A legal loophole today prevented police from prosecuting a man eating a doughnut in broad daylight. The legal loophole was confirmed by a police spokesman, who confirmed that eating baked goods in the middle of the day was not an offence.
“”While it is not illegal, police do not encourage people to drink alcohol while driving and they would certainly stop them and check their alcohol consumption,” said Ms Richardson.”
And this is equally stupid talk from the cop. Why didn’t they say “police discourage people”?
“A couple who have watched far too many US-made police dramas were stunned to discover that the New Zealand legal system isn’t just like it is on Special Victims Unit”.
Priceless.
It is a great way to wind up stuffed shirts and tut-tutting old dears in other cars.
At traffic lights have you window down, arm resting on the door, take a gulp out of a bottle of Lion Red, give them a naughty/letcherous wink and ask them if they want a swig too!
A great way to start a weekend in a good mood.
I’m surprised people are surprised. But then again, I’m not really surprised as so many people do so little thinking. Most people just follow the popular girls around, which only achieves…. well, um ….. not sure actually …. nothing.
But then again, Iâm not really surprised as so many people do so little thinking.
Actually, I’m thinking that’s a case of people doing too much thinking. They don’t like something and think that it should be illegal and so decide that it is. And then act as if it is and then get surprised and upset when they find out that it isn’t.
I now wouldn’t be surprised if National put through an emergency law change making it illegal to drink while driving.
no no …. they’ll pass a law not only making it illegal, but conscripting them into the army. Show ’em some discipline! Those pesky beneficiaries could also be drafted in the same way (to make them productive).
still …. we should not be giving them original ideas outside of their learned ideology and dogma
This is a story about England’s schools, but it could just as well describe the razing of state provision throughout the world. In the name of freedom, public assets are being forcibly removed from popular control and handed to unelected oligarchs.
All over England, schools are being obliged to become academies: supposedly autonomous bodies which are often “sponsored” (the government’s euphemism for controlled) by foundations established by exceedingly rich people. The break-up of the education system in this country, like the dismantling of the NHS, reflects no widespread public demand. It is imposed, through threats, bribes and fake consultations, from on high.
Sounds exactly like what is happening to NZs schools courtesy of this government.
Stuff.co.nz this morning – “Parata ignored Education Ministry warning”. (Christchurch)
No. Key and Joyce ignored Education Ministry warnings. Just not interested. “We’ll do what WE want to do. Period.”
The morning on which she wakes up as plain old Lady Gardiner draws closer. Oh the shame.
Not for Key though. Lauded for decisiveness by his puppies in the media he’ll be happy as. The story about the story will be bigger than the story. Mr Bean’s cousin Gower probably has what he fancies is a definitive one-liner already written.
Key’s denial that his gushing acolyte Parata is cannon fodder was a Freudian lie.
Yep she ignored advice that the demographics were still changing in Chch post-earthquake and that the changes needed to wait to see where those demographics settled.
Pretty fucking obvious.
So why have they not done that? Why have they barged ahead?
To think a quarter of a century ago, I almost bought a house off her ‘better half’ alongside a wife that was a little smarter than Hekia. There goes a lucky escape! I’m glad I trust my instincts especially as I write, that eternal sage of the 4th Estate (ONE Network News) reports that the U.S. “Stoke Exchange” has reached an ALL TIME high, not seen since the GFC. I’m not sure they see the significance in what they just pronounced either.
And here we have the NaCts puffing up the benefits of esset sales … those mum in dead vestas should have confdince … that same sort of confdince they had in all those finance companies that went tits-up (pardon the expression QoT but it is actually the image I want to portray – as in those with tits being on the bottom bunk in every sense) – substitute expression as you see fit (perhaps instead of mum in dead vestas – substitute “soft-cocks”)
“They have a fund with a couple of hundred million in it,” enthused Kassianos, a former US economics professor who assumed the mayorship of Homer’s fabled isle three years ago. “And as far as I know they want to buy all 18 of the islands, the whole lot.
“There is a stupid law because in Greece we do everything upside down</B," lamented Kassianos. "That law says that whatever the size of your land, your home can be no bigger than 250 sq m. The emir has reacted to this saying his WC is 250 sq m and his kitchen alone has to be 1,000 sq m, because otherwise how is he going to feed all his guests?"
To appease the locals, the Qatari, who is also being heavily courted by the government to invest in Greece, has promised to come bearing gifts. “His people said ‘what present can we give you?’ and I said the island needs water desperately,” said Kassianos. “A study to lay a pipeline from the mainland is already under way. That’s not bad when we’ve been trying to get a new port here for the past 40 years.”
Welfare reforms and health sector reforms: How the dots can be joined together –
In 2007 and 2008 the National Party repeatedly fed the media with selected few stories about âGP bullyingâ – by claimants of the sickness benefit. Work and Incomeâs Principal Health Advisor Dr Bratt seemed to grab that topic up quite willingly then. Now though it seems GPs get âbulliedâ (or rather âconvinced to doâ) what MSD and WINZ under the present government want them to do.
Since National’s been in government, theyâve appointed and promote selected professional people into key jobs in the public health and welfare sectors. Most, if not all, appear to be resolute proponents for adopting a âfirmâ approach to health care and welfare. It can all be sourced back to similar moves made in the UK under the auspices of Professor Mansel Aylward, former UK DWP Chief Medical Officer, now consulting MSD and at least one NZ Health Board. He’s still in charge of a department at Cardiff University.
These key persons are resolutely pushing ahead with an already decided agenda behind the scenes, by bringing in changes in training, recruiting, lobbying and influencing existing and prospective medical practitioners and other health professionals. The welfare reforms before Parliament are just part of the greater agenda. The Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Act is largely only intended to deliver the âframeworkâ for the UK system in welfare and work capacity assessments done by selected medical professionals, that is intended to be introduced. The Select Committee process with hearing submissions is likely to change little, like with other bills the NatACT government has hammered through already.
Here are another abundance of sources for info that can enlighten readers: http://www.nzohna.org.nz/uploaded/Dr%20David%20Beaumont%20New%20Horizons%2013%209%202012.pdf
(Presentation by Dr David Beaumont: âWelfare Reform in New Zealand â Relevance to the Workplaceââ as part of a forum called âNew Horizons: Rebuilding Health and Safety on Solid Groundâ; Christchurch 13 September 2012)
http://nz.linkedin.com/pub/david-beaumont/2a/780/943
(Linked In page of Dr Beaumont, formerly also working for âAtos Origin Healthcareâ in the UK. He’s been promoting the UK style medical and work capacity tests for many years; he’s also been advising MSD here in NZ)
http://www.healthworkforce.govt.nz/about-us/board-members
(Dr Des Gorman, well known from his advisory role to ACC for many years, and for some highly controversial recommendations. He’s now also âbossâ of âHealth Work Force NZâ, set up to develop recruitment and training strategies for health sector employees in the NZ health sector)
When I read your comments Xtasy, I wonder if these designated doctors are open to being struck off, or at least, reprimanded, in cases where their zeal puts a patient’s life or health in danger.
Also, the cutting of the sole parent benefit in Australia once the youngest child turns eight has drawn criticism from the UN as a violation of human rights.
Gillard is dismissing the report here, but someone I spoke to on the phone last night said that it now looks as if the UN attention might cause a partial back down on her part.
