For the good of our nation, Winston Peters needs to be memorialised.
In Parliament with just a few breaks since 1978, he should be sat down and given a proper Celebrity Roast.
Something akin to the final scene of The Wire in which a good but errant cop is laid flat in front of a bar with all his peers old and older, all his enemies, all his friends, all his lovers, all his whanau, all the lawyers he's shafted, all the judges he's just fucked over in the press, all the MPs and Ministers and Prime Ministers he's stabbed in the front and the back and the side, all the reporters that he's spat at to their faces as the nation watched with abandoned glee, all the civil servants who year after year wiped his ass with our cash until he could finally shit no more, and story after story and drink after drink they all recall how he did it, how he got them all, the best lies he ever told, the crimes he never quite nailed, the conspiracies true and should've-been-true from Think Big's Alusuisse to The Winebox to PGF, in short how he was to his core Natural Born Politician, the only one we'v really had since Holyoake, the sum total of his 'hit' files on people are read out and laughed at…
and at the same time as this is happening he is gently tapped of all his fluid and embalmed, so that he can be aid flat on the gun carriage and pulled with 22 black horses down The Terrace and Featherstone Street as people throw black carnations and red roses across his path … but he's still perfectly conscious so that he can enjoy it and repudiate all the concurrent press coverage to their faces …
… and then his head can be gently removed and mounted on a mahogany base to be displayed, with eyes ever-watching, right above the Speakers' Chair, something like a horse.
Wonderful news to start the day. A friend worked at this pharmacy, it was the most abusive workplace she has even been in. It lead to mental health issues for her.
The former owners of a Nelson pharmacy have been hit with almost $400,000 in penalties for price fixing.
"The summary of facts said the pharmacy explained to customers the $1 charge was to draw attention to the under-funding of prescription medicines and to put pressure on the health board to adequately fund them to ensure the pharmacies' survival."
And who do you reckon Hebberd and Wright will support in the upcoming election? Probably the same people that increased prescription charges fro $3 – $5 and who made an art form out of underfunding the health sector during their reign of terror.
Apart from bad employment practices and the fact that the pharmacies all agreed to making a protest charge, the $400,000 is excessive for an extra $1. I suppose that will pay for the CEOs salary at COCO, (I should cocoa! for the English readers), or might stretch for him or her and the Misery of Health (as Rosemary calls them) or the CEO of the DHB who I think may be the one making such a good job of running the Southland/Otago HB.
Now COCO can look at AirNZ and see if they should be charged big quids for holding urgently needed refunds back in a predatory manner.
UMR poll:
– Labour 54% (down marginally from 55% in April)
– ational 30% (up marginally from 29% in April)
– NZ First 5% (down from 6%)
– Greens 4% (down from 5%)
– ACT may be 2.5%
Preferred Prime Minister:
– Jacinda Ardern 65% (no change)
– Todd Muller 13% (Bridges 7% in April)
The poll of 1211 voters was taken from May 26 to June 1 and has a margin of error of +/-3%.
Another very good result for Labour and Ardern but they appear to have peaked.
This isn’t very good for National again, but it suggests the slide may have ended.
And considering a muddled first week and uninspiring second week I don’t think it’s bad for Muller, he at least got about double Bridges last UMR result.
We’re in an unprecedented situation health-wise, socially, politically and economically. It is most likely the Labour-National gap will close a bit at least as we get closer to the election.
I has miskeyed the Naame on the first one and it disappeared so I reposted the comment later. You can delete the first one (no comments on it) if you want to tidy up.
I don’t think it’s bad for Muller, he at least got about double Bridges last UMR result.
No surprise … I was pretty much expecting him to debut around the early to mid teens.
Given the ever-increasing importance of leadership attributes in determining voting behaviour … a new Opposition Leader really needs to be debuting in the 20s or 30s in the Preferred PM stakes and to appear at least reasonably competitive with the PM if they're to have any chance of victory.
Unfortunately UMR have only very recently started to measure Preferred PM ratings … in the past they restricted leadership measures to Favourability only … but here are new Oppo Leader debuts in the Colmar Brunton Preferred PMs this century:
if pugh, or any living human, had replaced simon, their preferred p.m. rating would be about where toddlers is. most nats still dont know anything about toddler ,or his policies, but will vote or a turkey in gumboots, if it wears a nat sticker.
Party Vote Green, tactically or if you are a wavering Labour/Green voter is the message there. Tribal Labour support for the sake of it makes no sense.
We may end up with Act 6 Nats 39 Labour 43 NZF 4.9 GR 4.9 wasted 2.2
Prime Minister Mullet in an ACT/NAT coalition of 61 seats
You mean vote for a party that allowed police free entry into our property. The party that has to swallow dead rats (willingly). Little comment regarding police using AI. And giving the Nats their questions at QT. All to be part of THE govt team, without really BEINg in the team
If they had voted against the Bill, what would have happened next?
I mean, there is a conversation to be had about how MMP *should function, but people saying the Greens should just vote against everything they don't like would stall govt and no-one explains what would happen next given Labour also have to negotiate Bills with NZF, their primary partner who has Ministers inside cabinet.
I really wish people would explain how they think this works, instead of just slagging off a party for making the best of a shitty situation. Doubly so in a conversation about tactical voting, because if the Greens get more MPs this time they will have more chance at swaying Labour.
NZ1st appear to be able to maintain their identity and keep to their principles, Where is the line in the sand that The Greens will not cross? for me this appears to me a moving target.
Are some saying that to be part of the establishment that there are many rats to be swallowed, and what "payback" is there for the Greens ? – I don't see Labour or NZ1 digesting rats. Just saying 🤓
Winston First were in a position to negotiate a coalition agreement containing more latitude and more lollies than the Greens were offered, including seats at the cabinet table.
Politics is the art of the possible. Purity is for those of us sitting on the outside wringing our hands.
I'm going to address the issues you raise there Herodotus, but first I want to point out that you didn't answer the question. If the Greens voted against the Bill, what would have happened next?
What would have happened is the Greens would have started a nationwide debate.
A nationwide debate on anything is what the Greens at 4.7%-5.1% desperately need.
The Greens sure sucked it up and voted for the two-tier welfare payments. And then came out the next day and complained. Trying to start a nationwide debate.
But then Labour would have responded that they've delivered:
– The $5.5 billion Families Package in 2018 which established the Winter Energy and Best Start payments, as well as boosting Working for Families tax credits.
– Indexed main benefits to wage growth from April 2020, meaning benefit payments rise in line with wages – rather than inflation.
NZ1st appear to be able to maintain their identity and keep to their principles,…
Yes, and it's hard for me to understand how this is still so poorly understood given that NZF have been in parliament since the early 90s, and Peters has been fucking with MMP since its introduction. Not trying to be rude, there is a lot I still don't understand about how parliament and government works in NZ. Here's what I understand about this though,
Centrist small parties have institutional power that small parties on the left and right don't. NZF is able to play National and Labour off each other in order to get policy gains. They also had slightly more votes and one more MP than the Greens in 2017.
Labour couldn't govern with the GP alone, it had to do a deal with NZF if it wanted to form government. NZF held the balance of power, because if Labour wouldn't deal with them, they could just support a Nat govt instead. This option isn't available to the GP.
Labour also needed the GP to form govt, but the option for the GP was to support a Lab govt or allow a Nat one. Obviously this is a lot less tenable for a left wing party than a centrist one.
