantly, leftists must be careful to avoid political alliances (voluntary or involuntary) with reactionary movements or “anti-modern” ideologues like Dugin. If a true progressive believes in the notion of “progress,” then she would sooner defend the status quo than align with political forces that hope to restore some forgotten “golden age.” ”
I do not wish to be negative, but the left does not have to do anything like the jargon list which you breezily preach.
The Left has only to approach persons of integrity and goodwill and demonstrate that Capitalism has failed – world wide.
Threadbare capitalism and its greed, has prevented home ownership on a massive scale. It has also put millions of families in the hands of ruthless landlords – charging exorbitant rents.
For instance: From 1915 to 1988 there was a cap on rents that could be charged in the UK. Why was that thrown away? You well know the answer to that. The Capitalists wanted to take from the poor. Thievery. Robbery. Untold Crime.
Capitalism has to be removed from our towns, our communities, our Parliaments. Worldwide. No Capitalist should have any benefit; any access; any property; any status in the real world.
Good luck ‘Reserve Bank’ at getting at the truth of how these Australian banks operate.
Letter from RB.
(brief)
To clarify, we request a written response from your organisation outlining:
• The actions you, your Board and your senior teams have taken to identify and address conduct risk – including any “gap analysis” work against the expectations set out in the FMA’s Conduct Guide
• Any specific plans and actions you have taken (or have underway) to respond to the issues and themes arising from the Royal Commission
• Any other work you have underway or that is planned to proactively identify and address potential conduct and culture risk
The letter is quite specifically asking for information and not just a reassurance that ‘she’ll be right, mate’. It is asking for formal responses and thus an early step in and of a formal (and ongoing?) process. I think the (potential) implications are quite clear, especially when reading between the lines.
Your link is something to do with CO2 concentrations.
Also, Labour were in prime position to sweep the Tories out of local governments left right and centre, but because they are poorly led by a guy who cannot form a sold shit let alone a solid Brexit policy, they made on balance very few inroads.
Exactly. The main story of this election is the exit of the Brexit vote led by UKIP. The Tories, Lib Dems, Labour, and Greens all gained seats at the expense of UKIP (God Bless Em and thank Christ their gone – down from 82 seats to 2).
Ed simply repeats the poor and one sided view of his opinion makers. There was a massive 1.5% swing to Labour in London and a pathetic 1% swing to the tories in the country. /sarc
The BBC reported what actually happened – not what someone dreamt up in their head.
“If there was any journalism left in this country there would be a major analysis in tomorrow’s papers of the giant Goebellian lie spun to the British people over #LocalElections2018 A systemised deception of which any dictatorship would be proud.”
Today the result according to you is all the media’s fault and so instead of the revolution of some imagined extremists happening, in reality few useful Councils changing to Labour and people like you are not ready to face the reality that Corbyn is actually pretty incoherent and as a result average in voter appeal, and the Labour successes are more due to vigilant grassroots campaigning.
You weren’t clear about anything except an obscure allegory about voting and a glacier calving. For the rest, you just need to be more honest about what you were indeed about. And honest that the results jet didn’t go your way.
Where as most honest or thinking people know Corbyn is concerned about extreme Zionism …. and its documented attempts to influence and take down British politicians …
Telling us that a great number of new Labour people were elected is as useful as saying that Labour nearly won the last national election. It’s a nice warm feeling like weeing in the bath.
Which Councils did Labour win, and which did the Conservative win?
A good test is whether Barnet shifts. That will measure whether the anti-semitism controversy has had any effect.
You appear to have an anal obsession.
‘ led by a guy who cannot form a sold shit ‘
‘ who can stick his opinions up his ass.’
‘
It’s a nice warm feeling like weeing in the bath.’
Get some help.
Watching David Parker this morning on Q+A explain the Legal challenge he is facing over the threat of steel/aluminium tariff about to placed on NZ exports by the US by President Donald Trump has now left me very worried about this ‘legal’ fight he is drawing us all into at the WTO that may carry on for years it was explained to us.
If we are now entering into yet another “Trade agreement” in the TTP 11 are we now about to become more restricted from the same ‘legal’ claims in courts over yet more unfair treatments from other ‘trade agreements’ and is these ‘legal’ claims we will be making to secure our trade agreements going to bankrupt us all because we all know just how very expensive any ‘legal case’ will cost us all as NZ taxpayers.
A statement came out in a warning today from a legal agency that reminds us all that during the beginning of the 1929 depression there were many trade disputes arising when countries begun tightening their imports from other countries in an attempt to preserve the local domestic workforce for political reasons and this bankrupted several countries who sought legal claims over restricting imports of products then.
So has the Labour government actually considered these costs and financial effects to our economy when they finally agree to TPP 11?
I am very worried here that to much haste has been made to get into this deal as I see many cases where we have not secured protection for our own workers and exporters inside the TTP 11 at all as the agreement is very ‘vague’ in its many confusing confusing wordings.
David Parker may be gone in a few years and leave us all with many crippling issues that may ruin us all.
whether we signed TPP 11 or not dosn’t change the drawn out process of a WTO ruling…indeed the ISDS provision (whatever your opinion of it) provides an alternative remedy….no agreement signed, be it the WTO or individual trade agreements are guarantees of compliance or honourable behaviours by any party.
Some agreement and process is better than none when the barriers start to be raised…it is why the WTO was invented in the first place
Are you saying that if we have issues with any country inside the TTPA will be disputed both in the ISDS and WHO also?
Will we be bankrupt by both legal challenges made to both dispute systems as Canada has sadly found?
Thanks for confirming our worst fears that (Quote) “no agreement signed, be it the WTO or individual trade agreements are guarantees of compliance or honourable behaviours by any party”
Why are we then taking these ‘risks’ even entering into these agreement when they are not binding? Ana if we have no easy way of exiting from them at any time of our choosing?
They are a fools game and danger.
They came with fish hooks are some dark places that could end up destroying us all.
no cleangreen, im saying that having agreements which have provision for trade dispute resolution beats the hell out of gunboat diplomacy and/or war….which incidentally is likely to cost more if finance is your sole concern.
No Pat;
‘Money’ is not my main concern; – but since now our environment is very fragile and about to implode, the money paid to fight legal claims are making it worse to save our environment because we will be bankrupt!!!!!
So that is the concern here.
” i am saying why the hell are we now so sold on joining up to these flawed agreements as you appear to accept but i do not as we can not afford “as a small fish” in a big ocean of sharks to even go there.
Best stay out and be safe.”
Quote; me here;
“Why are we then taking these ‘risks’ even entering into these agreement when they are not binding? ”
And if we have no easy way of exiting from them at any time of our choosing?
They are a fools game and danger.
They came with fish hooks are some dark places that could end up destroying us all.
the real fools game, particularly for a ‘small fish’ would be to engage in a game without any rules…unless you advocate not trading at all?
As to exiting…we can, provided we are willing to accept the consequences….oddly enough much the same consequences as never having joined….and the ‘we’ to which I refer is the voting public.
Watching David Parker this morning on Q+A explain the Legal challenge he is facing over the threat of steel/aluminium tariff about to placed on NZ exports by the US by President Donald Trump has now left me very worried about this ‘legal’ fight he is drawing us all into at the WTO that may carry on for years it was explained to us.
NZ won’t be facing a legal challenge over the US putting in place tariffs. The US will be.
If we are now entering into yet another “Trade agreement” …
The interesting thing about the WTO (and the GATT before it) is that it was set up so that FTAs wouldn’t be needed. The rules would have been set at an international and multi-lateral level. Something that FTAs don’t do. In fact, FTAs actually complicate things. I disagree with the WTO as well but it’s better than FTAs.
So has the Labour government actually considered these costs and financial effects to our economy when they finally agree to TPP 11?
IIRC, they believe that there won’t be any because people are nice. Or something like that.
I am very worried here that to much haste has been made to get into this deal as I see many cases where we have not secured protection for our own workers and exporters inside the TTP 11 at all as the agreement is very ‘vague’ in its many confusing confusing wordings.
We shouldn’t even be trying to protect our exporters. That way lies the same failure as the Great Depression.
Actually developing the economy rather than over producing a limited amount of stuff is a much better option.
Regardless of “free” or not, any trade agreement is essentially a commercial contract. Normal contracts go to the courts for resolution, but if both parties run their own court system, would you be subject to your opponent’s jurisdiction?
So international agreements look for alternative models of dispute resolution.
Well, either that or it’s our alien lizard overlords preparing the way for one world government.
Only if you are happy for all trade agreements to be fundamentally anti democratic.
But there is plenty of evidence that super-national legal juristictions are not needed to facilitate trade. There is not much wrong with requiring international investors to go through the courts where they choose to invest on the other hand, and experience doesn’t indicate international investors need to have influence over what laws politicians can legislate.
History would disagree with that….
“When the war came in 1914, I was very soon impressed with two points. . . . I saw that
you could not separate the idea of commerce from the idea of war and peace . . . . [and]
that wars were often largely caused by economic rivalry conducted unfairly. . . . But
toward 1916 I embraced the philosophy that I carried throughout my twelve years as
Secretary of State . . . . From then on, to me, unhampered trade dovetailed with peace;
high tariffs, trade barriers, and unfair economic competition, with war. Though
realizing that many other factors were involved, I reasoned that, if we could get a freer
flow of trade ‐ freer in the sense of fewer discriminations and obstructions ‐ so that one
country would not be deadly jealous of another and the living standards of all countries
might rise, thereby eliminating the economic dissatisfaction that breeds war, we might
have a reasonable chance for lasting peace.”
what first question would that be?…as far as i can see you have only asked one …about fairness, which has been addressed….the best outcome is one that provides options other than armed conflict….you tell me…is that fair?
I will add however my surprise that both yourself and Nic would appear to advocate laissez faire in international trade.
What’s anti-democratic? The democratic bit is where the treaty is made by the government. Shouldn’t governments honour the terms of their treaties?
The mechanism I don’t really care about, but I know that using the local court system didn’t do support care workers much good about their back-pay. Maybe overseas traders prefer to use a system that can’t be overruled by a partisan govt acting under urgency.
It should be more than apparent that the TPPA, and similar agreements, are not a democratically proposed set of regulations. Never the less if the NZ government signs it then it will be expected not to contradict its intent in their future law making. This will continue even if we elect a government which is totally against what it stands for, or is doing.
Of course democracy works best when we (the electorate) are able to replace the government with one which has a mandate from the electorate. This mechanism simply doesn’t work for any un-elected super national organisations.
“The mechanism I don’t really care about, but I know that using the local court system didn’t do support care workers much good about their back-pay. ”
And that can happen whenever we elect a government which doesn’t agree with certain interests.
“Maybe overseas traders prefer to use a system that can’t be overruled by a partisan govt acting under urgency.”
I expect they would do, yes.
The question interleaved with your two examples is why you think overseas traders should have stronger protections against law changes than other factions of the electorate? The overseas traders clearly have ready access to alternative jurisdictions, the electorate often do not.
It’s a basic principle of natural justice that all are equal before the law. Not so for foreign corporations as they have greater rights. The BoRA and common law supposedly guarantee natural justice. Such a load of shit.
Should tourists be able to vote in our elections? Just as stupid to say. But while they are here they are entitled to the principles of natural justice and to be equal before the law. But not more equal.
So they should be subject to the whims of law changes that they have no means of affecting? How is that equal rights under the law when compared with locals?
Interesting thing about tourists – if they get in shit here, they are often entitled to diplomatic assistance from their governments, up to and including their governments raising their cases at the highest level of our political system. So they don’t get to vote, but they also have avenues that most NZ citizens don’t have.
The issue I’m trying to point out is that “equal rights under the law” do not necessarily mean “identical”. And if we want to trade in those countries, our rights would actually be identical to their rights when trading in our country. We would be assured of reasonably consistent investment and trading conditions.
So they should be subject to the whims of law changes that they have no means of affecting?
Yes that is how democracy works. Geographical areas are divided off into States and the people permanently living in those areas get to elect representatives who make laws.
The people who own the corporations get to vote for the government in countries where they live permanently. Why should these people get multiple votes all over the world just because they are wealthy? One person one vote not one dollar one vote.
Tourists getting help from their governments is not them having more legal rights under our law.
if we want to trade in those countries, our rights would actually be identical to their rights when trading in our country.
This statement is meaningless when we don’t have the large multinational corporations that can utilize this crap based here.
If we want to change our laws to protect our environment or public health that is our right. If some multinational doesn’t like that they can fuck off.
Actually, we have quite a few companies exporting to and trading with other countries. Big and small. It’s what we, as a nation, do: export.
In exchange for those companies getting more stable legal frameworks with dispute resolution so they can employ people here to sell things there, we give the same conditions to companies from those countries to do the opposite.
Whatever, dude. We’re not at the bottom of the OECD by any stretch of the imagination. We might not be a “big country”, but we’re sure in the top couple of tiers.
No they are not bound by them at all. In New Zealand Parliament is supreme and can do pretty much what it wants. If a new government wants to withdraw from a treaty then it can.
Regardless of “free” or not, any trade agreement is essentially a commercial contract. Normal contracts go to the courts for resolution, but if both parties run their own court system, would you be subject to your opponent’s jurisdiction?
Bollocks.
FTAs, and the WTO, are there to ensure equivalency of rules so that a company from one nation can be assured of the same treatment in another. When a company is operating in another country then they’re bound by that other countries rules.
ISDS and other extra-legal systems were set up to bypass that so that the company was no longer truly governed by the rules of country that they were operating in to the point that they could challenge the nation about rule changes that it didn’t like up to and including suing them.
But if a country is stupid enough to promise that it will allow trade under condition X, then changes its laws to condition Y when people have already invested on the basis of X, why shouldn’t the state be required to pay damages?
It’s not a “free trade” issue so much as a guarantee that the rules you promise today will be delivered tomorrow. Sure, they can sue over anything, but if the state signed a reasonable agreement then frivolous suits would fail.
But if a country is stupid enough to promise that it will allow trade under condition X, then changes its laws to condition Y when people have already invested on the basis of X, why shouldn’t the state be required to pay damages?
Why should a country even make such an agreement?
It’s not a “free trade” issue so much as a guarantee that the rules you promise today will be delivered tomorrow.
But a country should never make such an agreement because new information may require a change in the rules. The only thing that a country can offer a foreign company operating in it’s borders is that it will operate under the same rules that the business native to it operate under.
And that doesn’t require an agreement between countries at all.
And why would any country open up its markets to companies from another country without expecting something in return?
And presuming we want to keep that thing in return, what if a company feels it’s been disciminated against somehow by some new regulation they think was targeted at them? Like if we put a tax on blue cars, and coincidentally all the cars imported from Latvia were blue and almost all blue cars were Latvian – and undercut local car manufacturers? Is that under the same rules, or is it unfairly targeted?
Without some manner of impartial dispute resolution, the only option is to take or leave the trade agreement. Brexiting, in other words. And disputes by one or two companies can burn the entire deal.
Yeah, total disaster, UK economy shrunk by 6% already completely down the toilet.
Oh, hang on that’s just what the UK treasury erroneously predicted would happen. Actually, its totally ok when the UK electorate decides they don’t need the EU to dictate laws to their own politicians.
Not much. If they want to shoot themselves in the foot, that’s their problem. I’m sure it’ll all be rosy for England when they get rid of all the immigrants and do their own plumbing. And it’ll probably help the Scottish independence movement.
But I used brexit as the comparison because it seems a bit silly to have a perfectly fine agreement that then falls apart because a myriad of small participants think they’ve been screwed and have no means of redress.
And why would any country open up its markets to companies from another country without expecting something in return?
They have no right to expect anything in return except that their companies will be able to sell in NZ.
Like if we put a tax on blue cars, and coincidentally all the cars imported from Latvia were blue and almost all blue cars were Latvian – and undercut local car manufacturers?
I know your using hyperbole but such a tax would never come into existence as it simply wouldn’t pass any sort test of justice.
Without some manner of impartial dispute resolution,
We already have one – the courts.
But I used brexit as the comparison because it seems a bit silly to have a perfectly fine agreement that then falls apart because a myriad of small participants think they’ve been screwed and have no means of redress.
Except that it wasn’t fine. People were being hurt by it.
And why would any country open up its markets to companies from another country without expecting something in return?
They have no right to expect anything in return except that their companies will be able to sell in NZ.
It’s an agreement. I give you this in exchange for that. If you disagree, I don’t give you this. So what happens if someone thinks they’re not getting the same market access they’re giving NZ, is shit gets held up in customs. They mimic the barriers that they think NZ is imposing on them.
So to avoid that we go to dispute resolution. If we use our courts, they think the courts are rigged. If we use their courts, we think the courts are rigged. So we agree an independent ISDS process, and put a buffer between a trade dispute and a trade war.
Like if we put a tax on blue cars, and coincidentally all the cars imported from Latvia were blue and almost all blue cars were Latvian – and undercut local car manufacturers?
I know your using hyperbole but such a tax would never come into existence as it simply wouldn’t pass any sort test of justice.
Yeah, you know what they say about everything before the word “but”.
As it is, that’s merely an exaggerated example of what happens. Country A introduces a regulation, Country B decides it’s targeted at Country B’s citizens as an unfair trade barrier. And then Country B does what – appeals to courts controlled by a government that’s specifically targeting them?
HdPA has written a thoughtful piece today. Yes, it is about the Gayford rumours and I think she’s got it about right. It started out as a bit rumour mongering for the sake of it, then was picked up by the dirty political pros and all hell broke loose.
Shutting the rumour down was risky. It almost certainly spread the stories. If 100,000 of us had heard the rumours at the start of the week, 4.6 million of us will possibly have heard them now.
I suspect the majority of those who didn’t hear the rumours still don’t know what they are, and I’m one of them.
Zorb6
Someone the other day was saying just that. Setting up a target; then attacking and defending it; this morning announcing (think herald) that numerous and continuous tweets and comments alleging incorrect behaviour being received that should be made public. Forced to publish about it to clear the air. Police also.
Example of ‘How to hit our leaders without leaving visible bruises’. A lot of media mendaciousness, look our hands are clean. Lots of argy-bargy about it, bringing lots of clicks. From the busy and live media group – look out for – CFC or Clique for Clicks.
There are people who get their kicks in life by spreading rumour and innuendo. Social media has made it easy for them and has spawned a group of dirty political right wing pros who are making a career out of the game. They will lie low for a while… until the next target comes along and then they will be back in business again.
Like it or not Gabby it is a reality and sticking our heads in the sand will only let it continue to fester.
Can you actually prove this claim of yours?
Can you prove that, in the case of whatever the claims made about Gayford were, that there are “a group of dirty political right wing pros who are making a career out of the game. They will lie low for a while… until the next target comes along and then they will be back in business again.” were actually doing such a thing?
If you can’t prove it then, unfortunately, you are included in the people who, in your own words “get their kicks in life by spreading rumour and innuendo”.
So who are these right wing individuals or are you simply spreading a rumour that such people exist?
So, alwyn, you will admit that Anne was right when (not if) her prediction comes true? Or will you adhere to your obvious right-wing bias?
I already know how contemptuous (and contemptible) your reply will be. I’ve seen some of your previous prevarications.
Don’t be such a silly little chap.
When I read what you say I am forced to ask.
Will you admit that you are completely incapable of realising that you are stupid?
I already know the answer of course. From all your previous comments I know you are a fool and will always adhere to your obvious left-wing bias but are quite incapable of recognising the fact.
There, that suit you?
Now, if you think Anne’s claims are right please produce some evidence for it. Simple saying something, without evidence, doesn’t make it true, particularly when it comes from someone as contemptible as you are.
If you have nothing except wild claims to come out with why do you bother to reply to me. Let Anne and I have a civilised discussion and confine yourself to the side lines. Are you really so desperate to start flame wars?
