Open Mike 06/09/2018

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, September 6th, 2018 - 143 comments
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143 comments on “Open Mike 06/09/2018 ”

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  1. Dennis Frank 1
    6 September 2018 at 7:00 am

    “Labour campaigned on raising the refugee quota to 1500 per year and has consistently said it would do this within its first term.” Did Labour really think NZF agreed to this?? Winston Peters threw the government a curve ball: “We never made a commitment to double the refugee quota.”

    This appeared to be news to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern: “I would want to check the context of all of those questions [to Mr Peters], but as I’ve said that commitment still remains.”

    Looks like the first evidence of incompetence from the PM. Elementary failure to do homework. Either there’s documentary evidence of an agreement, or there isn’t. If none gets produced real fast, then Labour is guilty of posturing and making false promises. https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/365603/labour-and-nz-first-differ-over-refugee-increase

    • Morrissey 1.1
      6 September 2018 at 7:47 am

      Even worse than that, a few days ago Peters stated that New Zealand recognizes Indonesia’s sovereignty in West Papua—just like NZ governments from 1975 recognized Indonesia’s sovereignty in East Timor—and our “inspirational” young prime minister has uttered not one word about this.

      • Wayne 1.1.1
        6 September 2018 at 8:36 am

        Why is that worse?

        The PM is hardly going to blow up relations with Indonesia by saying that Indonesia does not have sovereignty over West Papua.

        She is a PM, not a political activist.

        • Professor Longhair 1.1.1.1
          6 September 2018 at 2:46 pm

          Methinks this “Wayne” will deny that the Indonesians’ genocidal “sovereignty” over East Timor was neither genocidal nor racist.

    • You_Fool 1.2
      6 September 2018 at 8:15 am

      A) Winston is playing politics… It has become obvious with NZF allowing the Maori Seats Entrenchment private members bill through first reading, but wanting a referendum on the issue. I can easily see the situation of “We will support the refugee increase, if you get the Maori seats bill changed to an all or nothing referendum.”

      B) Ardern has been hurt by the media providing out of context quotes before, so her “I need to check the context” comment is more asking if the media are playing silly buggers and causing a rift that isn’t there. It suggests that in talks this issue has been a non-issue with NZF.

    • marty mars 1.3
      6 September 2018 at 8:19 am

      “Looks like the first evidence of incompetence from the PM. Elementary failure to do homework. Either there’s documentary evidence of an agreement, or there isn’t. If none gets produced real fast, then Labour is guilty of posturing and making false promises.”

      Seems like that is a long bow to draw from this issue – Incompetence, elementary failure, posturing, false promises

      Judge jury and executioner is not a good look imo.

      • cleangreen 1.3.1
        6 September 2018 at 8:37 am

        Jacida’s current problems are arising from her lack of instructing all her Ministers to act in a open “inslusive manner” toward all her voters and the public as she promised to be a Government that is;

        qoute; Warm, gentle, considerate, inclussive,and ‘will give everyone a vioice to be heard and considered.’

        We in HB have asked Phil Twyford to come to Napier to meet our committee about the heavy truck noise vibration and air pollution impacting on many residential areas in our City but after repeated 9 months of written requests to the minister and his PA and now from our local labour MP Stuart nash this”Minister of transport” has still refused to come here to meet with us or even personally respond to our request for a meeting with him by his own email without a beaurocratic staffer answering saying “the minister is to busy to come”.

        We do not want any more of those repronses from his PA or secretarial staff as that is insulting to us all.

        Front up Phil Tywford or face the grilling you deserve.

        • Kevin 1.3.1.1
          6 September 2018 at 9:14 am

          Its a local council issue not central government.

          The council could very easily remedy this situation by preventing access to the port from the southern end with a traffic island. Instead they have poured hundreds of thousand into realigning Marine Parade and other measures ‘hoping’ it would discourage trucks.

          • cleangreen 1.3.1.1.1
            6 September 2018 at 12:49 pm

            Kevin you are taking crap.

            Governement are shelling out thebfunds and are responsible for the distribution and use of that money through the minister of transport on this topic.

            Dont try to let the governent off the hookn as you must be attempting to do.

            Last Labour govt’ under helen Clark had nto send their top people here to fix the issue in 2001 and now they need to come back again as National have caused the problems while labiour were not around.

            Government is the responsible party here as National caused the problem so dont let our ratepayer pay for legalm action as you are infiring, so get real and live in the real world as we have to.

            • Kevin 1.3.1.1.1.1
              6 September 2018 at 3:08 pm

              Marine Parade is NOT a state highway so remains under NCC control. If it was NZTA would be spending the money on it.

              Not a case of letting anyone off the hook. Marine Parade is not a central government (NZTA) issue, it is NCC’s responsibility.

        • marty mars 1.3.1.2
          6 September 2018 at 9:35 am

          Did you ask him about driving on the wrong side of the road to avoid potential slips?

        • mac1 1.3.1.3
          6 September 2018 at 12:00 pm

          Come, cleangreen, will you also tell Twyford how you can hear traffic noise 130 km away in Napier when you claimed under another post to live 1600′ above and north of Gisborne?

          • greywarshark 1.3.1.3.1
            6 September 2018 at 1:16 pm

            Cleangreen belongs to a group trying to get better transport models. He personally may not have heard the noise, but the group will have had reports about it from somewhere.

            Cleangreen Twyford is Minister for Housing and Urban Development and Transport. I think he is overburdened. It might make sense that they go together for Auckland but not coping with all NZ. It sounds as if he should be Minister for Auckland, and Shane Jones should be looking after the
            regional transport. Let’s have another Minister for small, group housing developments too while we are at it.

          • gsays 1.3.1.3.2
            6 September 2018 at 1:43 pm

            Why the sarcasm aimed at someone trying to do the right thing by most of us.
            Less trucks on our roads means a cleaner, safer environment and less maintenance needed.

            Unless you are lobbying for the truckers….

            • veutoviper 1.3.1.3.2.1
              6 September 2018 at 2:02 pm

              Agreed that less trucks etc, and I admire people trying to do the right thing in that regard. But there are also right and wrong ways of going about doing that, and any number of us have tried to explain – in a polite and helpful way – how to go about this time and time again. See my 1.3.1.3.1.1 above.

              • Dennis Frank …
                6 September 2018 at 2:15 pm

                The problem could be grumpy old man syndrome? Affects us differently however, just modifies basic human nature. You know how same-species plants grow differently even when alongside each other in the same ecosystem.

                Kindly, well-meant advice has the same effect on such folks as gentle rain on those plants. It washes over & runs off like water off a duck’s back. Could also be said that you can’t teach old humans new tricks (but some have learnt to use the internet, so not a general rule).

                • veutoviper …
                  6 September 2018 at 3:35 pm

                  Did not want to say that. But aging takes it toll more for some than others, and eventually unfortunately you can end up doing more damage than good, if you get my drift. I know and acknowledge that he has done excellent representation work on the transport issues in the past.

                  BTW whats with the sexism? I am a grumpy old woman often these days! Haven’t you noticed? LOL.

                  • Dennis Frank …
                    6 September 2018 at 4:24 pm

                    Ha, no you seem to manage that well. Hey, they’ve been commenting on the media about Clare Curran not showing up for work today. Wallace & his panel just discussed it & the panelists seemed to see her as not coping. I wonder if temporary personal circumstances apply (rather than inability to do the job), but I’ll leave it to her boss to suss!

