Hope Theo Speirings is having a little pause for thought about his strategy of following China’s great sucking engine to bulk and lower-end value products as our national basis for pastoral wealth.
It’s not very often I’d link to a Daily Mail article, but these pics of Gaza tell a story that show this devastation by the Israelis will echo for years in the Middle East – even if Israeli does meet its objective of clearing Gaza.
Thank you miravox. Those pictures illustrate what daily life must be like for Palestinians during this genocide.
The scale of horror and the depth of grief is hard enough for the world to comprehend and digest let alone imagine being Palestinian.
Everyone has probably seen this as it’s been floating around the net for days but I’ve only just heard this letter being read out on the 9am radio news in place of the usual news. The description of the treatment of Palestinians, adults and children by the settlers was particularly sobering:
The psychology of such a position must surely be studied and debated by those working in the field.
Psychology has it’s origins in some very talented Jewish people, the pioneers of the study of the mind in the late 19th century. Alfred Adler in particular stood out and took the concepts of Freud, refined them and whose theories contributed toward the evolution of psychotherapy.
The Adlerian approach looks at the individual in a holistic sense and considers social equality as a factor in their well being. I have been wondering lately what students and practitioners of the Adlerian movement (and other humanistic branches of psychology) would make of a culture giving life to their ancestral and collective rage, grief and oppression and turning an another culture, as undeserving of such cruelty as they were in the first place.
“I just cannot reconcile the psychology of a “race” who suffered from genocide permitting themselves the position of genocidal maniacs”
Need to separate-out (1) European Holocaust victims and (2) Zionists in Palestine. Their identity and interests are too often conflated.
I think the first thing to understand is that the Zionism on which Israel was established emerged from precisely the same deeply reactionary, anti-Enlightenment ideological mix (German/East European Romantic Nationalism and Imperialism) that so greatly inspired and animated the Nazis. ‘Blut und Bone’. Violent Ethnic-cleansing has always been implicit in that sort of extreme ethno-nationalist ideology where the emphasis is on membership of the prescribed ‘Race’ / ‘Blood’ / ‘Culture’ over universalist ideas of Equality and Citizenship. The aim was always to militarily carve-out an ethnically-pure (or failing that, overwhelmingly Jewish) ‘Greater Israel’ on Palestinian land (before Zionist colonisation got fully underway in the early 20C, Palestinian Arabs had comprised well over 90% of the population for more than 1300 years, with the tiny, indigenous Jewish community making up less than 5%. What’s more, that small indigenous Jewish community was overwhelmingly anti-Zionist and most of their descendants remain so. Important, I think, to remember that whenever you hear the line that this is some sort of ancient Arab-Jewish conflict that has gone on in Palestine for centuries. The kind of tosh that regularly emanates from the “pro”-Israel lobby).
It was, of course, a reaction to (at times, pretty vicious) anti-Semitism in Europe, the Baltic States and Russia, but the thing is Zionists completely accepted and internalised the deeply conservative ethno-nationalism underpinning that anti-Semitism, taking it as a prescription for a future Zionist state. If you look at early Zionist views of the Jewish community in Europe you’ll find they were remarkably similar to the vicious racial stereotypes of the more extreme 19C anti-semites (which were, of course, later adopted by the Nazis). The middle-class German Jews at the heart of the early Zionist movement entirely accepted all of those anti-Jewish stereotypes and argued that the way to change these alleged traits was to do for the Jews what the anti-Semitic ultra-conservative German Nationalists wanted to do for Germany – create an ethnically-homogenous homeland where they could create their conception of a new, self-respecting Jewish-Settler, plough in one hand, gun in the other, using force to carve-out this new ethnically-pure Eretz Israel.
On top of that, it pays to remember that the Israeli Right were openly fascist during the first half of the 20C. Jabotinsky’s Revisionist movement (from which Sharon and Netanyahu’s Likud Party emerged) greatly admired Mussolini and their Irgun and Stern gang terrorist groups of course included two future Israeli PMs. In the end, though, as far as attitudes to the colonisation of Palestine are concerned, they were little different in their ethos to Ben-Gurion’s Israeli Labour Party (and its precursors) and the mainstream Haganah (forebear of the IDF).
Second thing is: the Yishuv (pre-Israeli State Zionist community in Palestine) and its leaders like Ben-Gurion had a very dodgy relationship with the Holocaust. A good deal of collaboration took place with both the Nazis and other anti-Semitic leaders and groups in Europe / the Baltic nations in order to encourage Jewish emigration to Palestine (including an ultimately successful Zionist campaign to end an American Jewish-organised economic boycott of Nazi Germany). Strenuous efforts to prevent European Jews escaping Germany/Mainland Europe to Britain and the US (for the Yishuv leaders it had to be Palestine or nothing). The bullying of Holocaust survivors in immediate post-war Displaced Persons Camps (the US allowed Zionist groups from Palestine to take over many of these camps, and Holocaust survivors – the vast majority of whom wanted to go to the US – were largely forced through coercion (including outright violence) to emigrate to Palestine instead).
And when Holocaust survivors arrived in Israel, they were treated abominably by a sizeable portion of Israeli society, particularly by State officials (albeit with honourable exceptions). All of which is best encapsulated by the derisive Yishuv slang name for Holocaust survivors “soap” (based on the now-discredited idea that Holocaust victims’ bodies had been turned into soap by the Nazis). The survivors were deemed shameful by Zionists because they and the 6 Million victims were considered to have gone like lambs to the slaughter – whereas Zionism was all about celebrating the self-respecting, gun-toting, take-no-prisoners Zionist Jew. Many survivors were forced – again against their will – to fight in the 1948 War. Many, having survived the Holocaust against all the odds (and still greatly traumatised) went on to die in that War for an Israeli nation that largely despised them.
The Holocaust, of course, only became important to Israel after its leaders decided it could be of political use to close down criticism of Israeli policies (largely after Adolf Eichmann’s trial in 1962). It’s been said that to this day a disproportionate number of Holocaust survivors and their descendants live below the poverty line in Israel (some 50,000 by one recent estimate). Meanwhile, Israeli banks continue to refuse to return money to the families of Holocaust victims who had deposited significant sums in Zionist banks in pre-Israel Palestine. It’s an on-going scandal. So much for Israel’s solemn Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Thank you Swordfish. That’s a very helpful historical background and goes quite some way to providing an explanation for current behaviours. It’s also an education. (for myself at least)
Thanks so much for that swordship. Hugely helpful to my understanding of the reality of Israel and Palestine.
I was (note WAS) one of those who for years fell for the Israeli Government line that they were the oppressed ones. Indeed I even considered the Palestinians to be mad and dangerous. I hang my head in shame. My own experiences in England 40 odd years ago (I lived for a couple of years with Jewish people married to relatives of mine) suggest there were many good Jewish people of English origin who were equally taken in.
Israel will get its come-uppance one day. It may happen in a different way to Natzi Germany but the world is finally waking up to them. I no longer turn a hair when we are confronted on the Telly with the death of Israeli soldiers etc. Good riddance!
“I just cannot reconcile the psychology of a “race” who suffered from genocide permitting themselves the position of genocidal maniacs”
Richard Dawkins also has an answer…patriarchal monotheism…otherwise known as Religious Fundamentalism. In 2006 Richard Dawkins wrote in ‘The God Delusion’:
“The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant
character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust,
unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a
misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal,
pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent
bully.”
I hadn’t seen Brian Eno’s letter before, so thanks for posting Rosie. Agree with Ennui about incomprehension of people who suffered the Holocaust causing wiping out Gaza. Beyond the psychological context – maybe this para from Eno explains some of social/cultural context (which also ties in with swordfish’s explanation).
By the way, most of them are not ethnic Israelis – they’re ‘right of return’ Jews from Russia and Ukraine and Moravia and South Africa and Brooklyn who came to Israel recently with the notion that they had an inviolable (God-given!) right to the land, and that ‘Arab’ equates with ‘vermin’ – straightforward old-school racism delivered with the same arrogant, shameless swagger that the good ole boys of Louisiana used to affect. That is the culture our taxes are defending. It’s like sending money to the Klan.
As for the apologists for the Israeli action in Gaza – if they don’t have an empathetic bone in their body after seeing images of total destruction of people and place, maybe this paragraph will resonate with their desire to prevent the ‘islamification of the west’, if nothing else. I can only hope they then think again about the strategy of Israel and enabling western governments.
But beyond this, what really troubles me is the bigger picture. Like it or not, in the eyes of most of the world, America represents ‘The West’. So it is The West that is seen as supporting this war, despite all our high-handed talk about morality and democracy. I fear that all the civilisational achievements of The Enlightenment and Western Culture are being discredited – to the great glee of the mad Mullahs – by this flagrant hypocrisy. The war has no moral justification that I can see – but it doesn’t even have any pragmatic value either. It doesn’t make Kissingerian ‘Realpolitik’ sense; it just makes us look bad.
The paragraph about the “right of return” Jews made me recall the South African Jewish family I worked for, for many years.
Their fairness as an employer and their hospitality towards guests (including us as employee’s) always seemed in complete contrast to the way they switched to an arrogant assumption in regard their “rights” in their “homeland”, meaning Israel, not S.A, when any tentative conversation came up about Israel and Palestine. There was a bloody mindedness present during these brief discussions that was at odds with how they presented themselves otherwise. Something kind of primal surfaced and no amount of everyday respectability could hide it.
This sense of superiority led one of the family members to go to Israel to train in the army, and to be ready for “when the time came”. I think about her and wonder whether she has gone as a reservist. I’m hoping that motherhood settled this bloodlust and made her consider the lives of children of other mothers.
There are people in the West taking a moral stand on this genocide and ‘Crime Against Humanity’…and they give us hope. One such person is a British women politician who has resigned over Prime Minister Camerons’ inaction. It is people like this politician taking a moral stand who will force change..because they expose the immorality of other politicians and newspaper editors taking no stand, or seeking to suppress the truth.
‘Baroness Warsi resigns over Gaza conflict saying she ‘can no longer support Government policy’
“I can no longer support Government policy on Gaza,” she wrote.
“In her letter to Mr Cameron, Lady Warsi said that the Government’s approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict had been “morally indefensible” and not “in Britain’s national interest”.
Another taking a stand is the Australian journalist Mike Carlton, long time journalist for The Sydney Morning Herald
You must have a bit of weed in your eyes, that’s not the interview I just watched.
He said KD had been told to respect the campaign message of vote positive up north, he said mana won’t be in his government but can support it but it’s their decision, got a good hit on kimmy by saying said kdc donated to act not labour.
I don’t have anything against IMP or their policies but imo because Kim & Hone are so despised by most voters; then this is a good political move by Labour.
Yes, very smart electioneering. Well done team red.
“because Kim & Hone are so despised by most voters”
Nailed it, but expect backlash. There’s a minor party infestation on the standard most days, yet although they’re very vocal and quite feral, they’re marginalised and fringe dwelling pussies (as in puddy cats) in reality.
God forbid marginalised people being part of the democratic process. Better to throw us under the bus. Not officially Labour policy yet though, The Alien. But yeah, we can read the writing on the wall.
Pity we aren’t mainstream People Who Matter, like your good self.
Put it in the politically charged context of “expect backlash. There’s a minor party infestation on the standard most days, yet although they’re very vocal and quite feral, they’re marginalised and fringe dwelling pussies”
“Pity we aren’t mainstream People Who Matter, like your good self”
That you have an inferiority complex isn’t my fault.
For the record, I love everyone and value them all equally as human beings without exception.
I don’t feel inferior. I’m sure you are clever enough to recognise sarcasm
But I do think the belief that being marginalised = not or less worth paying attention to is incompatible with any kind of progressive or left-wing belief system.
Hi Alien. I’m a two ticks Labour kinda girl this election and a supporter of IMP. I was hoping to see a strong and healthy Labour/Greens/IMP coalition after 20th September. By being a supporter of IMP I don’t consider myself a marginalised fringe dwelling pussy.
I’m disappointed by this announcement. If a coalition can be formed with NZ First and The Greens, instead, it will still be celebrated. The corrupt Key regime being brought to an end is reason for celebration alone (my god there will be tears of happiness!) but it’s not the coalition of choice for this voter.
For fucks sake, Phil Goff was contemplating joining ACT not so long ago, and seemed to have decided against it for reasons related to his own career. Labour’s stated policies are closer to ACT’s than Mana’s are. FFS the Labour party gave birth to the ACT – party they are freaking whanau.
This is SO hyocritical
@Just saying,
You idiot! If I had the power, I would have banned you from this site for spouting such unfair defaming crap against Mr Phil Goff and the Labour party. By all means, criticise Labour, but don’t spout untrue, unjust, utter crap.
Act also ‘revealed that it had held talks with Labour’s Phil Goff about his joining Act’ (Scott, 16 March 1996: pp.16-17).
To put it into context, this from Goff’s wikipedia page:
In the 1990 elections, Labour was defeated, and Goff lost his own parliamentary seat to Gilbert Myles. While many commentators blamed Douglas’s controversial reforms for Labour’s loss, Goff said that the main problem had been in communication, not policy
As someone on the inside in those days just saying: I can inform you ACT had talks with many politicians and former politicians from both Labour and National in the hope of attracting them to join the ACT Party. All of the approaches came from the ACT Party, and I know of at least one well known former Labour politician who was so incensed by their persistence he and his wife threatened to take action against them if they didn’t leave them alone.
In other words, Phil Goff was one of many and he turned them down flat. Not interested!
Hi Anne,
If he turned them down flat, as so many did, it would be a non-issue. He was in talks with ACT about taking over as leader. He decided against it. As it turns out it was a good choice from a career point of view.
Even considering joining an extreme right-wing party is extremely damning.
Sadly, I think if he had been talking with the Alliance or The Greens in the 90s he would have been out the door. Which is also damning. but for the party.
He had a shocker to be fair, first calling for Kelvin to be sacked then being turned around to changing it to ‘let’s forget it’.
Wilson put it that KD sort of had a right to campaign for more funding, being faced by a $3m kitty, hone whinged he had less money in past elections and that right wing bloggers had donated to it, though didn’t say if the donations were named, which of course blunts the attack.
When asked to respond to the position held by many many people that the mip is just a vehicle for kdc to avoid extradition, all he did was list the roadshow venues.
Limited appeal to limited intellect voters.
Still vote Labour and Green to change the government without relying on extremists and opportunists.
I’ve known for a while it’s not just me.
I’m sure many feel the same but don’t want to post for fear of having to deal with the vocal minority extremist clique.
Lucky I have a bit of free time at the moment and skin thicker than the average mip voter.
I’m proudly red and green and won’t easily be shouted down.
Do you think that some who didnt know whether to vote KD or HW might look at KD taking donations from right wingers as a push toward electorate vote Hone?
I don’t honestly know what to make of it all but KD is putting me more and more in mind of another fellow from up North who was kind-of labour.
Like I wrote Tracey, I’ve not seen it reported that the donations were specifically sought from the right wingers, which would be bad, or if they were anonymous donations through the website, which KD would have no knowledge of.
In my mind, KD shouldn’t have done the site as it’s a bit loose and off party line, but he’s quite correct to slam hone for his backing and backer and push the cause of the people in his electorate over hh self interest and kdc’s agenda.
I don’t believe he’s SJ mk2 like some commentators would have you believe, after all, it’s their ‘job’ to demonise him.
I generally quite like The Al1en’s contributions to ts, but the anti-KDC/Mana thing strikes me as being ott and coming from an extreme place in itself. It’s kind of funny in a way. I’m a GP voter and I remember when exactly this kind of shit was aimed at the GP and their supporters. Kia kaha Mana and the IP, keep up the good works.
Thanks, but it’s a push back reaction rather than a form of out and out aggressive extremism on my part.
To be quite honest, I’ve had enough of the negativity from mip voters here, and probably won’t bother much after today.
Loonies taking over the asylum springs to mind as far as political and policy debate is concerned and woe betide any who disagree or push saner Green/Labour points.
Kim’s got dosh, maybe he could fund his own version of the standard.
No violins mate, just a statement of fact, maybe only as I see it, but I doubt it.
Let’s face it pu, aside from your obvious anti green/labour agenda, you’re only here ’cause you’ve got nowhere else to go or no-one will have you – That and for pushing your unintelligible uninformed opinion blog.
Quantity you clearly have, quality, not so much. Not to get too personal about it, being on a politics site and all, but in economic terms, you’re a deficit to the bottom line, and who needs that? Not me.
Best you and your mip buddies carry on circle jerking your way through September, stifling debate as you go, and when you don’t get cabinet seats and control of anything post election, you can start all over again about how bad DC, MT and RN are and how bad these neo libs (or what ever the slogan of the day you pick up on is) are wrecking the country ad nauseum/infinitum.
Funniest thing, you know it’ll happen. 😉
@Al1en, agree totally with your sentiments about MIP, Hone and KDC … I liked Mana policies (pre-KDC) but their personnel are simply unelectable outside of Te Tai Tokerau.
that would be the middle NZ that’s been sitting by letting the poverty gap become a chasm, letting our rivers fill up with cow shit and letting our assets be sold off overseas? (just to mention a few of the obvious ones).
Limited intellect voters. Now that’s a sure way to win over the undecided. Just as arrogant as the arseholes we are trying to get rid of. If your an example of what an “intelligent” Labour person looks like, thanks but no thanks.
“Don’t tell me what to do fuckwit – stick to your dirty little campaign”
I’ll take the secret right wing mission bit as just a bs defam, divert put down then. I’m not surprised, given your form.
It’s hardly right wing to seek votes for a green/red ticket, but then I forget, you like your left a bit more ‘radical’. Mega lulz.
“oh and don’t forget the little violin when you go for your sympathy post.”
No tears this side of no regrets – Try again… Or don’t, whatever suits.
If Banks can get Charter schools with 1 MP miserable prick in his case
a party with more MPs can get more
the Maori Party got Whanau Ora and Prison reform and a nice BMW for its leader.
Now just explain to me again how Labour, the Greens, and IMP are going to work together sucessfully after the election – and thats before Winston puts his hand up for foreign affairs again……..
I am starting to like quite a few of Labours policies (hey they make sense) but Im not too sure about the bedfellows/bedshelias with whom they will be co-habitating.
I can understand Labour atacking the Greens and the IMP, as they need to be the biggest “Left” brand in parliament for the sake of their own brand which is being eroded by the Greens to quite a large extent. And you cant reward your own foot soldiers, when you have to accommodate your “partners”
Labour’s brand isn’t being eroded by the GP. Their constiuency is. The GP have better left wing policies and that’s why more people are voting for them.
“Now just explain to me again how Labour, the Greens, and IMP are going to work together sucessfully after the election”
Pretty simple. Labour and the GP form a coaltion that includes them both in cabinet. The IMP supports on C and S and possibly negotiates some specific policy deals. None of that is unusual.
Or are you suggesting that Labour is incapable of working in coalition with other left wing parties?
“Or are you suggesting that Labour is incapable of working in coalition with other left wing parties?”
I do wonder whether some politicians put their party ahead of the common cause (ousting the incumbents).
The Nats have taken the other approach and hoovered up the voters from their allied parties – clearly displaying that putting their party first is more important than having allied parties with similar philosophies, but different policies. I guess that way they can reward there only loyal footsoldiers better – if they win.
My recall of history is that no one group has the mortgage on good ideas and that hanging out only with people who always agree with you brings stale thinking. Think USSR, North Korea etc.
Sorry, that’s a bit obscure in terms of answering my question, and seems a bit contradictory. You seem to be suggesting that Labour should be the biggest party, can’t work well with others, but that hanging out with themselves brings stale thinking.
ACT lost votes because they were shown to be the hard right neoliberals that they are, and most conservative voters don’t want that. Plus ACT had a series of leaders that were unappealing.
The MP lost votes because they betrayed their core constituents, I doubt those voters have gone to National.
I think you will be surprised how fewer people in reality vote for National than it appears. It looks good for them via the media, but when you break down the actual numbers, it looks like the right are still in FPP thinking and don’t really get MMP. I would guess that is the real reason for National’s relatively high vote compared to Labour. But compare National to the leftwing L/GP bloc and they’re not doing all that well.
Party ahead of the common cause:
I perceive that Labour is doing this to maximise their numbers for any post election negotiations. They may end up being the biggest party in the opposition tho.
Stale one party thinking:
I was really thinking of National here and think that Labours policies are looking pretty good (high praise from a right wing type like me)
As for ACT losing votes, back in their early days they has a great weekly newsletter written by Prebble, which outlined their thinking very well. At the time, they wanted the cross benches so they could “keep the Nats honest”. But they sold out for the ministerial Limos and the perks – even Rodney fell for it – and really by then ACT was toast.
I liked what ACT was – a party that thought differently and had different solutions to the problems we faced. Sadly, they moved on from that and effectively stand for nothing anymore.
“… the mip is just a vehicle for kdc to avoid extradition …”
How would that work?
Do you think the IMP might threaten to withdraw confidence and supply support if the extradition isn’t quashed? (Notice that that eventuality is not eliminated by Labour’s/Cunliffe’s position on Mana.)
If so, perhaps Harawira and Harre (and KDC) should be asked that question directly – now.
Also, perhaps Cunliffe should be asked whether he would agree to quash the extradition in the event that such support were threatened to be withdrawn.
Asking that question of them all should clarify the extent to which KDC can use IMP as “a vehicle … to avoid extradition“.
Or perhaps they have already been asked that question?
“two of the donations were from whaleoil and farrar..”
Though it doesn’t say he solicited them from the bloggers directly, or KD knew who was donating. Obviously they outed themselves, but that proves no culpability on KD’s part.
Hence
“though didn’t say if the donations were named, which of course blunts the attack”
If the bloggers said, hi I’m a right wing blogger, accept this money, I’m sure it would have been rejected.
If it came through the website anonymously, you have no case.
Do you know how those donations came into play? Does hh? He should, because he said it unequivocally, and unless proved, shows a lack of judgement and professionalism on par with KD.
So do you know the facts about the donations from the right wing bloggers or not?
If you do, post them up, otherwise it’s totally misleading and disingenuous, like usual.
They HAVE to if they get seats because their stated aim is to get rid of the Key Government. In that sense it is a clever call by Cunliffe. IF IMP dont support on that basis, Labour might not govern and Key gets the treasury benches.
The Nats would be ruthless in the campaign painting Labour as partners to IMP. By ruling this out Labour has parked this issue and is able to concentrate on talking policy.
Cunliffe was good on tv3 this morning talking policy and refusing to let the interviewer make it all about Kelvin Davis and KDC.
Exactly – it’s a long game we’re playing and that takes time and during that time skills will be learned and lessons undertook and when the time is there IMP will assume the reins naturally and with gratitude from the other entities including the people.
Hey Phillip I agree with you that Hone did an excellent interview.
To call Cunliffe’s interview a “train wreck” is manifestly unfair-see Clem’s posting below for instance. He simply refused to further debate the IMP/Davis situation having clearly stated his position, and instead said he would talk about policy. The Davis affair needed to be shut down which is what he did.
Remember: I would prefer IMP to be in the coalition/I am a Green voter/My prediction for the election is L31+G11+I7=49=Cunliffe with NZF not in the mix. I would be delighted with this outcome and I’m sure you would too.
There was a brief news article about the National government gifting conservation land, including part of the Rakaia river bed, to the purchasers of 85% of Synlait – do we know anything more?
Allowing sales that have little or no benefit to New Zealand is one thing, but the ‘return on capital’ from gifting must be very low! Were there other benefits obtained from this ‘gift’ by parties other than government?
There was a piece about it on 3 news on Sunday night and a bit of follow up conversation on Open Mike that evening.
BLiP found info on the linz site about forest up for grabs and posted it. It was shocking. Also on the linz site was info about approval for a $55+ mil buy up of land around Huapai. The buyer was a Chinese development group on behalf of the Chinese Government. Their interests were stated as “toll roads”…………intriguing and disturbing.