As predicted. And correct English is ‘Let Anne and ME have a civilised discussion.’ I did not find your tone to Anne all that civilised – accusing her of the very fault she was decrying by making a ridiculous demand. Paralleled by the similar demand (ie, rather silly) I deliberately made of you: When Anne is proven correct, will you admit error? No reply to that, I notice. Just infantile invective.
You say
“When Anne is proven correct, will you admit error?”
I am willing to answer a slightly different question.
“If Anne is proven correct, will you admit she was right?” by saying of course I will agree that she is correct if that happens. I won’t admit that I was “wrong” because I have never said the opposite was, or is, true. I am merely trying to find what the truth is.
Please try and read what I say properly and you won’t look quite so foolish when you accuse me of making statements that I haven’t.
If someone comes up with any evidence of this claim we will be able to accept the words Jesus said.
“And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free”.
Don’t you want to be free?
I distinctly wrote “when (not if)” eliminating the possibility upon which you erroneously base your question.
If the truth sets one free, you are obviously still struggling to find it, let alone come to terms with it.
See how easy it is to write your style of punctilious invective with no positive outcome?
You really are thick aren’t you?
Why do you think I didn’t answer the question as you asked it?
If I had you would of course, in your usual stupid manner, have then claimed that I accepted your premise and therefore accepted that National was to blame.
I really am not like you. I would like evidence, and without any it remains an open question about who is to blame.
Isn’t it time for your mummy to put you to bed? You are exhibiting the fractious behaviour typical of young children.
Perhaps in the morning you will justify your statement “When Anne ….”. Surely you have the evidence. You aren’t just making it up are you? You can surely justify your certainty? Or not, as appears to be the case. If nobody comes up with any evidence I will just have to accept that you are lying and that you haven’t the faintest idea who is to blame.
I feel bad about this.
Normally people welcome the opportunity to consider whether the things they say are accurate and are founded in reality.
If it hurts your head to think about your claims I suggest you stop reading what I say.
Then you can remain in a state of blissful ignorance. I’m sure you will be much happier and will be able to join the ranks of the Lotus Eaters in The Odyssey where
“A single taste of this native fruit made my soldiers forget everything they had ever know; where they were from, where they were going, everything.”
Punctilious and disingenuous reaction to a fair demand. You constantly troll by making silly demands (prove this or that) then pretend sincerity.
Your aim is to disrupt and discourage rather than genuinely question, with an occasional friendly pretence, and no, I am not going to waste my time looking up such an example. I think there are plenty of others here who will support my statement.
“who will support my statement.”
I am sure there are. Have you never heard the immortal words of Mathew Henry?
“None so deaf as those that will not hear. None so blind as those that will not see.”
Here endeth the Second Lesson.
Of course I used “endeth” correctly.
Just as the mild mannered reporter Clark Kent has an alter-ego of Superman I am, in my spare time, the Archbishop of Canterbury. It is of course only a part time job as the number of the Faithful is diminishing rapidly but I can still manage the Anglican Services.
You may refer to me in future, if you are one of the faithful, as The Most Reverend and Right Honourable the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury. Or not, as you wish.
No, you need to be a professor of English at Oxford or Cambridge.
Then you would know when to use ‘me’ instead of ‘I’.
And you would write less cacklemush. You really do need to find a healthier pastime.
@In Vino
I’ll take your word for it. No doubt you were at one of those trade schools.
The last University I studied at was in Cambridge actually, but it was in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I suppose you look down on that home of rebel colonials.
I provide this information to entertain you. You mummy says it is very kind of me as you suffer from a mild case of ADHD and my entertaining you gives her a break.
Now, off to bed diddums.
Eminence is used in for a Cardinal of the Roman Catholic and the Patriarchs of the Orthodox Churches isn’t it?
Do we have a Cardinal in New Zealand at the moment?
Don’t you think the full title of the Archbishop of Canterbury (and York I believe) is much more impressive than just Archbishop though?
Actually I remember when I was a kid in Napier and the head of the Anglican Church in New Zealand lived there. A gentleman name Norman Lesser. He used to sign his name as Norman New Zealand. How is that for swank?
That’s nice dear.
I’ll bet you really enjoyed those evenings in The Snug at The Rovers Return in the days when you were there drinking stout there with Ena Sharples and Elsie Tanner.
Real salt of the earth like you were they?
Do you think our present PM will hit it off with the US President the way Key did with Obama?
“started out as a bit rumour mongering for the sake of it”
No doubt by disgruntled National party leaning people who still cant get over the fact that National lost. They cant get the PM so attacked her partner instead. What happened with the unwritten rule of media leaving politicians partners out of it? Media people like D. Hill Cone and HdPA et al are part of the problem.
National was the most to gain advantage from this negative media hype ‘dirty politics’ Loius.
it follows the same ‘logic’ used by the UN/UK and NATO who put Russia under sanctions following the ‘alleged’ poisoning of a spy they used the logic that it was most likely to be Russia to blame, as they had more to gain than anyone else so we place the same logic on the National party for this latest round of “dirty politics” upon their political opposition the ruling Government of the Labour party.
Sorry national supporters that shows logic national was most to gain here. so must have been involved in some way.
“No doubt by disgruntled National party leaning people”.
Do you have any evidence at all for this claim? Or do you simply say you have “no doubt” because you don’t want to think about it?
A lot of people, particularly in the Police Force, appeared to have “no doubt” that Arthur Allan Thomas murdered the Crewes. They had no evidence so they faked some, at least according to the enquiry into the affair.
If everybody had simply taken your line I suppose Thomas would still be banged up inside.
ps. I am using the UK rather than the Australian meaning of the term.
I wonder if there is any important difference in context between,
The police prosecuting and fabricating a conviction, and a commented accusation on a web site.
No, probably we should always require exactly the same level of certainty and evidence for everything, always.
And I do wonder if Clarke Gayford had not been the PM’s partner, whether he would have been viciously attacked in the cowardly way he has been, to get a hit on the PM and Labour. Somehow I think not, which leads me to think it’s political alright!
I was not going to read it but am now pleased that I did after reading your comment. Like you, I think she got it about right, particularly in focusing on the effect on Gayford himself as he – and this – seems to have been lost in the morass of other issues. Perhaps HdPA does have a bit of humanity after all.
I do know what the rumours have been but have no intention of revealing these, as they have been callous and despicable from day one regardless of whom they have been about/applied to.
In Gayford’s case, IMO they have been worse because they were aimed not just at him personally (and/or indirectly at JA and the Labour Party etc) but such rumours also highly affect his future professional career as someone in the public arena as a radio/TV host, MC etc – much more so than someone in a less public profession.
I know from personal experience how much false rumour and innuendo can cost a person both in their professional and personal life. It is insidious and the fallout can continue for years afterwards. It can even become dangerous for the target’s life and limb as it did briefly for a time in my case. I was not a public figure so my experiences didn’t get into the public domain, but these types of individuals never give up – especially when they have someone like Donald Trump et al as role models.
There is no denying that I’m as curious as hell, so I hope one day you will be able to write your story Anne, as it sounds like it is a story that needs to be told.
Once the Police Commissioner statement came out he was OK with that but still reckoned it was a Labour Party attempt to smear the National Party (and supported Audrey Young’s comments re this). https://twitter.com/MatthewHootonNZ/status/991454040591552512
I think that it has been handled as well as it could have been by media and by Ardern and Gayford – that Ardern referred to ‘dirty politics’ caused a bit of a stir, but I take it as meaning what was happening was dirty (it was), and it involved politics.
The police statement raises questions about in what situations they might do that again, but it served a useful purpose, it debunked the worst rumour. Even if the rumour was detailed by media I think it more likely it would have reinforced sympathy for Gayford and Ardern.
Some on the left have tried to claim it was a National plot, and some on the right have switched to claiming it was a Labour plot to divert, and to nail National, but I have seen zero evidence any political party was involved. Some individuals circulating the rumours may have supported a party or had some connection to a party, but I doubt very much it was party driven.
Since the police statement spiked the main accusation attempts have been made to switch to promoting the ‘Streisand effect’, but that hasn’t got legs because the MSM haven’t published any details.
And there have been attempts to promote the other ‘rumour’ I’ve heard which seems to be about supposed historic behaviour – this is also dirty, and if this is persisted with it could open a big can of worms – past behaviour, especially as it now easily recorded and later dredged up from the Internet, could be slung around at just about any MP.
Since the police statement spiked the main accusation attempts have been made to switch to promoting the ‘Streisand effect’, but that hasn’t got legs because the MSM haven’t published any details.
Uhm, isn’t withholding the ‘juicy’ details actually promoting the Streisand effect!?
Only if the details get widely circulated as a result, but they haven’t, the MSM have not given the rumour promoters what they wanted.
And most of those who have found out online are likely to to see it as fake accusations/smears.
Since the police statement most in media are stating that there was no foundation, and even those intent on inflicting damage have dropped that (which suggests they knew it was false) and switched to other lines of attack.
You provided the answer I was looking for @ 5.7.1.
The exact details of a rumour are not necessarily the most damaging and most certainly not enough to keep a story alive in MSM. Think of it as the dance of the seven veils or a series of which episodes end with cliff-hangers and whodunits; people keep coming back for more and add their own ‘facts’ and fantasies to it, often without realising it.
All this leads to a heightened state of collective and individual confusion in which fake cannot be easily distinguished from reality. This further feeds and perpetuates the rumour mill and complicates and prolongs clearing people from ‘obviously’ false accusations/smears.
The Police statement took the much-needed oxygen away from the rumour mill.
MSM happily played along with keeping alive the rumour mill because it would have resulted in more clicks, etc. Did National speak out strongly against it and condemned it?
National Party leader Simon Bridges says he will not tolerate any of his MPs spreading rumours about politicians and their families.
Bridges said Jacinda Ardern and Clarke Gayford had his “heartfelt sympathy” after Police Commissioner Mike Bush and the Prime Minister responded to rumours and innuendo circulating about Gayford.
Bridges said he spoke to his caucus yesterday after hearing continued rumours about Gayford.
“This week I specifically made it clear that I will not tolerate National MPs peddling rumours or innuendo and I was specific in that being in relation to politicians, Members of Parliament and their families because these things are generally untrue,” he said.
“I did not mention any specifics because I did not want to propagate it.”
Bridges said he had not spoken to Ardern himself but he had asked his chief of staff to convey to Ardern’s chief of staff yesterday that National was not involved.
Asked by the Herald if he was aware whether any of his MPs had been spreading rumours, Bridges said to the best of his knowledge none had been.
“I do not believe the National Party is involved in this in any way.”
Bridges said he had twice addressed caucus to set expectations about dealing with politicians’ families.
“My heartfelt sympathy to the Prime Minister and Clarke Gayford. It is entirely unacceptable and politicians families should be left out of politics.”
Bridges said if “dirty politics” was involved, it was not from the National Party.
“If it is, I entirely strongly reject that.
“I made my expectations to my Members of Parliament, when I heard and kept hearing these rumours, very clear.”
The only party leader to try and score political points off the story that I’ve seen is Winston Peters, in his usual style of implying without saying specifically who he thought might be responsible – insinuations without evidence.
I have not heard these rumours/innuendo/insinuations and neither has anyone I know. But given the history of Dirty Politics being run out of the ex PMs office and the evidence in Hagers book of key Nat MPs involvement, it is hard to believe the dirty politics machine has not been at it again. There is plenty of evidence WO has been targeting the PMs partner for months (see 5.6 above). The fact that there are various versions of the rumours would suggest attempts to try any which way to get publicity. And as HDPA says, the calls to the media to draw attention to them are just one part of the strategy. Disgusting.
Thank you; I no longer read the NZH and thus had not seen that.
I could be wrong but it appears that this was a response from Simon Bridges after after the PM had mentioned dirty politics or Dirty Politics – hard to tell from a verbal account. In any case, it is hardly a condemning statement, is it? At least he didn’t go all sanctimonious like John Key holding his flock to “the highest standards”.
I noticed that you cherry-picked the least interesting part of my comment 😉
I don’t think the MSM played along to keep the rumours alive. They seemed reluctant to give them what they craved, mainstream coverage. As it turned out I think the mostly got the balance right with the help of the police and the lawyer letter that exposed it but minimising the oxygen.
Interesting. So, you think the rumour mill was mostly driven and fed by social media? I mean until the statement signed off by the Police Commissioner it was not given the much-needed oxygen in and by MSM and they actively tried to quell the story?? I have some difficulty with this because there were many articles in MSM keeping it alive. But we don’t all have to agree on degree & extent, do we?
Anne, I chanced on one tweet that was horrific, and if that is what they have been spreading it was evil.
I wrote saying how strong the young couple have been, and good on the police for giving Clarke Gayford a Police Clearance.
Further, HDA, and her husband and friends are trying to say “It grew out of gossip” because police and the law may well be doing a “timeline” which may prove uncomfortable for some I would think.
Reading three recent articles including hers….. the new meme is “Just gossip” not “Dirty Politics”
Tui Tui IMO. You can not play with dirt without getting dirty.
I think it likely started as dirty rumours and grew through embellishment and accumulating promoters, possibly in part organised by certain people, into a dirty campaign.
Duplicity is very determined to sell the line that the rumours were amateur.
Let us have them investigated properly, and the identities of the perpetrators revealed, and we can determine to what extent that ‘pleasant fiction’ is true.
Let us have them investigated properly, and the identities of the perpetrators revealed, and we can determine to what extent that ‘pleasant fiction’ is true.
I agree it probably started out in a relatively minor way by a bunch of National supporters who couldn’t accept they lost an MMP election, but it was picked up by the pros and became an orchestrated tsunami of lies and innuendo.
There has been sufficient evidence around since 2014 that a group of shadowy people have been fermenting mischief designed to destroy the Labour Party and using unlawful means to achieve their aims. The damage done is not only to the targets, but potentially to the democratic processes of the country.
Remember Rawshark? He was the hero who outed the culprits to Hager and for their endeavours the police went after them. Now it’s time for the police to make amends and go after the culprits and leave the messengers alone. The SIS and the GCSB will know who they are. They should spill the beans.
If defamatory statements have been made then a crime has been committed.
In the case of Clarke Gayford his entire life and career was set to be savaged and ravaged.
Those who rumoured and made statements about him should explain their behaviour in Court.
I presume that Lawyers for Gayford will seek redress for this the most vile treatment ever thrown at a New Zealand citizen.
Who will have gained from this crime ? certainly not Labour.
One thing we do know: the truth will seep out. The persons who so blatantly wanted Clarke Gayford to be castrated will weep and whimper in court.
I am not sure that the divine ZB stars, and the Herald scriblers, are totally clean. But they are rapidly finding ways to say “I’m innocent. Don’t blame me “.
Let it go, Pete – release your grip – if you cut off the blood supply for too long, it’ll atrophy and drop off. Ease up, old chum, take a holiday, refresh, LET IT GO!
The Harassment Act defines harassment as a pattern of behaviour (two or more separate acts within a 12-month period) directed at someone which makes that person feel distressed or unsafe.
For example if someone is harassing you they might be:
– watching, loitering near, or preventing or hindering access to or from your place of residence, business, employment, or any other place that you go to
– following, stopping, or confronting you
– entering, or interfering with, your property
– making contact with you (by phone, email etc.) when you don’t want them to
– giving you offensive material, leaving it where you will find it (e.g. online)
– acting in any way that causes you to fear for your safety, and would cause any reasonable person in the same situation to fear for their safety
What’s the difference between civil and criminal harassment?
The main difference between the two is the intention of the harasser and the consequences for them.
If the harasser’s intention is to make you fear for your safety or that of your family, and they know that their actions are likely to achieve this aim, this is called “criminal” harassment and is a criminal offence. This means the harasser can be arrested and could be given a sentence of up to two years in prison.
If the harasser is causing you fear or distress unintentionally, this is known as “civil” harassment. Civil harassment is not a criminal offence.
It’s a curiosity of the Gayford rumours, that though they were uncivil, their object was clearly political.
I look forward to some competent journo or one of the many armed forces and police personnel equipped with Palantir tracking down and exposing those responsible – not to defend Clarke’s sensibilities, but to defend our democratic institutions from a malicious incursion.
The intelligence can track this and find the people responsible and we will expect this of them as I worked for a global communication company in the 1990’s and there are methods to track where any activities can be looked back to where they originated, so the tools are there for the police to call on when they wish.
It is a common observation that overuse of the cui bono? (“who benefits?”) style of thinking leads to conspiracy theories. They appeal strongly to people who desire to feel special, according to research by Roland Imhoff, a German social psychologist. Joseph Uscinski,
However, it also provides a better explanation than “I’m too busy to read my own website” for why Farrar left defamatory comments up on his blog until the media approached him about it.
It is a huge task monitoring and moderating a blog. Farrar has a hands off approach, relying on reporting, but those who attack don’t report themselves obviously.
It’s long been an issue at KB. I did a bit of confronting new claims there yesterday (Labour conspiracy) and instead of providing evidence I knew there would be none) the rest of the day was spent attacking. It’s at least as bad as ever and I’ve experienced a lot there over the years (rarely do now).
Farrar is taking a big legal risk. He also damages his credibility and reputation (or doesn’t repair it), and through association makes National an easy target too.
It’s his operation. Fuck him if he can’t be bothered to monitor what goes on with his site.
And if those comments were up for that long, then none of his regular readers chose to “report” defamation. Says a lot about his clientele, and the need for him to do his job.
But it sounds similar to John Banks, who ISTR failed to knowingly sign a false statement through the cunning artifice of not knowing what the statement said.
I suppose the “I’m too lazy or stupid to do my job properly” defense will be seen again from the tory machine.
I think along with overuse of “who benefits” is the child like ready answer of the majority of human beings.
We lay blame or praise depending on our personal feelings. Not on rational logic.
That is because Logic is not taught in school. Hence we end up with all sorts of non sequiturs.
In the case of Clarke Gaylord, there are four persons at the core. One is the Leader of the Opposition. Two is the Prime Minister. Three is Clarke Gaylord. Four is the Police
The Police were alerted to all sorts of very evil aspersions against Clarke. Those aspersions grew rapidly over an unknown period. More and more.
The Police, without consulting anybody but themselves, went through their records on Clarke and found no negative entry. Clarke was free of any crime.
So The Prime Minister, Jacinda Adern being the Partner of Clarke Gaylord was unlikely to have run up all the vile untrue “rumours” about Clarke. She had been with him for some years.
That left just one other key area of interest. Namely, The Leader of the Opposition, Simon Bridges. He would be well and truly aware of John Key’s cabal of Smut managers and Destroyers managed within the Beehive and beyond. For 9 years.
John Key’s nick name was the Silent Assassin. Although I don’t know why, because unlike Trump he worked through others.
You can make up your own mind, but the The Country Women’s Association is unlikely to have attempted to castrate Clarke Gaylord. Nor the Good Sisters of the Poor.
Most Likely, Enthusiasts have tried to rub Clarke out. Thereby taking Jacinda the PM out. Leaving National and their strong Media supporters very very pleased. National are highly skilled in this arena.
“In the case of Clarke Gaylord, there are four persons at the core. ”
Nope. There is no public evidence of either Labour or National conspiracies that have been claimed.
You have left out Whale Oil, who has run nasty attack posts targeting both Ardern and Gayford since last September/October, and continuing, including a still running (today) daily smear.
There have also been veiled references to the rumour in posts (still up) and open and hint references to the rumours in comments (some have been deleted after this weeks legal fright).
Slater has been seen as toxic in most National circles since Dirty Politics exposed him.
I haven’t see any evidence that Slater has done anything beyond WO.
However I have good reason to believe that someone who has had close links to Slater in the past (they have both been involved in attempted legal hits on me) has tried to spread Gayford rumours.
But there are obviously others involved to some extent, eg on Twitter. And on Kiwiblog. And there’s a horrible website who has been making outlandish accusations for years that has been pushing fake rumours.