              • gsays …
                6 September 2018 at 11:36 pm

                Is suppose I am asking for a little more kindness.

  2. AsleepWhileWalking 2
    6 September 2018 at 7:06 am

    This post appeared a year ago. You can see that the yearly cost of living benefit rate increases for SLP (and JSS) are applied at a lower percentage as Super -why?

    The current SLP is approximately $20 beneath what it would be if it increased at the same rate as Super from the 2009 rate.

    Pay special attention to the graph in link below.

    https://thestandard.org.nz/poverty-and-disability/amp/

    Remember how National made a big deal of increased benefit rates in their last term? This is how they did it. They hid they money in year by year increments.

    • cleangreen 2.1
      6 September 2018 at 8:03 am

      Good point there AsleepWhileWalking;

      This should be sent to the media to rant about National using “creative accounting” to subvert the low paid and pensioners toa accept lower raises in income.

      Please send this to Hushub as Duncan Garner will pick it up!!!!

      But useless Clare Curran still running “heavily sanctioned (ational controlled Radio NZ) will not broadcast any bad media abouut past National Party wrong-doings, Currran will make sure of that.

      Jacinda; Yuo now musr completetly sack Claire Curran completetly now and put the plans for providing a new “free to air public affairs media channel as Curran has failed us all.

      Claire Curran is a liability to Labour and their coalition parties over her stumbling in Parliament yesterday trying to explain now how she used her private email server to pread Government documentation.

      She is wrecking Labour Government and it’s coalition as she continues to destroy labour’s credibility.

      https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/106851077/embattled-minister-clare-curran-struggles-to-explain-using-personal-email-for-government-business

      • Tuppence Shrewsbury 2.1.1
        6 September 2018 at 8:44 am

        Do you think labour would have got a chance if the last national government had used national radio as its own party political broadcast channel?

        You’re nuts. At least ed has gotten less Ranty in his single issue craziness. You are getting worse.

      • Jimmy 2.1.2
        6 September 2018 at 9:21 am

        Clare Curran needs to go now. She is earning how many times the average wage? Imagine all the people who are earning say, $50k a year and see her performance.
        Sorry Jacinda, but you are the boss and you need to act. You cannot always be the nice person.

        • ankerawshark 2.1.2.1
          6 September 2018 at 12:29 pm

          So Jimmy, what should Jacinda sack Curren for now????? Fumbling questions in parliament? It may well be that she is feeling very anxious nowadays. …. when people get anxious they don’t perform well during public speaking.

          I am not saying that I support her or that she is competent, but surely fumbling questions isn’t a sackable offence?

          Us leftie surely tolerate fairness in the work place, don’t we?

        • chris73 2.1.2.2
          6 September 2018 at 12:47 pm

          No, she needs to stay for as long as possible

        • cleangreen 2.1.2.3
          6 September 2018 at 12:53 pm

          yes tupppenny Shrewsbury logic is stupid and Curran must go.

          If any politician does not perform their ‘public service’ then they must be fired simple logic there.

          If i had not peformed in my work position I would have been fired also so equal rights must be applied.

          • Tuppence Shrewsbury 2.1.2.3.1
            6 September 2018 at 1:37 pm

            You seem to think that her being minister of broadcasting means she personally edits the radio and tv stations?

            What Stalinist fantasy do you live in? Public servants serve the public, not just the political will of a governments supporters.

            Christ, if whatever sad sack minister from the last national government had personally directed radio broadcasting using taxpayer funded channels. I can only imagine the uproar

  3. Sacha 3
    6 September 2018 at 7:18 am

    Well-written article about how Penny Bright is now, by David Fisher: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?objectid=12119764

    • lprent 3.1
      6 September 2018 at 8:03 am

      Yeah damnit. I am surprised to say (after the effort involved in making sure that she didn’t astroturf this place to oblivian) that I will miss her presence.

      She served a useful function and helped hold the powers that be to account.

      She was an inspiration about what is achievable when you focus.

      Update: the nz herald website is reporting a invalid date on their https cert. My over protective cellphone security won’t let me read the site. I had to read the above article on their app instead…

      • Sacha 3.1.1
        6 September 2018 at 8:40 am

        Yes, apparently their site has been down this morning. At least we know who didn’t make it happen. 🙂

      • greywarshark 3.1.2
        6 September 2018 at 9:11 am

        What a marvellous piece from David Fisher. David Bloody Fisher she says. Sounds like the way that Lisbeth Salander addresses journalist Blomquist.
        Perhaps she sees herself as akin to the Dragon Lady. 😎

        Thinking people knew there were so many holes in the Super Shitty that would be plugged with bank notes or the like. She did a real revolt against that revolting revolution of the Right. Bound to fail. She was right, but what a toll.
        But better to wear out than rust away like many NZs.

        And take a copy of that NZ Herald article young NZs who are activists. The image of the large sign saying :

        Open the Books Cut out the contractor$
        https://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?objectid=12119764

        That’s a very good design of lettering and eye catching. Could be used as a model and called Penny’s postering or posturing!

      • Kevin 3.1.3
        6 September 2018 at 9:16 am

        She had valid concerns, but I do not miss all the sentences in capitals.

    • ianmac 3.2
      6 September 2018 at 9:40 am

      David Fisher still growing in stature. Sensitivity as well as constructive. Well done Penny. Hope she lives to collect her Super.

  4. Dennis Frank 4
    6 September 2018 at 7:23 am

    Tova O’Brien’s report on the Curran issue just now to Duncan Garner & viewers covered all the essentials. The Speaker clarified yesterday that usage of gmail doesn’t break the rules of parliament.

    The minister’s response to Lee on that usage was incoherent: coherent verbal responses in parliament are the basic requirement of ministerial performance. The PM’s latest stance is that she still has confidence in the minister but there’s a good chance that it will evaporate today due to yesterday’s performance! Intent to replace her is likely, even if consequent action doesn’t immediately follow.

    • ianmac 4.1
      6 September 2018 at 9:45 am

      Feel a bit sorry for Claire. When you are hounded as an MP you are expected to answer with clarity and confidence but once the confidence ebbs, the self consciousness wobbles the speech. Kelvin Davis suffers the same way.
      What they need is a dose of arrogance with which to damn the questioners.

      • Dennis Frank 4.1.1
        6 September 2018 at 10:39 am

        Yes I’ve noticed him being identified as having the same poor presentation in parliament as her. Just a question of how long you allow people to operate as if they’re still on training wheels. Really ought to be going better by now. Not so much arrogance as assurance, I think. Being adept at a snappy come-back, or even just a direct firm answer.

      • AB 4.1.2
        6 September 2018 at 11:21 am

        Yeah but you have to expect it or else not get into politics. Prior business experience at a senior level can be helpful too because you learn to make yourself a small target and how to lie with fluency and conviction.

        • greywarshark 4.1.2.1
          6 September 2018 at 11:47 am

          AB
          You remind me of pithy comments written by C Northcote Parkinson.