There are some bottom lines, which I'll address below, but I don't see NZF holding the balance of power being one of them. What else should have made the GP not give Confidence and Supply in 2017 and thus given Nat a 4th term? I can't think of any. So this is an institutional power that the Greens hold, but it's a very different power than what NZF have.
Add to that is that the GP practice political ethics. They're not going to bring down a govt over policy unless there is a critical issue of principles.
…Where is the line in the sand that The Greens will not cross? for me this appears to me a moving target.
My understanding of the GP position is that they won't compromise on principles but they will compromise on policy. This is what Sacha is talking about. All parties have to compromise, and in this case that includes Lab and NZF. How much they compromise depends on two things. What kind of institutional power they have, and how they use that power. The Greens aren't in govt for power, they're there for change, and working with other parties is a good way of effecting that. A big part of that is maintaining good working relationships with the parties they depend upon on this issue but also future issues.
Are some saying that to be part of the establishment that there are many rats to be swallowed, and what "payback" is there for the Greens ? – I don't see Labour or NZ1 digesting rats. Just saying
The big problem I see is that the negotiations around Bills are done in secret. I think they should be public. I think NZers should be able to see who is supporting what, and who is blocking what. Atm we can't see what gains the GP have made that NZF or Labour wouldn't have done anyway, but we can make some educated guesses based on the policy platforms of all parties before the election.
Climate is the obvious one. We have a more progressive climate policy than if it had been L/NZF alone.
If you really want to dig into, I would expect that the Select Committee process would likewise show the differences between the parties and then the outcomes would show who made gains for their own policies. This includes the covid Bill, which I understand the Greens argued for changes to.
Even Act has more dignity than to argue about how being an out-there party makes it hard. Act finds the way to make change – which they have done this term with tiny numbers. They will be rewarded for it.
You want to get above 5% go out and fight for it.
Failing that go win a seat and stop whining about how everyone's so mean and no one else has principles.
Your example is totally ridiculous, ACT only exist in parliament because of a deal between them and National, we are all aware of that. ACT represent ideology and policies that the National party want but may not want to campaign on. If your rhetoric is representative of how Labour views the Greens then it's even more clear how different their situation is from your example.
You Green supporters seem about as capable of holding their Green MPs for their performance which is at marginal survival as white evangelicals do to Donald Trump. That's shown by you reacting like a scolded cat to some advice that's applicable to any marginal party.
Act have got the electoral deal that the Greens may well need to stay afloat. Take a lesson and do a deal.
Even Act has more dignity than to argue about how being an out-there party makes it hard. Act finds the way to make change – which they have done this term with tiny numbers. They will be rewarded for it.
You want to get above 5% go out and fight for it.
Failing that go win a seat and stop whining about how everyone's so mean and no one else has principles.
For a guy whose smart about many things including lots of politics, you have a pretty outstanding blindspot on this.
My post wasn't about special pleading, it was simply describing how parties on the edges don't have the same institutional power as those in the middle, so that H could understand the context of what he was expecting and why it's unlikely to happen.
To me this is self-evident, whatever failings the Greens have, by all means explain how I am wrong on this point. Centrist parties can do things that parties on the edge can't. And you know, I'm still waiting for the actual explanation of the people that dump on the Greens on how macho politics from the left of Labour would work. Won't hold my breath though, you do seem to have an ongoing grievance about something to do with the Greens so I don't expect any useful discussion about how governments function.
You try and use ACT as an example of something in all that, but ACT are only in parliament because they do a deal with Nat to have a seat. Instead of opening a conversation about the usefulness or not of Lab and the Greens doing electorate deals, you suggest that ACT are somehow more parliamentarily virutous /massive eyeroll.
Your implication is that the Greens haven't achieved anything, but obviously they have. Maybe they haven't lived up to your expectations, which would be really fucking weird given how much you seem to hate them. No idea what that is about, maybe it's just too much that Labour have to rely on them and you are afraid that it will cost the left the election.
Bugger me why people think dumping on the Greens will improve things, but I guess there are still plenty of lefties out there that think bashing is an incentive. SSDD for NZ after all.
What would happen next ?… Extending that then, The Greens are totally subservient to Labour because they cannot go against their govt.
If there is a partnership then shouldn't Labour be seen tacitly in "giving" the Greens over the last 2.5 years some wins.
From my perspective we see NZ1 standing up as the sole bastion of "Common Sense". Sure Peters pays the game, at many times at a Kindy level and it STILL works. e.g. Fishing at home to gain profile, standing to move to level 1. Saying that there are plenty in politics that are clueless at the most basic of levels.
Is there a reason you won't engage with the question?
Extending that then, The Greens are totally subservient to Labour because they cannot go against their govt.
I'm curious where you get your information about the Greens from. I've seen them going against Labour policy a number of times recently.
If there is a partnership then shouldn't Labour be seen tacitly in "giving" the Greens over the last 2.5 years some wins.
They have. Maybe do some research.
I'm so sick of these conversations. If people want the Greens to do something, then explain how. Otherwise it just comes across as moaning. Personally I think the Greens' weak points are more about their strategy, and their social media work. But we will see how they go in the election campaign.
You mean vote for a party that allowed police free entry into our property.
Are you suggesting voting for one of the other parties that allowed it? Also, are you suggesting that the Greens shouldn't have become part of the government?
Stop the tag wrestling Ad. We don't have time for things to gradually work out – the world is coming to an end and the sky is falling. Times are almost fitting into the stories of children's nursery rhymes – so unbelievable.
Put up or shut up. Don't put down any well meaning Party, put a whoopee cushion under them, and when it farts say 'Look what happens when you sit down, stand up grow good, and get moving like there's no tomorrow'. There may not be – it may come but look completely different than what was expected.
Now children children! If you can't behave nicely to each other, I'm afraid I'm going to have to separate you!
Ad: You go and stand in the purple corner! (Or is it mauve?)
Hero: You're over there in the black, and woe betide if you turn around while you're wearing that ridiculous dunce's hat (Talking about bloody principle and all – especially when Shane the Retail politician has got 'em all up for sale and is negotiating the price of the next bauble for Winnie)
@Grey: Come with me and and we'll go and do the dishes together
As pointed out in that Herald/ODT link, the UMR poll is only part of the story. But we also know National's private polling is bad, because Muller is refusing to share it with the caucus. If it was 35%+ they'd be spinning it like crazy.
I gave up following the issue a while back but I'd be grateful if someone who is considerably considerably better informed than I could tell me about the intricacies of it all. And that's because I'm no longer interested in anything mathmatic and I'm considerably considerably richer than they, and really – why should I give a fuck – I'm in my comfy little nest at the moment, until such time as it all goes tits up!
Does it still mean that people who've been magnanimously granted one of these loans will pay no more than 100% on the principle? The 0.8% per day compounded and all such. Seems wonderful eh? A can of baked beans in watered down tomato sauce might only eventually cost $5 or 6.
And if there is someone who could tell me whether the ultimate incremental pragmatist, kicker-of-the-can-down-the-road is going to monitor everything in this space, just as he has over other of his responsibilites – not the least of which is the state of our media.
As the Tangerine Turkey often says: "It's tremendous. We'll see what happens" and second tier bennies really should be grateful eh? IF they show enough personal responsibility, have the ambition and determination to break free of their circumstance, they could become a Minister of the Crown – it's in their hands
It appears that President Loathe in the Time of Corona has sent a can of his dayglo spraytan to his personal Nosferatu, but instead of using halved ping-pong balls to protect his eyes when applying it, he's used a mask over his mouth. (See the kindergarten tit-for-tat with Piers Morgan starting at 6:30).