Or it simply a malicious rumour that got legs as a result of Clarke profile; it’s happened before re a certain Ab rumour comes to mind,with today’s trolls, social media ; celebrity profile it’s does not take long for news to travel and morph very quickly; just look at social media bulling at the teenage level, not a stretch to see such extrapolating to a national level in regard to network effect This to me from a balance of probability and rationale level is far more likely than a
Grand centrally controlled conspiracy
I do not think we have as a nation realised just how shocking this assualt on Clarke Gayford has been.
Simon Bridges is clambering away every otherday that it was unbeknown to him. He says he has told his mighty team of midgets not to do nasty things.
Given that John Key spent 9 years doing seriously dirty stuff against persons he hated, it is good of Simon to clean up some of the mess. Bill English never fixed anything that we know of.
However, I guess it will take many moons to clean up national. Not one of them has studied the word – Honesty. Another word they choke on Humility. It makes them giggle.
Some of us think they have shot themselves in their whatisname this time.
Thanks Clean Green
I congratulate you on the rebuild of the East Coast Rail! Marvellous!
Honourable men and women do not use dishonesty and outright lies to destroy any persons reputation.
Dirty Politics will continue to give third degree burns to the National Caucus for some time to come. Not only that, the main Media are heavily intertwined with the Key / English / Collins /Farar/ Slater / Ede / Hooton – combo.
Noon Radionz news – Environment Minister David Parker announced that the pressure on the land and waterways by farmers overstocking will be managed by measuring the leachate from farm pollution and legislating this down. The largest way to carry this forward will be by farmers reducing stock numbers. Government will not pay compensation for this implementation.
(I can’t find any printed report of this on RadionzRNZ 1 hour after hearing report but there is info of car fire in Dunedin carpark. Our news broadcaster is still addicted to sensation stuff.)
I was thinking that those not farming efficiently will probably find that the results of less stock will be balanced out by not having to buy imported feed, not have sickness passed on from stock held in close overstocking, less fertiliser required, less pollution ponds or whatever they use to try and reduce runoff. It’s just time for some of the large industrial off-farm owners to up their game, and for casual she’ll be right farmers who are trying to cash in on the white oil and running bigger entities than they can effectively and willingly manage.
After mismanagement (no management) of rural matters by Gnashional for years, Labour needs to keep in mind the pressure that small farmers have been under while they have been played like pawns on a chessboard. Money is needed in the rural areas by them, to assist them recover, make changes etc.
Last is what many probably know. Bill English gets job with huge Australian corporate that owns NZ businesses. (It started off as a farmer co-op over there.) http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/356412/bill-english-joins-board-of-australia-retail-giant
Mr English has been appointed to the board of the retail giant Wesfarmers, which owns KMart, Bunnings Warehouse and Target, among many other businesses and is one of Australia’s largest listed companies.
In a board announcement to the Australian stock exchange, Wesfarmers’ chairman Michael Chaney says he’s pleased with the appointment, given Mr English’s experience and Wesfarmers’ extensive interests in New Zealand.
The retail giant started life as a farming cooperative in Western Australian in 1914.
Nutrient run-off monitoring has been underway for some time, even under the past National government. Although it is done by Regional Councils rather than at a Government level and may not be that consistent around the country. And the process has certainly got the attention of farmers. A large farm I do work on has a monitoring programme with regular water sampling and a fencing programme to keep the station’s stock away from the rivers.
How the Regional Councils would get on once it comes to enforcement could be interesting, and this may have something to do with what David Parker is saying. Legislation might make enforcement a lot simpler.
Graeme
What you say is an indication of the way that not having a level playing field because of uneven monitoring and enforcement is slowing down improvements in limiting run off for the whole country. We may not even know how many farmers are not complying with regulations, or whether the stats provided are factual. The few that are doing well may be held up to indicate what all are doing, while others dawdle or avoid.
And many of the rural councils will be stacked by the local farmers being the majority sector, and they are likely to have family connections, who won’t follow the law. The councillors may even keep to the law themselves but be unable to persuade their relatives and friends to sharpen up. And then there are the out of towners, or overseas absentee landlords who have big money, and just put their fingers to their noses!
It needs outsiders bringing an objective overview, and also to set up an exemplar area that others can be measured against so that there is competition and a desire to not be at the bottom of a league table.
I have a bit of contact with the technical side of our Regional Council with the water schemes I manage and have found them well meaning but woefully under resourced, both financially and intellectually. They also seem totally subservient to consultants, generally the applicant’s.
The deemed permit renewal process can best be described as a moving target and I’m glad my schemes are on consents and I won’t be directly involved.
Reform of the Regional Councils is urgently required, maybe with either a unitary approach or their environmental functions coming under a Ministry.
A modified tanker carrying illegal migrants headed for New Zealand and Australia as part of a human trafficking operation has been intercepted by Malaysian police.
“This syndicate has been operating since mid-2017 and has international connections across Sri Lanka, Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia and Malaysia.”
We must accept that this was always going to happen and that it’s going to get worse. At some point in the not too distant future we will be closing our borders the same way that Australia has.
We simply don’t have the room or the resources to simply take everyone who will try to get here.
Good Morning the Am Show Duncan I agree with Denis O’Relly lets get gangs working if you are working you are to busy to get in trouble its not rocket science China makes sure that most of there citizens are working or they would have problems with there unemployed. I see were this is coming from??????????’
What Stormy Daniels said was hard case I no you don’t believe in climate change but a storm is coming.
Amanda I say the best system was Ngtai Ruawaipu all of my tipunas actions were guided by sustainability if there choices were going to affect the sustainability of the Hapu in a negative way than that path was not taken hence we are here today.
I would not take my mokopunas to a Restaurant unless it was designed to have mokopunas a play area for them mokopunas need constants entertainment .
Here we go Count Down Super Markets is taking the lead and starting 10 of there Super Markets plastic bag free for there shoppers Many thanks to Count Down Supper Markets starting the trend we have seen All the plastic waste poisoning OUR Wild life and Environment hears the link.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/103623308/countdown-chooses-10-supermarkets-to-go-plastic-bag-free-rest-to-follow P.S Eco Maori says us green Tangata should support Count Down with this Brave move.
I agree with Chris Trotter statement Duncan about the gangs are being used as a attack on Maori Mana they just have not figured that phenomenon out the powers that be don’t want to shear the Mana of Aotearoa with Maori this I see.
Thanks for the ——– I have plenty of hair at the minute .Ki Kaha Maori Tangata .
Ka kite ano
If McDonalds Family Restaurants were serious about Te Tangata health they would drop there machines that cause Tooth decay and Obesity in te Mokopunas
and serve non sugar refreshments like water the soft drinks machines make the mokopunas want more sugar on there other foods like weat bix ect
Ka kite ano
What ecomaori says: I agree with Denis O’Relly lets get gangs working if you are working you are to busy to get in trouble its not rocket science ,
I remember a story of someone visiting a town that had been badly hit by business closures. He was driven through the main streets by the local cop who was greeted with a wave by various young men on building sites and in workshops. The policeman said ‘See those guys, they were all going through the Court till recently – in trouble because they had no jobs, nothing to keep them occupied. Look at them now, happy to be working and with earned money in their pockets.”
I hope Shane can pull it off. He can do it if anyone can get things moving for the regions and the young Maori who want some structure in their life, a job with wages that to rely on and get home, his or her living and personal life on track.
Good evening Newshub I heard a bit of bazzing noise .
Mike Ruaumoko looks so beautiful at night thats Papatuanuku recycling her self in Hawaii.
Many thanks Marama Davidson and the Green party for pushing for REO to be compulsory subject Ka pai e hoa Mana wahine I have changed my views on this subject as I see more of Maoris reality Eco Maori wants all mokopuna to learn Te reo . Ka kite ano P.S I see a lot of evidence that the STATE never admits they are wrong ???????? When one has manuhiri you all ways treat them with respect
The Crowd Goes Wild
Jonelle Prices win at the Badminton on that amasing Mare Molly what a beautiful horse Mana Wahine .
Mulls I watched a bit of soccer on the weekend my mokopuan she was playing on a bigger field than she use to she kicked a boy he started crying and that put her off her game a bit it was a draw 1 all.
That was a good conversion it gave me a sore face .
It was a good weekend of sports for Eco Maori .
Ka kite ano
All women and men who want respect and freedom between all humans will want to say a small prayer of mourning for this 16 year old woman and her family.
It will be interesting to see what the Indian police do about this outrageous killing. In a society that has such lax attitudes towards harm to females and perhaps to different classes, the death penalty carried out in a proper, quick and clean manner may be needed to respond to this extreme hostility to decent and good citizens.
Dhanu Bhuiyan and his accomplices are accused of burning the 16-year-old alive on Friday in the state of Jharkhand.
She was killed after her parents complained to village elders that she had been raped, according to police.
The elders had told two accused rapists to do 100 sit-ups and pay a 50,000 rupee ($NZ1060) fine as punishment.
The power held by elders in villages that hold them in an era of vicious and oppressive cruelty to women, must be cut out by the roots in the same determined way that thuggism was last century.
For the third time in the past decade, the government is directly subsidising wage earners to get them through a tough patch. The Covid-19 wage subsidy scheme though dwarfs the previous two schemes that were implemented post the Christchurch and Kaikoura earthquakes: some figures put the number of New Zealanders ...
Supposedly the struggle against climate change is one of this government's priorities. But how can we assess whether government policies and targets are enough to meet that challenge? Are our policies working? Are our targets enough? On the latter question, whether or not they are consistent with the Paris Agreement ...
The Civilian takes a look at the new leader of the National Party, Todd Muller This article was written over the past weekend as part of The Civilian’s series of “Meet the Leaders” profiles. Some will claim that this makes the article outdated, because Muller is no longer leader. But ...
With carbon prices rising, farmers have been squealing about farmland being converted (or rather, restored) to forest for carbon farming. And meanwhile, Fooodstuffs has started selling carbon-neutral milk: Carbon-neutral milk – where the product's greenhouse gases are offset by carbon credits – is coming to a supermarket fridge near you. ...
Like everyone else, I was shocked when Todd Muller resigned as Leader of the National Party yesterday morning - and even more shocked when National picked Judith Collins to replace him. Sure, this is about desperation and salvaging as many seats as they can, but still. In case ...
Judith Collins - National Party leaderThe National Party, after Todd Muller’s quick exit stage right, have chosen Judith Collins as their new leader in what can only be seen as a desperate attempt to regain some of the conservative voters they’ve lost in recent months.There are numerous pros and cons ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzI would like to know how much difference we could ...
INT: NATIONAL PARTY CAUCUS ROOM – MORNING The sun is streaming in the window. On the table is a single jandal. A group of 3 National Party members walk into the room instantly spotting the jandal. Gerry: What’s that? Judith: What? Gerry: That jandal. What’s that. Shane: It’s a… jandal? ...
When Parliament sits next Tuesday, the Prime Minister will finally meet her match. Judith Collins and Jacinda Ardern are opposites in just about every respect. Yet they have the same basic appeal. Ardern and Collins are as much cultural icons as they are political leaders. Each represents a different side ...
The "palace letters" between Australia's then Governor-General John Kerr and the Queen were released today by the Australian Archives. From the bits I caught of the original press conference, they didn't sound so bad. But now people have had time to go through them properly, and they show an appalling ...
About 10 years ago when I was producing Q+A on TVNZ, first-term minister Judith Collins arrived for an interview with a staff member I hadn’t met. She kindly introduced us. “This is Tim Watkin,” she said. Adding after the briefest of pauses, “he writes mean things about me on Pundit”.Her ...
The toxic implosion of National thanks to an internal culture of screaming bullshit, most of it completely supercharged in the last decade by a feckless, moronic, “smile and wave” Banker (lauded as “a businessman who will sort out politics!”) who mainlined Neoliberal economics and was literally called, by his own ...
Todd Muller - National Party MPTodd Muller’s shock resignation today really only points to one possible conclusion; there’s further damning evidence linking him directly to National’s latest dirty political episode that will likely be unearthed during an official inquiry.Obviously Muller being directly involved in the leaking of COVID-19 patient’s private ...
In the months following the Christchurch massacre, the police acquired a sudden interest in nazis and gun "enthusiasts" (both of which they had previously been ignoring because they were white), and started kicking in doors around Christchurch and seizing firearms, using warrantless search provisions in the Search and Surveillance Act ...
. . The last 24 hours in Aotearoa’s New Zealand’s politics has provided more drama than a week’s worth of “Shortie Street” episodes combined and binge-watched. It began approximately around 5.30 last night (7 July) with a disclosure by Clutha-Southland MP, Hamish Walker that he had leaked a list of ...
The Serious Fraud Office has announced that it is investigating the Labour Party over donations it received in 2017. Which means the three largest parties in Parliament are all now either being investigated or prosecuted for donation fraud. The only parties who aren't are the Greens and ACT. As ...
Dr Kim Handley, University of AucklandJust how do cyanobacteria live in their natural habitat, and how do they coexist with other bacteria and microbial life forms? And what difference will knowledge on this bacteria have on maintaining New Zealand’s water quality? One of the consequences of declining water quality ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Climate Feedback Article Review... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Review... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week... Story of the Week... Global temperatures could exceed crucial 1.5 C target in the next five years In this aerial view ...
Three months on, and looking at the state of the world - 13 million cases, 560,000 dead, and both rising - it is clear that New Zealand's lockdown saved lives. But it didn't just save us from the pandemic and prevent future deaths - it also significantly reduced our background ...
Yesterday the Greens released their second big election policy - on energy. The short version is "more solar, less coal". They'd stick solar panels and batteries in every state house, and network them together to form a virtual power plant. They'd use grants to fund rooftop solar installations just as ...
National has a problem. And it’s time they said it out loud. It can’t be dismissed as a one-off anymore or excused because ‘everyone does it’. No, it cuts deeper than that. National has an ethics problem. Especially when it comes to privacy and using ordinary people as pawns in ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, July 5 through Sat, July 11, 2020Editor's ChoiceThink Covid-19 Disrupted the Food Chain? Wait and See What Climate Change Will DoThe pandemic has revealed deep flaws in the ...
The Council of Disobedient Women There is a regular segment in the Speak Up For Women podcasts called “Absolutely Blasted Mad Moment of the Week”. Each podcast the speaker and the host discuss a recent event that is the most insane thing they have seen in the gender critical space ...
Todd Muller - Dishonest National Party leaderIt seems that dishonest Todd Muller is, like many right-wing politicians, entirely morally bankrupt. I mean just look at the National Party’s leaking omni-shambles over the last week or so. They’ve imploded in a spectacular display of backfiring dirty politics, the likes of which ...
MONDAY JULY 13Bodyguard (TVNZ 1, 8.30pm). It's the final; if you haven't seen this already on Netflix, get ready, the ending is batshit.Unforgotten (Vibe, Sky 006, 8.30pm). I wonder if Sanjeev Bhasksar's character has got rid of that damn backpack in the third season of this cold case drama? Although, come ...
TUESDAY JULY 14Yorkshire Airport (Prime, 7.30pm). Bloomin’ ’eck, behind the scenes at Leeds Bradford Airport. Apparently, there is plenty of “northern charm”, although reaction in the UK ranged from “brilliant” to “patronising”. It is narrated by Hugh Dennis, whose middle name might be “Arch”.WEDNESDAY JULY 15Queen: Live at Wembley (Prime, ...
Simon Bridges must be the unluckiest person in New Zealand politics. When he was elected as leader of the National party, he also became Leader of the Opposition – a position, he was entitled to assume, that would require him to “oppose”. But the government he set out to oppose ...
This is a re-post from The Guardian by Damian Carrington Spreading rock dust on farmland could suck billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide from the air every year, according to the first detailed global analysis of the technique. The chemical reactions that degrade the rock particles lock the greenhouse gas into ...
Check out Speak Up For Women’s new podcasts: Episode 3 In this episode Speak Up For Women spokeswoman Ani O’Brien (@aniobrien) is joined by Beth Johnson (@beth_nosnhoj) to discuss the proposal from Statistics NZ to change standard data collection policy to “gender by default” rather than sex. They discuss why the ...
During a recent public consultation on the future of Archives New Zealand, a key report was suppressed. The Ombudsman has ruled that the refusal was unjustified. Sadly, the consultation was over by the time of the the decision has been made. However, the law on the use of the ...
National MP - Michael WoodhouseUnbelievable! Michelle Boag also sent National’s Michael Woodhouse confidential emails about COVD-19 patients, and he continued to publicly attack the Government over these very same breaches of privacy.This is the biggest political self-own since the Act Party’s David Garrett admitted in Parliament that he used a ...
Transcript: National Party policy announcement on roads – 8 July, 2020 Muller: Good afternoon everybody. Thank you for coming. Reporter 1: Is Hamish Walker a racist? Muller: Hang on… you haven’t even said good afternoon to me yet. Reporter 1: Good afternoon Mr Muller. Is Hamish Walker a racist? ...
Back in April, I wrote about trials in Iran of a fixed-dose combination of two existing anti-viral drugs used to treat hepatitis C – sofosbuvir and daclatasvir – that could point to an effective treatment for Covid-19 symptoms.At the time, data from those trials was not available outside the hospitals ...
Prof Nick Wilson, Dr Anja Mizdrak, Dr Jennifer Summers, Prof Michael BakerThe pandemic-related lockdown is possibly the most dramatic public health intervention in NZ history. It helped achieve the elimination of community transmission of the COVID-19 virus in NZ. But it was also associated with 548 fewer total ...
Reprehensible: There is much that could be said about Michael Woodhouse, but what would be the point? Any man who willingly involves himself in a situation as reprehensible as the one depicted in the above photograph has already vouchsafed all that decent people need to know about his character. That there have ...
As the debate over assisted dying rages in the run-up to the referendum at the election on September 19, a persistent problem continues to dog the discussions. That is to say, a prominent spokesperson for a particular group takes a strong public stand in opposition without acknowledging that they don’t ...
No Other Suspects? The mainstream news media was willing to print and broadcast harsh Opposition criticism of the Government, even though they knew that the source of the leaked information was a National Party MP. Even though, by pushing the story up towards the top of every news bulletin they were ...
Sacrificial Lamb: If the stories about Mr Taogaga and the unauthorised release of confidential medical data had been deliberately orchestrated by Labour’s political opponents, their deflection of the news media’s attention away from the Prime Minister’s address to the Labour Party Congress could hardly have been more successful.THE LABOUR PARTY ...
The East is Rent: The consequences of unleashing the young against the old; of elevating ideological rigor above reasoned debate; and of setting the present against the past; was a decade of unprecedented social stress and tension, interspersed with explosions of murderous mob violence and tragic material destruction. More than ...
The Green Party of Aotearoa-New Zealand could go from helping Jacinda Ardern run the country, to being turfed out of Parliament altogether in ten weeks. And that could see the end of Labour in government. Without them, Labour would likely have to do what no party has done since the ...
Remember the government's tyrannicalTerrorism Suppression (Control Orders) Bill? Remember how it was rammed through Parliament, with a four-day submission period and a select committee process that was a democratic fraud? At the time, the government gave the impression that there was an urgent need for this legislation, that a ...
Attack journalist - Tova O'BrienWe all know that much of the mainstream media in New Zealand is terribly biased. They are in effect another branch of the National Party, and can often be even more prejudiced than their right wing bosses.In fact many right wing politicians moonlight as journalists and ...
Former National Party President - Michelle BoagAfter the complete botch job Hamish Walker made of leaking the private details of COVID-19 patients to the mainstream media last week, the best-case scenario for Todd Muller and the National Party would be if the news cycle went quiet about their involvement.But unfortunately ...
One of the challenges of working on illegal wildlife markets, is you don’t really have scope to talk about your research into illegal wildlife markets. There is some stuff though that willbe coming out on Asiatic black bears in China, and before Covid19, I was delving more into rhinos. Which ...
Some are surprised at this sudden brain implosion on the part of both Michelle Boag, former National Party President, and the National Party in general, in exposing the private, confidential details of COVID patients. Others…? Let’s be blunt: not so much. Too many of that Party have long operated with ...