          Parkinson’s law is the adage that “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion”. It is sometimes applied to the growth of bureaucracy in an organization. This law is likely derived from ideal gas law, whereby a gas expands to fit the volume allotted…

          This articulates a situation and an unexplained force that many have come to take for granted and accept. “In exactly the same way nobody bothered and nobody cared, before Newton’s day, why an apple should drop to the ground when it might so easily fly up after leaving the tree,” wrote Straits Times editor-in-chief, Allington Kennard who continued, “There is less gravity in Professor Parkinson’s Law, but hardly less truth.”[2]

  5. Morrissey 5
    6 September 2018 at 7:32 am

    Somebody Else’s Atrocities
    by NOAM CHOMSKY, In These Times, June 6, 2012

    In his penetrating study “Ideal Illusions: How the U.S. Government Co-Opted Human Rights,” international affairs scholar James Peck observes, “In the history of human rights, the worst atrocities are always committed by somebody else, never us” — whoever “us” is.

    Almost any moment in history yields innumerable illustrations. Let’s keep to the past few weeks.

    On May 10, the Summer Olympics were inaugurated at the Greek birthplace of the ancient games. A few days before, virtually unnoticed, the government of Vietnam addressed a letter to the International Olympic Committee expressing the “profound concerns of the Government and people of Viet Nam about the decision of IOC to accept the Dow Chemical Company as a global partner sponsoring the Olympic Movement.”

    Dow provided the chemicals that Washington used from 1961 onward to destroy crops and forests in South Vietnam, drenching the country with Agent Orange.

    These poisons contain dioxin, one of the most lethal carcinogens known, affecting millions of Vietnamese and many U.S. soldiers. To this day in Vietnam, aborted fetuses and deformed infants are very likely the effects of these crimes — though, in light of Washington’s refusal to investigate, we have only the studies of Vietnamese scientists and independent analysts.

    Joining the Vietnamese appeal against Dow are the government of India, the Indian Olympic Association, and the survivors of the horrendous 1984 Bhopal gas leak, one of history’s worst industrial disasters, which killed thousands and injured more than half a million.

    Union Carbide, the corporation responsible for the disaster, was taken over by Dow, for whom the matter is of no slight concern. In February, Wikileaks revealed that Dow hired the U.S. private investigative agency Stratfor to monitor activists seeking compensation for the victims and prosecution of those responsible.

    Another major crime with very serious persisting effects is the Marine assault on the Iraqi city of Fallujah in November 2004.

    Women and children were permitted to escape if they could. After several weeks of bombing, the attack opened with a carefully planned war crime: Invasion of the Fallujah General Hospital, where patients and staff were ordered to the floor, their hands tied. Soon the bonds were loosened; the compound was secure.

    The official justification was that the hospital was reporting civilian casualties, and therefore was considered a propaganda weapon.

    Much of the city was left in “smoking ruins,” the press reported while the Marines sought out insurgents in their “warrens.” The invaders barred entry to the Red Crescent relief organization. Absent an official inquiry, the scale of the crimes is unknown.

    If the Fallujah events are reminiscent of the events that took place in the Bosnian enclave of Srebrenica, now again in the news with the genocide trial of Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic, there’s a good reason. An honest comparison would be instructive, but there’s no fear of that: One is an atrocity, the other not, by definition.

    As in Vietnam, independent investigators are reporting long-term effects of the Fallujah assault.

    Medical researchers have found dramatic increases in infant mortality, cancer and leukemia, even higher than Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Uranium levels in hair and soil samples are far beyond comparable cases.

    One of the rare investigators from the invading countries is Dr. Kypros Nicolaides, director of the fetal-medicine research center at London’s King’s College Hospital. “I’m sure the Americans used weapons that caused these deformities,” Nicolaides says.

    The lingering effects of a vastly greater nonatrocity were reported last month by U.S. law professor James Anaya, the U.N. rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples. ….

    Read more …

    https://chomsky.info/20120606/

    • greywarshark 5.1
      6 September 2018 at 9:23 am

      Thanks Morrissey
      It is a record of how we keep on doing what we know we shouldn’t.
      Here is a prayer of confession and pardon that is said in protestant churches.

      Almighty and most merciful Father, we have erred and strayed from Your ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts.

      We have offended against Your holy laws. We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; and we have done those things which we ought not to have done; and there is nothing good in us.

      O Lord, have mercy upon us, miserable offenders. Spare those, O God, who confess their faults. Restore those who are penitent; according to Your promises declared unto men in Christ Jesus our Lord. Grant that we may hereafter live a godly, righteous, and sober life; to the glory of His name. Amen

      Religion is our way of reminding ourselves of the way we are living and we are wise to hold onto it and keep it on a path of goodness along with ourselves. Bugger the righteousness though, that comes with thinking one is perfect.

  6. cleangreen 6
    6 September 2018 at 8:12 am

    Shocking issue now that yourcar engine can be hacked and the current Minister of transport needs to move on this now before more drivers die.

    https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/365691/worker-drives-through-intersection-as-boss-remotely-turns-off-vehicle
    Radio New Zealand

    NEW ZEALAND
    42 minutes ago
    Worker drives through intersection as boss remotely turns off vehicle
    42 minutes ago
    Share this
    Emma Hatton, Journalist
    emma.hatton@radionz.co.nz
    A worker driving a company van in Marlborough says her boss remotely turned off her vehicle while she was going through a roundabout, leaving her stuck in the traffic.

    • Dennis Frank 6.1
      6 September 2018 at 8:36 am

      Unreal, eh?! Police ought to prosecute the boss for endangering both her & other motorists. Someone has to die first?

      • Mollly 6.1.1
        6 September 2018 at 5:10 pm

        “And the Ministry of Transport said it had no plans to introduce legislation but would consider doing so if the misuse of immobilisers became common.”

        Compare and contrast to Mr Dunster in the same article:
        “Julian Dunster has owned and operated the company Obsessive Vehicle Security for the last 10 years.

        He said a GPS tracker could have an immobiliser fitted to the starter motor, the fuel pump or the ignition.

        But, he would not connect a tracker to the ignition or fuel pump.

        “I have been asked by clients, and I refuse to. I’m happy to cut the starter motor and prevent the vehicle from restarting but I refuse to do anything that’s going to bring it to a halt while moving.”

        Mr Dunster said connecting an immobiliser was not hard to do.

        “There’s no regulations in the industry. There’s very little training so it would probably be quite easy to find someone who will say yes and take your cash.”

        It was concerning there was no legislation around fitting immobilisers and it was difficult to know who would be at fault if an immobilised vehicle caused an accident, he said.

        “Until it happens and someone probably dies I don’t think it’s going to be put through legislation and it’s silly.”

        Dunster has it right, and the Minister should be introducing legislation immediately to restricting immobilisation to starter motors only. Any other installation should be considered illegal and the vehicle should be taken off the road.

        The possible human cost in this cases far outweighs any travelling benefit of tracking stolen cars.

    • greywarshark 6.2
      6 September 2018 at 10:34 am

      Considering that research has shown that modern business methods tend to draw the psychopathic type, it is disquieting to say the least to hear of this employer deliberately, distractedly or mistakenly switching off the car. Eeek.