Good fkn riddance. Cops who run away at the first whiff of accountability – everyone is better off without them. Hopefully this sets the ball rolling and we'll see a lot more of it.
It's still a step in the right direction when thugs quit an explicit Thug Division, simply because the risk of being held accountable has gone from zero to very small. Net result should still be a reduction in police thuggery.
As far as the Greens/ NZ Police Association thing goes, it strikes me as a bit misdirected and ott from all sides. In particular, one clear message from the George Floyd murder is that death and violence from police can happen even without use of weapons. A point which seems to have been missed in the current posturing from both sides.
Also Greens, given the role Facebook has in seriously fucking up political discourse worldwide, what's up with making us go to Facebook to find material you're publishing? Put it directly on your own site.
Edit
This piles anxiety on top of deeply troublingwhen thinking of how far NZ police behaviour will descend into punitive attacks when they decide to trial new policing methods which might turn out to become routine. Gordon Campbell at Scoop has amassed some relevant background information.
For instance : Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer now facing murder and manslaughter charges for killing Floyd had been the subject of 18 prior complaints. These included his participation in the 2006 killing of a Native American called Wayne Reyes, who had been pulled over by Police in connection with an assault on his girlfriend. In the space of four seconds, Chauvin and five fellow officers poured 43 rounds into the cab of Reyes’ truck, 23 of which hit Reyes.
Tou Thao, one of three other officers present while Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck had been the subject of six prior complaints, including participation in a 2017 Police attack on Lamar Ferguson, a black man out walking with his pregnant girlfriend. Ferguson was left hospitalised with broken teeth and other injuries. While the city of Minneapolis eventually made a $25,000 payout to Ferguson, the officers responsible continued in service.
The man-child is completely tone deaf, and with this latest episode of insensibility one wonders if he can be any more despicable. But his daily scraping of the bottom of the barrel reveals he a character of immense vileness.
Trump started by reading from a script but then launched into his usual unbelievable tirade. Stick to a script Donald. You are less than no public speaker.
The massage is so relaxing – as soon as I hear Trump's dulcet tones I fall asleep. Some might find Trump educational, but he just teaches us bad habits; I advise to flee before your brain turns to mush.
Reminds me of Groucho Marx's jibe at television being educational. "I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book."
I thought this was very timely given the world today and With a Kiwi influence and for some to take time an search Blair Peach abkost kiwiw name one history https://youtu.be/NxD3whUUz30
Who was Blair Peach ? For those who don't know it is good to know your history of what has gone before us at s time like this. Those older SHOULD know, especially visitors to this site and the link to this song of protest.
Never underestimate the covidity of the repug base.
One third of Americans used bleach or other household disinfectants “in non-recommended high risk practices” in attempts to reduce the spread of the deadly coronavirus, a new CDC survey finds.
Among the non-recommended practices were using “bleach on food products, applying household cleaning and disinfectant products to skin, and inhaling or ingesting cleaners and disinfectants,” the CDC says, as The Daily Beast reports.
If NZ First gets 4.8% of the party vote they are gone. NZ First gets 4.8% of the party vote and wins Northland they have a presence.
Could NZF be in the driver's seat again? It's possible. I think anyone expecting Labour to poll 50+% and National >30% is in dreamland. The most likely result is both of those parties in the 40s.
Please stop wasting our time and stick to your user handle, thanks. If you have technical difficulties, e.g. with accessing TS, commenting, or replying to comments, please ask and we (i.e. lprent) will do our best when we have time.
The tRump shit-magnet attracts the world's worst people.
Back in March, at the very beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, popular QAnon "citizen journalist" Greg Rubini started pushing the narrative that the novel coronavirus was created by the Deep State, in cahoots with Dr. Anthony Fauci, for the purposes of ruining the Trump economy. It was not the first absurd theory he had imagineered and put forth as the truth. The claim, among others, was picked up by OAN "journalist," granddaughter of fake psychic Allene "I've got the answers, call now" Cunningham, and author of one million non-existent young adult detective novels for girls who who hate feminism, Chanel Rion.
Rion, at the time, described Rubini as "a citizen investigator and monitored source amongst a certain set in the DC intelligence community."
Later, in May, Rion would pick up another of his claims — one that the Obama administration had enlisted foreign intelligence to spy on the Trump campaign — and, during a press briefing, ask Kayleigh McEneny, "So to what extent was [former CIA director] John Brennan involved with that?
[…]
This incident set off investigations into Rion's past by outlets like the Daily Mail, which "exclusively" revealed stunning truths about her past that were reported here on Wonkette back in January of 2018 and by me, on Twitter, in February of that same year.
Now a Buzzfeed investigation into Rubini/Palusa's past reveals that his entire life has been just a massive series of lies and delusions of grandeur.
Palusa, it turns out, is from Triesta, a seaport in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of northeast Italy, although his last known area of residence was in Tuscany. Right now he claims to be a "Strategy Advisor at /classified/," but has also worked in design:
A new Trump appointee to the United States’ foreign aid agency has a history of online posts denouncing liberal democracy and has said that the country is in the clutches of a “homo-empire” that pushes a “tyrannical LGBT agenda.”
In one post, Merritt Corrigan, who recently took up a position as deputy White House liaison at the U.S. Agency for International Development, wrote: “Liberal democracy is little more than a front for the war being waged against us by those who fundamentally despise not only our way of life, but life itself.”
Corrigan’s new position in the Trump administration, confirmed by two officials, has not been previously reported.
Corrigan previously worked for the Hungarian Embassy in the United States and tweeted that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is “the shining champion of Western civilization,” Politico reported last year. An embassy spokesman, Béla Gedeon, said Corrigan left her position there in mid-April.
For weeks, India's relatively low Covid-19 numbers had baffled experts. Despite the dense population, disease and underfunded public hospitals, there was no deluge of infections or fatalities.
Although India has the sixth highest number of cases, it is 12th in fatalities, according to statistics from Johns Hopkins University. Low testing rates explained the former, but not the latter. The hope – which also encouraged the government to lift the lockdown – was that most of India's undetected infections would not be severe enough to require hospitalisation.
An article in the New York Times covered an important detail those with blood type A have the most severe cases – twice as likely to need oxygen and ventialtion. Apparently their stronger immune response causes inflammation.
Whereas Europe/UK/USA and Japan have 40% blood type A – India has only 20%. China has 27% around the world average. The Polynesians have a higher rate than thre Europeans. Just as well our area is largely free of it.
Don't want to sound trivial, but an article in today's Herald said that it seemed that bald men were more susceptible to serious pneumonia Covid problems than men who had retained their head of hair. Is baldness related to blood group?
Scholar Gary Saul Morson sees disturbing parallels between Russia before the Revolution and contemporary America
[…]
The similarities between this week’s riots and the Los Angeles riots of 1992 are obvious. Both were occasioned by appalling video images, and both divided the nation along partisan and ideological lines. The differences between the two events, however, are more revealing. The violence in 1992 came after a court verdict; the beating and arrest of Rodney King had happened more than a year before. This year’s riots came within days of George Floyd’s killing by Minneapolis officers. The riots of 1992 were mostly confined to poor and working-class areas of Los Angeles. This week saw mayhem all over America, and in Los Angeles, New York and elsewhere the rioters targeted wealthy streets and neighborhoods.
But perhaps the most striking difference is the rationalization, and sometimes full-throated defense, of violence from left-wing elites: the glorification of havoc, the vilification of cops and their middle-class admirers, highfalutin defenses of vandalism. The sense of revolution and class warfare was everywhere this week: the cognoscenti and underclass arrayed against the petty bourgeois shop owners; the elite and those they claim to represent against everybody else.