It seems that conservation land that was gifted in Canterbury is just the tip of the ice berg in the great sell off of NZ.
Yes, Rosie. The tip of this iceberg makes my blood run chill … how poor will be shown to be in every single democratic measure when the usury of this Key govt is finally exposed for all its treasonous ugliness ? Brrrrrrr.
Tiger Mountains’ CAFCA link below is alarming reading.
Little America or Little China or both? Either way we have sold out, our land, our water, our right to privacy and edging towards our own two feet to stand on.
OH! FFS! Well, I wonder if Ruth Richardson and Amy Adams had a few cosy chats about the set up of the Central Plains Water scheme that Amy Adams and presumably Synlait have benefited from………..
Gold has been suggested elsewhere regarding the riverbed. And you know what else ? Not only does Oravida have swamp kauri stocked up, they also have Oravida Gold and acres of leases awarded to them by Simon Bridges.
CORRUPT, TREASONOUS, AVARICIOUS, and dangerous to our democracy. I think even we will be badly shocked when athe sum of what has been sold/given away emerges in to daylight.
Won’t let me edit, but here are some facts re Oravida Gold. And interesting to note Judith Collins husband owned the mining permits from 2011 before the land was bought by Oravida in 2013 !! Must have learned double-dipping from the dipton dancer!
ORAVIDA COMPANY SET TO MINE ON COAST
A subsidiary of Chinese milk company Oravida has reportedly been drilling land it owns at
Ross in preparation for a move into gold mining. Last year Oravida Property bought 100
ha between Donaghues and the Mikonui River from Ross farmer and former regional
councillor, Bryan Chinn. Combined with the purchase of land north of Auckland, it spent
$3.2 million. It wants to create its own milk supply chain, which dates back to interest in
the Chafer farms in 2009. The company also has a permit to mine 369 ha of land in the
Mikonui River area, granted by the Ministry of Economic Development unit 2026. That
company is owned by Deyi Shi. Mr Wong-Tung, who holds the minerals permit, told the
Hokitika Guardian last year the company would mine the land before breaking into the
Westland dairy market. “The specific intention of purchasing the land is for mining it, but
also developing it after so we can turn it into good dairying land, as well as to make that
little bit of land productive”. He said the company had a lot of red tape to sort through
before being allowed to go ahead with its mining plans.
(Greymouth Star – 20 March 2014)
I am thinking we need a million dollar fund to support Graeme McCready with all the work needing to be done ! Gold leases to a Minister’s husband ? Really, Mr Bridges ?
So what’s the collective view on the Wanaka-to-Arrowtown QEII covenant? Minister Smith has generated a massive new regional park on Great Barrier Island, and now gets to announce effectively a private national park as big as Aspiring National Park. He also lets remember killed two massive roading projects in the South Island over the last year. Is it time to give Nick Smith some credit?
Ad-its good news but important to note that QEII covenants do not allow public access.
My understanding that some limited public tracks have been granted by Mutt as part of the process to date. Effectively he has largely set up a National Park for his own use.
A better idea, which could still happen, would be that a right to roam be given to the public for the areas QEII covenanted, or at least some of them.
I notice this on the access issue from the ODT today:
“Soho Properties and the trust were working with the New Zealand Walking Access Commission, the Commissioner of Crown Lands, the Queenstown Trails Trust and local walking and mountain biking groups to further improve public access.”
The owner of Soho and Motutapu Stations is at least partially resident in NZ and has been for a few years, so its bloody disingenuous to use his covenant as an example of good foreign ownership. He’s also a keen conservationist, unlike raping and pillaging dairy farm consortiums. On the issue of Nick ‘the prick’ Smith, I think he is a genuine blue-green to an extent and probably the least offensive of all Nat ministers. He’s certainly more intelligent, informed and blue-green than Amy fricking Adams.
It is definitely a good thing. We recently passed through the south island high country and got to some remote places. The land is pretty wrecked when you get up close and look – all for a few sheep. It hasn’t made sense to lay waste to tens of thousands of hectares to only support a couple of families on a station – it is a pathetic return.
So this QEII covenant is a very good thing. But Nick Smith deserves no credit for it. It aint nowt to do with him. But he does deserve credit for canning the loony monorail and the nutty tunnel – he just has one more to go and that is the most outrageous and brainless of the lot, the Haast-Hollyford Highway. But that is being attempted by a bunch of relics from colonial NZ who have somehow survived through to the 21st century. They don’t have a chance.
But Nick Smith deserves an absolute pasting for his abuse of power in threatening Fish & Game with obliteration unless they support the National Party’s farmers polluting activities.
Word out in the conservation sector is that it is a very good thing and an incredible gesture from the ex-Shania guy; MPs from both National and Labour were at the event yesterday.
Was featured on Campbell Live last night … nothing to do with Nick Smith who couldn’t even pronounce the donor’s name correctly. Kudos chops to Mutt Lange for his generosity .. the land is now safe and protected and re-planted and loved with 12,000 plants every single month and glorious … worth a look …
agreed he has done some good things…and deserves some credit ….but eternal vigilance…lets hope the proposed Haast-Hollyford Highway is also killed…New Zealand needs its wilderness areas!
Kennedy Graham is the Green candidate for Helensville. I’d expect him to be there, too.
The NZ Herald says it’s a meeting for both Helensville and Te Tai Tokerau candidates.
And what’s to stop the Helensville candidates (without Key) having further debates in Helensville? They include high profile candidates of Harre and Graham.
I note both Laila and Hone are not doing Invercargill to be at the event
“Mr Key will be at the Kumeu Baptist Church meeting for Helensville and Te Tai Tokerau candidates on Monday night, pitting him against Internet Party leader Laila Harre and Mana leader Hone Harawira.”
“‘There is to be no debate at all. Candidates have been warned they will be thrown out if they mention other candidates or attack any other parties, or anything else like that, at all,” Ryan said.
Silence would be demanded from everyone but the speaker, with one warning before those disrupting the meeting would be removed.
”It’s on that basis that the prime minister agreed to be there.”
A spokeswoman for Key said he would take part in only one multi-candidate event in his electorate, which was ”the same as the last election campaign”.
His office had played no role in the shaping of the rules for the event, she said.”
Yes I noticed that. I think Key’s constant contradictions and linguistic meaninglessness have become so normalised that no-one even checks anymore.
Also, this story gives a more strategic view of the Nats’ apparently deliberate and recently adopted yelling-over-the-top-of-the-opponent tactic. I wondered what they were up to, it seems it’s just a background for Key to look good in front of.
I guess it doesn’t matter if every Nat looks an oaf if you’re only really asking people to vote for the PM anyway.
When I read something like this it’s not like I’m ‘checking’ – it just jumps out like a great big flashing sign spelling ‘Contradiction’ while generating a foghorn-like noise.
Why couldn’t the journalist just ‘see it’ in that way? Isn’t it one of their skills?
The dots were so close together in the story but they weren’t explicitly joined. Leaving it to the reader? Why? It could have even been the focus of the story – I thought journalists were keen on spotting that sort of contradiction in the utterances of politicos.
Reminds me of Muldoon’s campaign opening at Wiri Woolstore, oh, so many years ago. There were so many police and police cameramen, it was 100% intimidating and frightening, to the extent the half-dozen over-ripe duck eggs we wicked feminist three smuggled in, through the police door searches, by necessity went unused … we would have been beaten black and blue in that atmosphere and possibly seriously injured.
Yes, Muldoon had the police doing door searches at his campaign opening.
Alas, who could have known they were perhaps the halcyon days after all ??
Why is there any reason to say
“One of these versions of events must be wrong”?
All it is really saying is that “We plan to hold an all- candidate meeting”. “The rules we propose are”. “Will you attend?”
Key then said he would attend such meeting. There is no reason to say that he set up the rules being proposed and nothing to say that the statements must conflict.
Yes alwyn I suppose it is possible that someone other than John Key came up with the rule that no-one is allowed to mention John Key, but it doesn’t seem very bloody likely.
That’s an interesting way to resolve the apparent difference in the accounts. To be honest I didn’t give that possibility much consideration. Here’s why.
First was the context in which the two statements were reported. This is the ‘lead in’ to the first statement:
”There is to be no debate at all. Candidates have been warned they will be thrown out if they mention other candidates or attack any other parties, or anything else like that, at all,” Ryan said.
Silence would be demanded from everyone but the speaker, with one warning before those disrupting the meeting would be removed.
”It’s on that basis that the prime minister agreed to be there.”
Interestingly, Ryan says the “candidates have been warned” yet, in reference to John Key, there’s less a sense of a ‘warning’ than a process of agreement: “it’s on that basis that the prime minister agreed to be there.“.
Perhaps it was poor reporting but it didn’t sound like Key had been ‘warned’ by Holly Ryan while, obviously, other candidates had been.
I really don’t see how it’s possible to read those paragraphs and think that Ryan was simply referring to Key’s acquiescence to such strict rules (as if he had much preferred an old-fashioned, wide-ranging head to head with the other candidates but had had to ‘agree’ to be reigned in).
Second, it seems unusual that after talking about ‘the candidates’ Holly Ryan only refers to the Prime Minister in relation to the basis upon which participation was agreed.
That is, she didn’t say “We can’t possibly change the rules now because it’s on that basis that (all) the candidates agreed to be there.” Instead – inexplicably – she only referred to the agreement of the Prime Minister. Why just him if these were general rules?
Now, perhaps Holly Ryan only mentioned the Prime Minister in that comment because she saw him as the big ‘drawcard’ (as the sitting MP and, of course, the Prime Minister) and wanted to be sure to get his agreement to attend.
But that then raises the question as to why she thought those particular rules of engagement would entice John Key to attend – itself not flattering to the Prime Minister’s supposed reputation to ‘debate – and beat – all comers’ (as some here have repeatedly contended is his strength).
Or perhaps these rules were ‘anticipatory’ of gaining Key’s involvement because those were the only kinds of meetings Key had previously turned up to?
Such deference to the Prime Minister – and harsh ‘warnings’ to other candidates – also seems out of place for someone organising such an all-candidates event.
Third, possibly in naivety, I had just assumed that anyone motivated enough to host a ‘meet the candidates’ meeting during an election campaign would wish to have at least some challenge and counter-challenge of candidates’ policies – either candidate to candidate or citizen to candidate (well managed, of course).
I had thought that the only way that a ‘meet the candidates’ event would become so apparently anodyne in structure – and therefore likely to be so unrevealing of the soundness of policy positions, etc. – would be if politicians had done their best to make it so.
For me, democracy goes with debate, discussion and engagement like horses go with carriages.
But perhaps your resolution of the two versions of the event is correct. Perhaps in the more right wing suburbs and areas of New Zealand, democracy and politics are genuinely believed to be best carried out along the lines of consumer choice.
Just as products are lined up along the shelves and the individual consumer, in undisturbed silence, reads the labels and ‘experiences’ the claims and aesthetics of the packaging to determine their individual preference perhaps it’s believed that choosing between political candidates should occur under the same conditions.
Each political consumer, that is, is best left in splendid isolation with each ‘product’. In this way they can come to their own judgment without the interference of debate and interaction; without the benefit of the knowledge and candidate skills and values that might be revealed by robust discussion, argument and counter-argument.
Perhaps in such places in New Zealand some people really do think that the ‘competition of ideas’ involves no direct contest between those ideas but just a parade in front of the individual political consumer who then makes their ‘choice’ (on a very impoverished basis).
In many ways I’d much rather believe that the ‘meet the candidates’ event has been politically manipulated.
Key’s image must be preserved at all costs, that’s why he refuses to be interviewed on Radio NZ or by any serious journo.. only facing John Campbell and the GCSB committee when things were spiralling out of control. He’s happy to be feted by sports shows and non political events though.
It seems to me that Key just issues statements and is not being questioned or interviewed. The only time that he responds is when on safe ground. Now being unable or unwilling to front during an election campaign is mind boggling. And on the ground he is surrounded by minders so that he does not have to meet any New Zealanders.
Surely this displays at once arrogance and a serious Key weakness?
The joke going around is that when Key feels like he wants to get out of looking bad or is being shown up for his pants catching fire, he will signal for the fire alarm to be set off to break up the gathering.
Politicians who want to share the stage with John Key at his only multi-candidate electorate event have been warned they shouldn’t even mention his name.
The “Unidentified guest” strikes again. On the other hand, given that Key seems to be unable to answer a question in the House without throwing in some misrepresentation of some other party’s policies or reference to previous governments, might he be the first cast out?
and the news about the $55 million land sale in Huapai to Chinese buyers cannot be unknown to him … he has reason to be chicken. Finally the teflon is failing.
I just heard Murray McCully on the radio being interviewed by Suzy Ferguson on morning report. Can a member of the media please ask this question? Is the delay in the return of the Malaysian diplomat because they are having to use the Malaysian extradition process?
Suzi Ferguson also used John Key to dis the Greens policy …before Russel Norman had even opened his mouth!
(policy of a Green card enabling poor university students and other tertiary students and apprentices to access public transport for free especially in off peak times)
Russel Norman handled himself very well however and called her out …saying she had opened his interview with an “assault”…. by John Key!
… Russel Norman also coolly countered Key’s arguments that it was too expensive to spend on students by pointing out the overseas debt that John Key has accrued for New Zealand ..and the wasted money on motorways
Espiner followed up the attack on Green policy by inviting a business sector interviewee on an unrelated matter to comment on Green policy…of course it was in the negative.
Morning Report should be overhauled after the Election..it is biased and a mouthpiece of John Key!
However it does show how sensitive John Key is to the Greens and the issue of university students and affordable education….so if the Left concentrates on this it will be a WINNER !
( Nactional has neglected young New Zealanders shamelessly…In Holland , Germany, France, Scandinavia and many other countries tertiary education is relatively FREE, if not completely …In New Zealand many very bright students are deciding that they and their families can not afford it…which leaves New Zealand university education for the children of the wealthy…whose parents can afford it! eg Bill English and John Key)
…Under Nactional there is a shocking waste of young New Zealanders talent !!!!..It is going to create a class system in New Zealand….where only the children of the wealthy can afford a tertiary education… “the chosen”. This betrays the egalitarian ideals and education system of our New Zealand ancestors both Pakeha and Maori
As Kim Dotcom has shown anything can happen with an extradition hearing. Although I am sure the Malaysian Diplomat does not have the same sort of resources that Dotcom has.
Have you noticed how averse the Government has been to use the “E” word (Extradition)? They keep saying it is a legal process and it is all up to the lawyers but they don’t want the two events to be linked.
Looks like it is still above the lows of ~May 2012 pricing – just. It looks like pricing has dropped an overall 45% in 18 months. Which is basically a disaster to anyone who has geared their farm up for the higher price structure. Also, this greatly increases the likelihood of a severe recession by Q1 2015: austerity time.
10% of dairy farmers hold 50% of the estimated 40 billion dollars of bank debt said to be the loading for that industry,
The banks are talking an overall ‘loss’ for the economy of 4 billion dollars and that would have to in the next 18 months translate into a 1.3 billion dollar hole in the Governments books,
Rock Bottom economy here we come, analysts in the industry are saying that the reluctance of buyers at the recent auctions is because they ‘stockpiled’ milk solids/powders in previous years but i pick that as wishful thinking and the dairy boom is going bust befor our eyes as the point of over-supply internationally has probably been reached,
The only saving grace for the Government will be IF the figures produced by Labour in 2010/2011 which showed a large demographic of the dairy farmers were paying less tax than an average pensioner are correct which would quixotically mean that the recent downgrade of the dairy prices at auction will produce less red ink in the Government’s books…
We need to put a stop to this by making sure company directors are held personally liable. Edit: And make that law retrospective as a special treat for rogue employers who know right now they can get away with it.
Only so much that politics and law can do in the face of, “I gave him my loyalty because he was a fellow [insert favourite religion here]…”. That’s the free will of the individual and quite rightly the law should stay out of that kind of thing; least of all, if it didn’t, it’d make all of us moronic because we’d never learn anything about life or ourselves. To quote the cynical, but too often true, words of William S Burroughs, “Never trust a religious SOB. God has told him how to rip you off.” Luckily we have literature to pick up where politics shouldn’t go.
There is of course a disclaimer for that quote – don’t need to start any unearned religious hate speech malarkey here. The problem currently is the disturbing trend of religious organisations to confuse the will of their God with the popular culture of the free market. God is of course still God, somewhere out there, but religious types have deviated so grossly they end up worshipping a shadow, an evil twin if you like. Isn’t so much God told him how to rip you off, but that the person mistook God for the sentiment of individualist/commercial slogans that almost exactly match those found in the bible (when taken literally and out of context) and didn’t think twice. And then the guy might have taken advantage on purpose. Anyone can say they’re following this or that religion, and still be a malicious ass.
After someone wins a court case the person responsible shouldn’t get off paying their dues by winding up the company. Got nothing to do with religion – except possibly your own apparent Randian ideology.
Winding up a company is an old tried and tested way of getting out of financial obligations. The company transfers its assets to a new company which has no legal obligation to honour the debt. How do you think so many developers get rich and so many small building companies go to the wall? (I speak from personal experience here)
That would defeat the purposes of “limited liability” companies.
There are sufficient checks and balances within company law, many of which do allow liquidators to pursue directors personally for a bunch of indescretions, and legislation which allows criminal convictions for fraud and the like.
What we do need is for the Companies Office to be resourced in order to do the policing of “Phoenix” companies that pop up, run by family and/or friends of errant directors who may have been disqualified from acting as directors.
Just employing the former director in a “new (phoenix)” company, especially when trading from the same location, should set off massive warning lights, and the Companies Office should be resourced to take the necessary action.
That would defeat the purposes of “limited liability” companies.
Yes. Once I realised, many years ago, that people were using limited liability so as to bypass any risk while exclaiming about all the risk that they took I became fully of the opinion that limited liability needed to be shut down as well.
There are sufficient checks and balances within company law,
No there isn’t else the person in the article would be getting their awarded $83k.
What we do need is for the Companies Office to be resourced in order to do the policing of “Phoenix” companies that pop up, run by family and/or friends of errant directors who may have been disqualified from acting as directors.
Wouldn’t need such complexity if we held people responsible in the first place.
Dairy prices hit 17-month low, amid China concerns
‘….Indeed, the fresh decline tallied with a caution from Rabobank last week that producers may have to wait until 2015 for a revival in prices, with milk output much improved in major exporting nations, but Chinese buyers have stepped back, after early-year stockpiling.
“China bought more than we anticipated in the first five months of the year. It now appears they also bought far more than they needed,” the bank said.’
‘Another day, another massive overseas land sale of dubious benefit to New Zealand. Meanwhile, we’ve also learned that “our” government has been giving away parts of the conservation estate to foreigners:
3 News has discovered that Shanghai Pengxin, the controversial Chinese buyer of the massive Lochinver Station, was recently given conservation land by the Government, including parts of the Rakaia riverbed.
Join the dots.
We are becoming tenants in our own land.
Wealthy Americans, British, Chinese and other foreign corporates are buying our land from under our feet.
Just wondering: what are the current commentaries or predictions (if any) regarding a potential crisis coming up for the well-known months (Sep/Oct) of market catastrophes particularly for this year?
Any links to selected readings would be appreciated. (I known I can google but I would like to access what others here have read and screened through.)
“One look at this graph makes it obvious that we’re in totally uncharted waters: the debt to GDP ratio has never been as high as it is now. If the debt ratio has any economic significance at all, then we have to take it seriously today.”
[Graph: Debt to GDP (Australia)]
“The only historical precedents for today are the two obvious peaks in the data, in the 1890s and 1930s. The latter alone implies bad news: the 1930s were the decade of the Great Depression, which was easily the greatest economic crisis that market economies have ever experienced.”
“It is less well-known that the 1890s were also a decade of Depression for Australia, and Fisher & Kent argued in Two Depressions that the 1890s experience was more severe for Australia than the Great Depression.”
wasnt it Mr Key who first warned us about becoming tenants in our own land?
“”If we ended up in a situation where New Zealanders were tenants in their own country, I can’t see how that would be in New Zealand’s best interests,” 2010
The problem is how many tenants of foreign ownership do there have to be before Mr Key thinks the threshold has been reached?
I don’t know if those dots join but China does what it does without a thought to our sensibilities, dontchathink?
Join the dots.
We are becoming tenants in our own land.
Wealthy Americans, British, Chinese and other foreign corporates are buying our land from under our feet.
And that is why we need to ban foreign ownership of anything and everything in NZ. A total ban because there is never a time when foreign ownership is good for a country.
Rarotonga has it right .. land is for lease only, and on a fixed term .. I think it’s 30 years, but have to check.
Hard to stop the sales while folk such as Judith Collins, Ruth Richardson and Jenny Shipley all have China money-in-the-bank pass cards and are senior advisers … they have sold us out 100%. Treasonous and vile.
Possibly. The latest poll overnight suggests the undecided are firming up and supporting the Yes campaign. However, the No vote remains steady at 50% plus. Six weeks to go!
Thanks for the update on the upcoming Scottish referendum. I had this in mind to look into.
I see that the 25 – 34 age group are more likely to vote yes (56%) Let’s hope they turn out in their droves to vote!
I heard Alex Salmond say during the coverage of the Commonwealth games that if they gained independence they might consider NZer’s with family links, (including grandparents) to Scotland being a group that can gain citizenship if one was to move over there.
My Nana was from Forfar (and further back the other side are from Inverness and Beauly) so if it goes belly up after 20th September and Scotland gets her independence I might take them up them up on it!
One of the reasons I’m interested in the referendum is because my kids have a strong Scottish heritage on their mother’s side. Mind you, their grandmother roundly abused Alex Salmond when he visited her wee town a few weeks ago. She’s so firmly opposed to independence she’s going to move to England if the Yes vote gets up!
Ah, that strong determined Scots mind. Bless her 🙂
From the figures you provided, it was the older generation who seem most opposed. Let’s hope the determination of the young un’s matches that of their elders on voting day.
I know theres going to be a massive double celebration in our house if the Scots get their independence and if we win the election. The votes are only a couple of days apart. It’ll be a big weekend!
Reckon the local ACTivists are going to go all quiet about Big Brain’s not at all racist speech pretty quick. They’ll be too busy attacking their former board member and candidate for Dunners North.
Jamie Whyte is quoted in the ODT as telling the Dunedin North candidate that the party needed a “stunt” to help in the polls. Not long after comes the race speech. If true I can’t see how he survives.
10:35 Book review: When the Farm Gates Opened
When the Farm Gates Opened: The Impact of Rogernomics on rural New Zealand by Neal Wallace. Reviewed by Harry Broad, published by Otago University Press, $RRP30.00
11:20 Tax evasion and welfare fraud in the justice system
Legal commentator Lisa Marriott discusses financial crime.
I wish someone would address the lack of personal liability for property developers. With the boom in consents driven by CHCHCH rebuild and this govt forcing land open in Auckland, you just know there will be problems in the years ahead BUT Developers can open a company, buy land, develop land, contract designers and builders, sell property, take property, close company and start a new project. NO liability in the future unless they went on site during construction (which they assiduously avoid).
I agree but why limit it to just a few groups of people in business?
Lets make
Theo Spiering (Fonterra head) personally responsible for spilt milk.
John Key personally responsible for government (ha ha yeah I know)
All shareholders in power companies personally responsible for power outages
All shareholders in the Warehouse personally responsible for jandals and plastic buckets that break
…
completely remove the limited liability company and make all owners, employees and bosses personally responsible for their works
This avoidance should be shouted by Opposition parties wide and long. Key is a coward in refusing to mix it with the people in a democratic country during a democratic election.
Makes Internet Mana look good with the series (i.e. not just one) of Roadshow events they are running, where people (aka walking talking members of the public) get to ask live unvetted questions of the IMP leaders and candidates.
Kim Jong Key–does he really expect to get away with this one?