      I wondered what might pop up in books on this theme of technology being not just a bloody nuisance as a comment but lead to the reality.
      https://theportalist.com/7-books-that-warn-us-about-technology-taking-over

      This one sounds interesting (as ‘We live in interesting times’.)
      Orbital Decay
      By Allen Steele
      Science fiction writers often produce visions of fantastic technology – sleek, exciting machines and computers that can do wonderful things. But in real life, novelty wears off: When was the last time you gazed in wonder at your smartphone, instead of just complaining about your wireless service? In Orbital Decay, fantastic future space stations are just another bit of infrastructure, and the men and women that work on them are hard-hat folks who are about as down-to-Earth as you can be while in orbit. The creep of technology in Steele’s work is realistic and insidious, and his vision of a worker’s rebellion is compelling and important.

      The Circle
      By David Eggers
      The Circle is a dystopian novel for our time: The story of a powerful technology company that destroys privacy in the name of transparency. Eggers’ heroine joins the company–called The Circle–right out of college, and she slowly comes to see the dangers of the organization’s vision and power. The Circle is none too subtle, but it still feels frighteningly plausible in a world where most of us willingly hand over private details of our lives to services like Facebook and Twitter. The Circle was adapted into a film this year, which stars Tom Hanks and Emma Watson.

      The automated house in “There Will Come Soft Rains,” by Ray Bradbury
      At first, the house described in Bradbury’s enduring short story sounds pretty sweet: a computer-controlled abode in which all the annoying tasks of daily life are taken care of by machines, from tending the landscaping to cooking and cleaning. But it quickly becomes apparent that the house is performing these thankless tasks truly thanklessly, because its human inhabitants are absent, and all signs indicate that their return has been delayed due to reasons of nuclear apocalypse. There’s something immeasurably sad about any empty home, but one that constantly keeps itself up to please a family that will never return? That’s not just sad; it’s horrific.

      And lots of money and status can drive you or me insane. I can state smugly that it will never happen to me, not having much money and hardly any status.
      You’ve likely heard whispers about the Winchester Mystery House, the estate of Sarah Winchester, heiress to the fortune of the rifle company that bears her family name; supposedly, construction proceeded constantly (and haphazardly) on the sprawling mansion for nearly four decades, spurred on by the mad woman’s belief that she needed to build a maze-like structure to house the ghosts of all who had been killed by Winchester firearms.
      In the Gentian House review.
      https://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/sci-fi-fantasy/7-disturbing-sff-houses-that-are-no-place-like-home/

      Is this true? I have heard about Howard Hughes so know it can happen.
      Prosy: Money can’t buy you happiness! Answer: But you can be miserable in comfort. Replace money. Technology can’t buy you happiness. Someone could think of a technological answer to that no doubt. But….

  7. Dennis Frank 7
    6 September 2018 at 8:31 am

    The ongoing 1080 saga: a highly-principled Maori Green statement has been released. http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1809/S00050/maori-environmentalists-and-activists-release-1080-statement.htm

    I’ve always been confounded by the thing: agree in principle that poisoning nature is morally wrong (Agent Orange), but accept DoC logic that regenerating native bird populations is more important, particularly saving endangered ones from extinction.

    The statement refers to past violence by activists, reminding us that two of the Green Party Charter principles are brought into play in the political nexus created by 1080 usage. I support the principle that Te Tiriti rights ought to prevail over national 1080 policy as advocated above.

    • Barfly 7.1
      6 September 2018 at 9:50 am

      40 years ago I used to do some possum trapping – I saw first hand what possums did to bush – the scale of the damage was almost unbelievable if you want to get rid of 1080 you better have a bloody replacement for possum control.

      • greywarshark 7.1.1
        6 September 2018 at 10:37 am

        Good message Barfly. Sometimes it takes ‘judicious’ use of toxic substance to get rid of another uncontrollable, toxic thing. It has to be used carefully. But countering it with this is not right, inevitably brings another question – so what will you do that will have the same result?

      • SaveNZ 7.1.2
        6 September 2018 at 10:46 am

        You wonder why they are not trapped for fur and meat. Possum fur is an incredible fibre.

        • chris73 7.1.2.1
          6 September 2018 at 12:52 pm

          Possibly what would happen is that a trapper may well leave some alive instead of killing more just so he/she can keep the money ticking over

          Better to try to wipe them all out or, at the very least, get their numbers down low and keep them low

          • SaveNZ 7.1.2.1.1
            6 September 2018 at 1:55 pm

            I doubt it, weird but common argument. Hunters will try to get as much money as they can, I don’t think they will be going around going “lets let the tenth one loose” so I can keep my business going?? Look at the fisheries even with massive regulation they have zero interest in sustainability it is all about how many you get and how much money you make as soon as possible.

            Trapping is a lot less polluting than 1080 and employs people and the animals have a use and probably quicker death than poison. They should at least trial hunting/trapping as an option. Huge industry of people that love the idea of buying sustainable natural fur that saves the environment.

            • riffer 7.1.2.1.1.1
              6 September 2018 at 2:27 pm

              Trapping and hunting sounds like a good idea in theory but if it takes off it has the potential to take more lives than the forestry industry. Trying to regulate the health and safety of that industry would likely negate the majority of gains, which are dubious at best.

              On the other hand, there is the by-kill of 1080 to worry about. And the issue with regeneration of pests, particularly rats, being so fast that they regenerate faster than the native fauna can bring themselves up to the population they were before the 1080 drop.

              Damned if I know the answer.

            • bwaghorn 7.1.2.1.1.2
              6 September 2018 at 4:51 pm

              I used to run 160 traps when I was plucking possums which covers a lot of ground in a day. At $120 a kilo (Not sure what’s it’s worth now ) and about 20 possums to a kilo it becomes uneconomic once numbers get down .

    • mauī 7.2
      6 September 2018 at 11:20 am

      I think it’s a tragedy that one third of New Zealand’s land is owned by DOC and managed by a colonial mindset. Not an expert in the treaty but Maori families have been living on this land much, much longer than probably us more recent immigrants, yet they have little control over how Government owned land is managed. Seems like an almighty breach to me.

      • chris73 7.2.1
        6 September 2018 at 12:57 pm

        Not wanting to start a flame war but I prefer DOC looking after the land (sure DOC can be improved) rather than a tribe, corporation etc etc

      • weston 7.2.2
        6 September 2018 at 7:10 pm

        Doesnt appear to be the case maui that maori are united in their opposition to 1080 .No more united than non maori .The tragedy i think is the fact that so many in this society of ours are so affluent that they can afford to waste outright thousands upon thousands of carcases of possums and rabbits by the use of toxic poisons .How many in this forum have ever even eaten a single rabbit or possum and yet both are very fine clean meat ?Both have very fine skins also as we know yet out there in the bush scattered all around nz hundreds of thousands are killed annually by poison or introduced disease as in the case of rabbits and left to rot .Educating the populace to accept rabbits and possums as important items of food would be a good first step to managing their potential harm to the environment through overpopulation .

  8. Pat 8
    6 September 2018 at 8:51 am

    “And this is where these reports are so wanting – they’re written from the viewpoint of having drunk the Kool-Aid.”

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12120095

    The ramblings of a brain dead f***wit

    • Tony Veitch (not etc.) 8.1
      6 September 2018 at 9:34 am

      Pat, you need your hand smacked! I just wasted 2m.30secs listening to that brain dead fuckwit!

      When events overtake Hoskings, as they will, he’ll be the first to scream for the lifeboat or the sanctuary or the bolt-hole. His myopia about climate change will vanish and he’ll expect to be rescued!