Gillard is in a very weak position in Oz. Stupid Labour politicians trying to appear more Right Wing ahead of elections. Is this a disease they all come down with?
Yes I would love to know what is driving this, since it is destroying centre-left parties all over the western world. Is it fear? Addiction to keeping one’s place among those in the know? Touting for corporate donations? Something else? Certainly the powerful have got a firm hold on the economic steering wheel, but that does not mean they must go unchallenged.
Its not fear or addiction, its a desire to control every aspect of human existence, via the corrupted individuals who masquerade as public servants, in NZ, and elsewhere.
The mesh of international legal treaties, agreements, and other *signed into* contracts, mean that there is likely very few people who have any idea of what NZ (as a so called sovereign nations), *obligations* to foreign entities are. We get to see many the results of the obligations, played out via *policy* and *reforms*, that much is certain.
When these international treaties, agreements and contracts, are underlayed by the thousands of domestic statutes, bills etc, how it is possible to have a clue about who is controlling what, as it relates to NZ!
It takes incredible power to engineer the social/financial breakdowns we witness around the world, and at home in NZ, power that many don’t/can’t accept exists.
In order to *defend*, first you have to know who/what your attacker is, only then can a hopeful strategy be formed!
Well part of it is when the likes of Dastiari? who’s come from a background of living hell gain influence, and who hold that “we don’t know how lucky we are” attitude. In my day …. etc., etc., etc.
And Gillard is supposed to be part of Labor’s left FFS! Tell me where that definition fits!
LABOR (Oz) dropped the “U” in Labour, and as far as I can see, Labour NZ is well on the way to doing likewise.
Gillard is toast it appears, made a mess of Kev’s mining tax dumbing it down so that after all the angst it’s pretty much offset by tax credits and generating SFA extra tax revenue.
So make way for the barking mad Abbott and his bunch of Costellos.
In principle a ‘designated doctor’ paid by MSD or WINZ has to abide to the rules set out in the Code of Ethics of the NZ Medical Association, to which Medical Council members bind themselves.
There are also these publications by the Medical Council that are of relevance:
It is absolutely recommended to bring a support person along, to take notes and be a witness if any questions may arise after an “examination”. But then the following needs to be taken note of:
Many WINZ clients sadly fail to prepare well, go unaccompanied and ill prepared, and in some cases it can be like going as a lamb to the slaughter.
Bear in mind, the H+D Commissioner only usually looks closer and investigates about one out of ten complaints. In most cases doctors over-stepping their duties and responsibilities, and breaching code and law in some way, will not be struck off, but just be warned, I would presume.
Only very serious cases may succeed to be taken to a Tribunal or court, and then it is all dependent on evidence and strength of submissions. Most beneficiaries would already feel over-stressed just preparing a strong case of complaint to the HDC Office.
What they are doing under Future Focus and the Dr Bratt led “mentoring”, “liaising with” and even “training” of GPs as designated doctors is certainly raising major legal issues already.
Just a note to point out that under earlier commissioner Ron Patterson, the HDC investigated around 40% of reported complaints (breaches of the Health and Disabilities Code).
In more recent times this number has dwindled to less than 10%. [ Sorry don’t have a ref but my friend was talking about someone’s research into this a couple of years ago. Since then it may have lowered even more.]
You can see this reduction by the number of cases the HDC reports by year on their website which have dropped off under the new commissioner, but the number of complaints have risen.
The level of stress for those on sickness and invalid benefit may actually be causing people to become dependent on drugs, alcohol, gambling and increasing family violence due to the pressure which Work and Income are creating.
The cost of housing is dragging the unemployed and the employed down and some are actually clinically depressed. People who work are dependent on WFF and other supplements, not just those who are on a main benefit.
Addressing why a person is on a benefit is the starting point.
I have personal experience of this when I was shifted by a new GP from IB back to sickness. As soon as the “pressure” began my condition began to worsen and I became increasingly disorientated and dissociated until I could barely function at all. Thankfully I eventually was placed back on IB but I live with the fear that it could happen again.
Anyone who works with me (treatment providers) know that I’m doing everything I can. I want to work because frankly it is more than money, it is a relief to belong and be with people who aren’t constantly assessing your mental state and noting down every move.
Badgering me to, “get a job, get a job get a job..”, – **WE KNOW!** doesn’t make it faster.
It’s a big like having an all knowing big brother continuously telling you what is best for you and how you should do it, except I can’t break the family bondage regardless of where I move to in the country or how many times I change my number.
What would be really helpful is if they listened to my treatment providers and did everything they could to support costs applied for rather than looking for ways to decline them. It would also help if they stayed away from me as much as possible because they are a direct cause of stress and ongoing disempowerment.
Work and Income are generally oblivious to worsening a situation. Worse still is when a psychiatrist talks through his arse.
I know what it is like to feel disconnected, commenting on the Standard does have a therapeutic value re connecting. Time and time again I see comments from people who give a damn about the type of society we live in and the direction it is going in.
Re what you wrote above:
“What would be really helpful is if they listened to my treatment providers and did everything they could to support costs applied for rather than looking for ways to decline them. It would also help if they stayed away from me as much as possible because they are a direct cause of stress and ongoing disempowerment.”
You are absolutely right, and I have been through similar experiences with a designated doctor assessment some time back, and a following MAB appeal hearing, that was already “tainted” with the new staunch “Future Focus” (“Future Fuckup”) ideology. They were meant to look rather at what I “could do” than what I “could not do”. So they pulled out some hypothetical kind of BS presumptions and claimed that such activities could be done in a job for at least 15 hours a week.
This is now happening to hundreds if not thousands of reviewed IB cases, and also are Sickness Benefit recipients increasingly considered “fit” to do at least some part time training or work.
They (MSD, WINZ and their chosen doctors) are walking an extremely thight rope there, as hypothetical work is purely speculative, and also have some scientific reports found, that GPs (who are mostly relied on as “designated doctors”) are generally not well qualified at all to make competent assessments on mentally ill for instance (apart from the personal bias many have).
Yet I would always still rather trust my own GP, or another truly NEUTRAL GP, than any of the “trained” and at least moderately biased “designated doctors” they mostly use. And re treatment and support, the actual specialists that know their work, they should be involved for sure.
So imagine the horror scenario where they will have separate work capability assessments designed by MSD, besides of medical practitioners and the likes in future. That is what they are intending to bring in, to have WINZ Health and Disability Advisors and also “outsourced” providers do the assessing. We will have the same kinds of suicides and other deaths as they had in the UK over recent years. It is CRIMINAL what they are doing.
xtasy I am going to spend a bit of time looking at all the links you have supplied. I have an interest in PTSD and complex PTSD. I am looking forward to the DSM V ( being printed in May 2013) as PTSD will have its own separate section.
Treetop: Thanks for your interest. I have no direct info on PTSD, but I am also interested in the new DSM V publication. I am concerned that some conditions like chronic fatigue syndrome are not accepted as a proper separate condition or disorder by some medical “experts”.
I just wonder how the future assessors for WINZ will treat the DSM V and what true medical specialists (not just some GPs) diagnose and say to them.
Please feel free also, yes do what you can, to spread any info and links to other interested persons. The more learn about all this, the better. There is so much at stake for the people affected.