As I have suggested and am sounding out the call again:
NZ voters,
do your civic duty,
when you are out and about (bookshop, The Warehouse or public library),
grab a copy or two,
and discretely re-shelve them in the appropriate sections, eg
– Fiction
– Fantasy
– Crime.
lol. but couldn’t make out the small text on the “Top 5” sticker
“Top 5 ways to fix a wonky table leg?’
“Top 5 in David Farrar, Mathew Hooten and Hoskos audio book list?”
“Top 5 unwanted gifts?”
Lets start with the big fella, and He is, looking round the packed events center and DotCom can look down at most in the 4–500 strong crowd,
Not that He does, there is no obeisance here, no kowtowing to money, none given and i would suggest none asked for, the speech from the stage low key,(excuse the fruedian but who would suggest Slippery isn’t),
What is remarkable is His description of how the whole mad roller coaster began, Mega, really an absolute piece of socialism its genesis in a German Government grant given to DotCom after the judge had given Him a steer in that direction when as a kid one of His ‘hacking’ escapades showed He had expertise beyond His education in the field,
Annette Sykes, on the stage, fired up said of the meeting at Rotorua where the alliance between Internet and Mana was struck, DotCom didn’t just get to walk in and buy the place with His coin, She personally gave Him the third degree, it wasn’t pretty, not even anywhere near nice,
He came through some hard hours of at times open hostility on the Marae, earned the tick of approval in doing so from Annette, He has respect, such respect not given lightly,
What of Him tho, this DotCom, what i was seeking, from among the shadows, was a personal sense of the man, while i fully understand that deep down there must be ‘rage’, having been deeply involved with the whole police/justice circus over many years of an absolutely misspent youth that makes the supposed ‘crimes’ of DotCom pale into insignificance i know exactly how He feels,
Other than His size, the sheer bulk provides a certain presence, it wasn’t until the final minutes at the venue that i got a real sense of DotCom, talking with Ariana,(more on Her later), one of the local candidates, i didn’t even notice as DotCom slipped past us,
Hailed as He entered the lift with good wishes it struck me then that despite all the supposed mountains of coin, the toys, the Mansion, the publicity, DotCom the bloke is at heart Shy,
There was no grandiose departure, no entourage of the powerful, just DotCom quietly slipping into the lift responding with a smile and a wave as He is wished well for the future,
This of course, has been a message from that future, InternetMana, be there…
Cheer Pasupial, enjoy, its quite catching that flyer, on the second and third reads, it will be the center of discussion later in the week as i ‘see’ it as the basis of the candidate flyers for the local electorates here in Wellington,
Noted yesterday, Big Ups to InternetMana for the Wellington billboards, great positioning, good succinct message able to be taken in as i drive by,
And,
The color scheme is the bomb, there’s a whole nest of them where i saw this particular billboard and the ‘metallic’ color of the InternetMana one definitely drags attention straight at it…
Yep she was as weak as a double lemonade on the DHB negotiations team leader yesterday too, who claimed not to know whether he or other execs received pay increases in excess of the 0.7% offered to health care workers. She could have pressed him as it was a highly relevant point but meekly moved on.
National MP Tim Macindoe, along with radio station Free FM have been referred by the Electoral Commission to the Police over an alleged breach of the electoral act by both of them,
No never, i cannot believe that National Party MP’s would ever not adhere to the law, sarc/…
In our party’s constitution Labour’s first core principle is “All political authority comes from the people by democratic means including universal suffrage, regular and free elections with a secret ballot.”
We won’t be doing pre-election deals. It’s up to New Zealanders to decide who they send to Parliament.
After the election I’ll talk with anyone committed to changing the Government. It’s fair to say that won’t include National, Act or Colin Craig’s group.
That was in response to this question from Pasupial:
Would you be willing to accept Internet/ MANA Party MPs as part of a Labour-led government if that gave you the numbers to form a progressive coalition post-election (and a mutually satisfactory relationship could be negotiated)?
How about; a United Future & Maori Party MP(s), if they have votes to offer and were willing to negotiate support (I’m assuming a yes for both; Green Party and NZF, a no for; National, ACT & CP, please correct if I’m mistaken)?
I don’t have a problem with Labour deciding that they won’t have Mana/IP/IMP in cabinet or as Ministers. But I am disappointed to see Cunliffe going back on what he has said above. He also said something recently about it being extremely unlikely that Mana would get Ministerial positions, but that they might be part of a C and S agreement. What was wrong with continuing that line?
It’s a really bad look for Cunliffe to continually cave-in to whatever the latest middle-class focus group feels uneasy about. It just looks weak. I realise he needs to show some degree of political pragmatism, but this tried-and-failed approach is just craven.
All in Christchurch though. Shame this Government relies on that tragedy, and the excruciatingly slow rebuild to spin its growth and employment numbers.
The labour force participation rate decreased 0.3 percentage points, to 68.9 per cent.
You don’t know what that means do you?
I’ll put it simply for you – it means that 0.3% of the working age population stopped looking for work and not because they got a job but because they were sick (probably quite literally in many cases) of looking for work and not finding any. It contradicts everything else you posted except the fall in employment rate.
Listening to radionz news – three in a row, 77 year old man’s murder, body found on St Helier’s beach, another murder.
I think there should be an on-line murders and accidental deaths site where one could find out all the latest tragedies, and publish the victim statements. It is so sad to hear the repetitive nature of the grief being repeated once again, and apparently never with the effect of improving the conditions that led to the death.
It’s depressing that there isn’t reporting about dealing with ongoing problems and future ones – just a ghoulish interest in reports and stats on death and how we hurt each other.
focusing on a tragic/violent incident lets the news off the hook from reporting anything substantial about broader systemic problems. (Same as what Hone clumsily referred to when he was asked about the Malaysian diplomat assault)
An Israeli blogger citing an embedded reporter may have jiggered IDF assertions that strikes on UN buildings housing Palestinian civilian refugees were accidental.
but if it comes to that event, the first time it is published first-hand evidence that approval from headquarters and deadly accurate shooting at a school that was known that it houses hundreds of refugees – and not stray artillery fire as the IDF claims. well if anti-tank missiles were fired from the area of the school, how can you claim that the IDF fired a missile capable of an accuracy of centimeters (“able to slip through precisely buildings windows “) into the populous school is considered” collateral damage avoidance protected population “required by the laws of war and morality?
IDF official response following an investigation published Sunday, July 27th, the day after the release of Zeno’s testimony, was “anti-tank missiles were fired from the area to the troops, who responded with mortar fire.” The testimony of the reporter who was present and stated that they were not mortars but guided precision missile, contradicts the army’s response to the other contradictions and integrates the research, alternatively determined that “there was no harm to civilians in the UNRWA school … there was an empty courtyard” at the same time “in any case, the death of civilians killed by the IDF in this case is a sad result of the election of Hamas in the civilian as a human shield.”
UNRWA spokesman confirmed on several occasions that the IDF moved the location of all the schools and refugee camps, to prevent exactly this kind of killing. Zeno’s testimony, even if inadvertently given, confirming the fact that the IDF knew – and chose to ignore, not at the level of the surface may not have been updated, but the highest command level.
If you want to know why John Key will have another three years in government then just look at what Statistics NZ published today. We are on the right track.
Unemployed of 137,000 is 17,000 fewer than a year ago
Unemployment rate of 5.6% compared to 6.4% a year ago
Employed of 2,328,000 – 82,000 more than a year ago
FT employed up 71,000 and PT employed up 13,000
65,000 more in labour force than a year ago
Labour force participation rate is 68.9% compared to 68.1% a year ago
Maori unemployment rate is 11.0%, down from 12.8% a year ago
Pasifika unemployment rate is 11.4% down from 16.3% a year ago
Under 20 unemployment rate is 20.4%, down from 24.1% a year ago
Manufacturing jobs are 246,500 – up from 242,600 a year ago (recall the crisis!)
Number of hours worked is up 4.8% from a year ago (highest growth for many years)
The proportion of under 2os not in employment, study or training has fallen from 8.0% a year ago to 7.4% today
Salary and wage rates up 1.7% from a year ago
Manufacturing pay rates up 1.9% from a year ago (recall the crisis!)
Total weekly gross earnings up 6.3% from a year ago
Female average earnings as % of male up from 86.7% to 87.1% over a year
[lprent: Link to the source when you want to quote. It also means that others can start checking and discussing your sources. Don’t link, and I will start deleting the quotes. ]
Perhaps you should compare over 5 years? And even over the last year I notice that you missed out inflation rates, changes in the CPI, interest rates, and the estimates of the under-employed – ie the ever increasing numbers of involuntary part time and casual workers. What this government doesn’t appear to be able to affect is the number of people in full-time employment.
Basically this is the government trying to take credit for the world coming out of a recession/depression.
Any chance you could outline National’s policies to tackle systemic poverty in New Zealand?
Your leader doesn’t seem to want to discuss policy, so wondered if you could help out.
Nearly half of the people on the U.S. government’s widely shared database of terrorist suspects are not connected to any known terrorist group, according to classified government documents obtained by The Intercept.
Of the 680,000 people caught up in the government’s Terrorist Screening Database—a watchlist of “known or suspected terrorists” that is shared with local law enforcement agencies, private contractors, and foreign governments—more than 40 percent are described by the government as having “no recognized terrorist group affiliation.” That category—280,000 people—dwarfs the number of watchlisted people suspected of ties to al Qaeda, Hamas, and Hezbollah combined.
The documents, obtained from a source in the intelligence community, also reveal that the Obama Administration has presided over an unprecedented expansion of the terrorist screening system. Since taking office, Obama has boosted the number of people on the no fly list more than ten-fold, to an all-time high of 47,000—surpassing the number of people barred from flying under George W. Bush.
“If everything is terrorism, then nothing is terrorism,” says David Gomez, a former senior FBI special agent. The watchlisting system, he adds, is “revving out of control.”
Don’t be mean Phil. Kathryn Ryan is fair and balanced in any which way you want to swing:
economically – her broad spectrum ‘portfolio’; her work/life balance; her list of ‘go-to’s’ and rent-a-quoters’; her propensity between enilsting comment based on nepotism and ‘new blood’; her being down with the folks and being in with the in-crowd; her expertise on anything and everything from parenthood to music……She be the queen (oops Queen)
She’s God’s gift to mankind, and she’s got a raft of facebook-type friends to prove it. Some of them even pop up on MSM to prove it… from Burma Road socialists to Boombers with guilt. She’s the Queen.
Don’t be cruel. Your just jealous. She’s what RNZ is to PSB as Juan Williams is to NPR.
Why Kathryn even subscribes to The Arts Channel (now Skoi Arts)
Pass the Chardonnay will you darling – this discussion is becoming oh so very boring because Kathryn is an institution that’s become so in touch with both the people, and the movers and shakers. I fuckin adore her!
Not wanting to start a flame war but if Hammas stopped using children as human shields, stopped storing weapons in UN buildings and stopped firing rockets at Israel then there’d be no need for an Iron dome
Just saying that if Hammas stopped attacking Israel would stop attacking Hammas and if Hammas stopped hiding around civilian populations then there’d be less civilians killed but then Hammas wouldn’t be able to show the worlds media dead children…
Population
– 2014 estimate 1,816,379
– Density 5046/km2
13,069.1/sq mi
Click into the image.
Hamas are of course the governing body in the Gaza strip. They really don’t have areas that aren’t filled with civilians.
By way of comparision, the size and population density of Auckland city..
Area
• Total 637 km2 (246 sq mi)
Population (30 June 2010)[1]
• Total 450,300
• Density 710/km2 (1,800/sq mi)
Basically you appear to be fuckwit groin clutcher who is too stupid to do some pretty basic research and mostly noticeable for being a lazy parrot for the Israeli PR spinners…
Well done LP. I’ve always wanted to compare Gaza population density with an Israel apologist’s home town population density when they start to froth at the mouth about Hamas supposedly using human shields to hide munitions.
Guerilla warfare is by definition part time, and bound (by necessity) within the civilian population.
Ahhh, yeah, Lynn, but let’s not be too ambitious for Pucks, he needs to learn to walk before he can run. Frankly, I’ll be over the moon if he just manages to spell “Hamas” correctly !, given that he’s devoted so much space to dribbling meaningless inanities about the movement.
Certainly, though, it’s been interesting over recent weeks to witness our very own Tory Tr*lls mindlessly regurgitating official Israeli spin, clearly without possessing even the faintest idea….seems to be a default-position for them. Very telling.
In terms of the almost 2 Million Palestinians crammed into the Gaza Strip (most of them refugees or their descendants), your Gaza/Auckland comparison can be extended…….
Gaza’s territory in NZ terms
(1) Auckland
Gaza (north to south) is about three-quarters the (north – south) length of Auckland – essentially Papakura to Browns Bay. But Gaza’s width is only a quarter of its length – slightly wider than the North Shore (roughly Takapuna to Hobsonville).
(2) Coromandel
Gaza’s about half the length of the Coromandel peninsula and considerably less than half the width.
(3) Central NI
Gaza = same length as Lake Taupo but not much more than a third of the width.
(4) Wellington
Gaza length = Island Bay to Pukerua Bay. Gaza width = same as Wellington Harbour at its widest point
(5) Christchurch
Same length as Banks Peninsula (if measuring Peninsula east to west), but only half the width
(6) Dunedin
Gaza length = Waitati in north to a point a little south of Brighton in the south
Gaza width = Ocean Grove to Half-way Bush
“The most recent cease-fire was established after Israel’s October 2012 assault. Though Israel maintained its devastating siege, Hamas observed the cease-fire, as Israeli officials concede. Matters changed in June, when Fatah and Hamas forged a unity agreement, which established a new government of technocrats that had no Hamas participation and accepted all of the demands of the Quartet. Israel was naturally furious, even more so when even the US joined in signaling approval. The unity agreement not only undercuts Israel’s claim that it cannot negotiate with a divided Palestine, but also threatens the long term goal of dividing Gaza from the West Bank and pursuing its destructive policies in both of the regions.
Something had to be done, and an occasion arose shortly after, when the three Israeli boys were murdered in the West Bank. The Netanyahu government knew at once that they were dead, but pretended otherwise, which provided the opportunity to launch a rampage in the West Bank, targeting Hamas. Netanhayu claimed to have certain knowledge that Hamas was responsible. That too was a lie, as recognized early on. There has been no pretense of presenting evidence. One of Israel’s leading authorities on Hamas, Shlomi Eldar, reported almost at once that the killers very likely came from a dissident clan in Hebron that has long been a thorn in the side of Hamas. Eldar added that “I’m sure they didn’t get any green light from the leadership of Hamas, they just thought it was the right time to act.” The Israeli police have since been searching for two members of the clan, still claiming, without evidence, that they are “Hamas terrorists.”
The 18-day rampage however did succeed in undermining the feared unity government, and sharply increasing Israeli repression. According to Israeli military sources, Israeli soldiers arrested 419 Palestinians, including 335 affiliated with Hamas, and killed six Palestinians, also searching thousands of locations and confiscating $350,000. Israel also conducted dozens of attacks in Gaza, killing 5 Hamas members on July 7.
Hamas finally reacted with its first rockets in 19 months, Israeli officials reported, providing Israel with the pretext for Operation Protective Edge on July 8.“
Nope. If Israel stopped building settlements on top of PA land there’d be no need for an Iron Dome. If Israel stopped inviting every Jewish person on the planet to fill those settlements there’d be no need for an Iron Dome.
If those two things happened there’d be no need for the kind of destruction we’ve seen over the last two weeks.
Any chance you could outline National’s policies to tackle systemic poverty in New Zealand?
Your leader doesn’t seem to want to discuss policy, so wondered if you could help out.
What a disgraceful statement.
By the way, can you outline National’s policies to reverse our declining environment in New Zealand?
Your leader doesn’t seem to want to discuss policy, so wondered if you could help out.
If the IDF propaganda about accidental strikes on UN facilities is collapsing so when the UN facilities are used as arsenals narrative falls over will you admit your gullibility?.
Sure, unemployment down especially in Canterbury.
But 40% fall in dairy price in 6 months.
Dollar falls nearly 2 cents in 2 days: global market analysts clear that NZs dairying vulnerability far more important than employment.
The Associate Transport Minister has announced a time limit for Learners licenses. This is because a huge number of people refuse to go to the next stage.
I am one. I have been car licensed for four decades but also drive a scooter on a learners. The reason for this is the cost. Its a $500 rort. Then theres the time restrictions. …all in the name of safety. What a load of revenue raising bollocks.
Personally, I think a drivers licence should get you driving any non-commercial vehicle up to about 2 tonne. From there you’d need specialist licences to drive heavy trucks, trailers, forklifts and diggers.
Oh, and I’ve never been enthusiastic about leaner’s licences. Much better idea to require that people have the required training to get the licence in the first place.
By now, you’ve heard of the crater on the Yamal Peninsula. It’s the one that suddenly appeared, yawning nearly 200 feet in diameter, and made several rounds in the global viral media machine. The adjectives most often used to describe it: giant, mysterious, curious. Scientists were subsequently “baffled.” Locals were “mystified.” There were whispers that aliens were responsible. Nearby residents peddled theories of “bright flashes” and “celestial bodies.”
[…]
There’s now a substantiated theory about what created the crater. And the news isn’t so good.
It may be methane gas, released by the thawing of frozen ground. According to a recent Nature article, “air near the bottom of the crater contained unusually high concentrations of methane — up to 9.6% — in tests conducted at the site on 16 July, says Andrei Plekhanov, an archaeologist at the Scientific Centre of Arctic Studies in Salekhard, Russia. Plekhanov, who led an expedition to the crater, says that air normally contains just 0.000179% methane.”
The scientist said the methane release may be related to Yamal’s unusually hot summers in 2012 and 2013, which were warmer by an average of 5 degrees Celsius. “As temperatures rose, the researchers suggest, permafrost thawed and collapsed, releasing methane that had been trapped in the icy ground,” the report stated.
You can fool some of the people some of the time and all of the people some of the time but Key thinks he can fool all of the people all of the time.
This election is going to be a mill stone for the winner because of the TPPA and who ever has to take responsibility for selling our sovereignty will be damned as the leader ,which plays nicely for Key because it will probably swing a third term for him and if not will probably paint another PM as a liar and give them only a term which is all Key needs to complete his economic and political mission to squash any major left wing destruction of his last 2 terms ,a sacrifice, if needs be by Key to get done what he knows will happen to NZ and not be made directly responsible for it and if he gets his 3rd term he will be able to annihilate the left and any of the old NZ left values will be gone for good unless there is a real revolution brought about by the mass of losers that will be most of us
Clever Key you think ,just a scenario I dreamed up
Before Jacingrant There Was Gracinda: Grant Robertson and his 2014 running mate, Jacinda Ardern. She stood at his side: loyal and obliging, as she had ever been. The media dubbed this duo “Gracinda” – a sort of political “Brangelina”. The other young people who worked alongside Robertson were also ambitious ...
. . Just when you thought Simon Bridges couldn’t sink any lower – he has. After the March 15th Christchurch terror attack, the (current) Leader of the National Party issued strong committments to support urgently needed gun law reform; “We will be ready and prepared to be constructive and to ...
We all know that bad parents simply don’t care about their children’s education. Most truants have loser parents, and grow up to be involved with crime, or in low paid employment usually like their parents. The nonsense so-called “climate strike” coming up will be attended mostly by the least intelligent ...
Is the terrorist Organisation Greenpeace and the loony Green parties around the World hiring professional internet trolls? I have noticed a trend lately where if you post research, news articles or even comments that show the manmade climate change scam to be just that, you are immediately attacked, often within ...
Today is the first day of the global climate strike. Led by schoolkids, people all around the world are going to protest to demand action on climate change. New Zealand isn't doing it till next Friday (join us!), but if you want to get active early, there's plenty to do ...
The Herald has a story today about the 400 MW of wind power currently under construction. Good news, right? Except that none of it is being driven by policy (instead, its about replacing Contact Energy's Taranaki Combined Cycle gas-fired power plant, due to shut down in 2022), and most of ...
To Protect and Serve: When the Prime Minister finds herself enmeshed in the coils of a full-blown political scandal, her colleagues and party comrades have only one priority: to release her as swiftly – and with as little lasting injury – as possible. Is this what Jacinda Ardern’s colleagues and ...
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The Make It 16 campaign to lower the voting age is launching this afternoon, and they have already announced plans to challenge the law in court:The campaign, named "Make it 16" will launch at Parliament on Friday, with plans to take their case to the High Court, testing the rights ...
by Daphna Whitmore The long years of Netanyahu’s reign are drawing to an end. For years he has epitomized reactionary zionism as he oversaw hundreds of thousands of Jewish settlers seize land in the West Bank. There are now 700,000 settlers, putting an end to the myth that Israel was ...
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South African coach Rassie Erasmus says he has no idea what they’re going to do about the boat. In a highly anticipated press conference this afternoon, All Blacks coach Steve Hansen has finally unveiled the team’s boat for its Rugby World Cup 2019 campaign. In a press conference that went ...
The Operation Burnham inquiry continued to question senior NZDF staff today, and their shoddy coverup over their knowledge of civilian casualties continue to fall apart. If you recall, first, we were asked to believe that it was all a series of "mistakes and errors": a senior officer with multiple degrees ...
The Local Government Act 2002 Amendment Bill (No 2) had part of its committee stage yesterday. its a generally tedious bill about the nitty-gritty of local government reorganisation. But it includes a clause making the Local Government Commission subject to the Ombudsmen Act, and hence the OIA. Great! Except of ...
Yesterday Ihumātao's mana whenua reached a consensus that they would like their land back, and asked the government to negotiate with Fletcher's for its return. The government's response? Try and undermine that consensus, while talking about how doing anything would undermine existing Treaty settlements. The first is just more bad ...
Its Suffrage Day, the 126th anniversary of women winning the right to vote (but not stand in elections) in New Zealand. And to celebrate, the government has bought Kate Sheppard's house in Christchurch:The government has bought Kate Sheppard's former home in Christchurch for more than $4 million. The Ilam villa ...
The UN climate summit is happening in new York next week, and unlike previous years, coal-burners and denier-states are not being invited to speak:Leading economies such as Japan and Australia will not be invited to speak at next week’s crunch UN climate change summit, as their continued support for coal ...
Get Back Jojo! The elation in Mayor Phil Goff’s camp may be easily imagined as they watched social media light up in indignation at challenger John Tamihere’s "Sieg Heil to that" quip. Just when JT’s notoriously right-wing, sexist and homophobic stains were beginning to fade back into his ‘colourful’ past, ...
Patrick Gower is good value when he's high. Not that I've ever, you know, got stoned with him. But in the second part of his documentary Patrick Gower on Weed, he does what you'd expect in a modern weed documentary and immerses himself – first with a doctor, then a ...
We surveyed candidates on their attitudes to issues facing the Western Bay Region, find out what they think: “Closing the Gap” Tauranga, one of the area groups of Income Equality Aotearoa NZ Inc., has surveyed all candidates in the three local body elections to discover attitudes to some basic issues ...
Please spread widely, and sign, to support science and rationalism over the new irrationalism sweeping universities and institutions. PROJECT NETTIE Sexual reproduction, the generation of offspring by fusion of genetic material from two different individuals, evolved over 1 billion years ago. It is the reproductive strategy of all higher animals ...
Just when I was thinking that Palmerston North's mayoral race (which includes a convicted child molester / public wanker and a convicted child beater) was the worst in the country, Auckland mayoral candidate John Tamihere opened his mouth:Auckland mayoral candidate John Tamihere is being slammed for using the words "sieg ...
We reprint below an article from the excellent website the Economics of Imperialism by Tony Norfield This is an update of the statistics for my Index of Power, using data for 2018-19 and discussing what a country’s ranking reflects. The major change is that China’s rank has shifted up and ...