      Why do we give a public forum to such idiots?

      • Pat 8.1.1
        6 September 2018 at 2:00 pm

        I certainly need my hand smacked for being foolish enough to read anything by Hosking expecting anything other than braindead rambling….we live and learn

    • dV 8.2
      6 September 2018 at 9:42 am

      Meanwhile in the real world
      https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12120090

      In recent months, two 150-tonne survival bunkers journeyed by land and sea from a Texas warehouse to the shores of New Zealand, where they’re buried 11 feet underground.

      • ianmac 8.2.1
        6 September 2018 at 9:53 am

        They muck up their own country so instead of using their great wealth to repair, they just move onto another clean green country. And when that is busted they will use their great wealth to take over another planet and when…

        • SaveNZ 8.2.1.1
          6 September 2018 at 12:34 pm

          I agree. NZ seems to be happy to take people from polluting countries and also turn NZ green space into pollution to make more money for the polluters while taxing the poorer folks and making them pay to reduce pollution. Not really making any sense.

    • BM 8.3
      6 September 2018 at 10:00 am

      94% of New Zealanders would agree with the man.

      So in a democratic society, what’s the answer?

      Just ram through change?
      Re-education camps?
      ?
      ?
      ?

    • Draco T Bastard 8.4
      6 September 2018 at 12:55 pm

      people don’t want to bike to work

      Reminds me of Dick Quax and his assertion that you couldn’t do shopping on a bicycle.

      Quaxxing

      I look for work that I can bicycle to.

      But here is the trouble with having an agency designed to come out with this sort of stuff: we don’t seem to draw a line between theory and reality.

      The problem being is that Hosking, along with all other RWNJs and the many on the Left that still believe in capitalism, are in denial of reality.

  9. SaveNZ 9
    6 September 2018 at 10:44 am

    New Zealand’s largest mall, Sylvia Park, generates 600 tonnes of waste per year – around 50 per cent or 300 tonnes is food waste.

    I heard that the Auckland council is making an extra charge for ratepayers to “combat” organic waste. Pity they have zero proactive approaches for business and developments. Thus allowing polluting businesses to get planning permission with little to nothing in the way of waste or energy reduction. Sylvia park seems to have nothing to combat waste or pollution.

    Westgate mall, which is recently been built (with millions of ratepayer corporate welfare involved in the development) has next to nothing as well in modern energy efficiency and waste management. You would think the council and the mall owners themselves would want 5 star energy efficiency with a zero waste policy as well but nope, another 1980’s style mall.

    Cycle lanes everywhere planned in NZ but you can’t possibly expect business to have any in their plans from council in the malls. They are designed to be driven around.

    • indiana 9.1
      6 September 2018 at 11:36 am

      How does one take home their 55inch television on a bicycle, if you don’t want to incur the home delivery cost?

      • Grey Area 9.1.1
        6 September 2018 at 11:39 am

        Cargo bike.

        • indiana 9.1.1.1
          6 September 2018 at 11:44 am

          Do they work well on rainy and windy days? I suppose I’ll need to buy a large plastic sheet too?

          • greywarshark 9.1.1.1.1
            6 September 2018 at 11:53 am

            Cripes Indiana are you one of these multi money people who have 55 inch tvs in every room and always updating to the latest model? I can see why you would be worried about there being more places for bikes than vans to deliver your tvs.

            • indiana 9.1.1.1.1.1
              6 September 2018 at 12:49 pm

              I’m also land banking on multiple properties, but need to keep them furnished so people think they are being used. I normally leave a few bikes laying about in the yard so the neighbours think there’s a nice family living there.

              https://youtu.be/GcOsVzSOqoQ

          • Grey Area 9.1.1.1.2
            6 September 2018 at 1:03 pm

            Just go the next day when its not raining/windy. Easy.

          • Draco T Bastard 9.1.1.1.3
            6 September 2018 at 1:33 pm

            Do they work well on rainy and windy days?

            Yes they do.

            I suppose I’ll need to buy a large plastic sheet too?

            And? Most people I know have large plastic sheets in the garage that get used quite often.

      • SaveNZ 9.1.2
        6 September 2018 at 11:50 am

        It’s not just transport that malls seem to be stuck in the 1980’s, also nothing to reduce water waste aka grey water usage, nothing for the composting, nothing for efficiency in general, (why bother the malls make the retailers pay all those utility costs not the mall designers and why spend profits on being socially responsible with design when the council doesn’t seem to care about it).

        Also not all purchases are big and heavy ones, plenty of people just browsing or doing other things at malls like eating at the food courts/cinema etc…

        My point is, that there are ways to reduce waste but our councils and government while happy to tax the little guy and use taxpayer money on things like public cycleways, are certainly not going to regulate business to do the same and thus ensure they are polluting at current levels with new stores opening when they could have be legislated to be more responsible. Real double standards that seem to be the NZ way these days and contributing to our pollution levels substantially.

      • OnceWasTim 9.1.3
        6 September 2018 at 1:24 pm

        I’ve seen a wardrobe transported 30km on a bicycle. Plus it had 2 milk containers and a roll of fibre optic ducting strapped either side.
        Took a while, but the wardrobe is now firmly ensconced in a marble lined edifice, the milk distributed for allow the daily chai wallahs to conduct their bizzniss, and the fibre ducting used in the fastest rollout of fibre I’ve ever encountered.

        No wonder the gNatzis have been trying to drive down the costs of labour eh?

      • McFlock 9.1.4
        6 September 2018 at 3:42 pm

        Who the hell buys a car to avoid a delivery fee?

        And how often do you buy 55inch TVs – do you throw a cup through the telly every time the news mentions our Labour-led government?

        • alwyn 9.1.4.1
          6 September 2018 at 6:14 pm

          “throw a cup through the telly every time the news mentions our Labour-led government”.
          You must admit it is very tempting whenever they put on someone like Curran, Jones or Twyford uttering their usual inanities.
          Come on and tell the truth.
          Aren’t you tempted sometimes?

          • McFlock 9.1.4.1.1
            6 September 2018 at 6:35 pm

            Managed almost a year without the impulse.

            Many of the most irritating people are still there, but they’re in a place where they can do less harm.

  10. SaveNZ 10
    6 September 2018 at 10:56 am

    “Has Israel been covertly fuelling claims of an “anti-Semitism crisis” purportedly plaguing Britain’s Labour Party since it elected a new leader, Jeremy Corbyn, three years ago?

    That question is raised by a new freedom of information request submitted this week by a group of Israeli lawyers, academics and human rights activists.

    They suspect that two Israeli government departments – the ministries of foreign affairs and strategic affairs – have been helping to undermine Corbyn as part of a wider campaign by the Israeli government to harm Palestinian solidarity activists.”

    https://www.jonathan-cook.net/2018-08-25/israel-hidden-hand-jeremy-corbyn/

    • SaveNZ 10.1
      6 September 2018 at 10:57 am

      “Dirty tricks unit
      The main source of Labour’s current woes looks to be Israel’s strategic affairs ministry, which has been headed by Erdan since 2015.

      It was set up in 2006, mainly as a vehicle to prevent far-right politician Avigdor Lieberman from breaking up the governing coalition. Lieberman and his successors used it chiefly as a platform from which to stoke concerns either about Iran building a nuclear bomb or about a supposed problem of “Palestinian incitement”.