Michelle Boag - Former National Party PresidentWhen Todd Muller decided not to discipline Hamish Walker for his horribly racist press release last week, you had to wonder if his lack of proper leadership had something to do with a shared belief system? After all, the whiteness of the blue “team” ...
On Twitter today, lawyer Felix Geiringer asked a good question: why are MP's exempt from the Privacy Act? The Act imposes its obligations on "agencies", and s8 of the 2020 Act states that this term does not include... a member of Parliament in their official capacity The 1993 Act, ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzWhat was the climate and sea level like at times ...
So now we know, beyond all doubt. The National party has no interest in joining the “team of five million” in our fight against the pandemic but its priority is to take every opportunity it can to damage the government. The cynicism is breathtaking. It was prepared to leak the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters The massive dust storm that formed over the Sahara Desert in mid-June invaded the southeastern U.S. June 25-28, bringing dangerous levels of air pollution, low visibility, and colorful sunsets. The air pollution event over parts of Texas and the Gulf ...
In 1987, as a British Labour MP, I was elected to the Shadow Cabinet by my colleagues and was asked by the party leader to direct Labour’s campaign in the general election of that year. The election was to take place at the height of Mrs Thatcher’s dominance and we ...
National MP Nicola WillisHousing, which I would argue is a fundamental human right, has long been a problem in New Zealand. Not only do we have some of the most overpriced houses in the entire world, much of the housing stock is substandard and therefore affects not just people’s health ...
If the government has not lined up behind a "Yes" vote in this year's cannabis referendum the way some reformers would have liked, one entirely laudable thing it did do was commission some science around the public's choice.That science landed today, in the form of the report from an expert ...
Associate Professor Sara WaltonAt the heart of the discussion on opening up our borders is the dichotomy of health and the economy – both of which are actually intertwined, like many things with our economy, as this epidemic has shown.If we think about our country as a system, ...
This is a re-post from Carbon Brief by Josh Gabbatiss This year will see the largest ever drop globally in both investment and consumer spending on energy as the coronavirus pandemic hits every major sector, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). The crisis is accelerating the shutdown of older fossil-fuelled ...
A short opinion piece – Friday 26th June 2020 Whilst our Government has treated many financial victims of the current Covid-19 virus with appropriate generosity, the same cannot be said for those of the two earlier “epidemics” in NZ. The “Covid-84” virus (also called “Rogernomics”) spread systemic greed, with the ...
Everyone deserves a a decent life. We know this is possible with a fairer approach to income support and tax Read the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand’s Poverty Action Plan here ...
After a long break, the government is back inserting secrecy clauses in legislation. This time its the Overseas Investment Amendment Bill (No 3), which in its clause allowing Ministers to exempt purchasers of farm land from the usual rules also allows them to exempt an exemption from the publication requirement: ...
Over the past two years the government has repeatedly delayed a scheme to put cameras on boats to monitor Mew Zealand's pervasively criminal fishing industry. But it turns out that the industry actually wants cameras: Three of the country's biggest seafood companies have broken ranks with the rest of the ...
Louise Delany (public health lawyer)Health and emergency laws have played a critical role in this country’s successful elimination of community transmission of the COVID-19 pandemic. This blog details key aspects of the legislation and comments on issues around testing, payments by incoming travellers for quarantine costs, and mask use. ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters acknowledged today the heavy price of trying to lead the National Party today. ‘One’s sympathy goes out to Todd Muller and his family. Todd is a good man, unlike most of his colleagues he does ...
We're keeping New Zealand moving, one progress-packed week at a time. Read below to find out how we're creating jobs, protecting the environment, looking out for the health of New Zealanders', and upgrading our critical infrastructure - and that's only this week. ...
We're keeping New Zealand moving, one progress-packed week at a time. Read below to find out how we're creating jobs, protecting the environment, looking out for the health of New Zealanders', and upgrading our critical infrastructure - and that's only this week. ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund is providing up to $19.5 million to boost innovative primary sector businesses and create training and job opportunities for Northland locals through the construction of an innovation and enterprise park at Ngawha, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones ...
The Green Party is today unveiling part one of its plan for a fossil-fuel free Aotearoa, including an immediate ban on new industrial coal boilers. ...
Mark Patterson MP, Spokesperson for Primary Industry New Zealand First is supporting calls by hunters and the New Zealand Tahr Foundation (NZTF) to halt a large scale cull of Himalayan Tahr by the Department of Conservation in National Parks. The calls are supported by a 40,000 strong petition and the ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First New Zealand First leader Winston Peters today scoffed at suggestions that a team of six political operatives have been dispatched to New Zealand to assist his campaign. ‘As President Ronald Reagan once said, ‘there they go again.’ ‘The clickbait journos can’t ...
New Zealand First is pleased to announce Jenny Marcroft as the party’s election 2020 candidate for the Auckland Central electorate. Jenny spent years working in Auckland Central, having spent a vast proportion of her broadcasting career there. She says she, "knows the place and knows the people." Ms Marcroft says ...
New Zealanders deserve healthy rivers and lakes that are safe to swim in - but they have been getting worse for decades. That's why, with our latest announcement, we're investing in projects that will help clean up our rivers and lakes and restore them to health, within a generation. ...
This week we moved into the second half of 2020 - and our Government delivered another week of big changes and major progress for New Zealanders. Read below for a wrap of the key things moments from the week - from extending paid parental leave, to making major investments in ...
The Green Party has opposed the COVID-19 Recovery Fast-track Consenting Bill which shortcuts normal consenting processes under the Resource Management Act (RMA), reduces public participation and narrows environmental considerations. ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister of Regional Economic Development A regional freight hub for the lower North Island will be built just northeast of Palmerston North, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones has announced. The Government is investing $40 million through the Provincial Growth Fund to designate and buy land and design ...
Green Party Co-leader Marama Davidson is calling for the introduction of a Guaranteed Minimum Income to lift hundreds of thousands of people out of poverty and prevent more families entering into further debt with the Ministry of Social Development. ...
There has been renewed focus on New Zealand First acting as a handbrake on the Government after our decision to not support Auckland light rail. We are a handbrake for bad ideas, that istrue, but our track record since 2017 has seen New Zealand First constructively also serve as an ...
Mark Patterson MP, New Zealand First List MP New Zealand First’s Fair Residency for Superannuation Bill passed its First Reading in Parliament today. The Bill makes a significant change to NZ Super by raising the minimum residency requirement from 10 to 20 years, after age 20. “Currently, a migrant of ...
Darroch Ball MP, Spokesperson for Law and Order A New Zealand First member’s bill in the name of Darroch Ball introducing a six-month minimum prison sentence for assaults on first responders has passed its second reading in Parliament. The new offence of "injuring a first responder or corrections officer with ...
Fletcher Tabuteau MP, Deputy Leader of New Zealand First New Zealand First welcomes the launch of the new Criminal Cases Review Commission, gifted with the name from Waikato-Tainui - Te Kāhui Tātari Ture, announced in Hamilton today by Justice Minister Andrew Little. “New Zealand First has long believed in and ...
The Green Party is celebrating over $800m in new funding for green projects, which will get people into jobs while solving New Zealand’s long-term challenges. ...
Mark Patterson MP, Spokesperson for Primary Industries New Zealand First is appalled that Meridian seems to have been unnecessarily spilling water from its dams to drive up its profits."While New Zealanders have been coming together in some of our darkest hours, we don’t expect power gentailers to waste water and ...
We wrapped up the first half of 2020 with a busy month, taking additional steps to support New Zealanders as we continue with our economic recovery. We rolled out targeted packages to support key industries like tourism and construction, helped create jobs in the environmental and agriculture sectors, and set ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Infrastructure Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones has welcomed the appointment of Maurice Davis and his deep infrastructure and construction experience to the board of the Infrastructure Commission. Mr Davis (Ngāti Maniapoto), is the seventh and final appointment to the board led by former Reserve Bank Governor ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First New Zealand’s click bait journalism is taking a turn for the worse, with yet another example of sensationalist, wilful-misrepresentation of the facts. “New Zealand First has worked constructively with its Coalition partner on hundreds of pieces of legislation and policy, and ...
The Green Party is today unveiling its Poverty Action Plan, which includes a Guaranteed Minimum Income to ensure people have enough to live with dignity. ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister Fletcher Tabuteau MP, Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development The Rotorua Museum redevelopment and Whakarewarewa and Tokorangi Forest projects will be accelerated thanks to a $2.09 million Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) boost, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher ...
This week, we rolled out the next steps of our recovery plan, with new infrastructure investment, extra support for tourism operators, and a new programme to get Kiwis into agriculture careers. The global economic consequences of COVID-19 will continue to be a challenge, but we have a detailed plan to ...
Jenny Marcroft MP, Spokesperson for Health New Zealand First welcomes the passage of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission Bill through its final reading in Parliament today fulfilling a coalition agreement commitment. “This is an important step in saving the lives of New Zealanders and delivers a key coalition commitment ...
Whakatāne has been given a $2.5 million boost to speed up previously funded projects and create more than 450 jobs in the next decade. Of those, the equivalent of 160 full-time jobs could be delivered in the next six weeks. Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters is in town to make ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister Fletcher Tabuteau MP, Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is investing $2.5 million to accelerate three infrastructure projects in Whakatāne, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau announced today. “This package is about ...
Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones is throwing his weight behind a bid by the Auckland Council to fast-track the more than doubling of the city's water allowance from the Waikato River. And he's coming out strongly against anyone who plans on getting in the way of this campaign. "It is my ...
The Green Party is thrilled to see changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that mean consents for large projects can be declined if they will have significant climate change implications that are inconsistent with the Zero Carbon Act and Aotearoa New Zealand’s Paris Agreement obligations. ...
Hon Ron Mark, Minister of Defence The Royal New Zealand Navy’s new ship, Aotearoa, set sail for New Zealand on 10 June from the Republic of Korea, and is due to arrive in Auckland tomorrow, announced Minister of Defence Ron Mark. “Aotearoa is the Royal New Zealand Navy’s new fleet ...
Kia ora tatou Today I am setting out our plan in the event we have a new case of community transmission of COVID-19 in New Zealand. I will take a bit of time to do that, and then I’ll be happy to take questions at the end. Since we moved ...
·$124 million Government investment in recycling infrastructure ·Plans confirmed to increase and expand the waste levy to divert material from landfill, and recycle revenue into resource recovery and waste minimisation ·Innovative construction and demolition facility opened in Auckland with $3.1 million in support from Government’s Waste Minimisation Fund (WMF). As ...
A package of wellbeing infrastructure investments in Kaipara which focuses on improving the lives of the elderly and upgrading the iconic Kauri Museum has been announced by Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones today. “These shovel-ready projects will have significant benefits for their respective communities and I’m pleased this funding ...
More support is rolling out for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) from the COVID Response and Recovery Fund, to help them adapt and innovate to deal with the impact of the virus. The Ministers for Economic Development and Small Business have announced a further $40 million for the Regional Business ...
Stephen Clark, Māori Land Court Judge of Hamilton has been appointed as a District Court Judge with jury jurisdiction to be based in Hamilton, Attorney-General David Parker announced today. Judge Clark graduated with an LLB from Auckland University in 1988 and was admitted to the Bar in the same year. ...
The Crown will provide a loan to Hawke’s Bay Airport to ensure it can trade through COVID-19 economic impacts, support the region’s recovery and protect up to 200 jobs. The Crown has a 50 percent shareholding in Hawke’s Bay Airport Limited (HBAL), with Napier City Council holding 26 percent and ...
Four celebrated Māori and Pasifika events will receive up to $100,000 each in funding from the new Creative and Cultural Events Incubator fund, Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford announced today. The four events that were successful in the inaugural funding round are: Kia Mau Festival, Wellington Māoriland Film Festival, Otaki ...
The Minister for Pacific Peoples, Aupito William Sio is pleased to announce the inaugural launch of Kiribati Language Week as part of the 2020 Pacific language Weeks programme. “I am so pleased that this year we are able to provide resourcing support to the Kiribati community in Aotearoa which will ...
Wildlife institutions affected by a loss of visitor revenue during the COVID-19 lockdown are set to receive government support with nearly $15 million of funding available announced Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage. “Eco-sanctuaries, zoos, aquariums, wildlife parks, and wildlife rescue, hospital and rehabilitation facilities provide crucial support for the recovery ...
The Government is expanding and accelerating frontline mental health and wellbeing services at tertiary education institutes (TEI) to help students manage ongoing stresses related to COVID-19. “The lockdown has been hugely disruptive for students. Many of them have had to relocate and move to online learning, isolating them from their ...
The Minister of Police says a major operation against the Mongrel Mob in Waikato will make a big dent in drug harm and violent offending linked to organised crime networks. “Senior leadership of the Waikato Mongrel Mob has been taken out as a result of Operation Kingsville, which resulted in ...
The Government is extending the border exception criteria to enable some offshore victims and support people of the Christchurch mosque attacks to attend the sentencing of the accused beginning on 24 August2020, says Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway. “We want to support our valued Muslim brothers and sisters who were directly ...
A project to support volunteer efforts to look after streams and rivers is getting a boost thanks to support from DOC’s Community Conservation Fund announced Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage today. “The government is backing efforts to look after waterways with $199,400 for the Mountains to Sea Conservation Trust from ...
Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter today announced that funding for the COVID-19 Community Fund for women and girls will be doubled, as the first successful funding applications for the initial $1million were revealed. “Women and girls across the country have suffered because of the effects of COVID-19, and I ...
The Government’s books were better than forecast with a higher GST take as the economy got moving again after lockdown, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. The Crown Accounts for the 11 months to the end of May indicate the year end results for tax revenue will be stronger than forecast. ...
A plan to revitalise New Zealand’s strong wool sector and set it on a new, more sustainable and profitable path was unveiled today by Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor. The newly-released report - Vision and Action for New Zealand’s Wool Sector - was developed by the Wool Industry Project Action Group ...
Community efforts to create a Predator Free Whangārei will receive a $6 million boost, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones and Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage announced today. The new funding, through Government company Predator Free 2050 Ltd, will create around 12 jobs while enabling the complete removal of possums over ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has announced that the New Zealand Government is reviewing the settings of its relationship with Hong Kong. “China’s decision to pass a new national security law for Hong Kong has fundamentally changed the environment for international engagement there,” Mr Peters said. “New Zealand remains deeply ...
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has announced details of a multimillion-dollar investment in Whangārei for infrastructure projects that will help it recover from the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 200 jobs are expected to be created through the $26 million investment from the Government’s rejuvenation package ...
Following a second incident in which a person escaped from a managed isolation facility, security is being enhanced, including more police presence onsite, Minister Megan Woods said. “The actions of some individuals who choose to break the very clear rules to stay within the facilities means that more resourcing is ...
Waste reduction and recycling programmes in Kaipara are set to get a boost with Associate Environment Minister Eugenie Sage today announcing a $361,447 grant from the Ministry for the Environment’s Waste Minimisation Fund (WMF) Sustainable Kaipara. “The new funding will allow Sustainable Kaipara to partner with local schools, kura, community ...
The Government will support the Southland economy in the wake of multinational mining company Rio Tinto’s decision to follow through with its long signalled closure of the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter. “This day has unfortunately been on the cards for some time now, but nevertheless the final decision is a ...
New tools being developed to help boost Aotearoa’s Predator Free 2050 effort were unveiled today by Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage and Under Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau. A new rat poison, a camera with predator recognition software to detect and report predators, a new predator lure and a ...
The Coalition Government has approved the purchase of a fleet of Bushmaster vehicles to replace the New Zealand Army’s armoured Pinzgauers, Defence Minister Ron Mark has announced today. The new fleet of 43 Australian-designed and built Bushmaster NZ5.5 will provide better protection for personnel and improved carrying capacity. “The age ...
The Government’s three prevention frameworks to reduce family violence in Aotearoa were launched this week by Associate Minister for Social Development Poto Williams. The frameworks were developed in partnership with communities around New Zealand, and build on the work the Government has already begun with its new family violence prevention ...
The Government is pleased to confirm funding for improvements to radiology and surgical services at Hawke's Bay DHB, Health Minister Chris Hipkins says. "The Minister of Finance the Hon Grant Robertson and former Health Minister Dr David Clark approved funding for Hawke's Bay DHB’s redevelopment of their radiology facilities ...
• New funding for four beds at Napier’s Springhill Residential Addiction Centre • A new managed withdrawal home and community service, and peer support before and after residential care at Tairāwhiti DHB • A co-ordinated network of withdrawal management services throughout the South Island • Peer support in Rotorua and ...
Introduction, seafarers and POAL Good morning everyone, I am delighted to be online with you all today. Before I begin, I have to acknowledge that COVID-19 has disrupted the maritime sector on an unprecedented scale. The work of seafarers and the maritime industry is keeping many economies around the world ...
A $13 million investment from Government will create jobs and improve the resilience of the rail connection between Christchurch and the West Coast, Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones and Regional Economic Development Under-Secretary Fletcher Tabuteau say. The funding comes from the tagged contingency set aside in Budget 2020 for infrastructure projects ...
The Government is investing $761 million to assist local government upgrade under-pressure water services across the country, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta announced today. The announcement was made at the site of the water bore that was found to be the source of the fatal ...
Recognised Seasonal Employers and migrant seasonal workers stranded in New Zealand will be able to continue working and supporting themselves with more flexible hours and roles, says Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway. The time-limited visa changes are: Stranded RSE workers will be able to work part-time (a minimum of 15 hours ...
The Government is making immediate short-term changes to visa settings to support temporary migrants already onshore in New Zealand and their employers, while also ensuring New Zealanders needing work are prioritised, Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says. We are: Extending temporary work visas due to expire by the end of 2020 ...
Professor Peter Skelton CNZM has been appointed as Chief Freshwater Commissioner and Alternate Environment Court Judge Craig James Thompson as Deputy Chief Freshwater Commissioner for the newly established Freshwater Planning Process (FPP). Environment Minister David Parker today also announced the appointment of Chief Environment Court Judge Laurie Newhook as the ...
Auckland Queen’s Counsel Neil Campbell has been appointed a Judge of the High Court, Attorney‑General David Parker announced today. Justice Campbell graduated with a BCom and LLB (Hons) from the University of Auckland in 1992. He spent two years with Bell Gully Buddle Weir in Auckland before travelling to the United ...
The Associate Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration, Poto Williams, is seeking feedback on a proposal to better enable the development and operation of commercial film and video facilities in Christchurch. The Proposal, developed by Regenerate Christchurch in response to a request from Christchurch City Council, asks that powers under section ...
The Government has launched a bold plan to boost primary sector export earnings by $44 billion over the next decade, while protecting the environment and growing jobs. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern today released Fit for a Better World – Accelerating our Economic Potential, a 10-year roadmap to unlock greater value ...
A new approach to prevent family harm that encourages greater collaboration across government and community groups is being celebrated at the opening of a new facility in Auckland. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern today opened the Multi-Disciplinary Family Harm Prevention Hub Te Taanga Manawa in Lambie Road in Manukau. The facility ...
The Government has released a major new report on the options for relocating the Port of Auckland’s freight operations while deferring any decision on the issue. “That decision needs to be informed by policy analysis that is still to be completed. As a result it will be up to a ...
The history of Rāpaki is being restored through the inclusion of te reo in thirteen official place names on Te Pātaka-o-Rākaihautū / Banks Peninsula and around Lyttelton Harbour/Whakaraupō, the Minister for Land Information, Eugenie Sage, announced today. “I am pleased to approve the proposals from Te Hapū o Ngāti ...
Bookings for seats on Air New Zealand flights into New Zealand will be managed in the short term to ensure the Government is able to safely place New Zealanders arriving home into a managed isolation or quarantine facility, says Housing Minister Megan Woods. “Last week Air Commodore Darryn Webb and I ...
Forest & Bird has won in the Supreme Court against a coal mining company trying to push through an opencast mine near Westport, in a ruling which has implications across the whole of New Zealand. “This is absolutely wonderful ...