The All Blacks have been, for more than a century, arguably the most successful International sports team in the world. But they are more than that; even for those Kiwis who are immune to the charms of rugby (and there are more than a few), the All Blacks are ambassadors ...
Alone, Alone, All, All, Alone: To argue that the Prime Minister is the victim of her advisers’ failure to keep her informed may offer Jacinda some measure of exoneration – but only at the cost of casting her as a hopeless political ingénue. A star-dusted muppet, whose only purpose is to ...
In times of hysteria about the “World coming to an end” and “rising sea levels” so-called ‘Journalists’ who can barely spell words longer than four letters are having a ball! Though the majority of the Public have worked out that manmade climate change is nothing short of pseudo-science, and the ...
I don't want to give pblicity to certain parts of the internet that are better left to fester in their own irrelevance (I know, a bit like this place) but the listing of Chris Trotter as a 'author' on Cameron Slater's spinoff website, the BFD requires some explanation.Now, I don't ...
The text below is a Twitter thread by Heather Heying that explains the essence of sexual reproduction and it long evolutionary history. She is an evolutionary biologist and a “professor-in-exile” after she and her husband, Bret Weinstein, stood up to supporters of an enforced “Day of Absence” for white staff and teachers ...
With crunch time for new Zealand climate policy approaching, most of the New Zealand media have got on board with a global reporting effort to cover the issue. There's one strand of stories today about polling and what it shows about changing public attitudes to the crisis, but the strand ...
Dangerous Foes: For those readers of Bowalley Road who feel disposed to dismiss any prospect of an Israeli destabilisation of New Zealand politics, the example of the United Kingdom repays close attention. Ever since the election of Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the British Labour Party, the Israelis have sanctioned, funded and ...
Make It 16, the youth-led campaign to lower New Zealand's voting age, is holding an official campaign launch at Parliament this Friday from 16:30. If you'd like to attend, you can register using EventBrite here. ...
by Don Franks It was a lovely sunny Wellington afternoon with blue skies above the beaches. In Courtenay Place, political activists packed out a stuffy upstairs room for an important meeting. The assembled pacifists, anarchists, communists and independent young radicals of Peace Action Wellington felt the need for a mission ...
Current and former NZDF top brass are being publicly grilled this week by the hit and run inquiry over their public responses to allegations of civilian casualties. Previously, they've claimed there were no casualties, a position which led them to lie to Ministers and to the public. Now, they're saying ...
by Rafael D. Quiles (gender-critical gay man from Puerto Rico) The writing on the wall is right in people’s faces and people just don’t see it or don’t want to. What could actually possess a heterosexual male to want to feminize himself and claim that he is a lesbian? Because ...
From the Wall Street Journal:Inside a room of the ornately decorated Hotel du Palais during last month’s Group of Seven summit in Biarritz, France, President Trump awaited a meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi. Mr. Trump looked over a gathering of American and Egyptian officials and called out in ...
by the Redline blog collective At Redline we are very saddened to hear of the death of Magdalen Burns who passed away on the morning of Friday, September 13 (British time). Magdalen was a great fighter for the rights of women in general and lesbian women in particular, a defender ...
The Brexit issue has certainly brought with it a series of apparently difficult constitutional issues, many of them concerning the respective roles of the executive and parliament. Most of them arise because of the unwillingness of MPs, despite their professions to the contrary, to be bound by a constitutional rarity ...
. . This blogpost is different to my usual format of reporting on issues… Since July 1011, I have blogged on a variety of political issues; near always political and/or environmental; mostly highly critical of the previous National Government. Other issues included Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands and repression of ...
Those close to the Police Minister believe the initiative may be the result of Nash “seeing a great deal” on AliExpress. In a move that comes seemingly out of nowhere, Police Minister Stuart Nash announced this afternoon that he expects all frontline staff to don bearskin hats, famously worn by ...
The government has released its Arms Legislation Bill, containing the second tranche of changes to gun laws following the March 15 massacre. And it all looks quite sensible: a national gun register, higher penalties for illegal possession and dealing, tighter restrictions on arms dealers and shooting clubs, and a shorter ...
Private prisons are a stain on humanity. Prison operators explicitly profit from human misery, then lobby for longer prisons terms so they can keep on profiting. And in the US, prison companies run not only local and state prisons, but also Donald Trump's immigration concentration camps. Faced with this moral ...
When National was in power, they were very keen on Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) - basicly, using private companies to finance public infrastructure as a way of hiding debt from the public. They were keen on using them for everything - roads, schools, hospitals. But as the UK shows, that "service" ...
Moving And Shaking: There was a time when people spoke matter-of-factly about the “labour movement” – a political phenomenon understood to embrace much more than the Labour Party. Included within the term’s definition was the whole trade union movement – many of whose members looked upon the Labour Party as ...
by Philip Ferguson Much of the left, even people who formally identify as marxists, have collapsed politically in the face of postmodern gender theory of the sort pioneered by American philosopher Judith Butler. For Butler even biological sex is socially constructed. “If the immutable character of sex is contested, perhaps ...
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By Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern I am every bit as angry as you are. I am every bit as disappointed as you must be. The people with power, oversight and the ability to do something about these processes within the Labour Party should be ashamed. Whoever those people are, I ...
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I understand there's some stuff going round about how the SIS "was removed from the list of public offices covered by the Public Records Act in 2017". The context of course being their records derived from US torture, which will be disposed of or sealed. The good news is that ...
Dr. Christopher Labos and Jonathan Jarry discuss the recent Canadian fluoride/IQ research. They provide an expert analysis of the paper and its problems. Click on image to go to podcast. The critical debate about the recent ...
Australia is burning down again, and meanwhile its natural disaster minister is denying climate change:Australia’s minister responsible for drought and natural disasters, David Littleproud, has said that he doesn’t “know if climate change is manmade”. Clarifying earlier comments that the question is “irrelevant” when considering the Coalition government’s response to ...
Auckland Philippines Solidarity is excited to host Professor Judy Taguiwalo for a speaking tour of NZ in September. She is a well-known activist in the Philippines and was a political prisoner under the Marcos dictatorship. Professor Taguiwalo briefly served as a Cabinet member under President Duterte but was forced from ...
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Today is a Member's day, and David Seymour's End of Life Choice Bill continues its slow crawl through its committee stage. They're spending the whole day on it today, though the first hour is likely to be spent on voting left over from last time. After that they'll move on ...
An ambitious plan to fly to Los Angeles petered out into a brief sight-seeing trip and a desire to return home and get some sleep before work tomorrow. Air New Zealand has confirmed a flight to Los Angeles last night was turned back about a quarter of the way into ...
There appears to be consensus – by omission – that the concept of indigenous futures should be accepted at face value. So I scavenged the internet to see if I could locate an academic descriptor or a framework around how we think about it as a concept, and whether it ...
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During my time in the Pentagon I had the privilege of sitting down with military leaders and defence and security officials from a variety of Latin American nations. Sometimes I was present as a subordinate assistant to a senior US defence department official, sometimes as part of a delegation that ...
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Eighteen months ago, the government promised to strengthen the Bill of Rights Act, by explicitly affirming the power of the courts to issue declarations of inconsistency and requiring Parliament to formally respond to them. So how's that going? I was curious, so I asked for all advice about the proposal. ...
As the Brexit saga staggers on, the focus is naturally enough on the Prime Minister and his attempts to achieve Brexit “do or die”. But the role played by the Leader of the Opposition is of almost equal interest and complexity. The first problem for Jeremy Corbyn is that he ...
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Finance Minister Grant Robertson is under intense scrutiny. New figures show economic growth has slowed to levels not seen for six years. And he has chosen not to answer questions about when he heard about serious allegations of a sexual assault cover-up ...
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The allocation of money for publicly funded broadcasting for election campaigns should be turned on it's head according to Massey University professor of communication design Claire Robinson. ...
Disappointment expressed by Fletcher Building CEO, Ross Taylor, reflects the increasing frustration held by many with this Government’s failure to protect private property rights.[1] ...
The independent Interim Climate Change Committee today launched an eight-week, nationwide call for evidence on options available to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. ...
Social Credit has lodged a complaint with the Ombudsman over the way the Overseas Investment Office is handling its official information request for disclosure of documents on the sale of Westland Milk Products to Chinese company Inner Mongolian ...
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Federated Farmers congratulates the Auditor-General’s office on its release today of its report Managing Freshwater Quality: Challenges and Opportunities. ...
Growth has now slowed to a 6-year low, and downside risks are dominating. June quarter GDP growth came in at 0.5%qoq, in line with our expectation, and slightly above consensus. Although there were a few sensational reports of the chance of a negative print. ...
Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) is calling the release of the National Climate Change Risk Assessment (NCCRA) framework a good first step in balancing New Zealand’s response to climate change. ...
Family First NZ says that a new Colorado report compiled by the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area finds marijuana-positive traffic fatalities, hospitalisations, marijuana use, and illegal market activity have exploded since marijuana legalization. ...
This year’s Ratepayers’ Report , local government league tables released yesterday, reveals which local councils owe the most and which owe the least. ...
Rachel MacGregor welcomes the decision released today by Justice Hinton. The key issue on which all the various litigation has been based is the question, did Colin Craig sexually harass Rachel. That question has been answered – he did. Justice ...
The Rail and Maritime Transport Union (RMTU) has today ratified a ground breaking pay deal with Dunedin Railways which will see all union members being paid a living wage and the lowest paid receiving an 18% wage increase. Higher paid RMTU members ...
Inclusion for trans women/men and non-binary peoples has today been announced as the cornerstone of a new resolution for the National Council of Women New Zealand (NCWNZ). ...
It took a testy Morning Report interview this week to remind me that Simon Bridges was still the Leader of the Opposition. Until then, he had been largely invisible as the events of recent weeks unfolded. ...
The National Council of Women NZ has today welcomed the news that the Government has purchased Kate Sheppard’s house in Christchurch, the base for the NZ suffrage campaign. ...
The Māori Party supports mana whenua of Ihumātao and acknowledges their coming together to reach consensus on the future of their whenua. “We also acknowledge the leadership of the Kīngitanga who have played an important role in supporting ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is questioning why, for the second time, Jacinda Ardern has appointed a Crown-owned company Chief Executive to Chair her “Business Advisory Council”, following her announcement that Mercury CEO Fraser Whineray ...
Responding to the Government’s decision to give around $300 million to Amazon as a sweetener for filming a TV series in New Zealand, New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says: “As a matter of simple waste, this is striking, ...
I am very pleased with Air New Zealand’s Decision to backdown and withdraw their application to trademark into a logo Kia Ora. I said at the time that it was an ill conceived idea and poorly thought out – more importantly it should never have been ...
NZEI Te Riu Roa members will be joining with others across the union movement by wearing black and white in support of pay equity on Suffrage Day tomorrow, and urging the Government to commit to a settlement for teacher aides this year. ...
Yesterday’s announcement from the Minister for Immigration, to improve temporary work visas for migrant workers, provides some positive changes but more detail is needed. The Council of Trade Unions fundamentally supports the principle of making ...
FIRST Union today welcomed Westpac’s public admission of the significant gender pay gap in its workforce and reiterated its call for employers to work with unions to close this disparity, arguing that this work must begin at the bottom of the pay ...
Changes to the work visa system announced by the Minister of Immigration are not all positive for employers or migrants, comments Ms June Ranson, chair of the New Zealand Association for Migration and Investment (NZAMI) , a leading voice in the ...
The Dairy Workers Union (DWU) has welcomed the announcement from dairy company, Synlait, that they will be boosting parental leave entitlements significantly for working parents. ...
In June, the Children’s Commissioner announced a thematic review into Oranga Tamariki’s policies, processes and practice relating to care and protection issues for tamariki Māori aged 0-3 months. Today the Children’s Commissioner has released the full ...
“Closing the Gap” Tauranga, one of the area groups of Income Equality Aotearoa NZ Inc., has surveyed all candidates in the three local body elections to discover attitudes to some basic issues of the Western Bay region. We believe that this is ...
In response to DairyNZ's attempt to dismiss an economic report that highlighted dairy's role in the New Zealand economy is only three per cent of GDP, Fish & Game New Zealand Chief Executive Martin Taylor says: "If DairyNZ wishes to reject a report ...
Kiingi Tuuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII has successfully guided the mana whenua of lhumaatao to reach a consensus on the future of their whenua. ...
Two activists disguised as shareholders interrupted the AGM of a gold mining company in central Auckland this morning to inform shareholders their plans to mine for gold in conservation estate in the Karangahake Gorge were unwelcome. ...
The Capital and Coast District Health Board (CCDHB) has been labelled ‘NATO’ (no action, talk only) when it comes to child mental health, with just 0.6 full time staff (24 hours per week) for inpatient child psychology and just 0.8 full time staff ...
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL has awarded three New Zealand climate youth groups with its Ambassador of Conscience award, its highest recognition for human rights work, previously given to the likes of Nelson Mandela, Ai Weiwei and Malala Yousafzai. ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers' Union , in partnership with the Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance , has today published this year's Ratepayers' Report – online local government league tables – at www.ratepayersreport.nz . ...
NZUS Council executive director Jordan Small welcomes the news New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will meet with US President Donald Trump in New York next week. ...
The recent NZIER report trivialises the significant role the dairy sector plays in New Zealand’s economy – and fails to look at the specifics of the Government’s freshwater package, according to DairyNZ. DairyNZ chief executive Dr Tim Mackle said ...
This week, the New Zealand Parliament and the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) will jointly host a seminar on tackling the global spread of illicit weapons. ...
By Michael Andrew Social media and tech industries have been replicating the ugliest aspects of capitalism from the 1800s, according to an AUT computer science lecturer. Associate Professor Tony Clear says that social media and tech executives are taking advantage of unregulated markets in a similar way as wealthy ...
Covering Climate Now: There’s a range of dairy-free ice creams available these days, but it’s a fair bet none will be as delicious – or satisfying – as making your own. The Spinoff’s participation in Covering Climate Now is made possible thanks to Spinoff Members. Join us here!If the latest stats ...
Covering Climate Action: Ahead of the UN’s Climate Action Summit, artist Joseph Michael and composer Rhian Sheehan teamed up to create Voices For The Future, a 30-minute installation projected onto the UN buildings.The Spinoff’s participation in Covering Climate Now is made possible thanks to Spinoff Members. Join us here!Joseph Michael is ...
New Zealand banning Huawei’s 5G network equipment won’t impact you nearly as much as the US’s recent moves against Huawei phones, writes Henry Burrell. Twenty years ago, you would have shown off your flash new Ericsson or Nokia. How times change. Now, those two entities exist only to provide mobile network ...
Op-Ed by Kaveh Zahedi, Deputy Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP)Kaveh Zahedi is Deputy Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).In less than ten days world leaders will be ...
Grant McDougall reviews Kilgour’s new solo album, Bobbie’s A Girl, which sees him reflecting on the deaths of his friend and former bandmate, Peter Gutteridge and his own mother, Helen Kilgour. There is a passage in Shayne Carter’s excellent recent autobiography, Dead People I Have Known, in which he describes ...
New Zealand painter-poet Gregory O’Brien has just published a new collection of essays and art; pitched as a “field notebook … my whale survey”, Always Song in the Water drifts from his own front lawn in Hataitai, up to Northland and way, way across the Pacific. It’s the sort of ...
Ruby Porterlooks into New Zealand’s future when the sea level rises 10, 25 and 80 metres, and finds out how much of Auckland will be left.I grew up in Ponsonby, but the only bay I knew around here was Cox’s. It’s fed by a creek which was once a mahinga ...
Opening up a skid pad, create more housing for single people and make the central city dog friendly: policies from Christchurch's lesser-known mayoral candidates. ...
Josie Adams, Hayden Donnell, and Alice Webb-Liddall read thousands of policy statements to find the climate change deniers, fudgers, prevaricators (and believers) running in our local elections.The Spinoff local election coverage is made possible thanks to The SpinoffMembers. For more about becoming a member and supporting The Spinoff’s journalism click here.One of the problems ...
The paintings of Colin McCahon convey dissonance and uncertainty, writes Shannon Te Ao. So what does this say about us? And why are we maintaining this Pākehā male narrative at the expense of more inclusive representation?Colin McCahon would have turned 100 on August the 1st. If you keep one eye ...
Amanda Thompson spends a day with the New Zealand men’s roller derby squad as they prepare for next year’s world champs in the US.Let’s play a word game. Let’s list some contact sports and the top teams in those codes.Say rugby. Are you thinking about the All Blacks yet? What ...
Covering Climate Now:Dietary Requirements is The Spinoff’s monthly podcast in which we eat, drink and talk about it too, with special thanks to Freedom Farms. This month, we go crazy for crickets in a climate week special.The Spinoff’s participation in Covering Climate Now is made possible thanks to Spinoff Members. ...
To mark International Day of Peace, Dr Rebecca Dudley of the New Zealand Red Cross explores the role that New Zealanders play in the global story of war and peace. Personal stories about war almost always begin with a memory.A humid afternoon in South Sudan.A calm Wednesday evening in Beirut.A bustling ...
The history of tattoo art in Japan is deep-rooted and complex – and so is the cultural aversion to tattooed bodies, explains Brian Ashcraft, the author of a book on subject.Tonight, when the All Blacks take the field, they’ll be covering up. In order not to run afoul of Japanese ...
Covering Climate Now: Saying climate change is important is one thing. So why are we so incapable of having a real conversation about what actually addressing it will mean? Sam McGlennon investigates. The Spinoff’s participation in Covering Climate Now is made possible thanks to Spinoff Members. Join us here!Up until a week ago, ...
"This is what Wellington boy said, after he finished his quick and bloody deed. You know what your problem is? Once a slut, always a slut": a short story by Auckland writer Eileen Merriman. ...
Michael Mann, a climatologist and famous press critic, talks to the Columbia Journalism Review about the dangers of both understating and overstating the dangers of climate change. ...
Ahead of the All Blacks first game Trevor McKewen makes some his fanciful, fraught and some hopefully on-point predictions for the Rugby World Cup.Can you take one for the team? Could you cope with the All Blacks coming up short in achieving an unprecedented third straight World Cup if it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra [embedded content]University of Canberra Deputy Vice-Chancellor Leigh Sullivan discusses Scott Morrison’s new family law inquiry with Michelle Grattan. They also speak of the developments in the Tamil family from Biloela’s case, and the UN barring ...
Analysis - Jacinda Ardern heads for the UN as the sexual assault scandal rumbles on at home, and Simon Bridges says he isn't going to ease off his personal attacks on the PM. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dries Verstraete, Senior Lecturer in Aerospace Design and Propulsion, University of Sydney CC BY-NDClimate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d ...
In this episode of our new tarot reading show Wild Card, The Spinoff’s resident psychic divines the outcome of the All Blacks’ opening match against the Springboks on Saturday.In the first and potentially only episode of Wild Card, we have a focus on sport. The Spinoff’s psychic-in-residence, Jo Sees, specialises ...
Recently-retired Sky TV chief executive John Fellet talks to Newsroom business editor Nikki Mandow about baseball, media, goldfish, accountancy - and more baseball. ...
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the week in reality television and real life, with special thanks to Nando’s.With Duncan enjoying a MAFS-style beach holiday in Bali, Alex and Jane are left to cover another crazy week in reality television. Shannon Ryan has gone full beast-mode in Celebrity Treasure Island, Married ...
Dr Bryce Edwards“Diversity” is a central theme of the current local government elections – with the common criticism that incumbent politicians are generally too “stale, male, and pale” (or variations on that). Numerous commentators and candidates have lamented the lack of women, ethnic minorities, and youth in local government. ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s content by Dr Bryce Edwards.Climate change, environment Paul Gorman (Stuff): How would you spend an unlimited war chest for ...
A review into the Ministry for Culture and Heritage will look into the relationship between a staffer and the external developer responsible for a massive data breach. ...
Covering Climate Now: The Spinoff crew who took on climate change with a vegan diet for the week reflect on the highs, the lows, the pies and the fries. The Spinoff’s participation in Covering Climate Now is made possible thanks to Spinoff Members. Join us here!As I write, I’m tucking into ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Roger Crisp, Professorial Fellow, Dianoia Institute of Philosophy, Australian Catholic University As world chiefs and youth leaders gather in New York at the United Nations Climate Action Summit, many of us as individuals are feeling powerless and overwhelmed. Making big personal changes ...
The head of one of the country's biggest news media firms is the latest subject of criticism for darkening his face at a staff party he attended dressed as US basketballer Lamar Odom. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Coral Gartner, Associate Professor, School of Public Health, The University of Queensland Health authorities in the United States are investigating 530 cases of lung illness, including seven deaths, reportedly connected to vaping. Some of these patients have been diagnosed with lung inflammation ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 The Testaments by Margaret Atwood (Chatto & Windus, $48)Obvs. (Read our review by Pip Adam here)2 Three ...
When comedy documentary Funny As was made, a lot of interviews got left on the cutting room floor which NZ On Screen quickly picked up. Here are some of our favourites.We’re a pretty funny bunch us Kiwis. Trapped on a tiny island at the end of the earth it appears ...
Auckland rapper JessB has just released a new EP and wraps up a national mini-tour tonight in her home town. Jogai Bhatt talked to her about her world travels, performing at Ihumātao, and how her community and her music intersect.It’s only been two years since JessB entered the public radar ...
A new poem by Waiheke poet Rata Gordon.PacingA deep bow to NerudaIt so happens I am sick of being a woman. It happens that I walk into BP stations and supermarkets greasy, swollen, like a cow made of soap, losing my way in a field of placentas and pesticides.The smell ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amanda Gardiner, Lecturer, Edith Cowan University In August, a 24-year-old woman appeared before the Western Australian District Court after pleading guilty to concealing the birth of her newborn baby in 2018. The charge of concealment of birth refers to hiding the dead ...
Voting papers are being sent out today, and lots of people say they won’t fill them out because they don’t know anything about the candidates. Respected website ‘The Spinoff’ is trying to fix that through its Policy Local tool. But it’s not the only one. Catherine Jeffcoat talks to the ...
This week's biggest-selling New Zealand books, as recorded by the Nielsen BookScan New Zealand bestseller list and described by literary editor Steve Braunias ...
Writer and cannabis legalisation expert Russell Brown watched episode two of Patrick Gower on Weed, and found it highly entertaining but dangerously light on facts. Patrick Gower is good value when he’s high. In the second part of his documentary Patrick Gower on Weed, he does what you’d expect in a ...
Sydney shock-jock Alan Jones has written to Jacinda Ardern saying he didn't intend any violence towards her when he said on air that Australia's Prime Minister should "shove a sock down [her] throat". ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Caio Seguin, PhD candidate, University of Melbourne Brain regions exchange information by sending and receiving signals through a network of nerve connections. This exchange is crucial to all aspects of the brain’s functioning, including how we experience the world, form and retrieve ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Miranda Kaye, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Law, University of Technology Sydney Over the next 12 months, a joint parliamentary committee will examine Australia’s family law system. It will be led by conservative Liberal MP Kevin Andrews and One Nation leader Pauline Hanson. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Barbara Allen, Senior Lecturer in Public Management, Victoria University of Wellington This story is part of Covering Climate Now, a global collaboration of more than 250 news outlets to strengthen coverage of the climate story. For three years in a row, the ...
Open mike 06/08/2014 
Open mike is your post.