Gary Saul Morson says he has no special insight regarding police actions and the death of George Floyd. But he does have a provocative thesis about America’s current political moment: “To me it’s astonishingly like late 19th-, early 20th-century Russia, when basically the entire educated class felt you simply had to be against the regime or some sort of revolutionary.”
In America, and even more so on Twitter, there’s a whiff of China’s Cultural Revolution in the air.
[…]
In the mid-1960s Mao Zedong, suspicious of those around him, wary of the moves of erstwhile Soviet allies, damaged by a disastrous famine his policies had caused, surveyed the scene and decided it was time for a little mayhem. The problem wasn’t his disastrous ideology, it was, he wrote, “feudal forces full of hatred towards socialism . . . stirring up trouble, sabotaging socialist productive forces.” The party had been “infiltrated” by pragmatists and revisionists. He wrote—it is the epigraph of Frank Dikötter’s “The Cultural Revolution: A People’s History, 1962-1976”—“Who are our friends? Who are our enemies? That is the main question of the revolution.”
Buzz from the Beehive Housing Minister Chris Bishop delivered news – packed with the ingredients to enflame political passions – worthy of supplanting Winston Peters in headline writers’ priorities. He popped up at the post-Cabinet press conference to promise a crackdown on unruly and antisocial state housing tenants. His ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The Reserve Bank is advertising for a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion advisor. The Bank has one mandate – to keep inflation between one and three percent. It has failed in that and is only slowly getting inflation back down to the upper limit. Will it ...
Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency Waka KotahiThe fact that a ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Gavin Jacobson talks to Thomas Piketty 10 years on from Capital in the 21st CenturyThe SalvoLocal scoop: Green MP’s business being investigated over migrant exploitation claims StuffSteve KilgallonLocal deep-dive: The commercial contractors making money from School ...
It’s a home - but Kāinga Ora tenants accused of “abusing the privilege” may lose it. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government announced a crackdown on Kāinga Ora tenants who were unruly and/or behind on their rent, with Housing Minister Chris Bishop saying a place in a state ...
This is a guest post by Connor Sharp of Surface Light Rail Light rail in Auckland: A way forward sooner than you think With the coup de grâce of Auckland Light Rail (ALR) earlier this year, and the shift of the government’s priorities to roads, roads, and more roads, it ...
Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
David Farrar writes – We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how labour went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promiseThe result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
“I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
.“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
“It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet – is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
Bob Edlin writes – And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ HeraldThomas CoughlanSimeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
TL;DR:Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
Every year, in the Budget, Parliament forks out money to government agencies to do certain things. And every year, as part of the annual review cycle, those agencies are meant to report on whether they have done the things Parliament gave them that money for. Agencies which consistently fail to ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – Recent events in American universities point to an underlying crisis of coherent thinking, an issue that increasingly affects the progressive left across the Western world. This of course is nothing new as anyone who can either remember or has read of the late ...
The thing about life’s little victories is that they can be followed by a defeat.Reader Darryl told me on Monday night:Test again Dave. My “head cold” last week became COVID within 24 hours, and is still with me. I hear the new variants take a bit longer to show up ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Angus Deaton on rethinking his economics IMFLocal scoop: The people behind Tamarind, the firm that left a $500m cleanup bill for taxpayers at Taranaki’s Tui oil well, are back operating in Taranaki under a different company name. Jonathan ...
Normally when we talk about accessing public transport it’s about improving how easy it is to get to, such as how easy is it to cross roads in a station/stop’s walking catchment, is it possible to cycle to safely, do bus connections work, or even if are there new routes/connections ...
Politicians are not renowned for telling the truth. Some tell us things that are verifiably not true. They offer statements that omit critical pieces of information. Gloss over risks, preferring to offer the best case scenario.Some not truths are quite small, others amusing in their transparency. There are those repeated ...
The pressure is mounting on the Government as it finalises its Budget Policy Statement, but yet more predicted revenue ‘goes missing’. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Climate Commission has delivered another funding blow to the National-ACT-NZ First coalition Government’s tax-cutting plans, potentially carving $1.4 billion off the ‘climate ...
The Government now faces the prospect of having to watch another tax raise the price of petrol when, only six days ago, it abolished the Auckland Regional Fuel tax. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon argued that the regional fuel tax imposed costs on lower-income people with less fuel-efficient vehicles and that ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
The government’s attack on Māori health this week is committing tangata-whenua to a premature death, says Te Pāti Māori. “The government have begun their onslaught on Māori health with the abolishment of the Māori Health Authority and smokefree laws in the same day” said health spokesperson and co-leader, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. ...
Today marks a tragic milestone for New Zealanders as the Coalition Government side with big tobacco to repeal the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Smoked Tobacco) Amendment Act 2022, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins and Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
This year’s Pacific Language Weeks celebrate regional unity and the contribution of Pacific communities to New Zealand culture, says Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti. Dr Reti announced dates for the 2024 Pacific Language Weeks during a visit to the Pasifika festival in Auckland today and says there’s so ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Food rationing is underway in remote areas in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands following torrential rain and flash flooding. More than 20 people have been reported dead in Chimbu Province. In nearby Enga Province, the centre of last month’s massacre, a 15-year-old boy has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Hughes, Lecturer, Research School of Management, Australian National University After months of debate and intrigue, the AFL’s 19th and newest team, the Tasmania Devils, finally launched its jumper, logo and colours in Devonport this week. The Devils will wear green, ...
Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews the debut novel by Saraid de Silva.One of the most baffling things for children who move to a new country is what their parents’ (or grandparents’) lives were like prior to moving – for kids in particular, they’re too busy trying to fit in in their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT University Narelle Portanier/Binge “If you don’t know who your mob are, you don’t know who you are,” Detective Andrea “Andie” Whitford (played by Leah Purcell) is told early into the new crime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Associate professor, Australian National University It’s commonly accepted that women do the vast majority of caregiving in Australian society. But less appreciated is that Indigenous women do larger amounts of unpaid care than any other group. Working with the Aboriginal ...
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For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. This one-off documentary presents three intimate portraits of young Polynesians who are pulled into a Korean cultural phenomenon. K-POLYS is directed by Litia Tuiburelevu, Produced by Hex ...
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Teammates who spend all their time picking fights with spectators are only helpful for the other team, writes Madeleine Chapman. Anyone who has ever played a team sport competitively, particularly as a child and particularly, for some reason, basketball, will know that there’s a lot of politics involved. While there ...
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The latest Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor reveals that fewer New Zealanders believe crime / law and order is one of the top issues facing our country. In 2018, Ipsos New Zealand started tracking the key issues facing New Zealand. In this wave ...
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As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a teacher explains why he and his partner are in frugal mode – and how they’re making it work. Gender: Male Age: 35Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: I am an intermediate school teacher and my partner is ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason Nassios, Associate Professor, Centre of Policy Studies, Victoria University This article is part of The Conversation’s series examining the housing crisis. Read the other articles in the series here. Australian state and federal governments spend money in many ways to ...
The finance minister is denying that there’s a $5.6b shortfall in paying for the government’s campaign promises, including tax cuts. At his post-cabinet press conference yesterday, the PM refused to rule out new taxes to pay for the cuts, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s ...
Kāinga Ora tenants abused by their neighbours are doubting the government's crackdown on disruptive tenants will make a difference on their behaviour. ...