      But more recently, Netanyahu has encouraged the ministry to redirect its energies towards what he terms “delegitimisation”, chiefly in response to the growing visibility of the international BDS movement, which promotes boycott, divestment and sanctions of Israel.

      As a result, the strategic affairs ministry has moved from being a relative backwater inside the government to playing a starring role in Israel’s struggle on the world stage against “enemies” damaging its image.”

      https://www.jonathan-cook.net/2018-08-25/israel-hidden-hand-jeremy-corbyn/

    • Dennis Frank 10.2
      6 September 2018 at 12:37 pm

      Wouldn’t surprise me but it could only amount to using the jewish Labour MPs who conform to Israel state policy as leverage. Would maximise their coordinated effect, but nothing more sinister unless `bad jews’ who are Labour MPs start disappearing or die mysteriously. Mossad.

      Cook: “This new camp – let us characterise them as the dissenters – is not easy to characterise in the old language of left-right politics either. Its chief characteristic is that it distrusts not only those who dominate our societies, but the social structures they operate within.” This group, mostly just distrusting as yet – the penny hasn’t dropped that democracy itself is now the problem – are the key to the future.

      They must form an altpolitical movement, so as to interact directly with the public. When they do so organise, their collective power will overwhelm the left/right dinosaurs. Humanity will become like a snake shedding its old skin…

  11. Infused 11
    6 September 2018 at 11:11 am

    Curren is a walking disaster. Fire her

    • cleangreen 11.1
      6 September 2018 at 1:03 pm

      10% ageed.

      She refused to give the HB/Gisborne region a reporter for RNZ after National took him away in 2015 and her letter to our NGO was insulting to us when she finally sent a letter to us after we slapped an Official Information Act order on her.

      If sdhe did not care then about restoring media coverage to all our regions she must go.

  12. Kay 12
    6 September 2018 at 11:46 am

    Oh dear, I just had a run-in with a real live RWNJ. They really do exist off line!

    Apologies I can’t provide verbatim quotes due to my appalling short term memory damage but the general gist:
    Stranded at a bus stop in Newtown despite the promised 10-minute services and got chatting to a bloke about the state of Wellington buses, which is the default setting at bus stops these days. Disentergrated quite quickly into a heated argument as I realised said gentleman followed the line that Councils slashing costs for bus services were doing the right thing because there wasn’t a bottomless amount of money, and otherwise it would be the tax and ratepayers having to cough up for it (ACT voter maybe?).

    All attempts made to challenge and reason along the lines of does he think that public transport should be a necessary public utility, what about people who can’t drive, etc, got met with the fully privatised argument (when I pointed out that Wellington commuters are less subsided for fares than in Auckland, his argument was there’s more people there). As for people unable to drive? “Well I don’t drive but these changes have been good because now I do more walking”. When I challenged him on that saying well I can’t drive or walk far, and what about other who can’t? “Well they can get a wheelchair or something.” At which point I just looked at him and called him a total prick and he walked away. That is not my style at all I hasten to add, and certainly not in a public place but I was fuming at that attitude, ie it’s all about me and stuff everyone else.

    Throughout all of this he made a point of using the “socialism” word in relation to councils, and I think referring to the fact that public transport isn’t fully privatised. He subsequently came back to where I was seated and started ranting on about Venezuela, oil wealth, socialism and buses. By that point all I could do is sit there and laugh!

    I’m thinking this guy is the real life equivalent to certain people who pop up on this site, complete with pre-programmed talking points and who go on the defensive when their POV is challenged and just aren’t prepared to have a reasonable discussion about it. I was actually quite interested to hear his perspective initially even after realising (he must be the only person in Welly who doesn’t have an issue with said buses!) but unfortunately it’s impossible to have a 2-way intelligent discussion with them. Certainly an interesting experience though.

    • greywarshark 12.1
      6 September 2018 at 11:57 am

      Like talking to my father. Smile and nod.

    • SaveNZ 12.2
      6 September 2018 at 12:03 pm

      We had friends who used to be socialist but as soon as they got jobs in Wellington became total fascists. I think Wellington the original home of the RWNJ and all the hanger ons from treasury to policy advisers for the last 30 years influencing policy along the Rogernomics and John Key lines still working their right wing ideology no matter which government is in power.

      • Kay 12.2.1
        6 September 2018 at 12:32 pm

        That’s interesting SaveNZ. This guy was probably late 50s maybe 60s so the age group is right to be fully indoctrinated! I’ve lived here full time for just over 20 years (consider myself a local now) and this is the first time I’ve had this sort of encounter, but to be fair I tend to hang out with more like mind and reasonable human beings, and the rare people I’ve know for sure vote the other way, politics has never been discussed.

        Please excuse my extreme ignorance, but is it even possible to have a reasonable 2 way conversation across left/right lines where both parties can genuinely present their case and listen to each other and remain civil? I’d love to have the opportunity but it’s never arisen.

        • SaveNZ 12.2.1.1
          6 September 2018 at 12:39 pm

          They have a serious viral outbreak in Wellington of neoliberal-botulism. Totally infectious and seemingly incurable. Also sounds like Syphilis rates in Wellington at highest-ever level maybe explains the neurological issues, lack of logic and lack of heart… http://wellington.scoop.co.nz/?p=112073

      • indiana 12.2.2
        6 September 2018 at 12:54 pm

        So, the current elected MPs of Wellington are RWNJs? And so are the local councilors who gave us the wonderous Island Bay parade outcome?

        • SaveNZ 12.2.2.1
          6 September 2018 at 3:13 pm

          For some reason NIMBYS are not allowed to be used as a slur in Wellington unlike Auckland where the woke left, politicians and people from Wellington love to interfere and have created a group think around the topic so much so, we now even have our own media groups Spinoff, Gen Z all crying out for more developer rights to solve the housing crisis and more money for infrastructure to solve the population crisis and of course more people into Auckland to solve the skills crisis.

          Less interest in discussing why Kiwis don’t want to work for wages from the 1980’s on temp contracts or how all the Meth is getting in and has become such an issue that nobody has much interest in solving (but plenty of interest in making money from the crisis) or why the apartments that were supposed to solve the housing crisis are able to be bought by Singapore investors under the TPPA agreement. Yes Oz can buy them too, but at least we can live and get real wages in OZ so there is some sort of useful trade off. Apart from Singapore money owning a lot of commercial property in Auckland and now starting to own all the residential property, what the fuck do we get from them apart from commercial property that Kiwis now can’t afford like the Kiwi downtown apartments that Kiwis now can’t afford?

    • Gosman 12.3
      6 September 2018 at 12:38 pm

      What do you mean by reasonable discussion? Is this as defined by you or is there some objective measure of what reasonable is?

      • SaveNZ 12.3.1
        6 September 2018 at 12:43 pm

        The warning signs of infection are topics like, Venezuela, oil wealth, socialism and buses

        • Gosman 12.3.1.1
          6 September 2018 at 12:50 pm

          Oil wealth???

        • greywarshark 12.3.1.2
          6 September 2018 at 2:46 pm

          Thanks for those hints on trigger points savenz. I have to meet some oldies soon and knowing the tendency for extreme conservatism in many (note tendency and many) of the elderly I will keep away from those subjects,
          especially buses in Wellington.