Before Jacingrant There Was Gracinda: Grant Robertson and his 2014 running mate, Jacinda Ardern. She stood at his side: loyal and obliging, as she had ever been. The media dubbed this duo “Gracinda” – a sort of political “Brangelina”. The other young people who worked alongside Robertson were also ambitious ...3 hours ago
. . Just when you thought Simon Bridges couldn’t sink any lower – he has. After the March 15th Christchurch terror attack, the (current) Leader of the National Party issued strong committments to support urgently needed gun law reform; “We will be ready and prepared to be constructive and to ...1 day ago
We all know that bad parents simply don’t care about their children’s education. Most truants have loser parents, and grow up to be involved with crime, or in low paid employment usually like their parents. The nonsense so-called “climate strike” coming up will be attended mostly by the least intelligent ...2 days ago
Today is the first day of the global climate strike. Led by schoolkids, people all around the world are going to protest to demand action on climate change. New Zealand isn't doing it till next Friday (join us!), but if you want to get active early, there's plenty to do ...2 days ago
To Protect and Serve: When the Prime Minister finds herself enmeshed in the coils of a full-blown political scandal, her colleagues and party comrades have only one priority: to release her as swiftly – and with as little lasting injury – as possible. Is this what Jacinda Ardern’s colleagues and ...2 days ago
When military leaders cover up and lie to elected civilian authorities, the foundation of democratic civil-military relations is undermined because it is those authorities who are entrusted to hold the military accountable to the public that they mutually serve. But this is only true if civilian political authorities take their ...2 days ago
by Daphna Whitmore The long years of Netanyahu’s reign are drawing to an end. For years he has epitomized reactionary zionism as he oversaw hundreds of thousands of Jewish settlers seize land in the West Bank. There are now 700,000 settlers, putting an end to the myth that Israel was ...2 days ago
BP, Z and Mobil all insist that petrol price hikes are temporary, “in a very literal sense.” The nation’s major petrol providers are trying to allay customer fears over prices, promising that they’ll move to lower them again “immediately” when the Middle East is returned to its formerly peaceful state. ...3 days ago
South African coach Rassie Erasmus says he has no idea what they’re going to do about the boat. In a highly anticipated press conference this afternoon, All Blacks coach Steve Hansen has finally unveiled the team’s boat for its Rugby World Cup 2019 campaign. In a press conference that went ...3 days ago
Get Back Jojo! The elation in Mayor Phil Goff’s camp may be easily imagined as they watched social media light up in indignation at challenger John Tamihere’s "Sieg Heil to that" quip. Just when JT’s notoriously right-wing, sexist and homophobic stains were beginning to fade back into his ‘colourful’ past, ...3 days ago
Patrick Gower is good value when he's high. Not that I've ever, you know, got stoned with him. But in the second part of his documentary Patrick Gower on Weed, he does what you'd expect in a modern weed documentary and immerses himself – first with a doctor, then a ...4 days ago
We surveyed candidates on their attitudes to issues facing the Western Bay Region, find out what they think: “Closing the Gap” Tauranga, one of the area groups of Income Equality Aotearoa NZ Inc., has surveyed all candidates in the three local body elections to discover attitudes to some basic issues ...4 days ago
Why is New Zealand climate change policy so crap? The Herald this morning has a long article on the twists and turns of climate change policy in New Zealand [paywalled / depaywall script], which shows where we've been. The short version is that the government first began worrying about this ...4 days ago
The All Blacks have been, for more than a century, arguably the most successful International sports team in the world. But they are more than that; even for those Kiwis who are immune to the charms of rugby (and there are more than a few), the All Blacks are ambassadors ...4 days ago
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Dangerous Foes: For those readers of Bowalley Road who feel disposed to dismiss any prospect of an Israeli destabilisation of New Zealand politics, the example of the United Kingdom repays close attention. Ever since the election of Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the British Labour Party, the Israelis have sanctioned, funded and ...6 days ago
Make It 16, the youth-led campaign to lower New Zealand's voting age, is holding an official campaign launch at Parliament this Friday from 16:30. If you'd like to attend, you can register using EventBrite here. ...6 days ago
by Don Franks It was a lovely sunny Wellington afternoon with blue skies above the beaches. In Courtenay Place, political activists packed out a stuffy upstairs room for an important meeting. The assembled pacifists, anarchists, communists and independent young radicals of Peace Action Wellington felt the need for a mission ...6 days ago
From the Wall Street Journal:Inside a room of the ornately decorated Hotel du Palais during last month’s Group of Seven summit in Biarritz, France, President Trump awaited a meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi. Mr. Trump looked over a gathering of American and Egyptian officials and called out in ...1 week ago
Those close to the Police Minister believe the initiative may be the result of Nash “seeing a great deal” on AliExpress. In a move that comes seemingly out of nowhere, Police Minister Stuart Nash announced this afternoon that he expects all frontline staff to don bearskin hats, famously worn by ...1 week ago
Moving And Shaking: There was a time when people spoke matter-of-factly about the “labour movement” – a political phenomenon understood to embrace much more than the Labour Party. Included within the term’s definition was the whole trade union movement – many of whose members looked upon the Labour Party as ...1 week ago
By Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern I am every bit as angry as you are. I am every bit as disappointed as you must be. The people with power, oversight and the ability to do something about these processes within the Labour Party should be ashamed. Whoever those people are, I ...1 week ago
Two-Faced? Labour insiders' commitment to the neoliberal status quo puts them at odds with their party’s membership; its trade union affiliates; and a majority of Labour voters, but this only serves to strengthen the perception they have of themselves as a special elite. Among the lesser breeds, they’ll talk up a ...1 week ago
By Simon Bridges. The following is a press release from the office of Simon Bridges, leader of The National Party. Key ora, New Zealand. Happy Maori Language Week. Look, I’m writing to you today because I want to clear something up. There’s been a lot of kerfuffle around some things ...2 weeks ago
Dr. Christopher Labos and Jonathan Jarry discuss the recent Canadian fluoride/IQ research. They provide an expert analysis of the paper and its problems. Click on image to go to podcast. The critical debate about the recent ... 2 weeks ago
An ambitious plan to fly to Los Angeles petered out into a brief sight-seeing trip and a desire to return home and get some sleep before work tomorrow. Air New Zealand has confirmed a flight to Los Angeles last night was turned back about a quarter of the way into ...2 weeks ago
There appears to be consensus – by omission – that the concept of indigenous futures should be accepted at face value. So I scavenged the internet to see if I could locate an academic descriptor or a framework around how we think about it as a concept, and whether it ...2 weeks ago
Here’s another novelty chocolate to shove in your gob, New Zealand Cadbury could be seeking to make itself great again with a rumoured new release: Pineapple Trumps, a spin on its classic chocolate-encased pineapple treat and do-it-yourself tooth remover. The global confectionery manufacturer and bumbling “before” character in an infomercial, ...2 weeks ago
Kia ora, Aotearoa. It’s that magical time of year. Te Wiki o te Reo Māori. In English, the week that frightens talk radio. As you probably know by now, all your favourite media outlets are participating, some more successfully than others. Stuff has changed its name to Puna for the ...2 weeks ago
On Newshub Nation: Simon Shepherd Interviews The New Zealand Initiative's Executive Director Oliver Hartwich ...1 day ago
By Michael Andrew Social media and tech industries have been replicating the ugliest aspects of capitalism from the 1800s, according to an AUT computer science lecturer. Associate Professor Tony Clear says that social media and tech executives are taking advantage of unregulated markets in a similar way as wealthy ...3 hours ago
Covering Climate Now: There’s a range of dairy-free ice creams available these days, but it’s a fair bet none will be as delicious – or satisfying – as making your own. The Spinoff’s participation in Covering Climate Now is made possible thanks to Spinoff Members. Join us here!If the latest stats ...4 hours ago
Covering Climate Action: Ahead of the UN’s Climate Action Summit, artist Joseph Michael and composer Rhian Sheehan teamed up to create Voices For The Future, a 30-minute installation projected onto the UN buildings.The Spinoff’s participation in Covering Climate Now is made possible thanks to Spinoff Members. Join us here!Joseph Michael is ...4 hours ago
New Zealand banning Huawei’s 5G network equipment won’t impact you nearly as much as the US’s recent moves against Huawei phones, writes Henry Burrell. Twenty years ago, you would have shown off your flash new Ericsson or Nokia. How times change. Now, those two entities exist only to provide mobile network ...5 hours ago
Op-Ed by Kaveh Zahedi, Deputy Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP)
Grant McDougall reviews Kilgour’s new solo album, Bobbie’s A Girl, which sees him reflecting on the deaths of his friend and former bandmate, Peter Gutteridge and his own mother, Helen Kilgour. There is a passage in Shayne Carter’s excellent recent autobiography, Dead People I Have Known, in which he describes ...7 hours ago
New Zealand painter-poet Gregory O’Brien has just published a new collection of essays and art; pitched as a “field notebook … my whale survey”, Always Song in the Water drifts from his own front lawn in Hataitai, up to Northland and way, way across the Pacific. It’s the sort of ...7 hours ago
Ruby Porter looks into New Zealand’s future when the sea level rises 10, 25 and 80 metres, and finds out how much of Auckland will be left.I grew up in Ponsonby, but the only bay I knew around here was Cox’s. It’s fed by a creek which was once a mahinga ...8 hours ago
Opening up a skid pad, create more housing for single people and make the central city dog friendly: policies from Christchurch's lesser-known mayoral candidates. ...15 hours ago
The paintings of Colin McCahon convey dissonance and uncertainty, writes Shannon Te Ao. So what does this say about us? And why are we maintaining this Pākehā male narrative at the expense of more inclusive representation?Colin McCahon would have turned 100 on August the 1st. If you keep one eye ...1 day ago
Amanda Thompson spends a day with the New Zealand men’s roller derby squad as they prepare for next year’s world champs in the US.Let’s play a word game. Let’s list some contact sports and the top teams in those codes.Say rugby. Are you thinking about the All Blacks yet? What ...1 day ago
To mark International Day of Peace, Dr Rebecca Dudley of the New Zealand Red Cross explores the role that New Zealanders play in the global story of war and peace. Personal stories about war almost always begin with a memory.A humid afternoon in South Sudan.A calm Wednesday evening in Beirut.A bustling ...1 day ago
The history of tattoo art in Japan is deep-rooted and complex – and so is the cultural aversion to tattooed bodies, explains Brian Ashcraft, the author of a book on subject.Tonight, when the All Blacks take the field, they’ll be covering up. In order not to run afoul of Japanese ...1 day ago
Covering Climate Now: Saying climate change is important is one thing. So why are we so incapable of having a real conversation about what actually addressing it will mean? Sam McGlennon investigates. The Spinoff’s participation in Covering Climate Now is made possible thanks to Spinoff Members. Join us here!Up until a week ago, ...1 day ago
Ahead of the All Blacks first game Trevor McKewen makes some his fanciful, fraught and some hopefully on-point predictions for the Rugby World Cup.Can you take one for the team? Could you cope with the All Blacks coming up short in achieving an unprecedented third straight World Cup if it ...1 day ago
To tackle the crises of climate and unsustainability we need great cultural changes in civil society, business and politics. ...2 days ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra [embedded content]University of Canberra Deputy Vice-Chancellor Leigh Sullivan discusses Scott Morrison’s new family law inquiry with Michelle Grattan. They also speak of the developments in the Tamil family from Biloela’s case, and the UN barring ...2 days ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dries Verstraete, Senior Lecturer in Aerospace Design and Propulsion, University of Sydney CC BY-NDClimate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change. If you have a question you’d ...2 days ago
Recently-retired Sky TV chief executive John Fellet talks to Newsroom business editor Nikki Mandow about baseball, media, goldfish, accountancy - and more baseball. ...2 days ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Roger Crisp, Professorial Fellow, Dianoia Institute of Philosophy, Australian Catholic University As world chiefs and youth leaders gather in New York at the United Nations Climate Action Summit, many of us as individuals are feeling powerless and overwhelmed. Making big personal changes ...2 days ago
The head of one of the country's biggest news media firms is the latest subject of criticism for darkening his face at a staff party he attended dressed as US basketballer Lamar Odom. ...2 days ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Coral Gartner, Associate Professor, School of Public Health, The University of Queensland Health authorities in the United States are investigating 530 cases of lung illness, including seven deaths, reportedly connected to vaping. Some of these patients have been diagnosed with lung inflammation ...2 days ago
A congestion charge is needed to deter motorists from clogging central city districts at peak times, according to an economics consultancy. ...2 days ago
Jacinda Ardern confuses Japan with China - and she's not the only one with a case of political foot-in-mouth. ...2 days ago
Voting papers are being sent out today, and lots of people say they won’t fill them out because they don’t know anything about the candidates. Respected website ‘The Spinoff’ is trying to fix that through its Policy Local tool. But it’s not the only one. Catherine Jeffcoat talks to the ...2 days ago
This week's biggest-selling New Zealand books, as recorded by the Nielsen BookScan New Zealand bestseller list and described by literary editor Steve Braunias ...2 days ago
Writer and cannabis legalisation expert Russell Brown watched episode two of Patrick Gower on Weed, and found it highly entertaining but dangerously light on facts. Patrick Gower is good value when he’s high. In the second part of his documentary Patrick Gower on Weed, he does what you’d expect in a ...2 days ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Caio Seguin, PhD candidate, University of Melbourne Brain regions exchange information by sending and receiving signals through a network of nerve connections. This exchange is crucial to all aspects of the brain’s functioning, including how we experience the world, form and retrieve ...2 days ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Miranda Kaye, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Law, University of Technology Sydney Over the next 12 months, a joint parliamentary committee will examine Australia’s family law system. It will be led by conservative Liberal MP Kevin Andrews and One Nation leader Pauline Hanson. ...2 days ago
Hope Theo Speirings is having a little pause for thought about his strategy of following China’s great sucking engine to bulk and lower-end value products as our national basis for pastoral wealth.
It’s not very often I’d link to a Daily Mail article, but these pics of Gaza tell a story that show this devastation by the Israelis will echo for years in the Middle East – even if Israeli does meet its objective of clearing Gaza.
Thank you miravox. Those pictures illustrate what daily life must be like for Palestinians during this genocide.
The scale of horror and the depth of grief is hard enough for the world to comprehend and digest let alone imagine being Palestinian.
Everyone has probably seen this as it’s been floating around the net for days but I’ve only just heard this letter being read out on the 9am radio news in place of the usual news. The description of the treatment of Palestinians, adults and children by the settlers was particularly sobering:
http://stopwar.org.uk/news/today-i-saw-a-weeping-palestinian-man-holding-a-plastic-bag-of-meat-it-was-his-son#.U-FHuuOSzeB
I just cannot reconcile the psychology of a “race” who suffered from genocide permitting themselves the position of genocidal maniacs.
It’s a puzzling phenomenon Ennui.
The psychology of such a position must surely be studied and debated by those working in the field.
Psychology has it’s origins in some very talented Jewish people, the pioneers of the study of the mind in the late 19th century. Alfred Adler in particular stood out and took the concepts of Freud, refined them and whose theories contributed toward the evolution of psychotherapy.
The Adlerian approach looks at the individual in a holistic sense and considers social equality as a factor in their well being. I have been wondering lately what students and practitioners of the Adlerian movement (and other humanistic branches of psychology) would make of a culture giving life to their ancestral and collective rage, grief and oppression and turning an another culture, as undeserving of such cruelty as they were in the first place.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Adler
“I just cannot reconcile the psychology of a “race” who suffered from genocide permitting themselves the position of genocidal maniacs”
Need to separate-out (1) European Holocaust victims and (2) Zionists in Palestine. Their identity and interests are too often conflated.
I think the first thing to understand is that the Zionism on which Israel was established emerged from precisely the same deeply reactionary, anti-Enlightenment ideological mix (German/East European Romantic Nationalism and Imperialism) that so greatly inspired and animated the Nazis. ‘Blut und Bone’. Violent Ethnic-cleansing has always been implicit in that sort of extreme ethno-nationalist ideology where the emphasis is on membership of the prescribed ‘Race’ / ‘Blood’ / ‘Culture’ over universalist ideas of Equality and Citizenship. The aim was always to militarily carve-out an ethnically-pure (or failing that, overwhelmingly Jewish) ‘Greater Israel’ on Palestinian land (before Zionist colonisation got fully underway in the early 20C, Palestinian Arabs had comprised well over 90% of the population for more than 1300 years, with the tiny, indigenous Jewish community making up less than 5%. What’s more, that small indigenous Jewish community was overwhelmingly anti-Zionist and most of their descendants remain so. Important, I think, to remember that whenever you hear the line that this is some sort of ancient Arab-Jewish conflict that has gone on in Palestine for centuries. The kind of tosh that regularly emanates from the “pro”-Israel lobby).
It was, of course, a reaction to (at times, pretty vicious) anti-Semitism in Europe, the Baltic States and Russia, but the thing is Zionists completely accepted and internalised the deeply conservative ethno-nationalism underpinning that anti-Semitism, taking it as a prescription for a future Zionist state. If you look at early Zionist views of the Jewish community in Europe you’ll find they were remarkably similar to the vicious racial stereotypes of the more extreme 19C anti-semites (which were, of course, later adopted by the Nazis). The middle-class German Jews at the heart of the early Zionist movement entirely accepted all of those anti-Jewish stereotypes and argued that the way to change these alleged traits was to do for the Jews what the anti-Semitic ultra-conservative German Nationalists wanted to do for Germany – create an ethnically-homogenous homeland where they could create their conception of a new, self-respecting Jewish-Settler, plough in one hand, gun in the other, using force to carve-out this new ethnically-pure Eretz Israel.
On top of that, it pays to remember that the Israeli Right were openly fascist during the first half of the 20C. Jabotinsky’s Revisionist movement (from which Sharon and Netanyahu’s Likud Party emerged) greatly admired Mussolini and their Irgun and Stern gang terrorist groups of course included two future Israeli PMs. In the end, though, as far as attitudes to the colonisation of Palestine are concerned, they were little different in their ethos to Ben-Gurion’s Israeli Labour Party (and its precursors) and the mainstream Haganah (forebear of the IDF).
Second thing is: the Yishuv (pre-Israeli State Zionist community in Palestine) and its leaders like Ben-Gurion had a very dodgy relationship with the Holocaust. A good deal of collaboration took place with both the Nazis and other anti-Semitic leaders and groups in Europe / the Baltic nations in order to encourage Jewish emigration to Palestine (including an ultimately successful Zionist campaign to end an American Jewish-organised economic boycott of Nazi Germany). Strenuous efforts to prevent European Jews escaping Germany/Mainland Europe to Britain and the US (for the Yishuv leaders it had to be Palestine or nothing). The bullying of Holocaust survivors in immediate post-war Displaced Persons Camps (the US allowed Zionist groups from Palestine to take over many of these camps, and Holocaust survivors – the vast majority of whom wanted to go to the US – were largely forced through coercion (including outright violence) to emigrate to Palestine instead).
And when Holocaust survivors arrived in Israel, they were treated abominably by a sizeable portion of Israeli society, particularly by State officials (albeit with honourable exceptions). All of which is best encapsulated by the derisive Yishuv slang name for Holocaust survivors “soap” (based on the now-discredited idea that Holocaust victims’ bodies had been turned into soap by the Nazis). The survivors were deemed shameful by Zionists because they and the 6 Million victims were considered to have gone like lambs to the slaughter – whereas Zionism was all about celebrating the self-respecting, gun-toting, take-no-prisoners Zionist Jew. Many survivors were forced – again against their will – to fight in the 1948 War. Many, having survived the Holocaust against all the odds (and still greatly traumatised) went on to die in that War for an Israeli nation that largely despised them.
The Holocaust, of course, only became important to Israel after its leaders decided it could be of political use to close down criticism of Israeli policies (largely after Adolf Eichmann’s trial in 1962). It’s been said that to this day a disproportionate number of Holocaust survivors and their descendants live below the poverty line in Israel (some 50,000 by one recent estimate). Meanwhile, Israeli banks continue to refuse to return money to the families of Holocaust victims who had deposited significant sums in Zionist banks in pre-Israel Palestine. It’s an on-going scandal. So much for Israel’s solemn Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Thank you Swordfish. That’s a very helpful historical background and goes quite some way to providing an explanation for current behaviours. It’s also an education. (for myself at least)
Thanks so much for that swordship. Hugely helpful to my understanding of the reality of Israel and Palestine.
I was (note WAS) one of those who for years fell for the Israeli Government line that they were the oppressed ones. Indeed I even considered the Palestinians to be mad and dangerous. I hang my head in shame. My own experiences in England 40 odd years ago (I lived for a couple of years with Jewish people married to relatives of mine) suggest there were many good Jewish people of English origin who were equally taken in.
Israel will get its come-uppance one day. It may happen in a different way to Natzi Germany but the world is finally waking up to them. I no longer turn a hair when we are confronted on the Telly with the death of Israeli soldiers etc. Good riddance!
“I just cannot reconcile the psychology of a “race” who suffered from genocide permitting themselves the position of genocidal maniacs”
Richard Dawkins also has an answer…patriarchal monotheism…otherwise known as Religious Fundamentalism. In 2006 Richard Dawkins wrote in ‘The God Delusion’:
“The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant
character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust,
unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a
misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal,
pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent
bully.”
Love it. 😀
Sorry swordFISH. I called you swordship.
I hadn’t seen Brian Eno’s letter before, so thanks for posting Rosie. Agree with Ennui about incomprehension of people who suffered the Holocaust causing wiping out Gaza. Beyond the psychological context – maybe this para from Eno explains some of social/cultural context (which also ties in with swordfish’s explanation).
As for the apologists for the Israeli action in Gaza – if they don’t have an empathetic bone in their body after seeing images of total destruction of people and place, maybe this paragraph will resonate with their desire to prevent the ‘islamification of the west’, if nothing else. I can only hope they then think again about the strategy of Israel and enabling western governments.
The paragraph about the “right of return” Jews made me recall the South African Jewish family I worked for, for many years.
Their fairness as an employer and their hospitality towards guests (including us as employee’s) always seemed in complete contrast to the way they switched to an arrogant assumption in regard their “rights” in their “homeland”, meaning Israel, not S.A, when any tentative conversation came up about Israel and Palestine. There was a bloody mindedness present during these brief discussions that was at odds with how they presented themselves otherwise. Something kind of primal surfaced and no amount of everyday respectability could hide it.
This sense of superiority led one of the family members to go to Israel to train in the army, and to be ready for “when the time came”. I think about her and wonder whether she has gone as a reservist. I’m hoping that motherhood settled this bloodlust and made her consider the lives of children of other mothers.
There are people in the West taking a moral stand on this genocide and ‘Crime Against Humanity’…and they give us hope. One such person is a British women politician who has resigned over Prime Minister Camerons’ inaction. It is people like this politician taking a moral stand who will force change..because they expose the immorality of other politicians and newspaper editors taking no stand, or seeking to suppress the truth.
‘Baroness Warsi resigns over Gaza conflict saying she ‘can no longer support Government policy’
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/baroness-warsi-resigns-over-gaza-conflict-saying-she-can-no-longer-support-government-policy-9648529.html
“I can no longer support Government policy on Gaza,” she wrote.
“In her letter to Mr Cameron, Lady Warsi said that the Government’s approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict had been “morally indefensible” and not “in Britain’s national interest”.
Another taking a stand is the Australian journalist Mike Carlton, long time journalist for The Sydney Morning Herald
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/aug/06/sydney-morning-heralds-mike-carlton-resigns-over-gaza-column-reaction
cunnliffe just had a trainwreck interview on tv3..
..refusing to even talk about dotcom etc..(!)..
..he was playing some sorta ‘hard-man’-role..
..it was entirely unbelievable..
You must have a bit of weed in your eyes, that’s not the interview I just watched.
He said KD had been told to respect the campaign message of vote positive up north, he said mana won’t be in his government but can support it but it’s their decision, got a good hit on kimmy by saying said kdc donated to act not labour.
Will check your pro hone spin and bias in a bit.
The 6pm one news story:
The Internet Mana Party won’t be a part of any coalition with Labour.
http://tvnz.co.nz/politics-news/dotcom-won-t-part-labour-coalition-6047467
I don’t have anything against IMP or their policies but imo because Kim & Hone are so despised by most voters; then this is a good political move by Labour.
“this is a good political move by Labour.”
Yes, very smart electioneering. Well done team red.