New National Party leader Judith Collins has replaced Michael Woodhouse with Shane Reti as the party's spokesperson on health matters Judith Collins is seeking to put the past week of privacy breach scandals behind her, appointing Whangarei MP Shane Reti as National's new spokesperson on health and promoting him to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Pep Canadell, Chief research scientist, CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere; and Executive Director, Global Carbon Project, CSIRO Fossil fuels and agriculture are driving a dangerous acceleration in methane emissions, at a rate consistent with a 3-4℃ rise in global temperatures this century. Our ...
New National leader Judith Collins has stripped Michael Woodhouse of the health portfolio because of his involvement in the Covid-19 data leak saga, with Dr Shane Reti replacing him ...
An extract from the splendid new book Weed: A New Zealand Story, by James Borrowdale. Books editor Catherine Woulfe writes:Weed is a masterclass in longform feature writing, a clever hopscotch through history, statistics, law, chemistry and neuroscience. Plus it’s packed with people and their yarns. Not many writers could keep their ...
With the Prime Minister’s “no new taxes” pledge long gone, the Taxpayers’ Union is calling on the National Party to commit to scrapping the 500% increase to the Government’s waste levy if elected to Government Reacting to the Government’s ...
While there are increasing examples of a return to some lockdown measures, there is little evidence to demonstrate the success of a second lockdown, because it’s too early to tell, write Maximilian de Courten, Bojana Klepac Pogrmilovic and Rosemary V Calder of Victoria University, Melbourne.The World Health Organisation reported more than ...
E tū is making sure workers’ voices lead the way with the kick-off of a new health and safety programme for Māori, Pasefika, and migrant workers in manufacturing. Funded jointly by the union and a Workplace Injury Prevention grant from ACC, E tū’s ...
From 2005’s Wayne Anderson: Singer of Songs to new Tom Sainsbury comedy Sextortion, via a dead peacock, a trio of escaped circus lions and a sentimental wrist wallet.Orlando Stewart has never made a hit TV show.What he has done, dating all the way back to 2005’s Wayne Anderson: Singer of ...
Latest from the Beehive The government announced more funding for this and that – along with bigger levies for trash disposal – while the Nats were arranging for Crusher Collins to vie with Kindly Jacinda when voters determine who will lead the next government. Mind you, the Greens aren’t averse ...
The third annual Jonesie Awards were hosted at Parliament today, celebrating the best of the worst of Government waste. Watch the video at www.taxpayers.org.nz/2020_jonesies . New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says, “Every year, ...
Four New Zealand food writers share their thoughts on being non-white in a very white industry – and suggest what they think needs to change.Recently, The Spinoff published a piece by Jean Teng and Charlotte Muru-Lanning about the lack of diversity in New Zealand’s food media scene. It provoked much ...
The SpinoffBy Nalini Baruch, Ashia Ismail-Singer, Melissa Koh and Jennifer Yee Collinson
It is theoretically possible that Judith Collins could be the next Prime Minister but first she must prove she can wield the party into an effective, unified team. ...
Child Poverty Action Group is calling on the Government to nationalise early childhood education provision in response to the challenges presented by COVID-19 and reports of providers prioritising profits over quality of services. CPAG’s latest research ...
A new platform for Members, means 100% of contributions go towards making Spinoff journalism happen. Plus: A merch store!Kia ora,This is the biggest announcement we’ve had since the launch of The Spinoff Members a year ago.For many months now we’ve been ferreting away at a big overhaul of the way ...
Opinion - Judith Collins' first public remarks after becoming leader shows she means to continue in the same way she's always operated as a politician, writes Cat MacLennan*. ...
Finally! For as long as the Campaign Against Foreign Control (CAFCA) has existed - 45+ years - we have called for the closure of Rio Tinto's Bluff smelter (for example, see our historic Comalco comic at https://www.scribd.com/doc/25367862/Comalco-Comic ...
“We are absolutely thrilled with the government’s announcement that it will invest in recycling and change the waste levy. These are bold and important steps that will create employment in communities right throughout the country, reduce emissions ...
Carlson has long been one of our best comedians, and now the world can see it too, writes Sam Brooks. Last year, Urzila Carlson became the first comedian from our shores to perform her own Netflix special, a half hour episode of the Comedians of the World series. Now she’s ...
The US elections are in a bizarre and unsettling phase with President Donald Trump governing by tweets, spraying assaults on the medical profession and continuing to maintain the US has the Covid-19 pandemic under control. Really? No, as state after state (with the notable exclusion of New York) takes a ...
The AUT video … first of this year’s languags series.By Simon Smith of AUT News The Kiribati instalment in the AUT Pacific language video series – “Adapting to a changing world, shaping resilient futures” – has been released. The video, produced by Auckland University of Technology, is narrated in ...
The Government must develop a national plan to prevent and respond to family and sexual violence during and after a pandemic situation says Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner Saunoamaali’i Karanina Sumeo. She made the comments in a written submission ...
The Prime Minister says New Zealand has a robust plan in place to tackle any re-emergence of Covid-19 within our borders, Marc Daalder reports New Zealand is ready for a second wave. That's the message Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern wanted to get across in a speech to the nation on ...
Allegations of defamation led to a court-mandated apology by Mike Hosking to John Tamihere.This morning Michael Noel James Hosking IV delivered a court-mandated apology to Māori Party co-leader John Tamihere over defamatory comments made by Hosking in 2018.The comments relate to a $600,000 private shareholder payment from Whānau Ora contractor, ...
A new Māori organisation called Te Pātaka Inc is being established to continue providing kai and firewood to assist whānau experiencing hardship from COVID-19 in Te Tau Ihu (top of the South Island). Originally the eight Te Tau Ihu iwi in Marlborough, ...
Analysis by Josh Van Veen – The Democracy Project. New National Party leader, Judith Collins, with prominent Auckland Council (Manurewa-Papakura ward) councillor, Daniel Newman. “I’m with her,” Newman said on hearing of her successful appointment as Leader of the Opposition. When Parliament sits next Tuesday, the ...
LGNZ is welcoming the Government’s announcement of $124 million for onshore recycling and the expansion of the waste levy, but is calling on the Government to match the money with a strategic waste plan to ensure New Zealanders get the best bang for ...
In her first interview with Morning Report as National Party leader, Judith Collins outlined a minor reshuffle, said she's not particularly worried about diversity, and said Michael Woodhouse's fate will be decided today. ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.Today’s contentJudith Collins elected leader of the National Party Richard Harman (Politik): Why National finally called on Collins Barry Soper (Newstalk ZB): Judith Collins should have been elected as ...
We are now at a crucial time of Climate Change history, since Covid 19 pandemic diverted our Governments from the beginning of the movement of marching together for saving our climate, and now time is upon us to continue our fight to save our ...
Despite changes made to original plans to ‘avoid’ the Hua o te AtuaUrupā, an iwi group says the Waikato Regional Theatre is still set to be built on their burial ground. A group of rangatahi from Kirikiriroa iwi Ngāti Wairere says a big part of the community wasn’t consulted on ...
Trade union activists will go from house to house asking Wellingtonians to pledge their vote in the general election to parties and candidates who support workers’ rights. Unions Wellington launches its election campaign at 6pm on Wednesday July ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maximilian de Courten, Health Policy Lead and Professor in Global Public Health at the Mitchell Institute, Victoria University The World Health Organisation reported more than 230,000 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday — the world’s largest daily increase during the pandemic. The surge ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lotti Tajouri, Associate Professor, Biomedical Sciences, Bond University You may remember when US President Donald Trump suggested exposing coronavirus patients to UV (ultraviolet) light – or “just very powerful light” – to help treat them. The use of UV light is not, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sebastian Leuzinger, Professor, Auckland University of Technology CC BY-NDClimate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katrina Raynor, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Transforming Housing Project, University of Melbourne After 3,000 people in nine public housing towers in Melbourne were placed under the harshest coronavirus lockdown in Australia so far, acting Australian Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly referred to the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Geoff Bertram, Senior Associate, Institute for Governance and Policy Studies, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington Another year, another round of hostage-taking by the owners of the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter. As always, Rio Tinto has made the first move, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mia Martin Hobbs, Researcher, University of Melbourne Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods, out now on Netflix, tells the story of five Black US veterans who return to Vietnam to hunt for gold and recover the remains of their lost squad leader. Beginning ...
Huljich family sell quarter of Pushpay stake for $123.8m; US markets up on better-than-forecast US bank results; UK orders Huawei gear purged from 5G rollout 2027 ...
Hello, my name is Stewart Sowman-Lund and I’m the new editor of The Spinoff’s Live Updates. Thank you for having a read. If you have any feedback, please get in touch with me at stewart@thespinoff.co.nz.6.45am: Judith Collins, National leaderShortly before 10pm last night, Judith Collins was declared the new leader ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Dramatic leadership change for National, government rolls out millions more in business support, and several police raids ruled unlawful by IPCA.If you didn’t pay attention to the news yesterday from about 7.15am onwards, there’s a bit to catch up on. The ...
Analysis - For years Judith Collins has had her eye on the top prize and it took a complete leadership meltdown, just 10 weeks out from an election, for her National Party colleagues to give her what she's always wanted. ...
Can we avoid the angst and embarrassment of another water crisis like the current one? Anthony Fowler takes a look. In the midst of the Covid-19 lockdown, Auckland’s water reservoirs dropped to levels not seen for a generation. WaterCare dusted off the drought management plan and we came out of ...
Less than 14 hours after Todd Muller announced his surprise resignation as National Party leader, Judith Collins has taken the helm of the opposition. Here's what you need to know. One of the National Party's longest-serving MPs and frequent leadership hopefuls, Judith Collins, has finally seized the top job. The ...
Judy Bailey (words) and Jane Ussher (photos) travel to the Hokianga to meet wellness author Wendyl Nissen: “I love being unattractive,” she writes. “It’s a personal goal.” “You have to try the sausage rolls,” says Wendyl Nissen. “That’s Bruce in there.” Bruce was one half of her much loved ...
The new woman on New Zealand Rugby’s board, Jennifer Kerr, is all about making a difference - and in many walks of life, she tells Ashley Stanley. On top of making headlines as only the second woman appointed to New Zealand Rugby’s board, Jennifer Kerr wants to add where she ...
Newly elected National leader Judith Collins has taken the job in unenviable circumstances, but she is unlikely to wallow as she tries to dethrone Jacinda Ardern, as Sam Sachdeva writes So much of Todd Muller’s ill-fated stint as National Party leader was defined by pain: the pain he caused Simon Bridges by ousting ...
The Tiwai Point closure announcement has put the spotlight on a gnarly and potentially expensive problem in our electricity network - the gap between where a lot of our power is produced (the South) and where it is used (the North), not to mention the more than 5 percent of our ...
Four months stranded, four tickets cancelled, and two weeks in isolation - Merja Myllylahti shares her nightmarish story of getting home during a pandemic After a gruelling 54+ hours travel via Helsinki-Frankfurt-Dubai-Bangkok, I arrived back to Auckland on July 10 having being stranded in Finland for four months. At last luck was on ...
Nicholas Agar explains why relocating statues and erasing their names may be what the people they commemorate would have wanted Would Clive of India really want to have a town in Hawkes Bay named after him? I’m writing these words in a café in Clive, Hawkes Bay. Clive was named ...
Facebook’s perceived lack of trust might be damaging to news publishers, but the company itself has become ever more interwoven into the fabric of the news business, writes Emily Bell, director of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University.Mark Zuckerberg and Noam Chomsky are strange bedfellows in this ...
The rules over the culling and hunting of Himalayan Tahr are causing consternation for both hunters and environmentalists The first court case may be over, but commentators say New Zealand's plan to deal with Himalayan Tahr is antiquated, and needs a serious refresh to avoid more butting heads in the future. ...
The new National leader has only a few weeks to turn the party’s fortunes around. But that’s what Labour’s new leader did in 2017. While there are obvious differences, there’s plenty Collins can draw from, writes Clint Smith, who was senior communications strategist under Andrew Little and Jacinda Ardern.It was ...
A party in crisis has chosen a leader with experience and profile. The challenge is daunting, writes Justin Giovannetti from parliament.The National Party has turned in its moment of crisis towards a battle-hardened and pugnacious leader in Judith Collins to guide it towards an election that is only 66 days ...
Do not mistake tough for malevolent. The new National leader can take on whatever role is required of her politically and play it to perfection, writes Ben Thomas.The National Party faces the fight of its life. And so it has chosen as its new leader the toughest fighter in New ...
By RNZ News New Zealand’s National Party has elected Judith Collins as its new leader to replace Todd Muller, with Gerry Brownlee as her deputy to take on the Labour-led coalition government in the September general election. Collins, 61, was first elected as an MP for Clevedon in 2002 and ...
Opinion - Collins has made clear for some time that she wanted the leadership. And now she has it. What will she do with it? Liam Hehir takes a look. ...
Judith Collins has been voted in by colleagues as leader of the National Party, with Gerry Brownlee as her deputy. Look back over the day's events here. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Uncertainty surrounding a cluster of COVID-19 cases linked to a Sydney hotel has prompted reactions from the Queensland and South Australian governments, as the Victorian situation continues to be critical. Victorian authorities on Tuesday reported ...
In recent days an incorrect story has been repeated in the news about how Judith Collins had to resign after the book Dirty Politics was published but was later exonerated and returned to Cabinet. In the interests of accuracy, it is worth correcting this ...
Judith Collins is the new leader of the National Party and a vote for deputy is underway. Newsroom understands that the electorate MP for Papakura has been selected for the leadership. It will mark the first time in 23 years the party has selected a woman to lead it. Collins takes over ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Chris Wallace, Associate Professor, 50/50 By 2030 Foundation, Faculty of Business Government & Law, University of Canberra The “palace letters” show the Australian Constitution’s susceptibility to self-interested behaviour by individual vice-regal representatives. They also reveal the vulnerability of Australian governments to secret ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anne Twomey, Professor of Constitutional Law, University of Sydney For more than four decades, the question has been asked: did the queen know the governor-general, Sir John Kerr, was about to dismiss the Whitlam government, and did she encourage or support that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gery Karantzas, Associate professor in Social Psychology / Relationship Science, Deakin University From songs and poems to novels and movies, romantic love is one of the most enduring subjects for artworks through the ages. But what about the science? Historical, cultural and ...
The scamp of New Zealand publishing is laid to rest, for now. In 2005 I wrote and released a book called On the conditions and possibilities of Helen Clark taking me as her Young Lover. I gave myself the name Richard Meros.My real name is Murdoch. Some people think that sounds ...
Open Mike 06/05/2018 
For the third time in the past decade, the government is directly subsidising wage earners to get them through a tough patch. The Covid-19 wage subsidy scheme though dwarfs the previous two schemes that were implemented post the Christchurch and Kaikoura earthquakes: some figures put the number of New Zealanders ...44 mins ago
Supposedly the struggle against climate change is one of this government's priorities. But how can we assess whether government policies and targets are enough to meet that challenge? Are our policies working? Are our targets enough? On the latter question, whether or not they are consistent with the Paris Agreement ...2 hours ago
The Civilian takes a look at the new leader of the National Party, Todd Muller This article was written over the past weekend as part of The Civilian’s series of “Meet the Leaders” profiles. Some will claim that this makes the article outdated, because Muller is no longer leader. But ...3 hours ago
Judith Collins - National Party leaderThe National Party, after Todd Muller’s quick exit stage right, have chosen Judith Collins as their new leader in what can only be seen as a desperate attempt to regain some of the conservative voters they’ve lost in recent months.There are numerous pros and cons ...6 hours ago
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nz I would like to know how much difference we could ...7 hours ago
INT: NATIONAL PARTY CAUCUS ROOM – MORNING The sun is streaming in the window. On the table is a single jandal. A group of 3 National Party members walk into the room instantly spotting the jandal. Gerry: What’s that? Judith: What? Gerry: That jandal. What’s that. Shane: It’s a… jandal? ...9 hours ago
When Parliament sits next Tuesday, the Prime Minister will finally meet her match. Judith Collins and Jacinda Ardern are opposites in just about every respect. Yet they have the same basic appeal. Ardern and Collins are as much cultural icons as they are political leaders. Each represents a different side ...19 hours ago
The toxic implosion of National thanks to an internal culture of screaming bullshit, most of it completely supercharged in the last decade by a feckless, moronic, “smile and wave” Banker (lauded as “a businessman who will sort out politics!”) who mainlined Neoliberal economics and was literally called, by his own ...23 hours ago
. . The last 24 hours in Aotearoa’s New Zealand’s politics has provided more drama than a week’s worth of “Shortie Street” episodes combined and binge-watched. It began approximately around 5.30 last night (7 July) with a disclosure by Clutha-Southland MP, Hamish Walker that he had leaked a list of ...1 day ago
Read our latest newsletter here ...2 days ago
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Climate Feedback Article Review... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Review... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week... Story of the Week... Global temperatures could exceed crucial 1.5 C target in the next five years In this aerial view ...2 days ago
The Council of Disobedient Women There is a regular segment in the Speak Up For Women podcasts called “Absolutely Blasted Mad Moment of the Week”. Each podcast the speaker and the host discuss a recent event that is the most insane thing they have seen in the gender critical space ...4 days ago
MONDAY JULY 13Bodyguard (TVNZ 1, 8.30pm). It's the final; if you haven't seen this already on Netflix, get ready, the ending is batshit.Unforgotten (Vibe, Sky 006, 8.30pm). I wonder if Sanjeev Bhasksar's character has got rid of that damn backpack in the third season of this cold case drama? Although, come ...4 days ago
Simon Bridges must be the unluckiest person in New Zealand politics. When he was elected as leader of the National party, he also became Leader of the Opposition – a position, he was entitled to assume, that would require him to “oppose”. But the government he set out to oppose ...4 days ago
Check out Speak Up For Women’s new podcasts: Episode 3 In this episode Speak Up For Women spokeswoman Ani O’Brien (@aniobrien) is joined by Beth Johnson (@beth_nosnhoj) to discuss the proposal from Statistics NZ to change standard data collection policy to “gender by default” rather than sex. They discuss why the ...5 days ago
Reprehensible: There is much that could be said about Michael Woodhouse, but what would be the point? Any man who willingly involves himself in a situation as reprehensible as the one depicted in the above photograph has already vouchsafed all that decent people need to know about his character. That there have ...5 days ago
Some are surprised at this sudden brain implosion on the part of both Michelle Boag, former National Party President, and the National Party in general, in exposing the private, confidential details of COVID patients. Others…? Let’s be blunt: not so much. Too many of that Party have long operated with ...1 week ago
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters acknowledged today the heavy price of trying to lead the National Party today. ‘One’s sympathy goes out to Todd Muller and his family. Todd is a good man, unlike most of his colleagues he does ...1 day ago
We're keeping New Zealand moving, one progress-packed week at a time. Read below to find out how we're creating jobs, protecting the environment, looking out for the health of New Zealanders', and upgrading our critical infrastructure - and that's only this week. ...2 days ago
The Green Party is today unveiling part one of its plan for a fossil-fuel free Aotearoa, including an immediate ban on new industrial coal boilers. ...3 days ago
Kia ora tatou Today I am setting out our plan in the event we have a new case of community transmission of COVID-19 in New Zealand. I will take a bit of time to do that, and then I’ll be happy to take questions at the end. Since we moved ...6 hours ago
Forest & Bird has won in the Supreme Court against a coal mining company trying to push through an opencast mine near Westport, in a ruling which has implications across the whole of New Zealand. “This is absolutely wonderful ...23 mins ago
New National Party leader Judith Collins has replaced Michael Woodhouse with Shane Reti as the party's spokesperson on health matters Judith Collins is seeking to put the past week of privacy breach scandals behind her, appointing Whangarei MP Shane Reti as National's new spokesperson on health and promoting him to ...35 mins ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Pep Canadell, Chief research scientist, CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere; and Executive Director, Global Carbon Project, CSIRO Fossil fuels and agriculture are driving a dangerous acceleration in methane emissions, at a rate consistent with a 3-4℃ rise in global temperatures this century. Our ...41 mins ago
New National leader Judith Collins has stripped Michael Woodhouse of the health portfolio because of his involvement in the Covid-19 data leak saga, with Dr Shane Reti replacing him ...54 mins ago
An extract from the splendid new book Weed: A New Zealand Story, by James Borrowdale. Books editor Catherine Woulfe writes:Weed is a masterclass in longform feature writing, a clever hopscotch through history, statistics, law, chemistry and neuroscience. Plus it’s packed with people and their yarns. Not many writers could keep their ...1 hour ago
Latest from the Beehive The government announced more funding for this and that – along with bigger levies for trash disposal – while the Nats were arranging for Crusher Collins to vie with Kindly Jacinda when voters determine who will lead the next government. Mind you, the Greens aren’t averse ...2 hours ago
It is theoretically possible that Judith Collins could be the next Prime Minister but first she must prove she can wield the party into an effective, unified team. ...3 hours ago
The Prime Minister says New Zealand has a robust plan in place to tackle any re-emergence of Covid-19 within our borders, Marc Daalder reports New Zealand is ready for a second wave. That's the message Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern wanted to get across in a speech to the nation on ...6 hours ago
Huljich family sell quarter of Pushpay stake for $123.8m; US markets up on better-than-forecast US bank results; UK orders Huawei gear purged from 5G rollout 2027 ...8 hours ago
Can we avoid the angst and embarrassment of another water crisis like the current one? Anthony Fowler takes a look. In the midst of the Covid-19 lockdown, Auckland’s water reservoirs dropped to levels not seen for a generation. WaterCare dusted off the drought management plan and we came out of ...11 hours ago
Less than 14 hours after Todd Muller announced his surprise resignation as National Party leader, Judith Collins has taken the helm of the opposition. Here's what you need to know. One of the National Party's longest-serving MPs and frequent leadership hopefuls, Judith Collins, has finally seized the top job. The ...11 hours ago
Judy Bailey (words) and Jane Ussher (photos) travel to the Hokianga to meet wellness author Wendyl Nissen: “I love being unattractive,” she writes. “It’s a personal goal.” “You have to try the sausage rolls,” says Wendyl Nissen. “That’s Bruce in there.” Bruce was one half of her much loved ...11 hours ago
The new woman on New Zealand Rugby’s board, Jennifer Kerr, is all about making a difference - and in many walks of life, she tells Ashley Stanley. On top of making headlines as only the second woman appointed to New Zealand Rugby’s board, Jennifer Kerr wants to add where she ...11 hours ago
Newly elected National leader Judith Collins has taken the job in unenviable circumstances, but she is unlikely to wallow as she tries to dethrone Jacinda Ardern, as Sam Sachdeva writes So much of Todd Muller’s ill-fated stint as National Party leader was defined by pain: the pain he caused Simon Bridges by ousting ...11 hours ago
The Tiwai Point closure announcement has put the spotlight on a gnarly and potentially expensive problem in our electricity network - the gap between where a lot of our power is produced (the South) and where it is used (the North), not to mention the more than 5 percent of our ...11 hours ago
Four months stranded, four tickets cancelled, and two weeks in isolation - Merja Myllylahti shares her nightmarish story of getting home during a pandemic After a gruelling 54+ hours travel via Helsinki-Frankfurt-Dubai-Bangkok, I arrived back to Auckland on July 10 having being stranded in Finland for four months. At last luck was on ...11 hours ago
Nicholas Agar explains why relocating statues and erasing their names may be what the people they commemorate would have wanted Would Clive of India really want to have a town in Hawkes Bay named after him? I’m writing these words in a café in Clive, Hawkes Bay. Clive was named ...11 hours ago
OPINION: Slick rhetoric and the inherent opacity of climate policy means most Kiwis have no clue how poorly we're doing on emissions reductions. ...11 hours ago
The rules over the culling and hunting of Himalayan Tahr are causing consternation for both hunters and environmentalists The first court case may be over, but commentators say New Zealand's plan to deal with Himalayan Tahr is antiquated, and needs a serious refresh to avoid more butting heads in the future. ...11 hours ago
Judith Collins is the new leader of the National Party and a vote for deputy is underway. Newsroom understands that the electorate MP for Papakura has been selected for the leadership. It will mark the first time in 23 years the party has selected a woman to lead it. Collins takes over ...19 hours ago
A thought-provoking read about some of the thinking behind attempts to sow mistrust towards media and institutions of society in general.