Winston, for one, would be happy to recite it back to them and combine it with one of his own trademark phrases: ‘Yes, it’s time to move on … from the failed policies of the past that both of the old parties keep following …’.
Is anyone going to go see Hordur Torfason (as advertised on the main page)? I would have really loved to but I’ll be in Japan when he is here. If anyone goes can they do a little write up or blog so those who can’t attend can get an idea of what it was like?
Apparently women in the UK have ‘turned left’ in droves. Seamus Milne suggests that it’s probably because they are bearing the brunt of the austerity push in the public sector and more generally.
Apparently women were more likely than men to vote Conservative, historically.
Has there been any tracking of gender-based voting in the recent polls in New Zealand? I haven’t heard any reports about it. If I remember correctly, Key apparently gained women’s votes for National to an unprecedented extent in the last two elections.
The backers of a poll say John Key is losing support among women.
A Fairfax/Ipsos poll has 39% of women supporting National, with females more likely to see the prime minister as a polarising figure following issues such as the class sizes controversy.
It is difficult to quantify a trend, as the Fairfax/Ipos poll is the first of its type.
However, Fairfax points to other polls before the last election that showed 50% of women supported National.
“Women swing voters have become particularly crucial in modern New Zealand elections,” Otago University political scientist Bryce Edwards told NBR ONLINE.
“John Key will be well aware of that, and also well aware that his relatively strong performance in winning women over to National in 2008 was absolutely crucial to getting into government,” Mr Edwards said.
“His strong appeal to women swing voters, was both ideological â not being too right-wing â and not being too much of a boring traditional politician.
But the reasons given for past support of Key by women are pretty superficial -image over substance. In contrast the Guardian article focuses on the austerity policies as causing a shift to the left by women.
And yet, we have a Labour caucus leadership that is male-dominated and seems keen on pursuing some version of the mythical “Waitakere”.
Maybe the NZ party strategists are looking at the wrong focus group questions, and missing the significance of policy changes to large numbers of NZ women?
Given that, and since they seem to be better at logic and critical analysis (women I mean), I was going to ask Why Hekia, Why Paula. And I was also thinking a little ‘deeper’ than that in terms of what corrupted process has kicked in given their indigenous background that identifies with – indeed, relies on collectivity. I suspect a Cargo Cult – especially when you look at that British Colonial Uniform number that Hekia often wears. Not sure about Pulla though! Africa maybe? Leopard skin? the hunt? In any event, they’re not only aberrations, they’re both very UGLY people in every sense of the word.
Funny! as in funny as a fart – in the neighbourhood, someone is playing that Burly Chassis number “Goldfinger” as I hit the submit button.
Me thinks “Gold Digger”. As I said – very ugly specimens, in EVERY sense of the word – and best of luck to Wira – cock driven/remembering the days of the cock-driven, that he proves hisself to be.
Condolences Wira – well, maybe not! What were you thinking? Ah – OK – you weren’t actually that bright – just another (as my relatives would put it) brown Pakeha.
Actually, I think my next party vote is verging on Mana.
we only have our own worlds to look at so naturally there can be no wider inference, but i know more women who voted National than men, and of the men who did most were married to a woman who voted national and of them most of the men have changed their tune but oddly the women have not
That’s the reverse of what I always thought. I thought men were traditionally more likely to vote right-wing than women, and that right-wing parties struggled for female support.
That made sense to me because women and children are more likely to be harshly affected by right-wing policies.
What has happened to IrishBill’s suggestion that posters on The Standard start discussing and formulating some alternative policies for Labour/left ? (It was IrishBill , wasn’t it ?)
the Labour Party is coming up to its regional conferences – some time in May – which will all be
promoting various policies to take to the annual conference in November 2013.
This annual conf is being held in Christchurch and has been touted as the “policy making” conference.
So now is the time to get into thinking/discussing realistic policies for the left. Let us have your ideas please.
As a starter – perhaps we could re-think the raising of the superannuation age to 67 years ?
Is this absolutely necessary ? What alternatives could there be ? Does anyone know what Greypower thinks of that proposal ?
Yes wasn’t that a grand policy for Labour to headline it’s 2011 election campaign with, with numbers straight from Treasury Phill Goff strode the election stage proudly proclaiming that the New Zealand workers earning the least amount of wages and therefore least able to save would if they voted for Labour get done out of at least 2 years of superannuation by Labour,
Damn easy to see why Labour lost that one right, a policy so far away from Labour’s supposed working class base that if it wasn’t an actual election strategy it would have been totally laughable,
But, to the present, some policy that Labour should do more than consider,
(1), The raising of the minimum wage by $1.50 an hour each and every year that Labour is next the Government,
That alone would be an election winner that this Slippery lead National Government in no way could match and Dave could stomp the country for the next 18 months delivering such a policy which would add some meat to His present hollow mouthing’s about the bloke he met in the pub,
Labour have the Treasury report that categorically states that raising the minimum wage will not lead to job losses, National would collectively disembowel it’self rather than try and match such a policy,
(2), A building strategy that includes the addition of 4000 State Rental properties for the next ten
years to take the States portfolio to over 100,000 units,
Labour know this is needed, the numbers do not lie, for a population of 3.3 million we had 75,000 State Rentals,
For a population of 4.4 million we only have 65,000 State rentals, the number of those struggling on low wages has risen not declined and Labour need get busy building a new city north oof the Bombay Hills…
Thanks Bad12 – I’ll add your suggestions to my list, and btw – I, too, thought the super age rise was a silly and miserable policy to announce during the election campaign. It took many Labour supporters by surprise and many do not like it, nor think it necessary. There are other ways to deal with the baby boomer super bump.
Yeah tah much Jenny, my opinion is of course that these 2 areas in particular shouldn’t need including on any list by delegates, they should simply be core Party policy,
My other view, and this is off of the back of an idea i heard floated (from i think inside Labour), is that the Government spend from A to Z needs looking at in terms of monies being needlessly spent into other economies when the work, jobs, profits, and taxation from this ‘spend’ would be far more beneficial if all those billions were spent in New Zealand,
Obviously to spend all of Governments redistribution of taxation within the New Zealand economy is now problematic with all the ‘free trade agreements’ now in existence,
However, where there’s a will there is a way and from KiwiBank on down Labour should be looking at how it CAN bring that Government spend home from other economies to be spent strictly in New Zealand,
Labour should not be shy here in establishing it’s own State Owned Enterprises so as to enable the establishment of the necessary infrastructure so that the full spending of the Government is of benefit to New Zealand first and foremost…
To Bad12 “My other view, and this is off of the back of an idea i heard floated (from i think inside Labour), is that the Government spend from A to Z needs looking at in terms of monies being needlessly spent into other economies when the work, jobs, profits, and taxation from this âspendâ would be far more beneficial if all those billions were spent in New Zealand,”
This is part of the procurement policy which Labour has already adopted. ie having govt depts keep tenders to NZ tenderers not to o/seas ones – as much as possible – so the money stays here.
And of course there should be some “core Party policy” which just goes on and on until its made legal and real – but unfortunately Mr Shearer has said he’ll be looking at all Labour’s policy again –
so the matters which were touted at the 2011 gen election and supported by Labour people such as the minimum wage being $15pwk are all having to be re-looked at – re-negotiated is maybe another way of putting it. Hence the need for a “list” of basics along with new ideas.