Kāinga Ora is New Zealand’s biggest residential landlord, housing more than 180,000 vulnerable people in more than 67,000 properties. Yesterday the government announced a crackdown on its tenants who fall behind on rent. One longtime Kāinga Ora tenant shares her experience.For 18 years I lived in a 1960s standalone ...
Why does this myth persist, and what’s the real reason our skin is suffering?It’s one of the biggest international grievances New Zealanders hold, up there with the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior and 1981’s underarm incident. We’re quick to tell international travellers that the world’s pollution led to the ...
Opinion: We are fast approaching a fundamental change in prisons. As the number of people on custodial remand looks set to overtake the number of sentenced prisoners, the main function of prisons in New Zealand may become incarcerating un-sentenced people who may not be guilty of offending. We have already ...
A huge seven months lies in store for the White Ferns, beginning this week with the visit of England and culminating with the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in September and October. Starting on Tuesday in Dunedin, the world ranked No. 2 visitors will play five T20s and three ODIs, ...
Opinion: In a move that has shocked road safety advocates across the country, the new Minister of Transport, Simeon Brown, is poised to abandon the previous government’s speed limit reduction policy, particularly around schools. Even more alarmingly, he wants school speed limits to be variable rather than full-time, arguing ...
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When the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act was introduced in 2009 it was firmly targeted at gangs and drugs. The legislation means police no longer need a conviction to seize assets that criminals can’t prove were paid for legitimately, as long as their alleged offences are punishable by more than a ...
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Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
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For the good of our nation, Winston Peters needs to be memorialised.
In Parliament with just a few breaks since 1978, he should be sat down and given a proper Celebrity Roast.
Something akin to the final scene of The Wire in which a good but errant cop is laid flat in front of a bar with all his peers old and older, all his enemies, all his friends, all his lovers, all his whanau, all the lawyers he's shafted, all the judges he's just fucked over in the press, all the MPs and Ministers and Prime Ministers he's stabbed in the front and the back and the side, all the reporters that he's spat at to their faces as the nation watched with abandoned glee, all the civil servants who year after year wiped his ass with our cash until he could finally shit no more, and story after story and drink after drink they all recall how he did it, how he got them all, the best lies he ever told, the crimes he never quite nailed, the conspiracies true and should've-been-true from Think Big's Alusuisse to The Winebox to PGF, in short how he was to his core Natural Born Politician, the only one we'v really had since Holyoake, the sum total of his 'hit' files on people are read out and laughed at…
and at the same time as this is happening he is gently tapped of all his fluid and embalmed, so that he can be aid flat on the gun carriage and pulled with 22 black horses down The Terrace and Featherstone Street as people throw black carnations and red roses across his path … but he's still perfectly conscious so that he can enjoy it and repudiate all the concurrent press coverage to their faces …
… and then his head can be gently removed and mounted on a mahogany base to be displayed, with eyes ever-watching, right above the Speakers' Chair, something like a horse.
I think we all owe him that.
Possibly a bit premature to discuss stuffing and mounting him while he's still getting regular top-ups of his smoke-and-pickling marinade?
Just 3 months to go.
Wonderful news to start the day. A friend worked at this pharmacy, it was the most abusive workplace she has even been in. It lead to mental health issues for her.
Karma
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/121721644/former-nelson-pharmacy-owners-penalised-394000-for-price-fixing
Great!
"The summary of facts said the pharmacy explained to customers the $1 charge was to draw attention to the under-funding of prescription medicines and to put pressure on the health board to adequately fund them to ensure the pharmacies' survival."
And who do you reckon Hebberd and Wright will support in the upcoming election? Probably the same people that increased prescription charges fro $3 – $5 and who made an art form out of underfunding the health sector during their reign of terror.
Apart from bad employment practices and the fact that the pharmacies all agreed to making a protest charge, the $400,000 is excessive for an extra $1. I suppose that will pay for the CEOs salary at COCO, (I should cocoa! for the English readers), or might stretch for him or her and the Misery of Health (as Rosemary calls them) or the CEO of the DHB who I think may be the one making such a good job of running the Southland/Otago HB.
Now COCO can look at AirNZ and see if they should be charged big quids for holding urgently needed refunds back in a predatory manner.
UMR poll:
– Labour 54% (down marginally from 55% in April)
– ational 30% (up marginally from 29% in April)
– NZ First 5% (down from 6%)
– Greens 4% (down from 5%)
– ACT may be 2.5%
Preferred Prime Minister:
– Jacinda Ardern 65% (no change)
– Todd Muller 13% (Bridges 7% in April)
The poll of 1211 voters was taken from May 26 to June 1 and has a margin of error of +/-3%.
Another very good result for Labour and Ardern but they appear to have peaked.
This isn’t very good for National again, but it suggests the slide may have ended.
And considering a muddled first week and uninspiring second week I don’t think it’s bad for Muller, he at least got about double Bridges last UMR result.
We’re in an unprecedented situation health-wise, socially, politically and economically. It is most likely the Labour-National gap will close a bit at least as we get closer to the election.
Source ODT/NZ Herald
" It is most likely the Labour-National gap will close a bit at least"
A bit? Good prediction and good news for the Left!
Why the duplicate comment?
He is fishing for responses.
It is deliberate.
A cynical and unkind comment, IMO, and as it turns out, incorrect too.
Sorry. My bad.
I has miskeyed the Naame on the first one and it disappeared so I reposted the comment later. You can delete the first one (no comments on it) if you want to tidy up.
Thanks, no problem. I’ve tidied up.
No surprise … I was pretty much expecting him to debut around the early to mid teens.
Given the ever-increasing importance of leadership attributes in determining voting behaviour … a new Opposition Leader really needs to be debuting in the 20s or 30s in the Preferred PM stakes and to appear at least reasonably competitive with the PM if they're to have any chance of victory.
Unfortunately UMR have only very recently started to measure Preferred PM ratings … in the past they restricted leadership measures to Favourability only … but here are new Oppo Leader debuts in the Colmar Brunton Preferred PMs this century:
Initial Preferred PM rating for each new Leader:
First, the 2 successful new Oppo Leaders:
Key 27%
Ardern 30%
Second, the unsuccessful in chronological order:
English 21%
Brash 15%
Goff 6%
Shearer 11%
Cunliffe 12%
Little 12%
Bridges 10%
Muller 13% (UMR … other Leaders CB)
I wonder where Luxon will debut
Let’s not play silly games here … I think we all know Maureen Pugh will be the next Leader of the National Party.
Fair comment, and my apologies.
According to simon shes atleast as capable as him and muller
so now Bridges is no longer leader, he is on point again?
Do you recall what bridges said about pugh in those tapes?
No, but I was being sarcastic.
To BW, Oh that is very good.
Indeed. The only thing missing from her C.V. is that she doesn't appear to have had any experience as a real estate saleswoman
if pugh, or any living human, had replaced simon, their preferred p.m. rating would be about where toddlers is. most nats still dont know anything about toddler ,or his policies, but will vote or a turkey in gumboots, if it wears a nat sticker.
Goff really was a stand-out.
Party Vote Green, tactically or if you are a wavering Labour/Green voter is the message there. Tribal Labour support for the sake of it makes no sense.
We may end up with Act 6 Nats 39 Labour 43 NZF 4.9 GR 4.9 wasted 2.2
Prime Minister Mullet in an ACT/NAT coalition of 61 seats
You mean vote for a party that allowed police free entry into our property. The party that has to swallow dead rats (willingly). Little comment regarding police using AI. And giving the Nats their questions at QT. All to be part of THE govt team, without really BEINg in the team
If they had voted against the Bill, what would have happened next?