How to respond? The final paragraph seems worthwhile:
” If the left is to succeed in replacing the status quo with something better, then it must create an international movement and reject all the worst impulses of postmodernism and once again get behind what German philosopher Jürgen Habermas has called the “project of modernity.” Most importantly, leftists must be careful to avoid political alliances (voluntary or involuntary) with reactionary movements or “anti-modern” ideologues like Dugin. If a true progressive believes in the notion of “progress,” then she would sooner defend the status quo than align with political forces that hope to restore some forgotten “golden age.” ”
https://www.salon.com/2018/05/05/did-philosopher-alexander-dugin-aka-putins-brain-shape-the-2016-election/
Look I loved Habermas, but the last survivors of modernity are a rag-tag battle fleet heading for Elysium’s New Earth.
Forget the idea of trust.
Save what you have of the best of us.
@ Andre
I do not wish to be negative, but the left does not have to do anything like the jargon list which you breezily preach.
The Left has only to approach persons of integrity and goodwill and demonstrate that Capitalism has failed – world wide.
Threadbare capitalism and its greed, has prevented home ownership on a massive scale. It has also put millions of families in the hands of ruthless landlords – charging exorbitant rents.
For instance: From 1915 to 1988 there was a cap on rents that could be charged in the UK. Why was that thrown away? You well know the answer to that. The Capitalists wanted to take from the poor. Thievery. Robbery. Untold Crime.
Capitalism has to be removed from our towns, our communities, our Parliaments. Worldwide. No Capitalist should have any benefit; any access; any property; any status in the real world.
Capitalism has been a total failure.
Yes Capitalism has failed, Observer Tokoroa.
Now we have a bastion of Capitalism here visiting today.
Crooked Hillary Clinton visits Auckland today!!!!
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2018/05/it-was-a-blur-hillary-clinton-makes-surprise-visit-to-auckland-shop.html
Is she looking for ‘whitewater’????
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitewater_controversy
Doesn’t she know our water is now dirty???
Letter sent by the FMA/Reserve Bank of New Zealand
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU1805/S00158/letter-sent-by-the-fmareserve-bank-of-new-zealand.htm
Good luck ‘Reserve Bank’ at getting at the truth of how these Australian banks operate.
Letter from RB.
(brief)
To clarify, we request a written response from your organisation outlining:
• The actions you, your Board and your senior teams have taken to identify and address conduct risk – including any “gap analysis” work against the expectations set out in the FMA’s Conduct Guide
• Any specific plans and actions you have taken (or have underway) to respond to the issues and themes arising from the Royal Commission
• Any other work you have underway or that is planned to proactively identify and address potential conduct and culture risk
Yep. Rather ridiculous that the RBNZ thinks that writing a letter will get the truth.
This is why they’re supposed to have full investigative powers. So that they can go and find the truth whether the banks like it or not.
The letter is quite specifically asking for information and not just a reassurance that ‘she’ll be right, mate’. It is asking for formal responses and thus an early step in and of a formal (and ongoing?) process. I think the (potential) implications are quite clear, especially when reading between the lines.
Labour in the UK make major gains.
The BBC report it differently.
http://robinwestenra.blogspot.co.nz/2018/05/co2-concentrations-exced-410-ppm.html?m=1
Your link is something to do with CO2 concentrations.
Also, Labour were in prime position to sweep the Tories out of local governments left right and centre, but because they are poorly led by a guy who cannot form a sold shit let alone a solid Brexit policy, they made on balance very few inroads.
It’s Tony Blair’s last fan.
Thank you for sharing the views of the treacherous members of the UK plp.
Exactly. The main story of this election is the exit of the Brexit vote led by UKIP. The Tories, Lib Dems, Labour, and Greens all gained seats at the expense of UKIP (God Bless Em and thank Christ their gone – down from 82 seats to 2).
Ed simply repeats the poor and one sided view of his opinion makers. There was a massive 1.5% swing to Labour in London and a pathetic 1% swing to the tories in the country. /sarc
The BBC reported what actually happened – not what someone dreamt up in their head.
Wrong attachment !!
Here is the correct one.
http://robinwestenra.blogspot.co.nz/2018/05/bbc-reporting-of-elections-in-orwellian.html?m=1
And for a more honest appraisal of the election results
“People are showing they won’t be fooled by the BBC’s anti-Corbyn bias.”
https://www.thecanary.co/uk/2018/05/05/people-are-showing-they-will-not-be-fooled-by-the-bbcs-anti-corbyn-bias/
George Galloway on the election on Twitter.
“If there was any journalism left in this country there would be a major analysis in tomorrow’s papers of the giant Goebellian lie spun to the British people over #LocalElections2018 A systemised deception of which any dictatorship would be proud.”
George Galloway is a racist failed Labour political retread who can stick his opinions up his ass.
Two days ago at TS Bill the UK local elections were about to herald a grand revolution overcoming “liberalism”.
Today the result according to you is all the media’s fault and so instead of the revolution of some imagined extremists happening, in reality few useful Councils changing to Labour and people like you are not ready to face the reality that Corbyn is actually pretty incoherent and as a result average in voter appeal, and the Labour successes are more due to vigilant grassroots campaigning.
Two days ago at TS Bill the UK local elections were about to herald a grand revolution overcoming “liberalism”.
No Ad. That’s not what I claimed, and I was pretty damned clear on that front.
You weren’t clear about anything except an obscure allegory about voting and a glacier calving. For the rest, you just need to be more honest about what you were indeed about. And honest that the results jet didn’t go your way.
As usual from the Blairite and Douglas sectors, no actual argument.
Just shoot the messenger.
The fact is that the BBC is partisan against Corbyn.
As are you.
You just loved Labour when it kowtowed to neoliberal ideology.
So who would you have as Labour leader?
James tried to float the anti Semite boat …
Where as most honest or thinking people know Corbyn is concerned about extreme Zionism …. and its documented attempts to influence and take down British politicians …
This is what Corbyn is against
Telling us that a great number of new Labour people were elected is as useful as saying that Labour nearly won the last national election. It’s a nice warm feeling like weeing in the bath.
Which Councils did Labour win, and which did the Conservative win?
A good test is whether Barnet shifts. That will measure whether the anti-semitism controversy has had any effect.
if the UK is anything like NZ there’ll be a large disinterested non voting population – does anyone know the turnout in their council elections ?
You appear to have an anal obsession.
‘ led by a guy who cannot form a sold shit ‘
‘ who can stick his opinions up his ass.’
‘
It’s a nice warm feeling like weeing in the bath.’
Get some help.
Zorb6
Fair comment by you.
Highly emotional comment never convinces of reasoned opinion or knowledge.
It’s not even emotional, though. It’s just motional.
6th May 2018
Watching David Parker this morning on Q+A explain the Legal challenge he is facing over the threat of steel/aluminium tariff about to placed on NZ exports by the US by President Donald Trump has now left me very worried about this ‘legal’ fight he is drawing us all into at the WTO that may carry on for years it was explained to us.
If we are now entering into yet another “Trade agreement” in the TTP 11 are we now about to become more restricted from the same ‘legal’ claims in courts over yet more unfair treatments from other ‘trade agreements’ and is these ‘legal’ claims we will be making to secure our trade agreements going to bankrupt us all because we all know just how very expensive any ‘legal case’ will cost us all as NZ taxpayers.
A statement came out in a warning today from a legal agency that reminds us all that during the beginning of the 1929 depression there were many trade disputes arising when countries begun tightening their imports from other countries in an attempt to preserve the local domestic workforce for political reasons and this bankrupted several countries who sought legal claims over restricting imports of products then.
So has the Labour government actually considered these costs and financial effects to our economy when they finally agree to TPP 11?
I am very worried here that to much haste has been made to get into this deal as I see many cases where we have not secured protection for our own workers and exporters inside the TTP 11 at all as the agreement is very ‘vague’ in its many confusing confusing wordings.
David Parker may be gone in a few years and leave us all with many crippling issues that may ruin us all.
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/shows/q-and-a/episodes
whether we signed TPP 11 or not dosn’t change the drawn out process of a WTO ruling…indeed the ISDS provision (whatever your opinion of it) provides an alternative remedy….no agreement signed, be it the WTO or individual trade agreements are guarantees of compliance or honourable behaviours by any party.
Some agreement and process is better than none when the barriers start to be raised…it is why the WTO was invented in the first place
Pat,
Are you saying that if we have issues with any country inside the TTPA will be disputed both in the ISDS and WHO also?
Will we be bankrupt by both legal challenges made to both dispute systems as Canada has sadly found?
Thanks for confirming our worst fears that (Quote) “no agreement signed, be it the WTO or individual trade agreements are guarantees of compliance or honourable behaviours by any party”
Why are we then taking these ‘risks’ even entering into these agreement when they are not binding? Ana if we have no easy way of exiting from them at any time of our choosing?
They are a fools game and danger.
They came with fish hooks are some dark places that could end up destroying us all.
no cleangreen, im saying that having agreements which have provision for trade dispute resolution beats the hell out of gunboat diplomacy and/or war….which incidentally is likely to cost more if finance is your sole concern.
No Pat;
‘Money’ is not my main concern; – but since now our environment is very fragile and about to implode, the money paid to fight legal claims are making it worse to save our environment because we will be bankrupt!!!!!
So that is the concern here.
” i am saying why the hell are we now so sold on joining up to these flawed agreements as you appear to accept but i do not as we can not afford “as a small fish” in a big ocean of sharks to even go there.
Best stay out and be safe.”
Quote; me here;
“Why are we then taking these ‘risks’ even entering into these agreement when they are not binding? ”
And if we have no easy way of exiting from them at any time of our choosing?
They are a fools game and danger.
They came with fish hooks are some dark places that could end up destroying us all.
the real fools game, particularly for a ‘small fish’ would be to engage in a game without any rules…unless you advocate not trading at all?
As to exiting…we can, provided we are willing to accept the consequences….oddly enough much the same consequences as never having joined….and the ‘we’ to which I refer is the voting public.
NZ won’t be facing a legal challenge over the US putting in place tariffs. The US will be.
The interesting thing about the WTO (and the GATT before it) is that it was set up so that FTAs wouldn’t be needed. The rules would have been set at an international and multi-lateral level. Something that FTAs don’t do. In fact, FTAs actually complicate things. I disagree with the WTO as well but it’s better than FTAs.
IIRC, they believe that there won’t be any because people are nice. Or something like that.
We shouldn’t even be trying to protect our exporters. That way lies the same failure as the Great Depression.
Actually developing the economy rather than over producing a limited amount of stuff is a much better option.
Yes Draco; – well said there,
I am diametrically opposed to any FTA (Free trade Agreement) as the term “free” is flawed and a lie to rort the system.
So we need another type of control as you state the FTA was set-up to-supply a fair balance.
So the question is now:
“Why did we even sign up to another set of controls such as the controversial ISDS in the first place then”???????.
I am now suspicious!!!!
Regardless of “free” or not, any trade agreement is essentially a commercial contract. Normal contracts go to the courts for resolution, but if both parties run their own court system, would you be subject to your opponent’s jurisdiction?
So international agreements look for alternative models of dispute resolution.
Well, either that or it’s our alien lizard overlords preparing the way for one world government.
Only if you are happy for all trade agreements to be fundamentally anti democratic.
But there is plenty of evidence that super-national legal juristictions are not needed to facilitate trade. There is not much wrong with requiring international investors to go through the courts where they choose to invest on the other hand, and experience doesn’t indicate international investors need to have influence over what laws politicians can legislate.
History would disagree with that….
“When the war came in 1914, I was very soon impressed with two points. . . . I saw that
you could not separate the idea of commerce from the idea of war and peace . . . . [and]
that wars were often largely caused by economic rivalry conducted unfairly. . . . But
toward 1916 I embraced the philosophy that I carried throughout my twelve years as
Secretary of State . . . . From then on, to me, unhampered trade dovetailed with peace;
high tariffs, trade barriers, and unfair economic competition, with war. Though
realizing that many other factors were involved, I reasoned that, if we could get a freer
flow of trade ‐ freer in the sense of fewer discriminations and obstructions ‐ so that one
country would not be deadly jealous of another and the living standards of all countries
might rise, thereby eliminating the economic dissatisfaction that breeds war, we might
have a reasonable chance for lasting peace.”
Cordell Hull .US Secretary of State 1933-1944
If one country cannot export to another country what unfairness is there?
its not a question of fairness…its a question of best outcomes
Wouldn’t the best outcomes be fair?
And what is the best outcome? One where a nations people become poorer because they no longer have any work?
And it would be nice if you answered my first question rather than trying to bypass it.
what first question would that be?…as far as i can see you have only asked one …about fairness, which has been addressed….the best outcome is one that provides options other than armed conflict….you tell me…is that fair?
I will add however my surprise that both yourself and Nic would appear to advocate laissez faire in international trade.
No, it wasn’t answered or even addressed so I’ll ask again.
If one country cannot export to another country what unfairness is there?
It’s actually a really important point that goes to the very basis of free-trade.
who determined the country couldnt export to the other?
DTB what happens if one country can’t export to another.
1929 should give you some idea DTB other countries follow suit.
“
Doesn’t matter.
Now answer the question.
And that bypasses the question as well.
Your completely unaware of the major treaty which created national tensions leading to WWII?
if youre referring to Versailles then obviously no…as im sure youre also aware of the terms lebensraum and ‘sphere of influence’
What’s anti-democratic? The democratic bit is where the treaty is made by the government. Shouldn’t governments honour the terms of their treaties?
The mechanism I don’t really care about, but I know that using the local court system didn’t do support care workers much good about their back-pay. Maybe overseas traders prefer to use a system that can’t be overruled by a partisan govt acting under urgency.
It should be more than apparent that the TPPA, and similar agreements, are not a democratically proposed set of regulations. Never the less if the NZ government signs it then it will be expected not to contradict its intent in their future law making. This will continue even if we elect a government which is totally against what it stands for, or is doing.
Of course democracy works best when we (the electorate) are able to replace the government with one which has a mandate from the electorate. This mechanism simply doesn’t work for any un-elected super national organisations.
“The mechanism I don’t really care about, but I know that using the local court system didn’t do support care workers much good about their back-pay. ”
And that can happen whenever we elect a government which doesn’t agree with certain interests.
“Maybe overseas traders prefer to use a system that can’t be overruled by a partisan govt acting under urgency.”
I expect they would do, yes.
The question interleaved with your two examples is why you think overseas traders should have stronger protections against law changes than other factions of the electorate? The overseas traders clearly have ready access to alternative jurisdictions, the electorate often do not.
Two successive governments negotiated and signed it. Not sure why the next one would suddenly have a mandate and they didn’t.
Interesting point about the courts, but then on the flipside local traders have a vote on which parties are in a position to change the laws.
It’s a basic principle of natural justice that all are equal before the law. Not so for foreign corporations as they have greater rights. The BoRA and common law supposedly guarantee natural justice. Such a load of shit.
Should foreign shareholders be able to vote in our election, to give them equal rights?
No. They are not citizens.
Should tourists be able to vote in our elections? Just as stupid to say. But while they are here they are entitled to the principles of natural justice and to be equal before the law. But not more equal.
So they should be subject to the whims of law changes that they have no means of affecting? How is that equal rights under the law when compared with locals?
Interesting thing about tourists – if they get in shit here, they are often entitled to diplomatic assistance from their governments, up to and including their governments raising their cases at the highest level of our political system. So they don’t get to vote, but they also have avenues that most NZ citizens don’t have.