Yeah Jenny that procurement policy is good economics, specially when we are talking up to 30 billion dollars a year,
The employment and extra income from taxation involved would be huge for this country if it were all spent in New Zealand, KiwiBank should be the Governments banker even if it needs building up with some extra cash from the Government,
The fact that the simplest of left wing policy needs negotiating in the Party is probably why i and a lot of others are now not members…
+ 1 What the hell were they thinking with a policy of raising the retirement age? That is something you would expect ACT to come with, how many blue collars would die on the job? Glad right thinking Goff is out of leader just wish he will bugger off altogether. If DC set up a real party I would join up straight away!
Brian Edwards’ open display of disaffection on “The Panel”
Radio New Zealand National, Tuesday 5 March 2013.
Jim Mora, Noelle McCarthy, Michelle Boag, Brian Edwards
“The Panel” is billed as “the news of the day in a different way”, but there’s actually little in it, other than the absence of commercial breaks, to distinguish it from the glib and hollow chatter to be found on NewstalkZB or RadioLIVE. Host Jim Mora’s determination to keep things “light” (read, “glib”) has long outworn any charms it may once have had. His guests occasionally cavil at the triteness and vacuity of the topics selected for discussion and the once-over-lightly handling of them. Raybon Kan, Gary McCormick, and Anna Chin have openly criticized the choice of topics on the air, and it’s clear by their occasional long silences, and refusals to laugh at Mora’s jokes, that many other guests are as concerned as the listeners by the lessening standards of the show.
Today, even the notoriously indulgent Dr. Brian Edwards was at the end of his patience after only a couple of minutes of pre-show banter…
MORA: Michelle, you’re looking SPLENDID in your new coat!
MICHELLE BOAG: [primly] Thank you.
MORA: Maya blue, it is.
BOAG: Is it?
MORA: I looked it up. ….[Awkward silence]…. Especially.
[Long, awkward silence…]
NOELLE McCARTHY: I would have said sky blue. Or light blue…
[Long, awkward silence…]
MORA: Light blue, yes.
BRIAN EDWARDS: Why are we DISCUSSING this?
MORA: We were just saying Michelle has on a particularly lovely Maya blue coat.
EDWARDS: We go through this every time we’re on the programme! Okay, I’m wearing a nice paisley tie and a striped shirt. All right?
MORA: Brian is looking very sartorial!
EDWARDS: Pshaw!
et cetera, ad infinitum, ad absurdum, ad nauseam….
Oh phuk! – you don’t actually expect more from Mora do you? He (or his producer), whether intenionally, or by prejudice subscibes to the Fox News way of doing things.
LOOK at the line-up for a start – WHICH amongst the ‘balance’ could remotely be called ‘of the left’ – let alone that ‘new left’ – somewhere to the right.
Pour me a Chardonnay will you?
Awe please …. pretty please ….. OK do you want me to gravel?! ANd some actually accuse RNZ of being left wing apologists!
Speaking of which, Kathryn Ryan must have negotiated the best employment deal ever (one that, thankfully results in an Arts on Sunday reliever).
How many days leave did she manage to get in her contract?
Did you hear Mora laughing at Graham Bell’s use of terms like ‘vermin’, ‘germ’ this afternoon? Really funny to dehumanise people, Jim.
I think the victims of the Rwandan massacres were called cockroaches…and of course the 3rd Reich were past masters at using language to demonise people.
What is Mora doing condoning such behaviours?
Good opinion piece in The Guardian online from Seumas Milne charting the leftward march of women voters. He points to the appointment of Frances O’Grady as the first woman leader of the Trades Union Congress in the UK. I imagine it’s no coincidence that here in NZ we have the redoubtable Helen Kelly as head of the CTU.
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The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Governmentâs powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. Iâm talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at RÄtana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
Thereâs been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the childrenâs playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the âbotched mergerâ of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic partyâs primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housingâs ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Ministerâs metaphor of âflooding the marketâ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is Americaâs un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is Americaâs Octavian, the Republicâs youthful undertaker â and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMPâS SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the âilliberalâ prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent talking about the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s release of its first Emissions Reduction Plan;University of Otago Foreign Relations Professor and special guest Dr Karin von ...
Open access notablesImproving global temperature datasets to better account for non-uniform warming, Calvert, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society:To better account for spatial non-uniform trends in warming, a new GITD [global instrumental temperature dataset] was created that used maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) to combine the land surface ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi MÄori rallied against the Crownâs attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hÄŤkoi of a generation and the birth of Te PÄti MÄori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Governmentâs move to dilute child poverty targets is a reminder that it is actively choosing to preserve hardship for thousands of households. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israelâs illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinianâs have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinianâs who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israelâs occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Governmentâs disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whÄnau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they canât escape on ...
Te PÄti MÄori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. âThis announcement is just another example of the governmentâs anti-Tiriti, anti-MÄori agenda.â Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. âSeymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
Nationalâs Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now itâs been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didnât declare and said wasnât pre-arranged. ...
Te PÄti MÄori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. âReinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of MÄori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. âThis legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whÄnau out onto the street for no reasonâ said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. âTheir solution to the housing ...
âNationalâs campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,â Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
âThere are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,â Jan Tinetti said. ...
âThis government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this governmentâs agenda and the future of our mokopuna,â said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
âTodayâs climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,â Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how theyâre taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. âThe Abuse in Care Inquiryâs report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faithâbased institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Governmentâs online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. âIt is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
TÄnÄ tÄtou katoa, NgÄ mihi te rangi, ngÄ mihi te whenua, ngÄ mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealandâs payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. âThe Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre â Te PokapĹŤ WÄina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. âThe research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. âRegions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesiaâs Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. âIndonesia is important to New Zealandâs security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,â says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kĹrero, he kĹrero, he kĹrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of NgÄti Maniapoto, Minister for MÄori Development Tama Potaka says. âMy thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust â NgÄti Maniapoto for bringing their important kĹrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.âI have received Ms Fredricâs resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,â Mr Brown says.âOn behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliamentâs test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. âSection 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are âdangerous changesâ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. âIssues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. âThe level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations Iâve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and ManawatĹŤ rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawkeâs Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. Itâs the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care âWhanaketia â through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,â was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry âWhanaketia â through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. âTax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. âIt includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. âCompetitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. âUnder current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and WhangÄrei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. âFor too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. âIt is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,â Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. âI am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. âASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,â Mr Peters says. âThis will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. âThis $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,â Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. âThis support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealandâs commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. âCabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. âThe previous governmentâs botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. âNew Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. âAttending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,â Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the regionâs fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministersâ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Governmentâs plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. âOn the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.âIncreasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. âNew Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,â Mr Peters says. âWe are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, itâs a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealandâs foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Wattsâ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Governmentâs emissions reduction plan. Now Iâve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayersâ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
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http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10869480
Busy body central in this morning’s Herald.
Oh FFS that headline is stupid. It’s not a “legal loophole” at all, it’s just not illegal.
It’s like saying “man gets away with walking in a park due to legal loophole”
A legal loophole today prevented police from prosecuting a man eating a doughnut in broad daylight. The legal loophole was confirmed by a police spokesman, who confirmed that eating baked goods in the middle of the day was not an offence.