I mean, there is a conversation to be had about how MMP *should function, but people saying the Greens should just vote against everything they don't like would stall govt and no-one explains what would happen next given Labour also have to negotiate Bills with NZF, their primary partner who has Ministers inside cabinet.
I really wish people would explain how they think this works, instead of just slagging off a party for making the best of a shitty situation. Doubly so in a conversation about tactical voting, because if the Greens get more MPs this time they will have more chance at swaying Labour.
Amazed at the number of people who seem to think that decreasing the Green vote is the best way to get movement on environmental issues …
Blows my mind every single time. Likewise social justice, or economics, or most things.
Seems like many people still vote according to their personal feelings rather than tactically.
NZ1st appear to be able to maintain their identity and keep to their principles, Where is the line in the sand that The Greens will not cross? for me this appears to me a moving target.
Are some saying that to be part of the establishment that there are many rats to be swallowed, and what "payback" is there for the Greens ? – I don't see Labour or NZ1 digesting rats. Just saying 🤓
Winston First were in a position to negotiate a coalition agreement containing more latitude and more lollies than the Greens were offered, including seats at the cabinet table.
Politics is the art of the possible. Purity is for those of us sitting on the outside wringing our hands.
I'm going to address the issues you raise there Herodotus, but first I want to point out that you didn't answer the question. If the Greens voted against the Bill, what would have happened next?
What would have happened is the Greens would have started a nationwide debate.
A nationwide debate on anything is what the Greens at 4.7%-5.1% desperately need.
The Greens sure sucked it up and voted for the two-tier welfare payments. And then came out the next day and complained. Trying to start a nationwide debate.
But then Labour would have responded that they've delivered:
– The $5.5 billion Families Package in 2018 which established the Winter Energy and Best Start payments, as well as boosting Working for Families tax credits.
– Indexed main benefits to wage growth from April 2020, meaning benefit payments rise in line with wages – rather than inflation.
– Increased most benefits, in its initial Covid-19 economic rescue package, by $25 a week and doubled this year's Winter Energy Payment.
and of course
– Dropped $15billion to keep everyone's jobs going over the last few months – through to October.
So the debate is there if the Greens really want it.
But hell the Greens need a big fat media platform. Guns. Crime. Welfare. Trees. Water. Climate. Anything will do right now.
Head for 5% like they want it.
If only they could buy one..
ah well, pity I didn't read this comment before the Greens should act like ACT one.
I am curious how this scenario would play out. I'll have a proper read of this in the morning, thank fuck someone finally put up some actual strategy.
Yes, and it's hard for me to understand how this is still so poorly understood given that NZF have been in parliament since the early 90s, and Peters has been fucking with MMP since its introduction. Not trying to be rude, there is a lot I still don't understand about how parliament and government works in NZ. Here's what I understand about this though,
Centrist small parties have institutional power that small parties on the left and right don't. NZF is able to play National and Labour off each other in order to get policy gains. They also had slightly more votes and one more MP than the Greens in 2017.
Labour couldn't govern with the GP alone, it had to do a deal with NZF if it wanted to form government. NZF held the balance of power, because if Labour wouldn't deal with them, they could just support a Nat govt instead. This option isn't available to the GP.
Labour also needed the GP to form govt, but the option for the GP was to support a Lab govt or allow a Nat one. Obviously this is a lot less tenable for a left wing party than a centrist one.
There are some bottom lines, which I'll address below, but I don't see NZF holding the balance of power being one of them. What else should have made the GP not give Confidence and Supply in 2017 and thus given Nat a 4th term? I can't think of any. So this is an institutional power that the Greens hold, but it's a very different power than what NZF have.
Add to that is that the GP practice political ethics. They're not going to bring down a govt over policy unless there is a critical issue of principles.
My understanding of the GP position is that they won't compromise on principles but they will compromise on policy. This is what Sacha is talking about. All parties have to compromise, and in this case that includes Lab and NZF. How much they compromise depends on two things. What kind of institutional power they have, and how they use that power. The Greens aren't in govt for power, they're there for change, and working with other parties is a good way of effecting that. A big part of that is maintaining good working relationships with the parties they depend upon on this issue but also future issues.
The big problem I see is that the negotiations around Bills are done in secret. I think they should be public. I think NZers should be able to see who is supporting what, and who is blocking what. Atm we can't see what gains the GP have made that NZF or Labour wouldn't have done anyway, but we can make some educated guesses based on the policy platforms of all parties before the election.
Climate is the obvious one. We have a more progressive climate policy than if it had been L/NZF alone.
If you really want to dig into, I would expect that the Select Committee process would likewise show the differences between the parties and then the outcomes would show who made gains for their own policies. This includes the covid Bill, which I understand the Greens argued for changes to.
What a load of ridiculous special pleading.
Even Act has more dignity than to argue about how being an out-there party makes it hard. Act finds the way to make change – which they have done this term with tiny numbers. They will be rewarded for it.
You want to get above 5% go out and fight for it.
Failing that go win a seat and stop whining about how everyone's so mean and no one else has principles.
Why are you so hostile? Serious question.
Your example is totally ridiculous, ACT only exist in parliament because of a deal between them and National, we are all aware of that. ACT represent ideology and policies that the National party want but may not want to campaign on. If your rhetoric is representative of how Labour views the Greens then it's even more clear how different their situation is from your example.
You Green supporters seem about as capable of holding their Green MPs for their performance which is at marginal survival as white evangelicals do to Donald Trump. That's shown by you reacting like a scolded cat to some advice that's applicable to any marginal party.
Act have got the electoral deal that the Greens may well need to stay afloat. Take a lesson and do a deal.
The Greens need to survive. On their own merits.
Your characterisation of both my reaction and your 'advice' is inaccurate.
Again I ask, why are you so hostile?
Act is consistently given more media space than the Greens. It would be interesting to hear why you think that happens.
For a guy whose smart about many things including lots of politics, you have a pretty outstanding blindspot on this.
My post wasn't about special pleading, it was simply describing how parties on the edges don't have the same institutional power as those in the middle, so that H could understand the context of what he was expecting and why it's unlikely to happen.
To me this is self-evident, whatever failings the Greens have, by all means explain how I am wrong on this point. Centrist parties can do things that parties on the edge can't. And you know, I'm still waiting for the actual explanation of the people that dump on the Greens on how macho politics from the left of Labour would work. Won't hold my breath though, you do seem to have an ongoing grievance about something to do with the Greens so I don't expect any useful discussion about how governments function.
You try and use ACT as an example of something in all that, but ACT are only in parliament because they do a deal with Nat to have a seat. Instead of opening a conversation about the usefulness or not of Lab and the Greens doing electorate deals, you suggest that ACT are somehow more parliamentarily virutous /massive eyeroll.
Your implication is that the Greens haven't achieved anything, but obviously they have. Maybe they haven't lived up to your expectations, which would be really fucking weird given how much you seem to hate them. No idea what that is about, maybe it's just too much that Labour have to rely on them and you are afraid that it will cost the left the election.
Bugger me why people think dumping on the Greens will improve things, but I guess there are still plenty of lefties out there that think bashing is an incentive. SSDD for NZ after all.
What would happen next ?… Extending that then, The Greens are totally subservient to Labour because they cannot go against their govt.
If there is a partnership then shouldn't Labour be seen tacitly in "giving" the Greens over the last 2.5 years some wins.
From my perspective we see NZ1 standing up as the sole bastion of "Common Sense". Sure Peters pays the game, at many times at a Kindy level and it STILL works. e.g. Fishing at home to gain profile, standing to move to level 1. Saying that there are plenty in politics that are clueless at the most basic of levels.