The issue I’m trying to point out is that “equal rights under the law” do not necessarily mean “identical”. And if we want to trade in those countries, our rights would actually be identical to their rights when trading in our country. We would be assured of reasonably consistent investment and trading conditions.
So they should be subject to the whims of law changes that they have no means of affecting?
Yes that is how democracy works. Geographical areas are divided off into States and the people permanently living in those areas get to elect representatives who make laws.
The people who own the corporations get to vote for the government in countries where they live permanently. Why should these people get multiple votes all over the world just because they are wealthy? One person one vote not one dollar one vote.
Tourists getting help from their governments is not them having more legal rights under our law.
if we want to trade in those countries, our rights would actually be identical to their rights when trading in our country.
This statement is meaningless when we don’t have the large multinational corporations that can utilize this crap based here.
If we want to change our laws to protect our environment or public health that is our right. If some multinational doesn’t like that they can fuck off.
Actually, we have quite a few companies exporting to and trading with other countries. Big and small. It’s what we, as a nation, do: export.
In exchange for those companies getting more stable legal frameworks with dispute resolution so they can employ people here to sell things there, we give the same conditions to companies from those countries to do the opposite.
Large enough to pay the huge costs it takes to take such legal action? Get off the grass.
There was a reason this was pushed by the USA and other big countries.
ps. note that even David Parker does not want to see this shit in future trade agreements, and EU won’t touch it.
Whatever, dude. We’re not at the bottom of the OECD by any stretch of the imagination. We might not be a “big country”, but we’re sure in the top couple of tiers.
“Not sure why the next one would suddenly have a mandate and they didn’t.”
They all have some kind of a mandate to govern, make and update laws for their period in office.
And they all are bound by the treaties made by previous governments.
No they are not bound by them at all. In New Zealand Parliament is supreme and can do pretty much what it wants. If a new government wants to withdraw from a treaty then it can.
Indeed. Just as it can do with the TPP, so the question becomes what’s the big deal about ISDS clauses in the TPP, then?
Bollocks.
FTAs, and the WTO, are there to ensure equivalency of rules so that a company from one nation can be assured of the same treatment in another. When a company is operating in another country then they’re bound by that other countries rules.
ISDS and other extra-legal systems were set up to bypass that so that the company was no longer truly governed by the rules of country that they were operating in to the point that they could challenge the nation about rule changes that it didn’t like up to and including suing them.
But if a country is stupid enough to promise that it will allow trade under condition X, then changes its laws to condition Y when people have already invested on the basis of X, why shouldn’t the state be required to pay damages?
It’s not a “free trade” issue so much as a guarantee that the rules you promise today will be delivered tomorrow. Sure, they can sue over anything, but if the state signed a reasonable agreement then frivolous suits would fail.
Why should a country even make such an agreement?
But a country should never make such an agreement because new information may require a change in the rules. The only thing that a country can offer a foreign company operating in it’s borders is that it will operate under the same rules that the business native to it operate under.
And that doesn’t require an agreement between countries at all.
But that’s a free trade agreement.
And why would any country open up its markets to companies from another country without expecting something in return?
And presuming we want to keep that thing in return, what if a company feels it’s been disciminated against somehow by some new regulation they think was targeted at them? Like if we put a tax on blue cars, and coincidentally all the cars imported from Latvia were blue and almost all blue cars were Latvian – and undercut local car manufacturers? Is that under the same rules, or is it unfairly targeted?
Without some manner of impartial dispute resolution, the only option is to take or leave the trade agreement. Brexiting, in other words. And disputes by one or two companies can burn the entire deal.
“Brexiting, in other words.”
Yeah, total disaster, UK economy shrunk by 6% already completely down the toilet.
Oh, hang on that’s just what the UK treasury erroneously predicted would happen. Actually, its totally ok when the UK electorate decides they don’t need the EU to dictate laws to their own politicians.
I mean WTF do you have against brexit anyway?
Not much. If they want to shoot themselves in the foot, that’s their problem. I’m sure it’ll all be rosy for England when they get rid of all the immigrants and do their own plumbing. And it’ll probably help the Scottish independence movement.
But I used brexit as the comparison because it seems a bit silly to have a perfectly fine agreement that then falls apart because a myriad of small participants think they’ve been screwed and have no means of redress.
They have no right to expect anything in return except that their companies will be able to sell in NZ.
I know your using hyperbole but such a tax would never come into existence as it simply wouldn’t pass any sort test of justice.
We already have one – the courts.
Except that it wasn’t fine. People were being hurt by it.
It’s an agreement. I give you this in exchange for that. If you disagree, I don’t give you this. So what happens if someone thinks they’re not getting the same market access they’re giving NZ, is shit gets held up in customs. They mimic the barriers that they think NZ is imposing on them.
So to avoid that we go to dispute resolution. If we use our courts, they think the courts are rigged. If we use their courts, we think the courts are rigged. So we agree an independent ISDS process, and put a buffer between a trade dispute and a trade war.
Yeah, you know what they say about everything before the word “but”.
As it is, that’s merely an exaggerated example of what happens. Country A introduces a regulation, Country B decides it’s targeted at Country B’s citizens as an unfair trade barrier. And then Country B does what – appeals to courts controlled by a government that’s specifically targeting them?
HdPA has written a thoughtful piece today. Yes, it is about the Gayford rumours and I think she’s got it about right. It started out as a bit rumour mongering for the sake of it, then was picked up by the dirty political pros and all hell broke loose.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12044756
I suspect the majority of those who didn’t hear the rumours still don’t know what they are, and I’m one of them.
Are HDA and Barry playing a good cop,bad cop routine these days?
Zorb6
Someone the other day was saying just that. Setting up a target; then attacking and defending it; this morning announcing (think herald) that numerous and continuous tweets and comments alleging incorrect behaviour being received that should be made public. Forced to publish about it to clear the air. Police also.
Example of ‘How to hit our leaders without leaving visible bruises’. A lot of media mendaciousness, look our hands are clean. Lots of argy-bargy about it, bringing lots of clicks. From the busy and live media group – look out for – CFC or Clique for Clicks.
Don’t click.
Boycott hdpa and her corporate owners.
100% Ed. agreed.
Rumour mongering for the sake of it? Ok..
There are people who get their kicks in life by spreading rumour and innuendo. Social media has made it easy for them and has spawned a group of dirty political right wing pros who are making a career out of the game. They will lie low for a while… until the next target comes along and then they will be back in business again.
Like it or not Gabby it is a reality and sticking our heads in the sand will only let it continue to fester.
Giving hdpa clicks encourages her.
Can you actually prove this claim of yours?
Can you prove that, in the case of whatever the claims made about Gayford were, that there are “a group of dirty political right wing pros who are making a career out of the game. They will lie low for a while… until the next target comes along and then they will be back in business again.” were actually doing such a thing?
If you can’t prove it then, unfortunately, you are included in the people who, in your own words “get their kicks in life by spreading rumour and innuendo”.
So who are these right wing individuals or are you simply spreading a rumour that such people exist?
So, alwyn, you will admit that Anne was right when (not if) her prediction comes true? Or will you adhere to your obvious right-wing bias?
I already know how contemptuous (and contemptible) your reply will be. I’ve seen some of your previous prevarications.
Don’t be such a silly little chap.
When I read what you say I am forced to ask.
Will you admit that you are completely incapable of realising that you are stupid?
I already know the answer of course. From all your previous comments I know you are a fool and will always adhere to your obvious left-wing bias but are quite incapable of recognising the fact.
There, that suit you?
Now, if you think Anne’s claims are right please produce some evidence for it. Simple saying something, without evidence, doesn’t make it true, particularly when it comes from someone as contemptible as you are.
If you have nothing except wild claims to come out with why do you bother to reply to me. Let Anne and I have a civilised discussion and confine yourself to the side lines. Are you really so desperate to start flame wars?
As predicted. And correct English is ‘Let Anne and ME have a civilised discussion.’ I did not find your tone to Anne all that civilised – accusing her of the very fault she was decrying by making a ridiculous demand. Paralleled by the similar demand (ie, rather silly) I deliberately made of you: When Anne is proven correct, will you admit error? No reply to that, I notice. Just infantile invective.
You say
“When Anne is proven correct, will you admit error?”
I am willing to answer a slightly different question.
“If Anne is proven correct, will you admit she was right?” by saying of course I will agree that she is correct if that happens. I won’t admit that I was “wrong” because I have never said the opposite was, or is, true. I am merely trying to find what the truth is.
Please try and read what I say properly and you won’t look quite so foolish when you accuse me of making statements that I haven’t.
If someone comes up with any evidence of this claim we will be able to accept the words Jesus said.
“And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free”.
Don’t you want to be free?
I distinctly wrote “when (not if)” eliminating the possibility upon which you erroneously base your question.
If the truth sets one free, you are obviously still struggling to find it, let alone come to terms with it.
See how easy it is to write your style of punctilious invective with no positive outcome?
You really are thick aren’t you?
Why do you think I didn’t answer the question as you asked it?
If I had you would of course, in your usual stupid manner, have then claimed that I accepted your premise and therefore accepted that National was to blame.
I really am not like you. I would like evidence, and without any it remains an open question about who is to blame.
Isn’t it time for your mummy to put you to bed? You are exhibiting the fractious behaviour typical of young children.
Perhaps in the morning you will justify your statement “When Anne ….”. Surely you have the evidence. You aren’t just making it up are you? You can surely justify your certainty? Or not, as appears to be the case. If nobody comes up with any evidence I will just have to accept that you are lying and that you haven’t the faintest idea who is to blame.
QED. Another bucket-load of tendentious drivel. You need to find a healthier pastime, alwyn.
Tired of hearing; –
‘Prove this’
‘Prove that’ – all the time, – is like a broken clock spring.
Give it a rest!!!!
I feel bad about this.
Normally people welcome the opportunity to consider whether the things they say are accurate and are founded in reality.
If it hurts your head to think about your claims I suggest you stop reading what I say.
Then you can remain in a state of blissful ignorance. I’m sure you will be much happier and will be able to join the ranks of the Lotus Eaters in The Odyssey where
“A single taste of this native fruit made my soldiers forget everything they had ever know; where they were from, where they were going, everything.”
Punctilious and disingenuous reaction to a fair demand. You constantly troll by making silly demands (prove this or that) then pretend sincerity.
Your aim is to disrupt and discourage rather than genuinely question, with an occasional friendly pretence, and no, I am not going to waste my time looking up such an example. I think there are plenty of others here who will support my statement.
“who will support my statement.”
I am sure there are. Have you never heard the immortal words of Mathew Henry?
“None so deaf as those that will not hear. None so blind as those that will not see.”
Here endeth the Second Lesson.
The universally-known quote suits you well. At least you managed to use ‘endeth’ correctly.
Of course I used “endeth” correctly.
Just as the mild mannered reporter Clark Kent has an alter-ego of Superman I am, in my spare time, the Archbishop of Canterbury. It is of course only a part time job as the number of the Faithful is diminishing rapidly but I can still manage the Anglican Services.
You may refer to me in future, if you are one of the faithful, as The Most Reverend and Right Honourable the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury. Or not, as you wish.
No, you need to be a professor of English at Oxford or Cambridge.
Then you would know when to use ‘me’ instead of ‘I’.
And you would write less cacklemush. You really do need to find a healthier pastime.
@In Vino
I’ll take your word for it. No doubt you were at one of those trade schools.
The last University I studied at was in Cambridge actually, but it was in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I suppose you look down on that home of rebel colonials.
I provide this information to entertain you. You mummy says it is very kind of me as you suffer from a mild case of ADHD and my entertaining you gives her a break.
Now, off to bed diddums.
I could swear you are based in Wellington, in which case you’d be the Archbishop of Wellington to be addressed as His Eminence!?
Eminence is used in for a Cardinal of the Roman Catholic and the Patriarchs of the Orthodox Churches isn’t it?
Do we have a Cardinal in New Zealand at the moment?
Don’t you think the full title of the Archbishop of Canterbury (and York I believe) is much more impressive than just Archbishop though?
Actually I remember when I was a kid in Napier and the head of the Anglican Church in New Zealand lived there. A gentleman name Norman Lesser. He used to sign his name as Norman New Zealand. How is that for swank?
http://www.wn.catholic.org.nz/archbishop/
I’m not particularly fond of titulary but each to their own.
I reckon our PM could sign all her letters with Jacinda 😉
And I bet that that she won’t easily be confused, overlooked, ignored, or anonymised by the world press unlike John Key 😉
I prefer the down to earth attitude of open & honest people, without pretence and snobbery (and poorly masked superiority with matching arrogance).
That’s nice dear.
I’ll bet you really enjoyed those evenings in The Snug at The Rovers Return in the days when you were there drinking stout there with Ena Sharples and Elsie Tanner.
Real salt of the earth like you were they?
Do you think our present PM will hit it off with the US President the way Key did with Obama?
Oh dear, Alwyn.
I prefer my coffee strong, black, and no sugar. This neither means I am nor that I want to be a strong long black.
Most people develop a sense of Self when they grow up 😉
“started out as a bit rumour mongering for the sake of it”
No doubt by disgruntled National party leaning people who still cant get over the fact that National lost. They cant get the PM so attacked her partner instead. What happened with the unwritten rule of media leaving politicians partners out of it? Media people like D. Hill Cone and HdPA et al are part of the problem.
National was the most to gain advantage from this negative media hype ‘dirty politics’ Loius.
it follows the same ‘logic’ used by the UN/UK and NATO who put Russia under sanctions following the ‘alleged’ poisoning of a spy they used the logic that it was most likely to be Russia to blame, as they had more to gain than anyone else so we place the same logic on the National party for this latest round of “dirty politics” upon their political opposition the ruling Government of the Labour party.
Sorry national supporters that shows logic national was most to gain here. so must have been involved in some way.
“No doubt by disgruntled National party leaning people”.
Do you have any evidence at all for this claim? Or do you simply say you have “no doubt” because you don’t want to think about it?
A lot of people, particularly in the Police Force, appeared to have “no doubt” that Arthur Allan Thomas murdered the Crewes. They had no evidence so they faked some, at least according to the enquiry into the affair.
If everybody had simply taken your line I suppose Thomas would still be banged up inside.
ps. I am using the UK rather than the Australian meaning of the term.
I wonder if there is any important difference in context between,
The police prosecuting and fabricating a conviction, and a commented accusation on a web site.
No, probably we should always require exactly the same level of certainty and evidence for everything, always.
Louis (5.4) … Absolutely. Well said.
And I do wonder if Clarke Gayford had not been the PM’s partner, whether he would have been viciously attacked in the cowardly way he has been, to get a hit on the PM and Labour. Somehow I think not, which leads me to think it’s political alright!
Thanks for that, Anne.
I was not going to read it but am now pleased that I did after reading your comment. Like you, I think she got it about right, particularly in focusing on the effect on Gayford himself as he – and this – seems to have been lost in the morass of other issues. Perhaps HdPA does have a bit of humanity after all.
I do know what the rumours have been but have no intention of revealing these, as they have been callous and despicable from day one regardless of whom they have been about/applied to.
In Gayford’s case, IMO they have been worse because they were aimed not just at him personally (and/or indirectly at JA and the Labour Party etc) but such rumours also highly affect his future professional career as someone in the public arena as a radio/TV host, MC etc – much more so than someone in a less public profession.
I know from personal experience how much false rumour and innuendo can cost a person both in their professional and personal life. It is insidious and the fallout can continue for years afterwards. It can even become dangerous for the target’s life and limb as it did briefly for a time in my case. I was not a public figure so my experiences didn’t get into the public domain, but these types of individuals never give up – especially when they have someone like Donald Trump et al as role models.
There is no denying that I’m as curious as hell, so I hope one day you will be able to write your story Anne, as it sounds like it is a story that needs to be told.
It is a story of many parts..
full of sound and fury..
signifying nothing.. cos none of it was true. (apols to William Shakespeare)
I suspect it had it’s genesis in my father who as a young British soldier many decades ago had a few interesting “adventures”.
Exactly, Anne. Been there, done that too – re having had false rumour and innuendo personal experience and the personal costs, healthwise etc.
And they are not giving up -KB still getting some triers and blubber now playing the victim not the perpetrator.
Two weeks ago Hooton was posting stuff that suggested he was a perpetrator but then tried to say it was a joke … https://twitter.com/MatthewHootonNZ/status/989372028271538176
Once the Police Commissioner statement came out he was OK with that but still reckoned it was a Labour Party attempt to smear the National Party (and supported Audrey Young’s comments re this).
https://twitter.com/MatthewHootonNZ/status/991454040591552512
Now he is writing stuff about how bad rumour-mongering and innuendo is – and never believe political rumours. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12044553
And supplementing it with this – https://twitter.com/MatthewHootonNZ/status/991969249596915717
and this on Facebook
How the worms are squirming…
+100 Veutoviper
I think that it has been handled as well as it could have been by media and by Ardern and Gayford – that Ardern referred to ‘dirty politics’ caused a bit of a stir, but I take it as meaning what was happening was dirty (it was), and it involved politics.
The police statement raises questions about in what situations they might do that again, but it served a useful purpose, it debunked the worst rumour. Even if the rumour was detailed by media I think it more likely it would have reinforced sympathy for Gayford and Ardern.
Some on the left have tried to claim it was a National plot, and some on the right have switched to claiming it was a Labour plot to divert, and to nail National, but I have seen zero evidence any political party was involved. Some individuals circulating the rumours may have supported a party or had some connection to a party, but I doubt very much it was party driven.
Since the police statement spiked the main accusation attempts have been made to switch to promoting the ‘Streisand effect’, but that hasn’t got legs because the MSM haven’t published any details.
And there have been attempts to promote the other ‘rumour’ I’ve heard which seems to be about supposed historic behaviour – this is also dirty, and if this is persisted with it could open a big can of worms – past behaviour, especially as it now easily recorded and later dredged up from the Internet, could be slung around at just about any MP.
I have detailed some attempts to promote the rumours and attack Gayford:
https://yournz.org/2018/05/06/a-record-of-some-rumourmongering/
Uhm, isn’t withholding the ‘juicy’ details actually promoting the Streisand effect!?
Only if the details get widely circulated as a result, but they haven’t, the MSM have not given the rumour promoters what they wanted.
And most of those who have found out online are likely to to see it as fake accusations/smears.
Since the police statement most in media are stating that there was no foundation, and even those intent on inflicting damage have dropped that (which suggests they knew it was false) and switched to other lines of attack.
You provided the answer I was looking for @ 5.7.1.
The exact details of a rumour are not necessarily the most damaging and most certainly not enough to keep a story alive in MSM. Think of it as the dance of the seven veils or a series of which episodes end with cliff-hangers and whodunits; people keep coming back for more and add their own ‘facts’ and fantasies to it, often without realising it.
All this leads to a heightened state of collective and individual confusion in which fake cannot be easily distinguished from reality. This further feeds and perpetuates the rumour mill and complicates and prolongs clearing people from ‘obviously’ false accusations/smears.
The Police statement took the much-needed oxygen away from the rumour mill.
MSM happily played along with keeping alive the rumour mill because it would have resulted in more clicks, etc. Did National speak out strongly against it and condemned it?
The only party leader to try and score political points off the story that I’ve seen is Winston Peters, in his usual style of implying without saying specifically who he thought might be responsible – insinuations without evidence.
I have not heard these rumours/innuendo/insinuations and neither has anyone I know. But given the history of Dirty Politics being run out of the ex PMs office and the evidence in Hagers book of key Nat MPs involvement, it is hard to believe the dirty politics machine has not been at it again. There is plenty of evidence WO has been targeting the PMs partner for months (see 5.6 above). The fact that there are various versions of the rumours would suggest attempts to try any which way to get publicity. And as HDPA says, the calls to the media to draw attention to them are just one part of the strategy. Disgusting.
Yes, Bridges had to tell his MPs not to spread reprehensible lies about their opponents’ families.
Seriously, who the fuck needs to be told that?