+1 đ
“”While it is not illegal, police do not encourage people to drink alcohol while driving and they would certainly stop them and check their alcohol consumption,” said Ms Richardson.”
And this is equally stupid talk from the cop. Why didn’t they say “police discourage people”?
Great to know we can carry on the OZ tradition of ‘A Traveller’ legally, good to see granny focusing on the big issues.
“A couple who have watched far too many US-made police dramas were stunned to discover that the New Zealand legal system isn’t just like it is on Special Victims Unit”.
Priceless.
It is a great way to wind up stuffed shirts and tut-tutting old dears in other cars.
At traffic lights have you window down, arm resting on the door, take a gulp out of a bottle of Lion Red, give them a naughty/letcherous wink and ask them if they want a swig too!
A great way to start a weekend in a good mood.
Need AC/DC cranking out of all speakers
Have you ever been out West Auckland CV? Some people think it is compulsory …
lol…indeed, I drove by DC’s electorate office a couple of weeks ago with the sounds cranking…”when in Rome” đ
I would have played The Animals: We Gotta Get Out of This Place…
What about Coldplay’s “Paradise”?
I’m surprised people are surprised. But then again, I’m not really surprised as so many people do so little thinking. Most people just follow the popular girls around, which only achieves…. well, um ….. not sure actually …. nothing.
Actually, I’m thinking that’s a case of people doing too much thinking. They don’t like something and think that it should be illegal and so decide that it is. And then act as if it is and then get surprised and upset when they find out that it isn’t.
I now wouldn’t be surprised if National put through an emergency law change making it illegal to drink while driving.
no no …. they’ll pass a law not only making it illegal, but conscripting them into the army. Show ’em some discipline! Those pesky beneficiaries could also be drafted in the same way (to make them productive).
still …. we should not be giving them original ideas outside of their learned ideology and dogma
I now wouldnât be surprised if National put through an emergency law change making it illegal to drink while driving.
Coffee wouldn’t let it happen.
đ
I now wouldnât be surprised if National put through an emergency law change making it illegal to drink while driving.
Only if you’re a beneficiary. You shouldn’t be drinking if you are a beneficiary. Wasting tax payers money.
Hang on though you are driving and drinking. Wasting tax payers money on a car……
What you have shoes?
your plan doesn’t work if you’re driving a Ford
Holden all the way bro.. đ
With threats and bribes, Gove forces schools to accept his phoney ‘freedom’
Sounds exactly like what is happening to NZs schools courtesy of this government.
That is no doubt why Parata is rounding off her Europe trip with a visit to England to assess the damage there so she can emulate it here.
Stuff.co.nz this morning – “Parata ignored Education Ministry warning”. (Christchurch)
No. Key and Joyce ignored Education Ministry warnings. Just not interested. “We’ll do what WE want to do. Period.”
The morning on which she wakes up as plain old Lady Gardiner draws closer. Oh the shame.
Not for Key though. Lauded for decisiveness by his puppies in the media he’ll be happy as. The story about the story will be bigger than the story. Mr Bean’s cousin Gower probably has what he fancies is a definitive one-liner already written.
Key’s denial that his gushing acolyte Parata is cannon fodder was a Freudian lie.
Yep she ignored advice that the demographics were still changing in Chch post-earthquake and that the changes needed to wait to see where those demographics settled.
Pretty fucking obvious.
So why have they not done that? Why have they barged ahead?
To think a quarter of a century ago, I almost bought a house off her ‘better half’ alongside a wife that was a little smarter than Hekia. There goes a lucky escape! I’m glad I trust my instincts especially as I write, that eternal sage of the 4th Estate (ONE Network News) reports that the U.S. “Stoke Exchange” has reached an ALL TIME high, not seen since the GFC. I’m not sure they see the significance in what they just pronounced either.
And here we have the NaCts puffing up the benefits of esset sales … those mum in dead vestas should have confdince … that same sort of confdince they had in all those finance companies that went tits-up (pardon the expression QoT but it is actually the image I want to portray – as in those with tits being on the bottom bunk in every sense) – substitute expression as you see fit (perhaps instead of mum in dead vestas – substitute “soft-cocks”)
Qatari emir buys six Greek islands for a song
No words really!
Welfare reforms and health sector reforms: How the dots can be joined together –
In 2007 and 2008 the National Party repeatedly fed the media with selected few stories about âGP bullyingâ – by claimants of the sickness benefit. Work and Incomeâs Principal Health Advisor Dr Bratt seemed to grab that topic up quite willingly then. Now though it seems GPs get âbulliedâ (or rather âconvinced to doâ) what MSD and WINZ under the present government want them to do.
Since National’s been in government, theyâve appointed and promote selected professional people into key jobs in the public health and welfare sectors. Most, if not all, appear to be resolute proponents for adopting a âfirmâ approach to health care and welfare. It can all be sourced back to similar moves made in the UK under the auspices of Professor Mansel Aylward, former UK DWP Chief Medical Officer, now consulting MSD and at least one NZ Health Board. He’s still in charge of a department at Cardiff University.
These key persons are resolutely pushing ahead with an already decided agenda behind the scenes, by bringing in changes in training, recruiting, lobbying and influencing existing and prospective medical practitioners and other health professionals. The welfare reforms before Parliament are just part of the greater agenda. The Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Act is largely only intended to deliver the âframeworkâ for the UK system in welfare and work capacity assessments done by selected medical professionals, that is intended to be introduced. The Select Committee process with hearing submissions is likely to change little, like with other bills the NatACT government has hammered through already.
Here are another abundance of sources for info that can enlighten readers:
http://www.nzohna.org.nz/uploaded/Dr%20David%20Beaumont%20New%20Horizons%2013%209%202012.pdf
(Presentation by Dr David Beaumont: âWelfare Reform in New Zealand â Relevance to the Workplaceââ as part of a forum called âNew Horizons: Rebuilding Health and Safety on Solid Groundâ; Christchurch 13 September 2012)
http://www.fitforwork.co.nz/dr-david-beaumonts-message-to-doctors-conference-medical-certification-can-be-fraught-with-problems-for-gps
(Presenting at the General Practice Conference and Medical Exhibition of 11-12 June 2011, Fit For Work Medical Director Dr David Beaumont emphasised the vital role of New Zealand GPs in âhelpingâ their patients return to work)
http://www.fitforwork.co.nz/david-beaumont-and-colleagues-presenting-on-health-benefits-of-work
(âNewsâ fr. âFit For Workâ, by Dr D. Beaumont, featuring Kevin Morris, Director, ACC, at a forum organised by AFOEM and the Royal Australasian College of Physicians; 12.05.2012)
http://nz.linkedin.com/pub/david-beaumont/2a/780/943
(Linked In page of Dr Beaumont, formerly also working for âAtos Origin Healthcareâ in the UK. He’s been promoting the UK style medical and work capacity tests for many years; he’s also been advising MSD here in NZ)
http://www.wellnz.co.nz/about_us/press_release_details.asp?pressID=36&bhcp=1
(On the Australasian Faculty of Occupational and Environmental Medicineâs release of a new position paper, entitled âRealising the health benefits of work.â, 25.05.2010; see the known persons involved!!!)