“because Kim & Hone are so despised by most voters”
Nailed it, but expect backlash. There’s a minor party infestation on the standard most days, yet although they’re very vocal and quite feral, they’re marginalised and fringe dwelling pussies (as in puddy cats) in reality.
..they’re marginalised and fringe dwelling…
God forbid marginalised people being part of the democratic process. Better to throw us under the bus. Not officially Labour policy yet though, The Alien. But yeah, we can read the writing on the wall.
Pity we aren’t mainstream People Who Matter, like your good self.
Put it in the politically charged context of “expect backlash. There’s a minor party infestation on the standard most days, yet although they’re very vocal and quite feral, they’re marginalised and fringe dwelling pussies”
“Pity we aren’t mainstream People Who Matter, like your good self”
That you have an inferiority complex isn’t my fault.
For the record, I love everyone and value them all equally as human beings without exception.
I don’t feel inferior. I’m sure you are clever enough to recognise sarcasm
But I do think the belief that being marginalised = not or less worth paying attention to is incompatible with any kind of progressive or left-wing belief system.
spot on js.
…”they’re very vocal and quite feral”….i am a feral Chooky
Hi Alien. I’m a two ticks Labour kinda girl this election and a supporter of IMP. I was hoping to see a strong and healthy Labour/Greens/IMP coalition after 20th September. By being a supporter of IMP I don’t consider myself a marginalised fringe dwelling pussy.
I’m disappointed by this announcement. If a coalition can be formed with NZ First and The Greens, instead, it will still be celebrated. The corrupt Key regime being brought to an end is reason for celebration alone (my god there will be tears of happiness!) but it’s not the coalition of choice for this voter.
No, you’re alright.
Lol, pleased to be reassured in regard to my potential fringe freak nature or limited voter intellect status……………….
I think we should have a big collective hug and get on with the job of ousting Key.
Like DC, I won’t hug kimmy.
Kimmy gives very good parties…Kimmy could help the Left win the Election
+100 Rosie
Most of all the feral comments I’ve seen are coming from you. That comment is a good example.
Look harder, maybe with the other eye open at the same time.
Yeah, you just proved my point.
“The Internet Mana Party won’t be a part of any coalition with Labour.”
The headline currently reads:
“Dotcom won’t be part of Labour coalition”
Stupidest headline of the election campaign? Thanks TVNZ.
Can people on ts please not buy into the bullshit that the IMP or even the IP = KDC?
KDC is not a candidate and will in no way be part of the next government.
+1
For fucks sake, Phil Goff was contemplating joining ACT not so long ago, and seemed to have decided against it for reasons related to his own career. Labour’s stated policies are closer to ACT’s than Mana’s are. FFS the Labour party gave birth to the ACT – party they are freaking whanau.
This is SO hyocritical
@Just saying,
You idiot! If I had the power, I would have banned you from this site for spouting such unfair defaming crap against Mr Phil Goff and the Labour party. By all means, criticise Labour, but don’t spout untrue, unjust, utter crap.
From Liberation:
http://liberation.typepad.com/liberation/2009/02/act-party-history-16-recruitment-of-party-hopping-mps.html
Act also ‘revealed that it had held talks with Labour’s Phil Goff about his joining Act’ (Scott, 16 March 1996: pp.16-17).
To put it into context, this from Goff’s wikipedia page:
In the 1990 elections, Labour was defeated, and Goff lost his own parliamentary seat to Gilbert Myles. While many commentators blamed Douglas’s controversial reforms for Labour’s loss, Goff said that the main problem had been in communication, not policy
As someone on the inside in those days just saying: I can inform you ACT had talks with many politicians and former politicians from both Labour and National in the hope of attracting them to join the ACT Party. All of the approaches came from the ACT Party, and I know of at least one well known former Labour politician who was so incensed by their persistence he and his wife threatened to take action against them if they didn’t leave them alone.
In other words, Phil Goff was one of many and he turned them down flat. Not interested!
Hi Anne,
If he turned them down flat, as so many did, it would be a non-issue. He was in talks with ACT about taking over as leader. He decided against it. As it turns out it was a good choice from a career point of view.
Even considering joining an extreme right-wing party is extremely damning.
Sadly, I think if he had been talking with the Alliance or The Greens in the 90s he would have been out the door. Which is also damning. but for the party.
followed by harawira who gave good-interview..
(both interviews will be on the tv3 website..)
He had a shocker to be fair, first calling for Kelvin to be sacked then being turned around to changing it to ‘let’s forget it’.
Wilson put it that KD sort of had a right to campaign for more funding, being faced by a $3m kitty, hone whinged he had less money in past elections and that right wing bloggers had donated to it, though didn’t say if the donations were named, which of course blunts the attack.
When asked to respond to the position held by many many people that the mip is just a vehicle for kdc to avoid extradition, all he did was list the roadshow venues.
Limited appeal to limited intellect voters.
Still vote Labour and Green to change the government without relying on extremists and opportunists.
Totally with you here Al1en
I’ve known for a while it’s not just me.
I’m sure many feel the same but don’t want to post for fear of having to deal with the vocal minority extremist clique.
Lucky I have a bit of free time at the moment and skin thicker than the average mip voter.
I’m proudly red and green and won’t easily be shouted down.
Do you think that some who didnt know whether to vote KD or HW might look at KD taking donations from right wingers as a push toward electorate vote Hone?
I don’t honestly know what to make of it all but KD is putting me more and more in mind of another fellow from up North who was kind-of labour.
Like I wrote Tracey, I’ve not seen it reported that the donations were specifically sought from the right wingers, which would be bad, or if they were anonymous donations through the website, which KD would have no knowledge of.
In my mind, KD shouldn’t have done the site as it’s a bit loose and off party line, but he’s quite correct to slam hone for his backing and backer and push the cause of the people in his electorate over hh self interest and kdc’s agenda.
I don’t believe he’s SJ mk2 like some commentators would have you believe, after all, it’s their ‘job’ to demonise him.
So, people who disagree with you are extremists?
Just if they’re riffraff 😀
I generally quite like The Al1en’s contributions to ts, but the anti-KDC/Mana thing strikes me as being ott and coming from an extreme place in itself. It’s kind of funny in a way. I’m a GP voter and I remember when exactly this kind of shit was aimed at the GP and their supporters. Kia kaha Mana and the IP, keep up the good works.
Thanks, but it’s a push back reaction rather than a form of out and out aggressive extremism on my part.
To be quite honest, I’ve had enough of the negativity from mip voters here, and probably won’t bother much after today.
Loonies taking over the asylum springs to mind as far as political and policy debate is concerned and woe betide any who disagree or push saner Green/Labour points.
Kim’s got dosh, maybe he could fund his own version of the standard.
cue violins…reach for tissues…
Cue fu*kwit, reach for a brick.
No violins mate, just a statement of fact, maybe only as I see it, but I doubt it.
Let’s face it pu, aside from your obvious anti green/labour agenda, you’re only here ’cause you’ve got nowhere else to go or no-one will have you – That and for pushing your unintelligible uninformed opinion blog.
Quantity you clearly have, quality, not so much. Not to get too personal about it, being on a politics site and all, but in economic terms, you’re a deficit to the bottom line, and who needs that? Not me.
Best you and your mip buddies carry on circle jerking your way through September, stifling debate as you go, and when you don’t get cabinet seats and control of anything post election, you can start all over again about how bad DC, MT and RN are and how bad these neo libs (or what ever the slogan of the day you pick up on is) are wrecking the country ad nauseum/infinitum.
Funniest thing, you know it’ll happen. 😉
recent example of my anti-green agenda..from open mike yesterday..
..on their green-card promise..
“..that is a clever policy from the greens..”
(cutting..!..eh..?..)
and is he promising to exit stage-right..?..plse say it is so..!..
..such a loose-unit..and such a whiner with it..
“such a loose-unit..and such a whiner with it.”
Ta ta nugget, enjoy your daisy chain circle jerk.
But funniest thing is, you know it’ll happen. 😉
“Watch the sky” she said.
…dont go The Allen…we need you
@Al1en, agree totally with your sentiments about MIP, Hone and KDC … I liked Mana policies (pre-KDC) but their personnel are simply unelectable outside of Te Tai Tokerau.
A toxic brand with zero appeal to middle NZ.
that would be the middle NZ that’s been sitting by letting the poverty gap become a chasm, letting our rivers fill up with cow shit and letting our assets be sold off overseas? (just to mention a few of the obvious ones).
stoopid left wing radical will never change anything
You really think that no changes happen from the edges? Methinks you haven’t been paying attention.
@ weka…i totally agree with you
Limited intellect voters. Now that’s a sure way to win over the undecided. Just as arrogant as the arseholes we are trying to get rid of. If your an example of what an “intelligent” Labour person looks like, thanks but no thanks.
“Now that’s a sure way to win over the undecided”
Perhaps only the smarter ones.
“If your an example”
You made my point for me. Thanks for playing.
I wouldn’t vote IMP, but you labelling others as thick is priceless.
I will vote IMP and I too find the labelling priceless from allen – he’s on a secret mission from the right so never mind.
Secret mission 😆
Yeah good point you stuffed that up too lol
Secret mission, from who? Name names or gtfo and stfu.
Having chips on both shoulders doesn’t necessarily make you balanced mars 😉 😆
Don’t tell me what to do fuckwit – stick to your dirty little campaign – oh and don’t forget the little violin when you go for your sympathy post.
“Don’t tell me what to do fuckwit – stick to your dirty little campaign”
I’ll take the secret right wing mission bit as just a bs defam, divert put down then. I’m not surprised, given your form.
It’s hardly right wing to seek votes for a green/red ticket, but then I forget, you like your left a bit more ‘radical’. Mega lulz.
“oh and don’t forget the little violin when you go for your sympathy post.”
No tears this side of no regrets – Try again… Or don’t, whatever suits.
grow up t 🙄
Yeah, you’re out of stones and all your glass house windows are gone.
Give up bro.
see, not so hard to be nice is it rather than your usual spit-style of posting – keep it up and your shit reputation may even improve 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
edit oh you changed your post back to the usual – oh dear, what a pity, never mind
plus ‘bro’ is just not your style tryhard lol
“see, not so hard to be nice is it rather than your usual spit-style of posting – keep it up and your shit reputation may even improve”
Spin spin sugar.
“edit oh you changed your post back to the usual – oh dear, what a pity, never mind
plus ‘bro’ is just not your style tryhard lol”
Like a record baby, right round, round round. 😆
Priceless is about right for me – hh, about three million.
how did the job interview go?
@ tom jackson..+1..
..there is that curious mix of arrogance and ignorance..
..and yep..!..as thick as a sack full of doorknobs..
If Banks can get Charter schools with 1 MP miserable prick in his case
a party with more MPs can get more
the Maori Party got Whanau Ora and Prison reform and a nice BMW for its leader.
”Limited intellect voters” nice from the resident elitist areshole,
Tell us all Alien, if these voters you ascribe ”limited intellect” to voted Green would you suddenly ascribe to them ”intelligence”…
A lot more than they originally had. Better late than never.
“elitist areshole,”
I’m not elitist.
Now just explain to me again how Labour, the Greens, and IMP are going to work together sucessfully after the election – and thats before Winston puts his hand up for foreign affairs again……..
I am starting to like quite a few of Labours policies (hey they make sense) but Im not too sure about the bedfellows/bedshelias with whom they will be co-habitating.
I can understand Labour atacking the Greens and the IMP, as they need to be the biggest “Left” brand in parliament for the sake of their own brand which is being eroded by the Greens to quite a large extent. And you cant reward your own foot soldiers, when you have to accommodate your “partners”
Labour’s brand isn’t being eroded by the GP. Their constiuency is. The GP have better left wing policies and that’s why more people are voting for them.
“Now just explain to me again how Labour, the Greens, and IMP are going to work together sucessfully after the election”
Pretty simple. Labour and the GP form a coaltion that includes them both in cabinet. The IMP supports on C and S and possibly negotiates some specific policy deals. None of that is unusual.
Or are you suggesting that Labour is incapable of working in coalition with other left wing parties?
“Or are you suggesting that Labour is incapable of working in coalition with other left wing parties?”
I do wonder whether some politicians put their party ahead of the common cause (ousting the incumbents).
The Nats have taken the other approach and hoovered up the voters from their allied parties – clearly displaying that putting their party first is more important than having allied parties with similar philosophies, but different policies. I guess that way they can reward there only loyal footsoldiers better – if they win.
My recall of history is that no one group has the mortgage on good ideas and that hanging out only with people who always agree with you brings stale thinking. Think USSR, North Korea etc.
Sorry, that’s a bit obscure in terms of answering my question, and seems a bit contradictory. You seem to be suggesting that Labour should be the biggest party, can’t work well with others, but that hanging out with themselves brings stale thinking.
ACT lost votes because they were shown to be the hard right neoliberals that they are, and most conservative voters don’t want that. Plus ACT had a series of leaders that were unappealing.
The MP lost votes because they betrayed their core constituents, I doubt those voters have gone to National.
I think you will be surprised how fewer people in reality vote for National than it appears. It looks good for them via the media, but when you break down the actual numbers, it looks like the right are still in FPP thinking and don’t really get MMP. I would guess that is the real reason for National’s relatively high vote compared to Labour. But compare National to the leftwing L/GP bloc and they’re not doing all that well.
Sorry, I didnt explain myself so well.
Party ahead of the common cause:
I perceive that Labour is doing this to maximise their numbers for any post election negotiations. They may end up being the biggest party in the opposition tho.
Stale one party thinking:
I was really thinking of National here and think that Labours policies are looking pretty good (high praise from a right wing type like me)
As for ACT losing votes, back in their early days they has a great weekly newsletter written by Prebble, which outlined their thinking very well. At the time, they wanted the cross benches so they could “keep the Nats honest”. But they sold out for the ministerial Limos and the perks – even Rodney fell for it – and really by then ACT was toast.
I liked what ACT was – a party that thought differently and had different solutions to the problems we faced. Sadly, they moved on from that and effectively stand for nothing anymore.
weka +100
T Allen
So you admit to being an arsehole?
Ba dum tish.
Hi A11en,
“… the mip is just a vehicle for kdc to avoid extradition …”
How would that work?
Do you think the IMP might threaten to withdraw confidence and supply support if the extradition isn’t quashed? (Notice that that eventuality is not eliminated by Labour’s/Cunliffe’s position on Mana.)
If so, perhaps Harawira and Harre (and KDC) should be asked that question directly – now.
Also, perhaps Cunliffe should be asked whether he would agree to quash the extradition in the event that such support were threatened to be withdrawn.
Asking that question of them all should clarify the extent to which KDC can use IMP as “a vehicle … to avoid extradition“.
Or perhaps they have already been asked that question?
factcheck:..
“..and that right wing bloggers had donated to it, though didn’t say if the donations were named, which of course blunts the attack..”
two of the donations were from whaleoil and farrar..
..and in the pitch for the site..a ‘plus’ was cited that ‘national party members wd contribute’..
..to this cause of taking out harawira..
factfu*k more like.
“two of the donations were from whaleoil and farrar..”
Though it doesn’t say he solicited them from the bloggers directly, or KD knew who was donating. Obviously they outed themselves, but that proves no culpability on KD’s part.
Hence
“though didn’t say if the donations were named, which of course blunts the attack”
If the bloggers said, hi I’m a right wing blogger, accept this money, I’m sure it would have been rejected.
If it came through the website anonymously, you have no case.
Do you know how those donations came into play? Does hh? He should, because he said it unequivocally, and unless proved, shows a lack of judgement and professionalism on par with KD.
the allen shd not mistake a factcheck of his bullshit..for an opening of dialogue..
…i wd rather bash my cock against a nail-studded stump…
So do you know the facts about the donations from the right wing bloggers or not?
If you do, post them up, otherwise it’s totally misleading and disingenuous, like usual.
Like said, factfu*k more like.
True Phil – classical dirty trick that has backfired – why did the gnatbloggers donate? Weakest link that’s why and Kelvin and the team know it.
It may just be that they did not give any $$ to the cause, because just saying they did can do as much harm as actually sending the money.
And its a bit cheaper too
no..davis has said he has the money from farrar/slater…
phillip-you are back in that negative phase again; attacking Cunliffe because he is not doing what you want him to do.
Cunliffe has to distance himself from Hone to win the election. Get used to it.
IMO Hone is wonderful. He gave an excellent interview on Morning Report this am and every time he is on I am sure IMP’s vote goes up.
IMP will back Labour on confidence and supply-that is certain. Cunliffe will probably make Laila and Hone chairpeople of some important committees.
They HAVE to if they get seats because their stated aim is to get rid of the Key Government. In that sense it is a clever call by Cunliffe. IF IMP dont support on that basis, Labour might not govern and Key gets the treasury benches.
Exactly Tracey.
The Nats would be ruthless in the campaign painting Labour as partners to IMP. By ruling this out Labour has parked this issue and is able to concentrate on talking policy.
Cunliffe was good on tv3 this morning talking policy and refusing to let the interviewer make it all about Kelvin Davis and KDC.
@ b.g..
..i am somewhat tiring of this bullshit…
..if cunnliffe gives a good interview..i will say he has done a good interview..
..if he sucks..i’ll also say that..
..this is what i do..i do political-commentary..
..and as for yr claim re cunnliffe ‘not doing what i want’..is why i criticise him when i feel it is due..
..i am actually fucken agnostic about int/mana joining labour in a formal coalition..
..(this is what i said is this forum..yesterday..on that topic..)
“..i have no problems with int/mana not being in cabinet/bound by cabinet muzzling-rules..
..for one thing..labour support a tpp..
..int/mana want to rip it up…
..and a weak/do nothing lab/nz first coalition..will just weaken labour further..
..and a potent int/mana on the cross-benches..free to argue etc..
..is fine with me..
..i wd just like there to be a lot of them..
..and then..in 2017…a lot more..”
..are you clear on that now..?
..these bullshit claims i have some ‘secret-agenda’..
..i don’t think i cd b more upfront about what my fucken ‘agenda’ is..
..eh..?
“..i wd just like there to be a lot of them..
..and then..in 2017…a lot more..””
Exactly – it’s a long game we’re playing and that takes time and during that time skills will be learned and lessons undertook and when the time is there IMP will assume the reins naturally and with gratitude from the other entities including the people.
Hey Phillip I agree with you that Hone did an excellent interview.
To call Cunliffe’s interview a “train wreck” is manifestly unfair-see Clem’s posting below for instance. He simply refused to further debate the IMP/Davis situation having clearly stated his position, and instead said he would talk about policy. The Davis affair needed to be shut down which is what he did.
Remember: I would prefer IMP to be in the coalition/I am a Green voter/My prediction for the election is L31+G11+I7=49=Cunliffe with NZF not in the mix. I would be delighted with this outcome and I’m sure you would too.
+100 Bearded Git @ 3.2.2
No, not at all. I found both the interviews of Cunliffe and Harawira were EXCELLENT.
And I agree with what both of them said. Very good points.
Here is the interview for those who missed it:
http://www.3news.co.nz/Harawira-calls-on-Davis-to-apologise-over-smear-website/tabid/370/articleID/355650/Default.aspx
+1 Clem. See my discussion with Phillip above.
There was a brief news article about the National government gifting conservation land, including part of the Rakaia river bed, to the purchasers of 85% of Synlait – do we know anything more?
Allowing sales that have little or no benefit to New Zealand is one thing, but the ‘return on capital’ from gifting must be very low! Were there other benefits obtained from this ‘gift’ by parties other than government?
There was a piece about it on 3 news on Sunday night and a bit of follow up conversation on Open Mike that evening.
BLiP found info on the linz site about forest up for grabs and posted it. It was shocking. Also on the linz site was info about approval for a $55+ mil buy up of land around Huapai. The buyer was a Chinese development group on behalf of the Chinese Government. Their interests were stated as “toll roads”…………intriguing and disturbing.
It seems that conservation land that was gifted in Canterbury is just the tip of the ice berg in the great sell off of NZ.
Yes, Rosie. The tip of this iceberg makes my blood run chill … how poor will be shown to be in every single democratic measure when the usury of this Key govt is finally exposed for all its treasonous ugliness ? Brrrrrrr.
Tiger Mountains’ CAFCA link below is alarming reading.
Little America or Little China or both? Either way we have sold out, our land, our water, our right to privacy and edging towards our own two feet to stand on.
Ruth Richardson is a director of Synlait. Go figure.
Govt gave Shanghai Pengxin conservation land – Story – Politics – 3 News
http://www.3news.co.nz/Govt-gave-Shanghai-Pengxin-conservation-land/tabid/1607/articleID/355268/Default.aspx
Board of Directors – Synlait
http://www.synlait.com/about/key-people/board-of-directors/
OH! FFS! Well, I wonder if Ruth Richardson and Amy Adams had a few cosy chats about the set up of the Central Plains Water scheme that Amy Adams and presumably Synlait have benefited from………..
http://rebuildingchristchurch.wordpress.com/2014/03/12/special-investigation-adams-family-values/
Probably not gifting that conservation land, more likely a lease.
Gold has been suggested elsewhere regarding the riverbed. And you know what else ? Not only does Oravida have swamp kauri stocked up, they also have Oravida Gold and acres of leases awarded to them by Simon Bridges.
CORRUPT, TREASONOUS, AVARICIOUS, and dangerous to our democracy. I think even we will be badly shocked when athe sum of what has been sold/given away emerges in to daylight.
Won’t let me edit, but here are some facts re Oravida Gold. And interesting to note Judith Collins husband owned the mining permits from 2011 before the land was bought by Oravida in 2013 !! Must have learned double-dipping from the dipton dancer!
http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/auckland/news/nbbus/266137544-oravida-expanding-into-gold-mining-
and
ORAVIDA COMPANY SET TO MINE ON COAST
A subsidiary of Chinese milk company Oravida has reportedly been drilling land it owns at
Ross in preparation for a move into gold mining. Last year Oravida Property bought 100
ha between Donaghues and the Mikonui River from Ross farmer and former regional
councillor, Bryan Chinn. Combined with the purchase of land north of Auckland, it spent
$3.2 million. It wants to create its own milk supply chain, which dates back to interest in
the Chafer farms in 2009. The company also has a permit to mine 369 ha of land in the
Mikonui River area, granted by the Ministry of Economic Development unit 2026. That
company is owned by Deyi Shi. Mr Wong-Tung, who holds the minerals permit, told the
Hokitika Guardian last year the company would mine the land before breaking into the
Westland dairy market. “The specific intention of purchasing the land is for mining it, but
also developing it after so we can turn it into good dairying land, as well as to make that
little bit of land productive”. He said the company had a lot of red tape to sort through
before being allowed to go ahead with its mining plans.
(Greymouth Star – 20 March 2014)
Week-ending-28.03.14 – Coast Valuations
http://www.coastval.co.nz/dmsdocument/20
I am thinking we need a million dollar fund to support Graeme McCready with all the work needing to be done ! Gold leases to a Minister’s husband ? Really, Mr Bridges ?
So what’s the collective view on the Wanaka-to-Arrowtown QEII covenant? Minister Smith has generated a massive new regional park on Great Barrier Island, and now gets to announce effectively a private national park as big as Aspiring National Park. He also lets remember killed two massive roading projects in the South Island over the last year. Is it time to give Nick Smith some credit?
wtf is a”private national park” ?
Ad-its good news but important to note that QEII covenants do not allow public access.
My understanding that some limited public tracks have been granted by Mutt as part of the process to date. Effectively he has largely set up a National Park for his own use.
A better idea, which could still happen, would be that a right to roam be given to the public for the areas QEII covenanted, or at least some of them.
I notice this on the access issue from the ODT today:
“Soho Properties and the trust were working with the New Zealand Walking Access Commission, the Commissioner of Crown Lands, the Queenstown Trails Trust and local walking and mountain biking groups to further improve public access.”
Maybe reasonable access will eventuate after all.