Is there a reason you won't engage with the question?
I'm curious where you get your information about the Greens from. I've seen them going against Labour policy a number of times recently.
They have. Maybe do some research.
I'm so sick of these conversations. If people want the Greens to do something, then explain how. Otherwise it just comes across as moaning. Personally I think the Greens' weak points are more about their strategy, and their social media work. But we will see how they go in the election campaign.
Are you suggesting voting for one of the other parties that allowed it? Also, are you suggesting that the Greens shouldn't have become part of the government?
Maybe they should just sit the next term out.
Might be good for them.
Stop the tag wrestling Ad. We don't have time for things to gradually work out – the world is coming to an end and the sky is falling. Times are almost fitting into the stories of children's nursery rhymes – so unbelievable.
Put up or shut up. Don't put down any well meaning Party, put a whoopee cushion under them, and when it farts say 'Look what happens when you sit down, stand up grow good, and get moving like there's no tomorrow'. There may not be – it may come but look completely different than what was expected.
Now children children! If you can't behave nicely to each other, I'm afraid I'm going to have to separate you!
Ad: You go and stand in the purple corner! (Or is it mauve?)
Hero: You're over there in the black, and woe betide if you turn around while you're wearing that ridiculous dunce's hat (Talking about bloody principle and all – especially when Shane the Retail politician has got 'em all up for sale and is negotiating the price of the next bauble for Winnie)
@Grey: Come with me and and we'll go and do the dishes together
As pointed out in that Herald/ODT link, the UMR poll is only part of the story. But we also know National's private polling is bad, because Muller is refusing to share it with the caucus. If it was 35%+ they'd be spinning it like crazy.
Wow!- https://www.npr.org/sections/live-updates-protests-for-racial-justice/2020/06/05/870833518/black-lives-matter-plaza-across-from-white-house-is-christened-by-d-c-leaders There's amazing footage of the painted road too.
Time someone painted something similar down Hawera's High Street.
Thank the Heavens for small mercies eh?
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/ldr/418394/people-are-drowning-in-debt-crackdown-on-loan-sharks-welcomed
I gave up following the issue a while back but I'd be grateful if someone who is considerably considerably better informed than I could tell me about the intricacies of it all. And that's because I'm no longer interested in anything mathmatic and I'm considerably considerably richer than they, and really – why should I give a fuck – I'm in my comfy little nest at the moment, until such time as it all goes tits up!
Does it still mean that people who've been magnanimously granted one of these loans will pay no more than 100% on the principle? The 0.8% per day compounded and all such. Seems wonderful eh? A can of baked beans in watered down tomato sauce might only eventually cost $5 or 6.
And if there is someone who could tell me whether the ultimate incremental pragmatist, kicker-of-the-can-down-the-road is going to monitor everything in this space, just as he has over other of his responsibilites – not the least of which is the state of our media.
As the Tangerine Turkey often says: "It's tremendous. We'll see what happens" and second tier bennies really should be grateful eh? IF they show enough personal responsibility, have the ambition and determination to break free of their circumstance, they could become a Minister of the Crown – it's in their hands
Usually I find Jimmy Kimmel a bit ho-hum, but this one's got its moments.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fB6xszdzBEQ
It appears that President Loathe in the Time of Corona has sent a can of his dayglo spraytan to his personal Nosferatu, but instead of using halved ping-pong balls to protect his eyes when applying it, he's used a mask over his mouth. (See the kindergarten tit-for-tat with Piers Morgan starting at 6:30).
Good fkn riddance. Cops who run away at the first whiff of accountability – everyone is better off without them. Hopefully this sets the ball rolling and we'll see a lot more of it.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/buffalo-police-emergency-response-team-resign_n_5eda99e1c5b6ba25316d970a
They have only thrown their toys out of the cot to support their fellow thugs – still employed.
Of course NZ's own police union would never get on the wrong side of justice like that..
https://twitter.com/devlincolle/status/1268790859111100416
It's still a step in the right direction when thugs quit an explicit Thug Division, simply because the risk of being held accountable has gone from zero to very small. Net result should still be a reduction in police thuggery.
As far as the Greens/ NZ Police Association thing goes, it strikes me as a bit misdirected and ott from all sides. In particular, one clear message from the George Floyd murder is that death and violence from police can happen even without use of weapons. A point which seems to have been missed in the current posturing from both sides.
Also Greens, given the role Facebook has in seriously fucking up political discourse worldwide, what's up with making us go to Facebook to find material you're publishing? Put it directly on your own site.
https://www.greens.org.nz/greens_urge_police_to_rule_out_armed_police_patrols_following_george_floyd_s_death
Dunno, seems pretty straightforward..
https://twitter.com/saniac/status/1269027471074054144
Edit
This piles anxiety on top of deeply troubling when thinking of how far NZ police behaviour will descend into punitive attacks when they decide to trial new policing methods which might turn out to become routine. Gordon Campbell at Scoop has amassed some relevant background information.
http://werewolf.co.nz/2020/06/gordon-campbell-on-the-george-floyd-protests/
For instance : Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer now facing murder and manslaughter charges for killing Floyd had been the subject of 18 prior complaints. These included his participation in the 2006 killing of a Native American called Wayne Reyes, who had been pulled over by Police in connection with an assault on his girlfriend. In the space of four seconds, Chauvin and five fellow officers poured 43 rounds into the cab of Reyes’ truck, 23 of which hit Reyes.
Tou Thao, one of three other officers present while Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck had been the subject of six prior complaints, including participation in a 2017 Police attack on Lamar Ferguson, a black man out walking with his pregnant girlfriend. Ferguson was left hospitalised with broken teeth and other injuries. While the city of Minneapolis eventually made a $25,000 payout to Ferguson, the officers responsible continued in service.
Similar story with the killing in March of Brianna Taylor, a 26 year old emergency nurse who was shot eight times in the course of a night-time police raid on her apartment in Louisville Kentucky :
wt…
https://twitter.com/Yamiche/status/1268918953902059520
Why white evangelicals love their mango messiah, explained:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUxidwN4YPc
The man-child is completely tone deaf, and with this latest episode of insensibility one wonders if he can be any more despicable. But his daily scraping of the bottom of the barrel reveals he a character of immense vileness.
The bottom of the barrel gave up after token resistance years ago: he's now blasting into bedrock in his daily quest to go ever lower.
Yep Here we go.
'……one wonders if he can be any more despicable. '
I’m sure he’ll exceed everyones’ expectations.
Trump started by reading from a script but then launched into his usual unbelievable tirade. Stick to a script Donald. You are less than no public speaker.
Oh, come on! He’s the greatest public onanator. His skills are wasted bigly on Twitter, let’s be honest.
Yes, his superb strokes of rhetorical onantation skillfully create a powerful and compelling massage.
The massage is so relaxing – as soon as I hear Trump's dulcet tones I fall asleep. Some might find Trump educational, but he just teaches us bad habits; I advise to flee before your brain turns to mush.
Reminds me of Groucho Marx's jibe at television being educational. "I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book."
I thought this was very timely given the world today and With a Kiwi influence and for some to take time an search Blair Peach abkost kiwiw name one history
https://youtu.be/NxD3whUUz30
Who was Blair Peach ? For those who don't know it is good to know your history of what has gone before us at s time like this. Those older SHOULD know, especially visitors to this site and the link to this song of protest.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxD3whUUz30
Never underestimate the covidity of the repug base.