http://www.healthworkforce.govt.nz/about-us/board-members
(Dr Des Gorman, well known from his advisory role to ACC for many years, and for some highly controversial recommendations. He’s now also âbossâ of âHealth Work Force NZâ, set up to develop recruitment and training strategies for health sector employees in the NZ health sector)
http://www.fmhs.auckland.ac.nz/faculty/staffct/staff_details.aspx?staffID=64676F72303130
(Dr Des Gorman, Associate Dean at the Medical School of Auckland Uni)
http://wellsaid.co.nz/inside-acc/prof-des-gorman-delighted-to-join-acc-board/
(now Dr Gorman is also sitting on the ACC Board, appointed by guess whom? Paula Rebstock! I am wondering, whether he is also still on the âNational Health Boardâ)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QknNdOhOkr8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCecwuwCHb4
(2 older TV documentaries on ACC cases involving Dr Gorman, referring to âillness beliefâ and mental health as reasons for otherwise âphysicalâ suffering)
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/6930331/Rebstock-appointment-to-welfare-reform-board-concerns (stuff.co.nz on the appointment of P. Rebstock as Welfare Board chairperson)
http://www.beehive.govt.nz/speech/speech-medical-professionals
Paula Bennettâs speech to medical professionals, informing on the new welfare reforms, 26.09.12)
Professor Mansel Aylward â 2 links with 2 views on his work and medical âresearchâ:
https://hcml.co.uk/?p=200
http://downwithallthat.wordpress.com/category/dubious-academics-universities/cardiff-university/
http://www.gpcme.co.nz/pdf/GP%20CME/Friday/C1%201515%20Bratt-Hawker.pdf
(and let us not forget our âdearâ MSD and WINZ Principal Health Advisor, Dr David Bratt, who likes to compare benefit dependence with drug dependence)
+1 Thankyou XTASY. They’re attacking everything that made NZ a decent place to live.
And Labour is just sitting there silent as usual
+1
When I read your comments Xtasy, I wonder if these designated doctors are open to being struck off, or at least, reprimanded, in cases where their zeal puts a patient’s life or health in danger.
Also, the cutting of the sole parent benefit in Australia once the youngest child turns eight has drawn criticism from the UN as a violation of human rights.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/govt-silent-on-poverty-report-acoss/story-fn3dxiwe-1226589883703
Gillard is dismissing the report here, but someone I spoke to on the phone last night said that it now looks as if the UN attention might cause a partial back down on her part.
Gillard is in a very weak position in Oz. Stupid Labour politicians trying to appear more Right Wing ahead of elections. Is this a disease they all come down with?
Come on CV, you what the *disease* is!
Yes I would love to know what is driving this, since it is destroying centre-left parties all over the western world. Is it fear? Addiction to keeping one’s place among those in the know? Touting for corporate donations? Something else? Certainly the powerful have got a firm hold on the economic steering wheel, but that does not mean they must go unchallenged.
Hi Olwyn,
Its not fear or addiction, its a desire to control every aspect of human existence, via the corrupted individuals who masquerade as public servants, in NZ, and elsewhere.
The mesh of international legal treaties, agreements, and other *signed into* contracts, mean that there is likely very few people who have any idea of what NZ (as a so called sovereign nations), *obligations* to foreign entities are. We get to see many the results of the obligations, played out via *policy* and *reforms*, that much is certain.
When these international treaties, agreements and contracts, are underlayed by the thousands of domestic statutes, bills etc, how it is possible to have a clue about who is controlling what, as it relates to NZ!
It takes incredible power to engineer the social/financial breakdowns we witness around the world, and at home in NZ, power that many don’t/can’t accept exists.
In order to *defend*, first you have to know who/what your attacker is, only then can a hopeful strategy be formed!
Well part of it is when the likes of Dastiari? who’s come from a background of living hell gain influence, and who hold that “we don’t know how lucky we are” attitude. In my day …. etc., etc., etc.
And Gillard is supposed to be part of Labor’s left FFS! Tell me where that definition fits!
LABOR (Oz) dropped the “U” in Labour, and as far as I can see, Labour NZ is well on the way to doing likewise.
Gillard is toast it appears, made a mess of Kev’s mining tax dumbing it down so that after all the angst it’s pretty much offset by tax credits and generating SFA extra tax revenue.
So make way for the barking mad Abbott and his bunch of Costellos.
Olwyn –
In principle a ‘designated doctor’ paid by MSD or WINZ has to abide to the rules set out in the Code of Ethics of the NZ Medical Association, to which Medical Council members bind themselves.
There are also these publications by the Medical Council that are of relevance:
http://www.mcnz.org.nz/assets/News-and-Publications/Statements/Non-treating-doctors.pdf
(see particularly points 23 and 24, which may well limit the chance of taking such a practitioner to the Health and Disability Commissioner; see: http://www.hdc.org.nz/)
It is absolutely recommended to bring a support person along, to take notes and be a witness if any questions may arise after an “examination”. But then the following needs to be taken note of:
http://www.mcnz.org.nz/assets/News-and-Publications/Statements/When-another-person-is-present-during-a-consultation.pdf
Many WINZ clients sadly fail to prepare well, go unaccompanied and ill prepared, and in some cases it can be like going as a lamb to the slaughter.
Bear in mind, the H+D Commissioner only usually looks closer and investigates about one out of ten complaints. In most cases doctors over-stepping their duties and responsibilities, and breaching code and law in some way, will not be struck off, but just be warned, I would presume.
Only very serious cases may succeed to be taken to a Tribunal or court, and then it is all dependent on evidence and strength of submissions. Most beneficiaries would already feel over-stressed just preparing a strong case of complaint to the HDC Office.
What they are doing under Future Focus and the Dr Bratt led “mentoring”, “liaising with” and even “training” of GPs as designated doctors is certainly raising major legal issues already.
Hi there,
Just a note to point out that under earlier commissioner Ron Patterson, the HDC investigated around 40% of reported complaints (breaches of the Health and Disabilities Code).
In more recent times this number has dwindled to less than 10%. [ Sorry don’t have a ref but my friend was talking about someone’s research into this a couple of years ago. Since then it may have lowered even more.]
You can see this reduction by the number of cases the HDC reports by year on their website which have dropped off under the new commissioner, but the number of complaints have risen.
The level of stress for those on sickness and invalid benefit may actually be causing people to become dependent on drugs, alcohol, gambling and increasing family violence due to the pressure which Work and Income are creating.
The cost of housing is dragging the unemployed and the employed down and some are actually clinically depressed. People who work are dependent on WFF and other supplements, not just those who are on a main benefit.
Addressing why a person is on a benefit is the starting point.
I have personal experience of this when I was shifted by a new GP from IB back to sickness. As soon as the “pressure” began my condition began to worsen and I became increasingly disorientated and dissociated until I could barely function at all. Thankfully I eventually was placed back on IB but I live with the fear that it could happen again.
Anyone who works with me (treatment providers) know that I’m doing everything I can. I want to work because frankly it is more than money, it is a relief to belong and be with people who aren’t constantly assessing your mental state and noting down every move.
Badgering me to, “get a job, get a job get a job..”, – **WE KNOW!** doesn’t make it faster.
It’s a big like having an all knowing big brother continuously telling you what is best for you and how you should do it, except I can’t break the family bondage regardless of where I move to in the country or how many times I change my number.
What would be really helpful is if they listened to my treatment providers and did everything they could to support costs applied for rather than looking for ways to decline them. It would also help if they stayed away from me as much as possible because they are a direct cause of stress and ongoing disempowerment.