The owner of Soho and Motutapu Stations is at least partially resident in NZ and has been for a few years, so its bloody disingenuous to use his covenant as an example of good foreign ownership. He’s also a keen conservationist, unlike raping and pillaging dairy farm consortiums. On the issue of Nick ‘the prick’ Smith, I think he is a genuine blue-green to an extent and probably the least offensive of all Nat ministers. He’s certainly more intelligent, informed and blue-green than Amy fricking Adams.
It is definitely a good thing. We recently passed through the south island high country and got to some remote places. The land is pretty wrecked when you get up close and look – all for a few sheep. It hasn’t made sense to lay waste to tens of thousands of hectares to only support a couple of families on a station – it is a pathetic return.
So this QEII covenant is a very good thing. But Nick Smith deserves no credit for it. It aint nowt to do with him. But he does deserve credit for canning the loony monorail and the nutty tunnel – he just has one more to go and that is the most outrageous and brainless of the lot, the Haast-Hollyford Highway. But that is being attempted by a bunch of relics from colonial NZ who have somehow survived through to the 21st century. They don’t have a chance.
But Nick Smith deserves an absolute pasting for his abuse of power in threatening Fish & Game with obliteration unless they support the National Party’s farmers polluting activities.
No vto, Smith doesn’t deserve credit for canning the tunnel and monorail-they were both no-brainers.
However, it may be true that he leaned on DOC to support (or at least not oppose) the monorail, in their submission for which he deserves opprobrium.
His true colours came out at the Fish and Game meeting.
Word out in the conservation sector is that it is a very good thing and an incredible gesture from the ex-Shania guy; MPs from both National and Labour were at the event yesterday.
Was featured on Campbell Live last night … nothing to do with Nick Smith who couldn’t even pronounce the donor’s name correctly. Kudos chops to Mutt Lange for his generosity .. the land is now safe and protected and re-planted and loved with 12,000 plants every single month and glorious … worth a look …
http://www.3news.co.nz/Should-foreigners-be-allowed-to-buy-New-Zealand-land/tabid/817/articleID/355583/Default.aspx
Yeah, bit of a PR gift for struggling Nick Smith
agreed he has done some good things…and deserves some credit ….but eternal vigilance…lets hope the proposed Haast-Hollyford Highway is also killed…New Zealand needs its wilderness areas!
it’s double diddums for control freak Key and his script writers;
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/10352978/Strict-rules-for-Key-electorate-event
What a travesty of democracy.
How is this permissible?
Kennedy Graham is the Green candidate for Helensville. I’d expect him to be there, too.
The NZ Herald says it’s a meeting for both Helensville and Te Tai Tokerau candidates.
And what’s to stop the Helensville candidates (without Key) having further debates in Helensville? They include high profile candidates of Harre and Graham.
I note both Laila and Hone are not doing Invercargill to be at the event
“Mr Key will be at the Kumeu Baptist Church meeting for Helensville and Te Tai Tokerau candidates on Monday night, pitting him against Internet Party leader Laila Harre and Mana leader Hone Harawira.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11304498
From the link:
“‘There is to be no debate at all. Candidates have been warned they will be thrown out if they mention other candidates or attack any other parties, or anything else like that, at all,” Ryan said.
Silence would be demanded from everyone but the speaker, with one warning before those disrupting the meeting would be removed.
”It’s on that basis that the prime minister agreed to be there.”
A spokeswoman for Key said he would take part in only one multi-candidate event in his electorate, which was ”the same as the last election campaign”.
His office had played no role in the shaping of the rules for the event, she said.”
One of these versions of events must be wrong.
Yes I noticed that. I think Key’s constant contradictions and linguistic meaninglessness have become so normalised that no-one even checks anymore.
Also, this story gives a more strategic view of the Nats’ apparently deliberate and recently adopted yelling-over-the-top-of-the-opponent tactic. I wondered what they were up to, it seems it’s just a background for Key to look good in front of.
I guess it doesn’t matter if every Nat looks an oaf if you’re only really asking people to vote for the PM anyway.
“…no-one even checks anymore.”
When I read something like this it’s not like I’m ‘checking’ – it just jumps out like a great big flashing sign spelling ‘Contradiction’ while generating a foghorn-like noise.
Why couldn’t the journalist just ‘see it’ in that way? Isn’t it one of their skills?
The dots were so close together in the story but they weren’t explicitly joined. Leaving it to the reader? Why? It could have even been the focus of the story – I thought journalists were keen on spotting that sort of contradiction in the utterances of politicos.
Yes “checks” wasn’t really the right word, I mean I don’t think anyone is taking notice.
I think people are just printing whatever gibberish he says and they don’t even expect it to make sense.
So the Prime Minister will spend more of his time talking to Whaleoil than voters in his own electorate? Unbelievable?
Get the toilet window exit ready.
Reminds me of Muldoon’s campaign opening at Wiri Woolstore, oh, so many years ago. There were so many police and police cameramen, it was 100% intimidating and frightening, to the extent the half-dozen over-ripe duck eggs we wicked feminist three smuggled in, through the police door searches, by necessity went unused … we would have been beaten black and blue in that atmosphere and possibly seriously injured.
Yes, Muldoon had the police doing door searches at his campaign opening.
Alas, who could have known they were perhaps the halcyon days after all ??
Why is there any reason to say
“One of these versions of events must be wrong”?
All it is really saying is that “We plan to hold an all- candidate meeting”. “The rules we propose are”. “Will you attend?”
Key then said he would attend such meeting. There is no reason to say that he set up the rules being proposed and nothing to say that the statements must conflict.
“There is no reason to say that he set up the rules”
well – nothing but all the other times the nats have set things up to favour themselves and insulate key from having to actually think
You have some evidence for this claim I presume?
Or is it just a proposal from your fevered imagination.
Yes alwyn I suppose it is possible that someone other than John Key came up with the rule that no-one is allowed to mention John Key, but it doesn’t seem very bloody likely.
Hi alwyn,
That’s an interesting way to resolve the apparent difference in the accounts. To be honest I didn’t give that possibility much consideration. Here’s why.
First was the context in which the two statements were reported. This is the ‘lead in’ to the first statement:
”There is to be no debate at all. Candidates have been warned they will be thrown out if they mention other candidates or attack any other parties, or anything else like that, at all,” Ryan said.
Silence would be demanded from everyone but the speaker, with one warning before those disrupting the meeting would be removed.
”It’s on that basis that the prime minister agreed to be there.”
Interestingly, Ryan says the “candidates have been warned” yet, in reference to John Key, there’s less a sense of a ‘warning’ than a process of agreement: “it’s on that basis that the prime minister agreed to be there.“.
Perhaps it was poor reporting but it didn’t sound like Key had been ‘warned’ by Holly Ryan while, obviously, other candidates had been.
I really don’t see how it’s possible to read those paragraphs and think that Ryan was simply referring to Key’s acquiescence to such strict rules (as if he had much preferred an old-fashioned, wide-ranging head to head with the other candidates but had had to ‘agree’ to be reigned in).
Second, it seems unusual that after talking about ‘the candidates’ Holly Ryan only refers to the Prime Minister in relation to the basis upon which participation was agreed.
That is, she didn’t say “We can’t possibly change the rules now because it’s on that basis that (all) the candidates agreed to be there.” Instead – inexplicably – she only referred to the agreement of the Prime Minister. Why just him if these were general rules?
Now, perhaps Holly Ryan only mentioned the Prime Minister in that comment because she saw him as the big ‘drawcard’ (as the sitting MP and, of course, the Prime Minister) and wanted to be sure to get his agreement to attend.
But that then raises the question as to why she thought those particular rules of engagement would entice John Key to attend – itself not flattering to the Prime Minister’s supposed reputation to ‘debate – and beat – all comers’ (as some here have repeatedly contended is his strength).
Or perhaps these rules were ‘anticipatory’ of gaining Key’s involvement because those were the only kinds of meetings Key had previously turned up to?
Such deference to the Prime Minister – and harsh ‘warnings’ to other candidates – also seems out of place for someone organising such an all-candidates event.
Third, possibly in naivety, I had just assumed that anyone motivated enough to host a ‘meet the candidates’ meeting during an election campaign would wish to have at least some challenge and counter-challenge of candidates’ policies – either candidate to candidate or citizen to candidate (well managed, of course).
I had thought that the only way that a ‘meet the candidates’ event would become so apparently anodyne in structure – and therefore likely to be so unrevealing of the soundness of policy positions, etc. – would be if politicians had done their best to make it so.
For me, democracy goes with debate, discussion and engagement like horses go with carriages.
But perhaps your resolution of the two versions of the event is correct. Perhaps in the more right wing suburbs and areas of New Zealand, democracy and politics are genuinely believed to be best carried out along the lines of consumer choice.
Just as products are lined up along the shelves and the individual consumer, in undisturbed silence, reads the labels and ‘experiences’ the claims and aesthetics of the packaging to determine their individual preference perhaps it’s believed that choosing between political candidates should occur under the same conditions.
Each political consumer, that is, is best left in splendid isolation with each ‘product’. In this way they can come to their own judgment without the interference of debate and interaction; without the benefit of the knowledge and candidate skills and values that might be revealed by robust discussion, argument and counter-argument.
Perhaps in such places in New Zealand some people really do think that the ‘competition of ideas’ involves no direct contest between those ideas but just a parade in front of the individual political consumer who then makes their ‘choice’ (on a very impoverished basis).
In many ways I’d much rather believe that the ‘meet the candidates’ event has been politically manipulated.
That would be less disturbing.
Key’s image must be preserved at all costs, that’s why he refuses to be interviewed on Radio NZ or by any serious journo.. only facing John Campbell and the GCSB committee when things were spiralling out of control. He’s happy to be feted by sports shows and non political events though.
Clearly, Dear Leader is beyond question.
Unbelievable!
There’s going to be fireworks there – can’t see Penny Bright putting up with that.
a form of silent-protest cd be tape over the mouth..
..and this control-freak exercise has now become the story…
Agree phillip,
this ‘mufflefest’ would be a good focus for a Change the Government Rally of several hundred people on the night too.
The “freedom of speech as long as you don’t say too much” angle shows the fuss over tory fan presenter Hosko’s conflict of interest was not misguided.
It is about the Nats desire for complete control (apol to The Clash) as evidenced by Steven Joyces behaviour on the weekend.
it is amusing how over the past week or so..
..national have not put a foot right…
It seems to me that Key just issues statements and is not being questioned or interviewed. The only time that he responds is when on safe ground. Now being unable or unwilling to front during an election campaign is mind boggling. And on the ground he is surrounded by minders so that he does not have to meet any New Zealanders.
Surely this displays at once arrogance and a serious Key weakness?
The joke going around is that when Key feels like he wants to get out of looking bad or is being shown up for his pants catching fire, he will signal for the fire alarm to be set off to break up the gathering.
as he will be standing naked..
..will we have to avert our eyes…?
and of course a potent counter to demands for ‘silence’..
..is group-hissing…
..hard to tell who is..and who isn’t…
😀 Phillip, nice one !
The “Unidentified guest” strikes again. On the other hand, given that Key seems to be unable to answer a question in the House without throwing in some misrepresentation of some other party’s policies or reference to previous governments, might he be the first cast out?
I read that this morning, and if true, wow. Just wow.
Key is chicken
Key is chicken
Key is chicken
bok bok
how pathetic for a grown man and prime minister. what a loser.
and the news about the $55 million land sale in Huapai to Chinese buyers cannot be unknown to him … he has reason to be chicken. Finally the teflon is failing.
I just heard Murray McCully on the radio being interviewed by Suzy Ferguson on morning report. Can a member of the media please ask this question? Is the delay in the return of the Malaysian diplomat because they are having to use the Malaysian extradition process?
Susie Ferguson failed to ask any challenging questions.
Suzi Ferguson also used John Key to dis the Greens policy …before Russel Norman had even opened his mouth!
(policy of a Green card enabling poor university students and other tertiary students and apprentices to access public transport for free especially in off peak times)
Russel Norman handled himself very well however and called her out …saying she had opened his interview with an “assault”…. by John Key!
… Russel Norman also coolly countered Key’s arguments that it was too expensive to spend on students by pointing out the overseas debt that John Key has accrued for New Zealand ..and the wasted money on motorways
Espiner followed up the attack on Green policy by inviting a business sector interviewee on an unrelated matter to comment on Green policy…of course it was in the negative.
Morning Report should be overhauled after the Election..it is biased and a mouthpiece of John Key!
However it does show how sensitive John Key is to the Greens and the issue of university students and affordable education….so if the Left concentrates on this it will be a WINNER !
( Nactional has neglected young New Zealanders shamelessly…In Holland , Germany, France, Scandinavia and many other countries tertiary education is relatively FREE, if not completely …In New Zealand many very bright students are deciding that they and their families can not afford it…which leaves New Zealand university education for the children of the wealthy…whose parents can afford it! eg Bill English and John Key)
…Under Nactional there is a shocking waste of young New Zealanders talent !!!!..It is going to create a class system in New Zealand….where only the children of the wealthy can afford a tertiary education… “the chosen”. This betrays the egalitarian ideals and education system of our New Zealand ancestors both Pakeha and Maori
When was the last time Key was actually interviewed as aggressively as say Norman or Cunliffe? Or even when was the last time Key was interviewed?
There was that Rugby magazine…
pretend play and camping it up in an All Black’s jersey?
That Hard Talk interview in the UK?
I think Kim Hill also asked him some tricky questions.
Otherwise, it’s just cosy chats with Rawden, Mike , Marcus and the rest of the ghastly corporate media.
He is coming back though, isn’t he? I thought I saw a headline about him returning in the paper this morning?
As Kim Dotcom has shown anything can happen with an extradition hearing. Although I am sure the Malaysian Diplomat does not have the same sort of resources that Dotcom has.
Have you noticed how averse the Government has been to use the “E” word (Extradition)? They keep saying it is a legal process and it is all up to the lawyers but they don’t want the two events to be linked.
This mornings GDT auction dropped another 8.4%. Our dairy industry has officially collapsed.
Looks like it is still above the lows of ~May 2012 pricing – just. It looks like pricing has dropped an overall 45% in 18 months. Which is basically a disaster to anyone who has geared their farm up for the higher price structure. Also, this greatly increases the likelihood of a severe recession by Q1 2015: austerity time.
is that drop not since february..?
10% of dairy farmers hold 50% of the estimated 40 billion dollars of bank debt said to be the loading for that industry,
The banks are talking an overall ‘loss’ for the economy of 4 billion dollars and that would have to in the next 18 months translate into a 1.3 billion dollar hole in the Governments books,
Rock Bottom economy here we come, analysts in the industry are saying that the reluctance of buyers at the recent auctions is because they ‘stockpiled’ milk solids/powders in previous years but i pick that as wishful thinking and the dairy boom is going bust befor our eyes as the point of over-supply internationally has probably been reached,
The only saving grace for the Government will be IF the figures produced by Labour in 2010/2011 which showed a large demographic of the dairy farmers were paying less tax than an average pensioner are correct which would quixotically mean that the recent downgrade of the dairy prices at auction will produce less red ink in the Government’s books…
We need to put a stop to this by making sure company directors are held personally liable. Edit: And make that law retrospective as a special treat for rogue employers who know right now they can get away with it.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/small-business/10351787/Slave-unlikely-to-get-paid
Only so much that politics and law can do in the face of, “I gave him my loyalty because he was a fellow [insert favourite religion here]…”. That’s the free will of the individual and quite rightly the law should stay out of that kind of thing; least of all, if it didn’t, it’d make all of us moronic because we’d never learn anything about life or ourselves. To quote the cynical, but too often true, words of William S Burroughs, “Never trust a religious SOB. God has told him how to rip you off.” Luckily we have literature to pick up where politics shouldn’t go.
There is of course a disclaimer for that quote – don’t need to start any unearned religious hate speech malarkey here. The problem currently is the disturbing trend of religious organisations to confuse the will of their God with the popular culture of the free market. God is of course still God, somewhere out there, but religious types have deviated so grossly they end up worshipping a shadow, an evil twin if you like. Isn’t so much God told him how to rip you off, but that the person mistook God for the sentiment of individualist/commercial slogans that almost exactly match those found in the bible (when taken literally and out of context) and didn’t think twice. And then the guy might have taken advantage on purpose. Anyone can say they’re following this or that religion, and still be a malicious ass.
After someone wins a court case the person responsible shouldn’t get off paying their dues by winding up the company. Got nothing to do with religion – except possibly your own apparent Randian ideology.
Winding up a company is an old tried and tested way of getting out of financial obligations. The company transfers its assets to a new company which has no legal obligation to honour the debt. How do you think so many developers get rich and so many small building companies go to the wall? (I speak from personal experience here)
Yep and we need to stop people from being able to do it. All liabilities of a company must accrue to the owners and directors.
That would defeat the purposes of “limited liability” companies.
There are sufficient checks and balances within company law, many of which do allow liquidators to pursue directors personally for a bunch of indescretions, and legislation which allows criminal convictions for fraud and the like.
What we do need is for the Companies Office to be resourced in order to do the policing of “Phoenix” companies that pop up, run by family and/or friends of errant directors who may have been disqualified from acting as directors.
Just employing the former director in a “new (phoenix)” company, especially when trading from the same location, should set off massive warning lights, and the Companies Office should be resourced to take the necessary action.
Yes. Once I realised, many years ago, that people were using limited liability so as to bypass any risk while exclaiming about all the risk that they took I became fully of the opinion that limited liability needed to be shut down as well.
No there isn’t else the person in the article would be getting their awarded $83k.
Wouldn’t need such complexity if we held people responsible in the first place.
Mainzeal and Jenny Shipley, for example.
Are these two news stories connected?
Dairy prices hit 17-month low, amid China concerns
‘….Indeed, the fresh decline tallied with a caution from Rabobank last week that producers may have to wait until 2015 for a revival in prices, with milk output much improved in major exporting nations, but Chinese buyers have stepped back, after early-year stockpiling.
“China bought more than we anticipated in the first five months of the year. It now appears they also bought far more than they needed,” the bank said.’
http://www.agrimoney.com/news/dairy-prices-hit-17-month-low-amid-china-concerns–7223.html
Giving away New Zealand
‘Another day, another massive overseas land sale of dubious benefit to New Zealand. Meanwhile, we’ve also learned that “our” government has been giving away parts of the conservation estate to foreigners:
3 News has discovered that Shanghai Pengxin, the controversial Chinese buyer of the massive Lochinver Station, was recently given conservation land by the Government, including parts of the Rakaia riverbed.
http://norightturn.blogspot.co.nz/2014/08/giving-away-new-zealand.html
Join the dots.
We are becoming tenants in our own land.
Wealthy Americans, British, Chinese and other foreign corporates are buying our land from under our feet.
Join the dots.
I’m joing the dots with the call for an early election. NAct is hoping to have it over and done with before a perfect economic storm hits.
Just wondering: what are the current commentaries or predictions (if any) regarding a potential crisis coming up for the well-known months (Sep/Oct) of market catastrophes particularly for this year?
Any links to selected readings would be appreciated. (I known I can google but I would like to access what others here have read and screened through.)
All I know is that debt/gdp ratios worldwide are now at worse levels than before the 2008 GFC.
Your comment reminds me of this:
“One look at this graph makes it obvious that we’re in totally uncharted waters: the debt to GDP ratio has never been as high as it is now. If the debt ratio has any economic significance at all, then we have to take it seriously today.”
[Graph: Debt to GDP (Australia)]
“The only historical precedents for today are the two obvious peaks in the data, in the 1890s and 1930s. The latter alone implies bad news: the 1930s were the decade of the Great Depression, which was easily the greatest economic crisis that market economies have ever experienced.”
“It is less well-known that the 1890s were also a decade of Depression for Australia, and Fisher & Kent argued in Two Depressions that the 1890s experience was more severe for Australia than the Great Depression.”
http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=6528&page=1
That was from Steve Keen, 22 October 2007
dear CAFCA–Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa is still going many decades on and here are some useful facts they have put together w/sources included;
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1401/S00011/who-owns-nz-foreign-control-key-facts-updated.htm
+100…they do great work….have always admired Murray Horton ..he was a brilliant student from the working class
wasnt it Mr Key who first warned us about becoming tenants in our own land?
“”If we ended up in a situation where New Zealanders were tenants in their own country, I can’t see how that would be in New Zealand’s best interests,” 2010
The problem is how many tenants of foreign ownership do there have to be before Mr Key thinks the threshold has been reached?
I don’t know if those dots join but China does what it does without a thought to our sensibilities, dontchathink?
And that is why we need to ban foreign ownership of anything and everything in NZ. A total ban because there is never a time when foreign ownership is good for a country.
Rarotonga has it right .. land is for lease only, and on a fixed term .. I think it’s 30 years, but have to check.
Hard to stop the sales while folk such as Judith Collins, Ruth Richardson and Jenny Shipley all have China money-in-the-bank pass cards and are senior advisers … they have sold us out 100%. Treasonous and vile.
+100 DTB and yeshe
The Scottish referendum debate (Salmond/Darling) is streaming on http://player.stv.tv/live/. They’re halfway through, an hour to go.
I wonder if the nationalism stirred by the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow will have impacted people’s voting choices at all?
Possibly. The latest poll overnight suggests the undecided are firming up and supporting the Yes campaign. However, the No vote remains steady at 50% plus. Six weeks to go!
http://news.stv.tv/scotland-decides/news/285203-support-for-yes-rises-in-stv-poll-ahead-of-salmond-darling-debate/
Overview of polling here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_Scottish_independence_referendum,_2014
Thanks for the update on the upcoming Scottish referendum. I had this in mind to look into.
I see that the 25 – 34 age group are more likely to vote yes (56%) Let’s hope they turn out in their droves to vote!
I heard Alex Salmond say during the coverage of the Commonwealth games that if they gained independence they might consider NZer’s with family links, (including grandparents) to Scotland being a group that can gain citizenship if one was to move over there.
My Nana was from Forfar (and further back the other side are from Inverness and Beauly) so if it goes belly up after 20th September and Scotland gets her independence I might take them up them up on it!
One of the reasons I’m interested in the referendum is because my kids have a strong Scottish heritage on their mother’s side. Mind you, their grandmother roundly abused Alex Salmond when he visited her wee town a few weeks ago. She’s so firmly opposed to independence she’s going to move to England if the Yes vote gets up!
Ah, that strong determined Scots mind. Bless her 🙂
From the figures you provided, it was the older generation who seem most opposed. Let’s hope the determination of the young un’s matches that of their elders on voting day.
I know theres going to be a massive double celebration in our house if the Scots get their independence and if we win the election. The votes are only a couple of days apart. It’ll be a big weekend!
http://www.critic.co.nz/news/article/4230/act-candidate-for-dunedin-north-resigns
Reckon the local ACTivists are going to go all quiet about Big Brain’s not at all racist speech pretty quick. They’ll be too busy attacking their former board member and candidate for Dunners North.
Well, the last guy got fewer votes than Pete George, so he’s probably not changing his chances of winning the seat.
Jamie Whyte is quoted in the ODT as telling the Dunedin North candidate that the party needed a “stunt” to help in the polls. Not long after comes the race speech. If true I can’t see how he survives.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11304781
the act candidate’s resignation and why …
shake shonkey !!!
Two interesting things this morning on Radionz.
10:35 Book review: When the Farm Gates Opened
When the Farm Gates Opened: The Impact of Rogernomics on rural New Zealand by Neal Wallace. Reviewed by Harry Broad, published by Otago University Press, $RRP30.00
11:20 Tax evasion and welfare fraud in the justice system
Legal commentator Lisa Marriott discusses financial crime.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon
I wish someone would address the lack of personal liability for property developers. With the boom in consents driven by CHCHCH rebuild and this govt forcing land open in Auckland, you just know there will be problems in the years ahead BUT Developers can open a company, buy land, develop land, contract designers and builders, sell property, take property, close company and start a new project. NO liability in the future unless they went on site during construction (which they assiduously avoid).