      • Kay 12.3.2
        6 September 2018 at 12:54 pm

        This chap I met this morning seriously reminded me of you Gosman. That alone makes me wary of engaging.

        If you have to ask what the definition of a ‘reasonable discussion’ is then I’m pretty sure you’ll be unable to engage in one, no matter your political leanings.

    • veutoviper 12.4
      6 September 2018 at 2:44 pm

      Kay, well done you that you did not do something more! I mean something like spit …. And he came back!

      Can I ask the age range and any proximity to certain facilities in Newtown?

      I have two visions in my imagination/experience. One well dressed; the other not so.

      • Kay 12.4.1
        6 September 2018 at 3:15 pm

        @VV I think I know the individuals you’re alluding to. Not them, someone perfectly benign in apperance. Bus stop in the main shopping strip.
        And yes, I’m quite proud of my restraint 🙂

        • Rosemary McDonald 12.4.1.1
          6 September 2018 at 4:37 pm

          Echo vv’s sentiments, Kay.

          Sometimes the opportunity presents itself to make a stand, so often folk just back away and the chance is gone.

          Bet my bottom dollar the righty dinosaur will remember the conversation.

          Onya.😉

          • Kay 12.4.1.1.1
            6 September 2018 at 4:55 pm

            Sadly I don’t think he will, Rosemary 🙁
            I think that if a person is only capable of parroting talking points and openly displays an inability to empathise then it’s a lost cause.

            A pity, we still had a good 5 minutes before a bus showed that should’ve been there 15 minutes before and according to the real time board didn’t even exist. Could’ve been a productive discussion.

    • McFlock 12.5
      6 September 2018 at 3:35 pm

      Reminds me of a guy I encountered at a bus stop once – someone else had asked me for cash, and this guy was talking at me about how begging was just laziness, yadda yadda, people in asia were so industrious despite “real” poverty, and so on.

      So I told him I blamed the government for not giving the beggars enough in the first place 🙂

  13. soddenleaf 13
    6 September 2018 at 11:52 am

    Charter Schools, like be brexit, nice distraction. Hilarious morning tv3 show, Maori want Charter Schools be because underpaid, demoralized teachers aren’t investing the time in teaching Maori kids. yeah, to right, national dumped on the debate, made everything that matter in education to be about charter schools. minuscule number are taught in them, most of what tgey do is done by mainstream schools. so hope hilarious they found a Maori Labour supporter who wants charter schools, because distracting under paying teachers does harm far more Maori kids than any number of charter schools might help. just like brexit, dont talk about the harm of neolibs, just blame europe, oops, Cameroon mindburp referendum…

    See rightwing talk a game but don’t actually want it.

  14. Dennis Frank 14
    6 September 2018 at 12:52 pm

    Interesting new twist to free speech from a law lecturer: https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2018/09/05/224134/free-speech-more-work-and-less-cause-celebres

    Should a prisoner have the right to wear fake hair? Unless our Supreme Court rules that the Appeal Court got it wrong, no. “The High Court found prison officials had indeed unlawfully breached the right. But the Crown appealed to the Court of Appeal and was successful. The Court of Appeal’s judgment considered wearing the hairpiece did not fall under the protected right to freedom of expression in the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act.”

    Our identity derives primarily from our image. We think we have a natural right to present that in our idiosyncratic way. We use that right to express ourselves via that image. Therefore our visual expression is part of free speech. But not if convicted of a crime. Unless the Supreme Court rules that free speech is a civil right that prison administrators can’t prevail against. This dimension of identity politics will become a major issue if the chador is used as an example. We just need to see the first wearer who is imprisoned by a court get it removed by the prison authorities…

    • greywarshark 14.1
      6 September 2018 at 2:41 pm

      It’s burka or niqab that are the ‘hiding’ headgear. Chador I think, is the wrong description here.
      https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/24118241

      Overseas countries are beginning to describe what is not legal as face veils.
      I don’t want anyone going around hidden behind veils – women or men. It looks suspicious, sneaky or fearful, and goes against our desire for an open society; of mixing with others on an equal basis. I don’t agree that face veils are freedom of expression, you can’t see any expression!

      Fake hair is another matter. It could be regarded as a ‘therapeutic’ device as it prevents sunburn on someone’s head. Or it is a fashion that should not cause offence if normal style. I don’t know what Courts make of punk hair styles, and rings through noses and eyebrows etc.

      When it comes to legal matters it pays to remember that in the 1960s or about, women had to wear hats to Court, now it is not acceptable to wear a hat in Court. The Judges may still wear wigs, I don’t know. But the grey hairpiece was expensive false hair woven into a particular shape that was mandatory for them. Unfortunately the judiciary sometimes get caught up in style rather than substance!

  16. thechangeling 16
    6 September 2018 at 1:49 pm

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/106770497/borrowing-on-state-house-spending-has-more-than-a-whiff-of-hollywood-about-it

    Liam, we know you don’t care about the homeless. We know you love the Natz. We know you are a right winger that refuses to analyse information beyond it’s ‘fiscally prudent economic parameters’ (or whatever that actually means) jargon.
    I know you and your ilk will always struggle with this basic precept: Life is actually about the welfare of all people. It’s not about corporate profit and the materialistic ego’s that go hand in hand with that. Please take your biased, bigoted, racist, sexist, nasty right-wing opinion pieces out of the Evening Standard and allow someone with humanity and a good heart for all the people, take your place. Good riddance. It needed to be said. Stuff will probably (yet again) censure my opinion so I’ll just put it on another platform.

    • thechangeling 16.1
      6 September 2018 at 1:50 pm

      Finally I said what’s been in my mind about this guy for several years. Ditto Stephen Franks. (Another nasty insane right-winger) who somehow continues to get talk space on National Radio.

  17. greywarshark 17
    6 September 2018 at 2:19 pm

    I can’t fit this in under AsleepWhileWalking up at 2 and it gets lost in the Clare Curran discussion. It deserves a good read on its own merits. Thanks AWW.

    For those who like to know what acronyms mean. Perhaps we could have a common NZ Acronym file on hand to refer to as it took me a while to track the above down.
    SLP Supported Living Payment
    JSS Job Seeking Student

    https://thestandard.org.nz/poverty-and-disability/amp/
    Figrures from AWW supplied graph above show that in 17 years 1999-2016
    The single SLP went up by 34% but the single Superannuation went up by 76%.

    … our base benefit is nothing like 60% of median income, it’s nearer 34%. And it’s only 51% of the approx min wage & 66% of the pension

    How are we expected to even survive – let alone live normal lives, thrive and participate in our communities as we are entitled to do? Why are these desperately deficient incomes not being challenged, when our govt is subjecting disabled people to such cruel treatment? Unlike sole parents & unemployed people, many disabled have no hope of getting off the benefit because our circumstances won’t change.

    So the disabled community are doubly disabled. How impractical, how heartless. This is a heartfelt plea from a disabled person on the link.

    And disabled people are not getting adequate Disability Allowances because the application process is so hard and max. amount too low. Plus you need access to money in the 1st place to buy what you need, so you can supply WINZ with receipts. So many can’t even get started.

    Temporary Additional Support is “temporary” – even for those whose diseases & disabilities are permanent.

    So what we need is PERMANENT Additional Support! A basic guaranteed income, like NZ Superannuation, that we are ENTITLED to DEPEND upon! Because WINZ’s rules, demands, threats & bullying are making lots of us SICKER.