Thank you; I no longer read the NZH and thus had not seen that.
I could be wrong but it appears that this was a response from Simon Bridges after after the PM had mentioned dirty politics or Dirty Politics – hard to tell from a verbal account. In any case, it is hardly a condemning statement, is it? At least he didn’t go all sanctimonious like John Key holding his flock to “the highest standards”.
I noticed that you cherry-picked the least interesting part of my comment 😉
I noticed that it was your only question.
I don’t think the MSM played along to keep the rumours alive. They seemed reluctant to give them what they craved, mainstream coverage. As it turned out I think the mostly got the balance right with the help of the police and the lawyer letter that exposed it but minimising the oxygen.
Interesting. So, you think the rumour mill was mostly driven and fed by social media? I mean until the statement signed off by the Police Commissioner it was not given the much-needed oxygen in and by MSM and they actively tried to quell the story?? I have some difficulty with this because there were many articles in MSM keeping it alive. But we don’t all have to agree on degree & extent, do we?
1 – to Gayford/Ardern.. = zero -to Media/National.
Anne, I chanced on one tweet that was horrific, and if that is what they have been spreading it was evil.
I wrote saying how strong the young couple have been, and good on the police for giving Clarke Gayford a Police Clearance.
Further, HDA, and her husband and friends are trying to say “It grew out of gossip” because police and the law may well be doing a “timeline” which may prove uncomfortable for some I would think.
Reading three recent articles including hers….. the new meme is “Just gossip” not “Dirty Politics”
Tui Tui IMO. You can not play with dirt without getting dirty.
I think it likely started as dirty rumours and grew through embellishment and accumulating promoters, possibly in part organised by certain people, into a dirty campaign.
That’s my assumption too. It probably started out fairly low key then the DP enablers got into the act and it took off…
Duplicity is very determined to sell the line that the rumours were amateur.
Let us have them investigated properly, and the identities of the perpetrators revealed, and we can determine to what extent that ‘pleasant fiction’ is true.
Let us have them investigated properly, and the identities of the perpetrators revealed, and we can determine to what extent that ‘pleasant fiction’ is true.
I agree it probably started out in a relatively minor way by a bunch of National supporters who couldn’t accept they lost an MMP election, but it was picked up by the pros and became an orchestrated tsunami of lies and innuendo.
There has been sufficient evidence around since 2014 that a group of shadowy people have been fermenting mischief designed to destroy the Labour Party and using unlawful means to achieve their aims. The damage done is not only to the targets, but potentially to the democratic processes of the country.
Remember Rawshark? He was the hero who outed the culprits to Hager and for their endeavours the police went after them. Now it’s time for the police to make amends and go after the culprits and leave the messengers alone. The SIS and the GCSB will know who they are. They should spill the beans.
+1000 Anne.
Rumours are statements
If defamatory statements have been made then a crime has been committed.
In the case of Clarke Gayford his entire life and career was set to be savaged and ravaged.
Those who rumoured and made statements about him should explain their behaviour in Court.
I presume that Lawyers for Gayford will seek redress for this the most vile treatment ever thrown at a New Zealand citizen.
Who will have gained from this crime ? certainly not Labour.
One thing we do know: the truth will seep out. The persons who so blatantly wanted Clarke Gayford to be castrated will weep and whimper in court.
I am not sure that the divine ZB stars, and the Herald scriblers, are totally clean. But they are rapidly finding ways to say “I’m innocent. Don’t blame me “.
“But they are rapidly finding ways to say “I’m innocent. Don’t blame me “
Yes, very telling that, like Deb Hill
Cone’s back flip just prior to the release of the Police statement & lawyers letter.
.
“If defamatory statements have been made then a crime has been committed.”
Defamation is a civil matter, not criminal.
Unless the rumours continue I think it will end here. Going to court is costly and can publicise what they are trying to shut down.
If the defamation included statements involving the Police being involved when clearly that is not the case??? What then???
Still civil – the police made it clear that as far as they were concerned there was no criminal investigation or charges.
Let it go, Pete – release your grip – if you cut off the blood supply for too long, it’ll atrophy and drop off. Ease up, old chum, take a holiday, refresh, LET IT GO!
I think you’ve jumped in without thinking, again.
Perhaps you could take note yourself of what you’ve ranted.
Yuk a bit creepy Robert man of your age intercoursing with Pete on such matters
Hi there Pete George
The Police were so concerned at the viciousness of the “rumours” that they initiated a review of Clarke Gayford’s record.
If in the the course of that they found that some persons were encouraging persons to get rid of Gayford – would that be a civil case ?
Or are you unable to think that far ahead Pete ?
Or, to put it another way: Do police have the authority and the duty of protecting citizens from harmful Criminals ?
Which crime? Harassment perhaps.
I think that ‘fear for your safety’ is quite a high bar.
It’s a curiosity of the Gayford rumours, that though they were uncivil, their object was clearly political.
I look forward to some competent journo or one of the many armed forces and police personnel equipped with Palantir tracking down and exposing those responsible – not to defend Clarke’s sensibilities, but to defend our democratic institutions from a malicious incursion.
100% Stuart,
The intelligence can track this and find the people responsible and we will expect this of them as I worked for a global communication company in the 1990’s and there are methods to track where any activities can be looked back to where they originated, so the tools are there for the police to call on when they wish.
“Who will have gained from this crime”
It is a common observation that overuse of the cui bono? (“who benefits?”) style of thinking leads to conspiracy theories. They appeal strongly to people who desire to feel special, according to research by Roland Imhoff, a German social psychologist. Joseph Uscinski,
However, it also provides a better explanation than “I’m too busy to read my own website” for why Farrar left defamatory comments up on his blog until the media approached him about it.
It is a huge task monitoring and moderating a blog. Farrar has a hands off approach, relying on reporting, but those who attack don’t report themselves obviously.
It’s long been an issue at KB. I did a bit of confronting new claims there yesterday (Labour conspiracy) and instead of providing evidence I knew there would be none) the rest of the day was spent attacking. It’s at least as bad as ever and I’ve experienced a lot there over the years (rarely do now).
Farrar is taking a big legal risk. He also damages his credibility and reputation (or doesn’t repair it), and through association makes National an easy target too.
It’s his operation. Fuck him if he can’t be bothered to monitor what goes on with his site.
And if those comments were up for that long, then none of his regular readers chose to “report” defamation. Says a lot about his clientele, and the need for him to do his job.
But it sounds similar to John Banks, who ISTR failed to knowingly sign a false statement through the cunning artifice of not knowing what the statement said.
I suppose the “I’m too lazy or stupid to do my job properly” defense will be seen again from the tory machine.
“overuse of the cui bono? (“who benefits?”) style of thinking leads to conspiracy theories”
And underuse of it leads to inanity.
Hi Bewildered
I think along with overuse of “who benefits” is the child like ready answer of the majority of human beings.
We lay blame or praise depending on our personal feelings. Not on rational logic.
That is because Logic is not taught in school. Hence we end up with all sorts of non sequiturs.
In the case of Clarke Gaylord, there are four persons at the core. One is the Leader of the Opposition. Two is the Prime Minister. Three is Clarke Gaylord. Four is the Police
The Police were alerted to all sorts of very evil aspersions against Clarke. Those aspersions grew rapidly over an unknown period. More and more.
The Police, without consulting anybody but themselves, went through their records on Clarke and found no negative entry. Clarke was free of any crime.
So The Prime Minister, Jacinda Adern being the Partner of Clarke Gaylord was unlikely to have run up all the vile untrue “rumours” about Clarke. She had been with him for some years.
That left just one other key area of interest. Namely, The Leader of the Opposition, Simon Bridges. He would be well and truly aware of John Key’s cabal of Smut managers and Destroyers managed within the Beehive and beyond. For 9 years.
John Key’s nick name was the Silent Assassin. Although I don’t know why, because unlike Trump he worked through others.
You can make up your own mind, but the The Country Women’s Association is unlikely to have attempted to castrate Clarke Gaylord. Nor the Good Sisters of the Poor.
Most Likely, Enthusiasts have tried to rub Clarke out. Thereby taking Jacinda the PM out. Leaving National and their strong Media supporters very very pleased. National are highly skilled in this arena.
“In the case of Clarke Gaylord, there are four persons at the core. ”
Nope. There is no public evidence of either Labour or National conspiracies that have been claimed.
You have left out Whale Oil, who has run nasty attack posts targeting both Ardern and Gayford since last September/October, and continuing, including a still running (today) daily smear.
There have also been veiled references to the rumour in posts (still up) and open and hint references to the rumours in comments (some have been deleted after this weeks legal fright).
Slater has been seen as toxic in most National circles since Dirty Politics exposed him.
I haven’t see any evidence that Slater has done anything beyond WO.
However I have good reason to believe that someone who has had close links to Slater in the past (they have both been involved in attempted legal hits on me) has tried to spread Gayford rumours.
But there are obviously others involved to some extent, eg on Twitter. And on Kiwiblog. And there’s a horrible website who has been making outlandish accusations for years that has been pushing fake rumours.
Or it simply a malicious rumour that got legs as a result of Clarke profile; it’s happened before re a certain Ab rumour comes to mind,with today’s trolls, social media ; celebrity profile it’s does not take long for news to travel and morph very quickly; just look at social media bulling at the teenage level, not a stretch to see such extrapolating to a national level in regard to network effect This to me from a balance of probability and rationale level is far more likely than a
Grand centrally controlled conspiracy
Dunno about centrally controlled.
But I bet if someone had repeated those rumours but made Simon Bridges the target, Farrar would have moderated the fuck out of them toot sweet.
toot suite n’est pas?
wees.
They sound like a couple of plonkers beewee. They work with Jason Evil?
love your work Gabs
How about Slimon Lush beewee, love his works?
The conspiracy is strong in you Gabs, all power to your delusions, makes for light relief reading, yours truly Beewee 😊
Observer Tokoroa (6) … yes jumping off the “Not me” mark far too quickly to claim innocence IMO. Why say anything at all, if not involved?
Yes Mary-a
I do not think we have as a nation realised just how shocking this assualt on Clarke Gayford has been.
Simon Bridges is clambering away every otherday that it was unbeknown to him. He says he has told his mighty team of midgets not to do nasty things.
Given that John Key spent 9 years doing seriously dirty stuff against persons he hated, it is good of Simon to clean up some of the mess. Bill English never fixed anything that we know of.
However, I guess it will take many moons to clean up national. Not one of them has studied the word – Honesty. Another word they choke on Humility. It makes them giggle.
Some of us think they have shot themselves in their whatisname this time.
100% Observer Tokoroa;
we should remember who has actually been found to use ‘dirty politics’ mostly over the last 9yrs?
Read Nicky Hargar’s book “Dirty Politics” to get that answer.
Thanks Clean Green
I congratulate you on the rebuild of the East Coast Rail! Marvellous!
Honourable men and women do not use dishonesty and outright lies to destroy any persons reputation.
Dirty Politics will continue to give third degree burns to the National Caucus for some time to come. Not only that, the main Media are heavily intertwined with the Key / English / Collins /Farar/ Slater / Ede / Hooton – combo.
Noon Radionz news – Environment Minister David Parker announced that the pressure on the land and waterways by farmers overstocking will be managed by measuring the leachate from farm pollution and legislating this down. The largest way to carry this forward will be by farmers reducing stock numbers. Government will not pay compensation for this implementation.
(I can’t find any printed report of this on RadionzRNZ 1 hour after hearing report but there is info of car fire in Dunedin carpark. Our news broadcaster is still addicted to sensation stuff.)
But read SCOOP:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1805/S00065/qa-minister-david-parker-interviewed-by-corin-dann.htm
I was thinking that those not farming efficiently will probably find that the results of less stock will be balanced out by not having to buy imported feed, not have sickness passed on from stock held in close overstocking, less fertiliser required, less pollution ponds or whatever they use to try and reduce runoff. It’s just time for some of the large industrial off-farm owners to up their game, and for casual she’ll be right farmers who are trying to cash in on the white oil and running bigger entities than they can effectively and willingly manage.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/environment/351845/oxford-research-director-calls-for-nz-farming-sustainability
And here is grizzle from 12/4/2018 by Gnashional about irrigation FYI.
(Note Richard Tindiller’s malicious choice of photo showing Damien Connor with his mouth skewed – seems like a deliberately provocative choice of image from a number he would have snapped.)
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/country/354912/national-takes-swipe-at-govt-over-axeing-irrigation-schemes
After mismanagement (no management) of rural matters by Gnashional for years, Labour needs to keep in mind the pressure that small farmers have been under while they have been played like pawns on a chessboard. Money is needed in the rural areas by them, to assist them recover, make changes etc.
Labour please extend your help to the farmers trying to manage from the waves of change and toothy-grinning johnnies selling packages that are sure-fire modernising systems, which have shown increasing failure of promise.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/country/355310/rural-mental-health-service-to-end-after-funding-shortfall
Last is what many probably know. Bill English gets job with huge Australian corporate that owns NZ businesses. (It started off as a farmer co-op over there.)
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/356412/bill-english-joins-board-of-australia-retail-giant
Mr English has been appointed to the board of the retail giant Wesfarmers, which owns KMart, Bunnings Warehouse and Target, among many other businesses and is one of Australia’s largest listed companies.
In a board announcement to the Australian stock exchange, Wesfarmers’ chairman Michael Chaney says he’s pleased with the appointment, given Mr English’s experience and Wesfarmers’ extensive interests in New Zealand.
The retail giant started life as a farming cooperative in Western Australian in 1914.
Mr English still working in the Farming sector, as for his whole career, I see.
Nutrient run-off monitoring has been underway for some time, even under the past National government. Although it is done by Regional Councils rather than at a Government level and may not be that consistent around the country. And the process has certainly got the attention of farmers. A large farm I do work on has a monitoring programme with regular water sampling and a fencing programme to keep the station’s stock away from the rivers.
How the Regional Councils would get on once it comes to enforcement could be interesting, and this may have something to do with what David Parker is saying. Legislation might make enforcement a lot simpler.
Graeme
What you say is an indication of the way that not having a level playing field because of uneven monitoring and enforcement is slowing down improvements in limiting run off for the whole country. We may not even know how many farmers are not complying with regulations, or whether the stats provided are factual. The few that are doing well may be held up to indicate what all are doing, while others dawdle or avoid.
And many of the rural councils will be stacked by the local farmers being the majority sector, and they are likely to have family connections, who won’t follow the law. The councillors may even keep to the law themselves but be unable to persuade their relatives and friends to sharpen up. And then there are the out of towners, or overseas absentee landlords who have big money, and just put their fingers to their noses!
It needs outsiders bringing an objective overview, and also to set up an exemplar area that others can be measured against so that there is competition and a desire to not be at the bottom of a league table.
Concur totally grey.
I have a bit of contact with the technical side of our Regional Council with the water schemes I manage and have found them well meaning but woefully under resourced, both financially and intellectually. They also seem totally subservient to consultants, generally the applicant’s.
The deemed permit renewal process can best be described as a moving target and I’m glad my schemes are on consents and I won’t be directly involved.
Reform of the Regional Councils is urgently required, maybe with either a unitary approach or their environmental functions coming under a Ministry.
“Reform of the Regional Councils is urgently required, maybe with either a unitary approach or their environmental functions coming under a Ministry.”
I totally agree Graeme.
The RWNJs are, of course, blaming this on Jacinda Ardern and the new government:
We must accept that this was always going to happen and that it’s going to get worse. At some point in the not too distant future we will be closing our borders the same way that Australia has.
We simply don’t have the room or the resources to simply take everyone who will try to get here.
SHAME.
Another distorted New York Times report on Gaza focuses on ‘blazing kites’ instead of Israeli snipers….
http://normanfinkelstein.com/2018/05/05/der-sturmer-times-strikes-again/
Needs its own post
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2018/04/29/106495/a-chance-to-reverse-nzs-humiliating-welfare-system
Agreed!
Is it just me or is the responsible Minister mostly missing in action?
Good Morning the Am Show Duncan I agree with Denis O’Relly lets get gangs working if you are working you are to busy to get in trouble its not rocket science China makes sure that most of there citizens are working or they would have problems with there unemployed. I see were this is coming from??????????’
What Stormy Daniels said was hard case I no you don’t believe in climate change but a storm is coming.
Amanda I say the best system was Ngtai Ruawaipu all of my tipunas actions were guided by sustainability if there choices were going to affect the sustainability of the Hapu in a negative way than that path was not taken hence we are here today.
I would not take my mokopunas to a Restaurant unless it was designed to have mokopunas a play area for them mokopunas need constants entertainment .
Here we go Count Down Super Markets is taking the lead and starting 10 of there Super Markets plastic bag free for there shoppers Many thanks to Count Down Supper Markets starting the trend we have seen All the plastic waste poisoning OUR Wild life and Environment hears the link.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/103623308/countdown-chooses-10-supermarkets-to-go-plastic-bag-free-rest-to-follow P.S Eco Maori says us green Tangata should support Count Down with this Brave move.
I agree with Chris Trotter statement Duncan about the gangs are being used as a attack on Maori Mana they just have not figured that phenomenon out the powers that be don’t want to shear the Mana of Aotearoa with Maori this I see.
Thanks for the ——– I have plenty of hair at the minute .Ki Kaha Maori Tangata .
Ka kite ano
If McDonalds Family Restaurants were serious about Te Tangata health they would drop there machines that cause Tooth decay and Obesity in te Mokopunas
and serve non sugar refreshments like water the soft drinks machines make the mokopunas want more sugar on there other foods like weat bix ect
Ka kite ano
What ecomaori says:
I agree with Denis O’Relly lets get gangs working if you are working you are to busy to get in trouble its not rocket science ,
I remember a story of someone visiting a town that had been badly hit by business closures. He was driven through the main streets by the local cop who was greeted with a wave by various young men on building sites and in workshops. The policeman said ‘See those guys, they were all going through the Court till recently – in trouble because they had no jobs, nothing to keep them occupied. Look at them now, happy to be working and with earned money in their pockets.”
I hope Shane can pull it off. He can do it if anyone can get things moving for the regions and the young Maori who want some structure in their life, a job with wages that to rely on and get home, his or her living and personal life on track.
Good evening Newshub I heard a bit of bazzing noise .
Mike Ruaumoko looks so beautiful at night thats Papatuanuku recycling her self in Hawaii.
Many thanks Marama Davidson and the Green party for pushing for REO to be compulsory subject Ka pai e hoa Mana wahine I have changed my views on this subject as I see more of Maoris reality Eco Maori wants all mokopuna to learn Te reo . Ka kite ano P.S I see a lot of evidence that the STATE never admits they are wrong ???????? When one has manuhiri you all ways treat them with respect
The Crowd Goes Wild
Jonelle Prices win at the Badminton on that amasing Mare Molly what a beautiful horse Mana Wahine .
Mulls I watched a bit of soccer on the weekend my mokopuan she was playing on a bigger field than she use to she kicked a boy he started crying and that put her off her game a bit it was a draw 1 all.
That was a good conversion it gave me a sore face .
It was a good weekend of sports for Eco Maori .
Ka kite ano
All women and men who want respect and freedom between all humans will want to say a small prayer of mourning for this 16 year old woman and her family.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/world/356785/key-arrest-in-india-over-girl-burned-alive
It will be interesting to see what the Indian police do about this outrageous killing. In a society that has such lax attitudes towards harm to females and perhaps to different classes, the death penalty carried out in a proper, quick and clean manner may be needed to respond to this extreme hostility to decent and good citizens.
Dhanu Bhuiyan and his accomplices are accused of burning the 16-year-old alive on Friday in the state of Jharkhand.
She was killed after her parents complained to village elders that she had been raped, according to police.
The elders had told two accused rapists to do 100 sit-ups and pay a 50,000 rupee ($NZ1060) fine as punishment.
The power held by elders in villages that hold them in an era of vicious and oppressive cruelty to women, must be cut out by the roots in the same determined way that thuggism was last century.