Work and Income are generally oblivious to worsening a situation. Worse still is when a psychiatrist talks through his arse.
I know what it is like to feel disconnected, commenting on the Standard does have a therapeutic value re connecting. Time and time again I see comments from people who give a damn about the type of society we live in and the direction it is going in.
AsleepWhileWalking –
Re what you wrote above:
“What would be really helpful is if they listened to my treatment providers and did everything they could to support costs applied for rather than looking for ways to decline them. It would also help if they stayed away from me as much as possible because they are a direct cause of stress and ongoing disempowerment.”
You are absolutely right, and I have been through similar experiences with a designated doctor assessment some time back, and a following MAB appeal hearing, that was already “tainted” with the new staunch “Future Focus” (“Future Fuckup”) ideology. They were meant to look rather at what I “could do” than what I “could not do”. So they pulled out some hypothetical kind of BS presumptions and claimed that such activities could be done in a job for at least 15 hours a week.
This is now happening to hundreds if not thousands of reviewed IB cases, and also are Sickness Benefit recipients increasingly considered “fit” to do at least some part time training or work.
They (MSD, WINZ and their chosen doctors) are walking an extremely thight rope there, as hypothetical work is purely speculative, and also have some scientific reports found, that GPs (who are mostly relied on as “designated doctors”) are generally not well qualified at all to make competent assessments on mentally ill for instance (apart from the personal bias many have).
Some more interesting info on all this:
http://www.politics.co.uk/opinion-formers/rethink/article/rethink-mental-illness-new-gp-survey-shows-government-welfare
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19478286
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2951586/
Yet I would always still rather trust my own GP, or another truly NEUTRAL GP, than any of the “trained” and at least moderately biased “designated doctors” they mostly use. And re treatment and support, the actual specialists that know their work, they should be involved for sure.
So imagine the horror scenario where they will have separate work capability assessments designed by MSD, besides of medical practitioners and the likes in future. That is what they are intending to bring in, to have WINZ Health and Disability Advisors and also “outsourced” providers do the assessing. We will have the same kinds of suicides and other deaths as they had in the UK over recent years. It is CRIMINAL what they are doing.
http://www.politics.co.uk/opinion-formers/rethink/article/rethink-mental-illness-new-gp-survey-shows-government-welfar
Sorry that link should work, without the e at the end!
xtasy I am going to spend a bit of time looking at all the links you have supplied. I have an interest in PTSD and complex PTSD. I am looking forward to the DSM V ( being printed in May 2013) as PTSD will have its own separate section.
Treetop: Thanks for your interest. I have no direct info on PTSD, but I am also interested in the new DSM V publication. I am concerned that some conditions like chronic fatigue syndrome are not accepted as a proper separate condition or disorder by some medical “experts”.
I just wonder how the future assessors for WINZ will treat the DSM V and what true medical specialists (not just some GPs) diagnose and say to them.
Please feel free also, yes do what you can, to spread any info and links to other interested persons. The more learn about all this, the better. There is so much at stake for the people affected.
judging by the excessive use, i think the Nats are teasing/testing their next election campaign slogan
“its time to move on”
As slogans go, it could backfire.
Winston, for one, would be happy to recite it back to them and combine it with one of his own trademark phrases: ‘Yes, it’s time to move on … from the failed policies of the past that both of the old parties keep following …’.
đ i thought the implied sarcasm was self evident
Is anyone going to go see Hordur Torfason (as advertised on the main page)? I would have really loved to but I’ll be in Japan when he is here. If anyone goes can they do a little write up or blog so those who can’t attend can get an idea of what it was like?
Cheers
Apparently women in the UK have ‘turned left’ in droves. Seamus Milne suggests that it’s probably because they are bearing the brunt of the austerity push in the public sector and more generally.
Apparently women were more likely than men to vote Conservative, historically.
Has there been any tracking of gender-based voting in the recent polls in New Zealand? I haven’t heard any reports about it. If I remember correctly, Key apparently gained women’s votes for National to an unprecedented extent in the last two elections.
Thanks for that link, Puddleglum. There are some signs of a possible shift from Key by women over the last year or so.
But the reasons given for past support of Key by women are pretty superficial -image over substance. In contrast the Guardian article focuses on the austerity policies as causing a shift to the left by women.
And yet, we have a Labour caucus leadership that is male-dominated and seems keen on pursuing some version of the mythical “Waitakere”.
Maybe the NZ party strategists are looking at the wrong focus group questions, and missing the significance of policy changes to large numbers of NZ women?
A historic shift: women have moved to the Left of men in UK politics
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/mar/05/women-left-of-men-historic-shift
Um? Yes, CV, that’s the same article that Puddleglum linked to at the beginning of this thread, and to which I was responding.
Ah sorry, was not paying attention karol.
Given that, and since they seem to be better at logic and critical analysis (women I mean), I was going to ask Why Hekia, Why Paula. And I was also thinking a little ‘deeper’ than that in terms of what corrupted process has kicked in given their indigenous background that identifies with – indeed, relies on collectivity. I suspect a Cargo Cult – especially when you look at that British Colonial Uniform number that Hekia often wears. Not sure about Pulla though! Africa maybe? Leopard skin? the hunt? In any event, they’re not only aberrations, they’re both very UGLY people in every sense of the word.
Funny! as in funny as a fart – in the neighbourhood, someone is playing that Burly Chassis number “Goldfinger” as I hit the submit button.
Me thinks “Gold Digger”. As I said – very ugly specimens, in EVERY sense of the word – and best of luck to Wira – cock driven/remembering the days of the cock-driven, that he proves hisself to be.
Condolences Wira – well, maybe not! What were you thinking? Ah – OK – you weren’t actually that bright – just another (as my relatives would put it) brown Pakeha.
Actually, I think my next party vote is verging on Mana.
we only have our own worlds to look at so naturally there can be no wider inference, but i know more women who voted National than men, and of the men who did most were married to a woman who voted national and of them most of the men have changed their tune but oddly the women have not
That’s the reverse of what I always thought. I thought men were traditionally more likely to vote right-wing than women, and that right-wing parties struggled for female support.
That made sense to me because women and children are more likely to be harshly affected by right-wing policies.
This way around makes no sense.
RIP Hugo Chavez.
What has happened to IrishBill’s suggestion that posters on The Standard start discussing and formulating some alternative policies for Labour/left ? (It was IrishBill , wasn’t it ?)
the Labour Party is coming up to its regional conferences – some time in May – which will all be
promoting various policies to take to the annual conference in November 2013.
This annual conf is being held in Christchurch and has been touted as the “policy making” conference.
So now is the time to get into thinking/discussing realistic policies for the left. Let us have your ideas please.
As a starter – perhaps we could re-think the raising of the superannuation age to 67 years ?
Is this absolutely necessary ? What alternatives could there be ? Does anyone know what Greypower thinks of that proposal ?