    Stressing us makes it LESS likely we will ever recover! And having to live on long-term poverty diets makes us sicker too. So if you want us off WINZ benefits then PLEASE HELP US to get well!

    • Rosemary McDonald 17.1
      6 September 2018 at 4:50 pm

      Just this morning I was talking to a young fellow van-dweller about just that anomaly.

      Since Peter graduated to the Super our low budget life has improved markedly.

      We had learned to survive on the SLP, living most of our time itinerantly in the Bus…but with those extra few $$$ we have managed to save.

      Instead of stressful tears when costly yet vital charging kit in the Bus folded a couple of weeks ago we just got the problems fixed.

      I’m not as yet convinced this current Mob occupying the gummint benches have embraced disability issues as they ought.

  18. Tony Veitch (not etc.) 18
    6 September 2018 at 2:27 pm

    Just watched Judith Collins posing questions to Phil Twyford.

    ‘Patsy’ questions are designed to make the government look good – but hers fell into the ‘patsy’ question category – they gave Twyford ample opportunity to boast of the coalitions progress towards solving a dreadfully serious housing crisis.

    Epic fail by Collins.

    • SaveNZ 18.1
      6 September 2018 at 3:17 pm

      Ha, ha, ha. Sorry if Labour solve the housing crisis with their current strategy and ideology then it will be as feasible as the Easter bunny being real.

      • Dennis Frank 18.1.1
        6 September 2018 at 3:26 pm

        He wrote “progress towards solving”. Not solving. Big difference. Inasmuch as it has been rare for leftists to actually make progress rather than just talk about it, we ought to give credit where it’s due. They’ve brought some completed houses to market. Twyford showed one to the tv camera for the news. We saw it. Easter bunny was not included in the picture.

        • SaveNZ 18.1.1.1
          6 September 2018 at 4:26 pm

          I think if you are importing in thousands of low wage workers who compete with the low waged locals then you are going to need a hell of a lot more than a few houses bought to market that about 50% of people can’t afford.

          The other think I can’t get is that for years on these pages there has been so many vocating for renting.

          Labour announces pretty much zero rentals for Kiwibuild (instead selling off state house land) and nothing… there seems to be an ideological bent outside of reality from many.

          • Dennis Frank 18.1.1.1.1
            6 September 2018 at 4:49 pm

            Yeah, fair enough, but they are trying to rectify the consequences of the shambolic Key govt don’t forget. I hold them responsible for failing to criticise Key for importing so many foreigners. Labour are guilty of collusion.

            Plus the previous Labour government made the same mistake. Helen Clark also guilty. So I’m trying to be fair to the coalition – given that they proclaimed an intent to do things differently. They’ve reduced the inflow by seven thousand, but they had better multiply that real fast!!

            • SaveNZ 18.1.1.1.1.1
              6 September 2018 at 5:10 pm

              Yep the Key government were the worst but sadly Labour seem to be in some sort of Wellington woke left / neoliberal supporters / club on housing and think they can ‘spin’ a win into next election.

              I’ve pointed out before neoliberalism and housing for locals don’t actually work together… so Labour patting themselves on the back and telling themselves they are doing a great job, ain’t going to win them any supporters and image the field day the opposition is going to have in two years when all these renters are out on the streets because labour never got any state house rentals, failed to raise wages up to liveable levels and scared the private sector out of renting with ideas like a heater in every bedroom (I’d say less than 5% of Kiwis have even lived in a house with a heater in every bedroom… it’s like some sort of bizarre champagne on beer lifestyle or maybe magic mushrooms in parliament).

              Yep lovely to have a heater in every bedroom, pity that not enough focus seems to be for people don’t have a rental at all, let alone a heater, and even if they have one, they can’t afford to turn it on!

              Labour need to stop smoking the Wellington weed and start to actually look at rental numbers not in a decade but today, right now and what are they doing to encourage rentals, because so far, they are doing the opposite from where I am sitting. All very well for upper middle class lefties to bemoan not having enough luxuries in their rentals but sadly when it comes down to it, it’s the poorer folks who have bad credit and are on a very low income are the ones who are homeless because Labour and Greens are not exactly getting the waiting list down for state housing.

              And there’s a significant amount of people with so many social problems that when they booted them out of state houses and they ended up in boarding houses, couch surfing, rehab, prison, homeless or what have you. Half of them are destroying the housing as they exit!

      • Tony Veitch (not etc.) 18.1.2
        6 September 2018 at 6:20 pm

        Derailed thread, SaveNZ. The post was about the incompetence of the opposition, not about whether or not the coalition will solve the housing crisis.

  19. ianmac 19
    6 September 2018 at 3:42 pm

    “Clare Curran on leave as Cabinet Office issues guidelines on ministers’ use of email”

    “”There is nothing specifically in the Cabinet Manual about use of alternate email accounts. However, ministers, in the vast majority of cases, use the parliamentary email for ministerial/government business,” Hipkins said.”

    So is Clare breaking any rules if there aren’t any?
    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12120509

    • chris73 19.1
      6 September 2018 at 4:12 pm

      Yes this does seem unfair, Clare should come back sooner rather than later and continue her good work

    • McFlock 19.2
      6 September 2018 at 4:28 pm

      The email itself is not the problem (well, it’s messy and stupid, but not wrong with a capital W).

      However, her gmail was used to arrange one of the meetings she did not tell the House about.

      So did her use of a gmail account contribute to her misleading parliament through poor record-keeping, or did she use the gmail account in order to muddy the waters surrounding meetings she doesn’t want to disclose?

      I’m intrigued that PS doesn’t have a webmail interface that would make gmail completely unnecessary, but whatevs.

    • Gabby 19.3
      6 September 2018 at 5:35 pm

      She needs more hats, and a minder to tell her which one she’s wearing.

    • Infused 19.4
      6 September 2018 at 9:18 pm

      See her earlier comment from 2012 where she said using personal email was unacceptable.

  20. Rosemary McDonald 20
    6 September 2018 at 5:03 pm

    I’m sure others have said this but once more won’t hurt.

    Wallace Chapman has been brilliant as Mora’ stand in.

    Please Natrad, make it permanent.

    Please.

  21. North 21
    6 September 2018 at 5:49 pm

    Bless Penny Bright and long time if that’s your wish Penny. Good Soul.

    • Rosemary McDonald 21.1
      6 September 2018 at 6:00 pm

      I’ve a great deal of respect for Penny Bright and admit to a largish soft spot.

      Quixotic,maybe, but at least the lady gave it her best shot.

      Sad to hear of her increasing ill- health.

  22. Morrissey 22
    6 September 2018 at 8:11 pm

    A desperate Blairite Brains Trust memo: “Nobody cares about our lies. What can we try to get him on now? Surely there must be a Russian whore or something….”

    Despite old Yenta Hodge’s hilariously unhinged scenery-chewing performance,
    it turns out the British public is not stupid or vicious enough to buy into her lies.

    http://normanfinkelstein.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/image.png

  23. Morrissey 23
    6 September 2018 at 8:26 pm

    Let’s face it: Benjamin Netanyahu is disgusting and despicable.

    https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/twitter-mocks-a-hawkish-speech-by-netanyahu-1.6445020

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