One third of Americans used bleach or other household disinfectants “in non-recommended high risk practices” in attempts to reduce the spread of the deadly coronavirus, a new CDC survey finds.
Among the non-recommended practices were using “bleach on food products, applying household cleaning and disinfectant products to skin, and inhaling or ingesting cleaners and disinfectants,” the CDC says, as The Daily Beast reports.
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/06/one-out-of-three-americans-used-bleach-in-non-recommended-high-risk-practices-to-battle-coronavirus-cdc-report/?
Or faux news talking heads.
https://twitter.com/laralogan/status/1268932728210194432
15 – 0 – 1
Nice looking numbers, hopefully the 1 gets over it soon & 0 stays 0.
In aid of cooperation perhaps it will become 1501. Much healthier.
Shane Jones standing in Northland is no surprise. But it's certainly news to discover that this is tipped to decide the election. It turns out …
Reporter has been living in a cave since February.
Note the link to an obsolete poll, in the opening sentence. Weird.
Cant help but wonder if bridges was rolled purely because nzf is nationals only path back to power.
National’s position on NZF has not changed, yet. I believe Nikki Kaye said so this morning.
If NZ First gets 4.8% of the party vote they are gone. NZ First gets 4.8% of the party vote and wins Northland they have a presence.
Could NZF be in the driver's seat again? It's possible. I think anyone expecting Labour to poll 50+% and National >30% is in dreamland. The most likely result is both of those parties in the 40s.
@ Observer Tokoroa:
You are currently banned for one month (https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-02-06-2020/#comment-1717411).
Lprent sent you an e-mail about you user names (https://thestandard.org.nz/todd-muller-is-no-jacinda-ardern/#comment-1714989), all 22 of them (https://thestandard.org.nz/todd-muller-is-no-jacinda-ardern/#comment-1715032 and https://thestandard.org.nz/internal-post-may-june-2020/#comment-1715007).
Please stop wasting our time and stick to your user handle, thanks. If you have technical difficulties, e.g. with accessing TS, commenting, or replying to comments, please ask and we (i.e. lprent) will do our best when we have time.
The tRump shit-magnet attracts the world's worst people.
Back in March, at the very beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, popular QAnon "citizen journalist" Greg Rubini started pushing the narrative that the novel coronavirus was created by the Deep State, in cahoots with Dr. Anthony Fauci, for the purposes of ruining the Trump economy. It was not the first absurd theory he had imagineered and put forth as the truth. The claim, among others, was picked up by OAN "journalist," granddaughter of fake psychic Allene "I've got the answers, call now" Cunningham, and author of one million non-existent young adult detective novels for girls who who hate feminism, Chanel Rion.
Rion, at the time, described Rubini as "a citizen investigator and monitored source amongst a certain set in the DC intelligence community."
Later, in May, Rion would pick up another of his claims — one that the Obama administration had enlisted foreign intelligence to spy on the Trump campaign — and, during a press briefing, ask Kayleigh McEneny, "So to what extent was [former CIA director] John Brennan involved with that?
[…]
This incident set off investigations into Rion's past by outlets like the Daily Mail, which "exclusively" revealed stunning truths about her past that were reported here on Wonkette back in January of 2018 and by me, on Twitter, in February of that same year.
Now a Buzzfeed investigation into Rubini/Palusa's past reveals that his entire life has been just a massive series of lies and delusions of grandeur.
Palusa, it turns out, is from Triesta, a seaport in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of northeast Italy, although his last known area of residence was in Tuscany. Right now he claims to be a "Strategy Advisor at /classified/," but has also worked in design:
https://www.wonkette.com/what-a-prominent-qanon-promoter-doesnt-have-insider-knowledge-is-just-some-dude-from-italy-no
More shit.
A new Trump appointee to the United States’ foreign aid agency has a history of online posts denouncing liberal democracy and has said that the country is in the clutches of a “homo-empire” that pushes a “tyrannical LGBT agenda.”
In one post, Merritt Corrigan, who recently took up a position as deputy White House liaison at the U.S. Agency for International Development, wrote: “Liberal democracy is little more than a front for the war being waged against us by those who fundamentally despise not only our way of life, but life itself.”
Corrigan’s new position in the Trump administration, confirmed by two officials, has not been previously reported.
Corrigan previously worked for the Hungarian Embassy in the United States and tweeted that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is “the shining champion of Western civilization,” Politico reported last year. An embassy spokesman, Béla Gedeon, said Corrigan left her position there in mid-April.
https://www.propublica.org/article/new-trump-appointee-to-foreign-aid-agency-has-denounced-liberal-democracy-and-our-homo-empire
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-52946508
An article in the New York Times covered an important detail those with blood type A have the most severe cases – twice as likely to need oxygen and ventialtion. Apparently their stronger immune response causes inflammation.
Whereas Europe/UK/USA and Japan have 40% blood type A – India has only 20%. China has 27% around the world average. The Polynesians have a higher rate than thre Europeans. Just as well our area is largely free of it.
Don't want to sound trivial, but an article in today's Herald said that it seemed that bald men were more susceptible to serious pneumonia Covid problems than men who had retained their head of hair. Is baldness related to blood group?
WSJ writers get their Red Scare/Yellow Peril on.
Violent Protest and the Intelligentsia
Scholar Gary Saul Morson sees disturbing parallels between Russia before the Revolution and contemporary America
[…]
The similarities between this week’s riots and the Los Angeles riots of 1992 are obvious. Both were occasioned by appalling video images, and both divided the nation along partisan and ideological lines. The differences between the two events, however, are more revealing. The violence in 1992 came after a court verdict; the beating and arrest of Rodney King had happened more than a year before. This year’s riots came within days of George Floyd’s killing by Minneapolis officers. The riots of 1992 were mostly confined to poor and working-class areas of Los Angeles. This week saw mayhem all over America, and in Los Angeles, New York and elsewhere the rioters targeted wealthy streets and neighborhoods.
But perhaps the most striking difference is the rationalization, and sometimes full-throated defense, of violence from left-wing elites: the glorification of havoc, the vilification of cops and their middle-class admirers, highfalutin defenses of vandalism. The sense of revolution and class warfare was everywhere this week: the cognoscenti and underclass arrayed against the petty bourgeois shop owners; the elite and those they claim to represent against everybody else.
Gary Saul Morson says he has no special insight regarding police actions and the death of George Floyd. But he does have a provocative thesis about America’s current political moment: “To me it’s astonishingly like late 19th-, early 20th-century Russia, when basically the entire educated class felt you simply had to be against the regime or some sort of revolutionary.”
http://archive.li/e3ig7
Get Ready for the Struggle Session
In America, and even more so on Twitter, there’s a whiff of China’s Cultural Revolution in the air.
[…]
In the mid-1960s Mao Zedong, suspicious of those around him, wary of the moves of erstwhile Soviet allies, damaged by a disastrous famine his policies had caused, surveyed the scene and decided it was time for a little mayhem. The problem wasn’t his disastrous ideology, it was, he wrote, “feudal forces full of hatred towards socialism . . . stirring up trouble, sabotaging socialist productive forces.” The party had been “infiltrated” by pragmatists and revisionists. He wrote—it is the epigraph of Frank Dikötter’s “The Cultural Revolution: A People’s History, 1962-1976”—“Who are our friends? Who are our enemies? That is the main question of the revolution.”
http://archive.li/8kioe
I guess the red scare talking point has been circulated.
https://twitter.com/NikkiMcR/status/1269057926200778753
Far too much politics and far too little of ideals on the people's side. The latter always has to be far first. The Right has naked power.