Yes wasn’t that a grand policy for Labour to headline it’s 2011 election campaign with, with numbers straight from Treasury Phill Goff strode the election stage proudly proclaiming that the New Zealand workers earning the least amount of wages and therefore least able to save would if they voted for Labour get done out of at least 2 years of superannuation by Labour,
Damn easy to see why Labour lost that one right, a policy so far away from Labour’s supposed working class base that if it wasn’t an actual election strategy it would have been totally laughable,
But, to the present, some policy that Labour should do more than consider,
(1), The raising of the minimum wage by $1.50 an hour each and every year that Labour is next the Government,
That alone would be an election winner that this Slippery lead National Government in no way could match and Dave could stomp the country for the next 18 months delivering such a policy which would add some meat to His present hollow mouthing’s about the bloke he met in the pub,
Labour have the Treasury report that categorically states that raising the minimum wage will not lead to job losses, National would collectively disembowel it’self rather than try and match such a policy,
(2), A building strategy that includes the addition of 4000 State Rental properties for the next ten
years to take the States portfolio to over 100,000 units,
Labour know this is needed, the numbers do not lie, for a population of 3.3 million we had 75,000 State Rentals,
For a population of 4.4 million we only have 65,000 State rentals, the number of those struggling on low wages has risen not declined and Labour need get busy building a new city north oof the Bombay Hills…
Thanks Bad12 – I’ll add your suggestions to my list, and btw – I, too, thought the super age rise was a silly and miserable policy to announce during the election campaign. It took many Labour supporters by surprise and many do not like it, nor think it necessary. There are other ways to deal with the baby boomer super bump.
Yeah tah much Jenny, my opinion is of course that these 2 areas in particular shouldn’t need including on any list by delegates, they should simply be core Party policy,
My other view, and this is off of the back of an idea i heard floated (from i think inside Labour), is that the Government spend from A to Z needs looking at in terms of monies being needlessly spent into other economies when the work, jobs, profits, and taxation from this ‘spend’ would be far more beneficial if all those billions were spent in New Zealand,
Obviously to spend all of Governments redistribution of taxation within the New Zealand economy is now problematic with all the ‘free trade agreements’ now in existence,
However, where there’s a will there is a way and from KiwiBank on down Labour should be looking at how it CAN bring that Government spend home from other economies to be spent strictly in New Zealand,
Labour should not be shy here in establishing it’s own State Owned Enterprises so as to enable the establishment of the necessary infrastructure so that the full spending of the Government is of benefit to New Zealand first and foremost…
To Bad12 “My other view, and this is off of the back of an idea i heard floated (from i think inside Labour), is that the Government spend from A to Z needs looking at in terms of monies being needlessly spent into other economies when the work, jobs, profits, and taxation from this âspendâ would be far more beneficial if all those billions were spent in New Zealand,”
This is part of the procurement policy which Labour has already adopted. ie having govt depts keep tenders to NZ tenderers not to o/seas ones – as much as possible – so the money stays here.
And of course there should be some “core Party policy” which just goes on and on until its made legal and real – but unfortunately Mr Shearer has said he’ll be looking at all Labour’s policy again –
so the matters which were touted at the 2011 gen election and supported by Labour people such as the minimum wage being $15pwk are all having to be re-looked at – re-negotiated is maybe another way of putting it. Hence the need for a “list” of basics along with new ideas.
Yeah Jenny that procurement policy is good economics, specially when we are talking up to 30 billion dollars a year,
The employment and extra income from taxation involved would be huge for this country if it were all spent in New Zealand, KiwiBank should be the Governments banker even if it needs building up with some extra cash from the Government,
The fact that the simplest of left wing policy needs negotiating in the Party is probably why i and a lot of others are now not members…
Bad12, I find that a difficulty too …….
+ 1 What the hell were they thinking with a policy of raising the retirement age? That is something you would expect ACT to come with, how many blue collars would die on the job? Glad right thinking Goff is out of leader just wish he will bugger off altogether. If DC set up a real party I would join up straight away!
Brian Edwards’ open display of disaffection on “The Panel”
Radio New Zealand National, Tuesday 5 March 2013.
Jim Mora, Noelle McCarthy, Michelle Boag, Brian Edwards
“The Panel” is billed as “the news of the day in a different way”, but there’s actually little in it, other than the absence of commercial breaks, to distinguish it from the glib and hollow chatter to be found on NewstalkZB or RadioLIVE. Host Jim Mora’s determination to keep things “light” (read, “glib”) has long outworn any charms it may once have had. His guests occasionally cavil at the triteness and vacuity of the topics selected for discussion and the once-over-lightly handling of them. Raybon Kan, Gary McCormick, and Anna Chin have openly criticized the choice of topics on the air, and it’s clear by their occasional long silences, and refusals to laugh at Mora’s jokes, that many other guests are as concerned as the listeners by the lessening standards of the show.
Today, even the notoriously indulgent Dr. Brian Edwards was at the end of his patience after only a couple of minutes of pre-show banter…
MORA: Michelle, you’re looking SPLENDID in your new coat!
MICHELLE BOAG: [primly] Thank you.
MORA: Maya blue, it is.
BOAG: Is it?
MORA: I looked it up. ….[Awkward silence]…. Especially.
[Long, awkward silence…]
NOELLE McCARTHY: I would have said sky blue. Or light blue…
[Long, awkward silence…]
MORA: Light blue, yes.
BRIAN EDWARDS: Why are we DISCUSSING this?
MORA: We were just saying Michelle has on a particularly lovely Maya blue coat.
EDWARDS: We go through this every time we’re on the programme! Okay, I’m wearing a nice paisley tie and a striped shirt. All right?
MORA: Brian is looking very sartorial!
EDWARDS: Pshaw!
et cetera, ad infinitum, ad absurdum, ad nauseam….
Oh phuk! – you don’t actually expect more from Mora do you? He (or his producer), whether intenionally, or by prejudice subscibes to the Fox News way of doing things.
LOOK at the line-up for a start – WHICH amongst the ‘balance’ could remotely be called ‘of the left’ – let alone that ‘new left’ – somewhere to the right.
Pour me a Chardonnay will you?
Awe please …. pretty please ….. OK do you want me to gravel?! ANd some actually accuse RNZ of being left wing apologists!
Speaking of which, Kathryn Ryan must have negotiated the best employment deal ever (one that, thankfully results in an Arts on Sunday reliever).
How many days leave did she manage to get in her contract?
++Morrissey
Did you hear Mora laughing at Graham Bell’s use of terms like ‘vermin’, ‘germ’ this afternoon? Really funny to dehumanise people, Jim.
I think the victims of the Rwandan massacres were called cockroaches…and of course the 3rd Reich were past masters at using language to demonise people.
What is Mora doing condoning such behaviours?
“Brain stripping” goes well with “asset stripping”, I suppose.
National is “No Plan” Government! http://localbodies-bsprout.blogspot.co.nz/2013/03/child-poverty-no-plan.html
Good opinion piece in The Guardian online from Seumas Milne charting the leftward march of women voters. He points to the appointment of Frances O’Grady as the first woman leader of the Trades Union Congress in the UK. I imagine it’s no coincidence that here in NZ we have the redoubtable Helen Kelly as head of the CTU.
Here’s a really good article by Gordon Campbell:
http://gordoncampbell.scoop.co.nz/2013/03/06/gordon-campbell-on-yesterdays-ird-victory-against-tax-avoidance/
Good watch
Go to 12 minutes, talking about the new Greenpeace boat. This is why they never get my money.
I’m sure you hate them for more than that
Greenpeace figured out that their constituency was conscientous and upper middle class.