I agree but why limit it to just a few groups of people in business?
Lets make
Theo Spiering (Fonterra head) personally responsible for spilt milk.
John Key personally responsible for government (ha ha yeah I know)
All shareholders in power companies personally responsible for power outages
All shareholders in the Warehouse personally responsible for jandals and plastic buckets that break
…
completely remove the limited liability company and make all owners, employees and bosses personally responsible for their works
good luck on that one tracey
They often send their contract builders to the wall by not making the last progress payment or two as well
Good point
John Key refusing to allow debate at the only candidate meeting in his electorate – what is he afraid of.
This avoidance should be shouted by Opposition parties wide and long. Key is a coward in refusing to mix it with the people in a democratic country during a democratic election.
Makes Internet Mana look good with the series (i.e. not just one) of Roadshow events they are running, where people (aka walking talking members of the public) get to ask live unvetted questions of the IMP leaders and candidates.
Kim Jong Key–does he really expect to get away with this one?
Having to talk policy.
Pinched this from Sideswipe. Someone at the bookshop is being a bit mean but truthful to John Key’s book.
https://scontent-b-pao.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/t1.0-9/10509555_515240358607800_7531179960078002433_n.jpg
Hah!
As I have suggested and am sounding out the call again:
NZ voters,
do your civic duty,
when you are out and about (bookshop, The Warehouse or public library),
grab a copy or two,
and discretely re-shelve them in the appropriate sections, eg
– Fiction
– Fantasy
– Crime.
Good idea because causing more work for the people that work there is always a good use of your time
lol. but couldn’t make out the small text on the “Top 5” sticker
“Top 5 ways to fix a wonky table leg?’
“Top 5 in David Farrar, Mathew Hooten and Hoskos audio book list?”
“Top 5 unwanted gifts?”
“Top 5 lies told by John Key?”
Just put in my tip to the taxpayers union on this beauty.
ACC overcollecting levies to get the beloved ‘surplus’.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/election-2014/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503581&objectid=11304503
this is a rip-off of the biggest order.
Musings from the ‘roadshow’ #1, DotCom,
Lets start with the big fella, and He is, looking round the packed events center and DotCom can look down at most in the 4–500 strong crowd,
Not that He does, there is no obeisance here, no kowtowing to money, none given and i would suggest none asked for, the speech from the stage low key,(excuse the fruedian but who would suggest Slippery isn’t),
What is remarkable is His description of how the whole mad roller coaster began, Mega, really an absolute piece of socialism its genesis in a German Government grant given to DotCom after the judge had given Him a steer in that direction when as a kid one of His ‘hacking’ escapades showed He had expertise beyond His education in the field,
Annette Sykes, on the stage, fired up said of the meeting at Rotorua where the alliance between Internet and Mana was struck, DotCom didn’t just get to walk in and buy the place with His coin, She personally gave Him the third degree, it wasn’t pretty, not even anywhere near nice,
He came through some hard hours of at times open hostility on the Marae, earned the tick of approval in doing so from Annette, He has respect, such respect not given lightly,
What of Him tho, this DotCom, what i was seeking, from among the shadows, was a personal sense of the man, while i fully understand that deep down there must be ‘rage’, having been deeply involved with the whole police/justice circus over many years of an absolutely misspent youth that makes the supposed ‘crimes’ of DotCom pale into insignificance i know exactly how He feels,
Other than His size, the sheer bulk provides a certain presence, it wasn’t until the final minutes at the venue that i got a real sense of DotCom, talking with Ariana,(more on Her later), one of the local candidates, i didn’t even notice as DotCom slipped past us,
Hailed as He entered the lift with good wishes it struck me then that despite all the supposed mountains of coin, the toys, the Mansion, the publicity, DotCom the bloke is at heart Shy,
There was no grandiose departure, no entourage of the powerful, just DotCom quietly slipping into the lift responding with a smile and a wave as He is wished well for the future,
This of course, has been a message from that future, InternetMana, be there…
great stuff bad12
Thx Bad. Here be delicious dragons, bringing bright flames of change ! 🙂
Thanks for that Bad12. Just the inspiration I need before heading out this avo to deliver flyers for Tuesday’s Dunedin roadshow.
Cheer Pasupial, enjoy, its quite catching that flyer, on the second and third reads, it will be the center of discussion later in the week as i ‘see’ it as the basis of the candidate flyers for the local electorates here in Wellington,
Noted yesterday, Big Ups to InternetMana for the Wellington billboards, great positioning, good succinct message able to be taken in as i drive by,
And,
The color scheme is the bomb, there’s a whole nest of them where i saw this particular billboard and the ‘metallic’ color of the InternetMana one definitely drags attention straight at it…
Thanks bad – good writeup
kathryn ryan is such a rightwing-trout..
..a tax-expert has just made a considered-case on the gross inequalities shown to benefit fraudsters..and ‘white-collar’ tax-fraud..
..and ryan then just skives away from that..
..and starts banging on about welfare-fraud couples..
..as always..’it’s the poor wot’ gets the blame..’
Yep she was as weak as a double lemonade on the DHB negotiations team leader yesterday too, who claimed not to know whether he or other execs received pay increases in excess of the 0.7% offered to health care workers. She could have pressed him as it was a highly relevant point but meekly moved on.
From this mornings Granny, the online version,
National MP Tim Macindoe, along with radio station Free FM have been referred by the Electoral Commission to the Police over an alleged breach of the electoral act by both of them,
No never, i cannot believe that National Party MP’s would ever not adhere to the law, sarc/…
Well breaking the electorial act is normally the preserve of the left but if hes guilty he should be punished
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11304781
dunedin act candidate resigns because of whyte.
holy shit, someone in ACT with actual ethics and standards. Good for him.
Yeah, he’s a nice guy actually.
David Cunliffe on 29/6/14
In our party’s constitution Labour’s first core principle is “All political authority comes from the people by democratic means including universal suffrage, regular and free elections with a secret ballot.”
We won’t be doing pre-election deals. It’s up to New Zealanders to decide who they send to Parliament.
After the election I’ll talk with anyone committed to changing the Government. It’s fair to say that won’t include National, Act or Colin Craig’s group.
My emphasis.
That was in response to this question from Pasupial:
Would you be willing to accept Internet/ MANA Party MPs as part of a Labour-led government if that gave you the numbers to form a progressive coalition post-election (and a mutually satisfactory relationship could be negotiated)?
How about; a United Future & Maori Party MP(s), if they have votes to offer and were willing to negotiate support (I’m assuming a yes for both; Green Party and NZF, a no for; National, ACT & CP, please correct if I’m mistaken)?
I don’t have a problem with Labour deciding that they won’t have Mana/IP/IMP in cabinet or as Ministers. But I am disappointed to see Cunliffe going back on what he has said above. He also said something recently about it being extremely unlikely that Mana would get Ministerial positions, but that they might be part of a C and S agreement. What was wrong with continuing that line?
I think the davis dirty tricks forced his hand – at least he stuck by his candidate I suppose.
It’s a really bad look for Cunliffe to continually cave-in to whatever the latest middle-class focus group feels uneasy about. It just looks weak. I realise he needs to show some degree of political pragmatism, but this tried-and-failed approach is just craven.
“..It’s a really bad look for Cunliffe to continually cave-in to whatever the latest middle-class focus group feels uneasy about. It just looks weak…”
..+ 1..
@marty mars…what worries me about Davis is that he was endorsed by Shane Jones…and we all know whose friend he is
Just in case people missed it:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11304727
Key Points:
• The number of people employed increased by 10,000 people.
• The employment rate fell 0.1 percentage points, to 65.0 per cent.
• The number of people unemployed decreased by 9,000 people.
• The unemployment rate fell 0.3 percentage points to 5.6 per cent.
• The labour force participation rate decreased 0.3 percentage points, to 68.9 per cent.
Great news for NZ 🙂
All in Christchurch though. Shame this Government relies on that tragedy, and the excruciatingly slow rebuild to spin its growth and employment numbers.
You don’t know what that means do you?
I’ll put it simply for you – it means that 0.3% of the working age population stopped looking for work and not because they got a job but because they were sick (probably quite literally in many cases) of looking for work and not finding any. It contradicts everything else you posted except the fall in employment rate.
Listening to radionz news – three in a row, 77 year old man’s murder, body found on St Helier’s beach, another murder.
I think there should be an on-line murders and accidental deaths site where one could find out all the latest tragedies, and publish the victim statements. It is so sad to hear the repetitive nature of the grief being repeated once again, and apparently never with the effect of improving the conditions that led to the death.
It’s depressing that there isn’t reporting about dealing with ongoing problems and future ones – just a ghoulish interest in reports and stats on death and how we hurt each other.
focusing on a tragic/violent incident lets the news off the hook from reporting anything substantial about broader systemic problems. (Same as what Hone clumsily referred to when he was asked about the Malaysian diplomat assault)
An Israeli blogger citing an embedded reporter may have jiggered IDF assertions that strikes on UN buildings housing Palestinian civilian refugees were accidental.
but if it comes to that event, the first time it is published first-hand evidence that approval from headquarters and deadly accurate shooting at a school that was known that it houses hundreds of refugees – and not stray artillery fire as the IDF claims. well if anti-tank missiles were fired from the area of the school, how can you claim that the IDF fired a missile capable of an accuracy of centimeters (“able to slip through precisely buildings windows “) into the populous school is considered” collateral damage avoidance protected population “required by the laws of war and morality?
IDF official response following an investigation published Sunday, July 27th, the day after the release of Zeno’s testimony, was “anti-tank missiles were fired from the area to the troops, who responded with mortar fire.” The testimony of the reporter who was present and stated that they were not mortars but guided precision missile, contradicts the army’s response to the other contradictions and integrates the research, alternatively determined that “there was no harm to civilians in the UNRWA school … there was an empty courtyard” at the same time “in any case, the death of civilians killed by the IDF in this case is a sad result of the election of Hamas in the civilian as a human shield.”
UNRWA spokesman confirmed on several occasions that the IDF moved the location of all the schools and refugee camps, to prevent exactly this kind of killing. Zeno’s testimony, even if inadvertently given, confirming the fact that the IDF knew – and chose to ignore, not at the level of the surface may not have been updated, but the highest command level.
http://www.o139.org/2014/08/blog-post.html
The google translation.
If you want to know why John Key will have another three years in government then just look at what Statistics NZ published today. We are on the right track.
Unemployed of 137,000 is 17,000 fewer than a year agoUnemployment rate of 5.6% compared to 6.4% a year ago
Employed of 2,328,000 – 82,000 more than a year ago
FT employed up 71,000 and PT employed up 13,000
65,000 more in labour force than a year ago
Labour force participation rate is 68.9% compared to 68.1% a year ago
Maori unemployment rate is 11.0%, down from 12.8% a year ago
Pasifika unemployment rate is 11.4% down from 16.3% a year ago
Under 20 unemployment rate is 20.4%, down from 24.1% a year ago
Manufacturing jobs are 246,500 – up from 242,600 a year ago (recall the crisis!)
Number of hours worked is up 4.8% from a year ago (highest growth for many years)
The proportion of under 2os not in employment, study or training has fallen from 8.0% a year ago to 7.4% today
Salary and wage rates up 1.7% from a year ago
Manufacturing pay rates up 1.9% from a year ago (recall the crisis!)
Total weekly gross earnings up 6.3% from a year ago
Female average earnings as % of male up from 86.7% to 87.1% over a year
[lprent: Link to the source when you want to quote. It also means that others can start checking and discussing your sources. Don’t link, and I will start deleting the quotes. ]
Perhaps you should compare over 5 years? And even over the last year I notice that you missed out inflation rates, changes in the CPI, interest rates, and the estimates of the under-employed – ie the ever increasing numbers of involuntary part time and casual workers. What this government doesn’t appear to be able to affect is the number of people in full-time employment.
Basically this is the government trying to take credit for the world coming out of a recession/depression.
If its from Stats NZ then its in here:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11304727
About 75% of the rise is in full time workers.
The unemployment rate in NZ is below that of the USA, the UK, Australia and the EU
so those hard working public health workers can get more than 0.7% pay rise?
Any chance you could outline National’s policies to tackle systemic poverty in New Zealand?
Your leader doesn’t seem to want to discuss policy, so wondered if you could help out.
Check out the company the GOVT had contracted to help spy on us
of course it because of those naughty gangs isnt it ?
http://www.hackingteam.it/
we have 7 of their “Remote Control System” “legal” spyware tool servers operating in NZ currently..
What a bunch of bullshit. The NATs won’t even invest in and develop these evil capabilities in-country.
Leaking like a chilly bin house.
https://edition.cnn.com/2014/08/05/politics/u-s-new-leaker/index.html
Nearly half of the people on the U.S. government’s widely shared database of terrorist suspects are not connected to any known terrorist group, according to classified government documents obtained by The Intercept.
Of the 680,000 people caught up in the government’s Terrorist Screening Database—a watchlist of “known or suspected terrorists” that is shared with local law enforcement agencies, private contractors, and foreign governments—more than 40 percent are described by the government as having “no recognized terrorist group affiliation.” That category—280,000 people—dwarfs the number of watchlisted people suspected of ties to al Qaeda, Hamas, and Hezbollah combined.
The documents, obtained from a source in the intelligence community, also reveal that the Obama Administration has presided over an unprecedented expansion of the terrorist screening system. Since taking office, Obama has boosted the number of people on the no fly list more than ten-fold, to an all-time high of 47,000—surpassing the number of people barred from flying under George W. Bush.
“If everything is terrorism, then nothing is terrorism,” says David Gomez, a former senior FBI special agent. The watchlisting system, he adds, is “revving out of control.”
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/article/2014/08/05/watch-commander/
the increasing irrelevance of the US economy to the global economy.
http://www.gatesnotes.com/~/media/Images/Books/Making-the-Modern-World/making-the-modern-world-cement-A_800_v2.ashx
Don’t be mean Phil. Kathryn Ryan is fair and balanced in any which way you want to swing:
economically – her broad spectrum ‘portfolio’; her work/life balance; her list of ‘go-to’s’ and rent-a-quoters’; her propensity between enilsting comment based on nepotism and ‘new blood’; her being down with the folks and being in with the in-crowd; her expertise on anything and everything from parenthood to music……She be the queen (oops Queen)
She’s God’s gift to mankind, and she’s got a raft of facebook-type friends to prove it. Some of them even pop up on MSM to prove it… from Burma Road socialists to Boombers with guilt. She’s the Queen.
Don’t be cruel. Your just jealous. She’s what RNZ is to PSB as Juan Williams is to NPR.
Why Kathryn even subscribes to The Arts Channel (now Skoi Arts)
Pass the Chardonnay will you darling – this discussion is becoming oh so very boring because Kathryn is an institution that’s become so in touch with both the people, and the movers and shakers. I fuckin adore her!
+100 Tim…me too…Kathryn Ryan is great and she is balanced
um..!..chook..i think tim is taking the piss..eh..?
where does she find the time to watch the arts channel..?
..given she is such a fox news fan..
..(in case you were wondering…that’s where she gets most of the rightwing-talking-points she trots out…)
phillip..lol…loved your second statement at 3.2.1.5.1.1
Obama should be giving money for an Iron Dome over Gaza not Israel.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/08/04/374067/obama-approves-millions-more-for-israel/
Not wanting to start a flame war but if Hammas stopped using children as human shields, stopped storing weapons in UN buildings and stopped firing rockets at Israel then there’d be no need for an Iron dome
maybe you’ve cried ‘wolf!’ a bit too often..?
Just saying that if Hammas stopped attacking Israel would stop attacking Hammas and if Hammas stopped hiding around civilian populations then there’d be less civilians killed but then Hammas wouldn’t be able to show the worlds media dead children…
not biting..just observing/noting..
..it’d be like engaging with a climate-change/moon-landing denier..
..who can be bothered..?
(did you mention ‘dead children’..?..)
“..Brian Eno:..I Saw a Weeping Palestinian Man Holding A Plastic Bag of Meat: It Was His Son..
…I suddenly found myself thinking that it could have been one of my kids in that bag –
(cont..)
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article39339.htm
What a completely moranic statement. Are you really so completely ignorant that you don’t know anything about Gaza?
Tell me, have you ever looked at the geography of the Gaza strip… This link is pretty old but not about the land area
Wikipedia is a bit more up to date. This map gives a good idea of the urbanised area in Gaza.
Click into the image.
Hamas are of course the governing body in the Gaza strip. They really don’t have areas that aren’t filled with civilians.
By way of comparision, the size and population density of Auckland city..
Basically you appear to be fuckwit groin clutcher who is too stupid to do some pretty basic research and mostly noticeable for being a lazy parrot for the Israeli PR spinners…
Well done LP. I’ve always wanted to compare Gaza population density with an Israel apologist’s home town population density when they start to froth at the mouth about Hamas supposedly using human shields to hide munitions.
Guerilla warfare is by definition part time, and bound (by necessity) within the civilian population.
Ahhh, yeah, Lynn, but let’s not be too ambitious for Pucks, he needs to learn to walk before he can run. Frankly, I’ll be over the moon if he just manages to spell “Hamas” correctly !, given that he’s devoted so much space to dribbling meaningless inanities about the movement.
Certainly, though, it’s been interesting over recent weeks to witness our very own Tory Tr*lls mindlessly regurgitating official Israeli spin, clearly without possessing even the faintest idea….seems to be a default-position for them. Very telling.
In terms of the almost 2 Million Palestinians crammed into the Gaza Strip (most of them refugees or their descendants), your Gaza/Auckland comparison can be extended…….
Gaza’s territory in NZ terms
(1) Auckland
Gaza (north to south) is about three-quarters the (north – south) length of Auckland – essentially Papakura to Browns Bay. But Gaza’s width is only a quarter of its length – slightly wider than the North Shore (roughly Takapuna to Hobsonville).
(2) Coromandel
Gaza’s about half the length of the Coromandel peninsula and considerably less than half the width.
(3) Central NI
Gaza = same length as Lake Taupo but not much more than a third of the width.
(4) Wellington
Gaza length = Island Bay to Pukerua Bay. Gaza width = same as Wellington Harbour at its widest point
(5) Christchurch
Same length as Banks Peninsula (if measuring Peninsula east to west), but only half the width
(6) Dunedin
Gaza length = Waitati in north to a point a little south of Brighton in the south
Gaza width = Ocean Grove to Half-way Bush
Hi Puckish Rogue,
‘Quiet-for-quiet‘?
I don’t think that’s true.
“The most recent cease-fire was established after Israel’s October 2012 assault. Though Israel maintained its devastating siege, Hamas observed the cease-fire, as Israeli officials concede. Matters changed in June, when Fatah and Hamas forged a unity agreement, which established a new government of technocrats that had no Hamas participation and accepted all of the demands of the Quartet. Israel was naturally furious, even more so when even the US joined in signaling approval. The unity agreement not only undercuts Israel’s claim that it cannot negotiate with a divided Palestine, but also threatens the long term goal of dividing Gaza from the West Bank and pursuing its destructive policies in both of the regions.
Something had to be done, and an occasion arose shortly after, when the three Israeli boys were murdered in the West Bank. The Netanyahu government knew at once that they were dead, but pretended otherwise, which provided the opportunity to launch a rampage in the West Bank, targeting Hamas. Netanhayu claimed to have certain knowledge that Hamas was responsible. That too was a lie, as recognized early on. There has been no pretense of presenting evidence. One of Israel’s leading authorities on Hamas, Shlomi Eldar, reported almost at once that the killers very likely came from a dissident clan in Hebron that has long been a thorn in the side of Hamas. Eldar added that “I’m sure they didn’t get any green light from the leadership of Hamas, they just thought it was the right time to act.” The Israeli police have since been searching for two members of the clan, still claiming, without evidence, that they are “Hamas terrorists.”
The 18-day rampage however did succeed in undermining the feared unity government, and sharply increasing Israeli repression. According to Israeli military sources, Israeli soldiers arrested 419 Palestinians, including 335 affiliated with Hamas, and killed six Palestinians, also searching thousands of locations and confiscating $350,000. Israel also conducted dozens of attacks in Gaza, killing 5 Hamas members on July 7.
Hamas finally reacted with its first rockets in 19 months, Israeli officials reported, providing Israel with the pretext for Operation Protective Edge on July 8.“
Nope. If Israel stopped building settlements on top of PA land there’d be no need for an Iron Dome. If Israel stopped inviting every Jewish person on the planet to fill those settlements there’d be no need for an Iron Dome.
If those two things happened there’d be no need for the kind of destruction we’ve seen over the last two weeks.
Any chance you could outline National’s policies to tackle systemic poverty in New Zealand?
Your leader doesn’t seem to want to discuss policy, so wondered if you could help out.
What a disgraceful statement.
By the way, can you outline National’s policies to reverse our declining environment in New Zealand?
Your leader doesn’t seem to want to discuss policy, so wondered if you could help out.
If the IDF propaganda about accidental strikes on UN facilities is collapsing so when the UN facilities are used as arsenals narrative falls over will you admit your gullibility?.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11304914
Might I suggest T. Mallard for the role, he seems to know quite a bit about this sort of thing
http://www.stuff.co.nz/164612/Mallard-wrong-but-refuses-to-say-sorry
five years ago, that the best you can do?
John Keys really is just an old fashioned sexist pig of a man when it comes down to it.
Sugar daddy, John? Really, you’re going with that?
ffs.
Sure, unemployment down especially in Canterbury.
But 40% fall in dairy price in 6 months.
Dollar falls nearly 2 cents in 2 days: global market analysts clear that NZs dairying vulnerability far more important than employment.
Wake up National.
Anyone here connected to Sue Moroney’s campaign? Seen a few of her billboards around Hamilton, but yet to see a picture of David Cunliffe.
Listen carefully: You are working hard to get back into opposition but nothing more. You can not win the election by winning electorates. Capiche?
The Associate Transport Minister has announced a time limit for Learners licenses. This is because a huge number of people refuse to go to the next stage.
I am one. I have been car licensed for four decades but also drive a scooter on a learners. The reason for this is the cost. Its a $500 rort. Then theres the time restrictions. …all in the name of safety. What a load of revenue raising bollocks.
Personally, I think a drivers licence should get you driving any non-commercial vehicle up to about 2 tonne. From there you’d need specialist licences to drive heavy trucks, trailers, forklifts and diggers.
Oh, and I’ve never been enthusiastic about leaner’s licences. Much better idea to require that people have the required training to get the licence in the first place.
Not good.
.
By now, you’ve heard of the crater on the Yamal Peninsula. It’s the one that suddenly appeared, yawning nearly 200 feet in diameter, and made several rounds in the global viral media machine. The adjectives most often used to describe it: giant, mysterious, curious. Scientists were subsequently “baffled.” Locals were “mystified.” There were whispers that aliens were responsible. Nearby residents peddled theories of “bright flashes” and “celestial bodies.”
[…]
There’s now a substantiated theory about what created the crater. And the news isn’t so good.
It may be methane gas, released by the thawing of frozen ground. According to a recent Nature article, “air near the bottom of the crater contained unusually high concentrations of methane — up to 9.6% — in tests conducted at the site on 16 July, says Andrei Plekhanov, an archaeologist at the Scientific Centre of Arctic Studies in Salekhard, Russia. Plekhanov, who led an expedition to the crater, says that air normally contains just 0.000179% methane.”
The scientist said the methane release may be related to Yamal’s unusually hot summers in 2012 and 2013, which were warmer by an average of 5 degrees Celsius. “As temperatures rose, the researchers suggest, permafrost thawed and collapsed, releasing methane that had been trapped in the icy ground,” the report stated.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/08/05/scientists-may-have-cracked-the-giant-siberian-crater-mystery-and-the-news-isnt-good
You can fool some of the people some of the time and all of the people some of the time but Key thinks he can fool all of the people all of the time.
This election is going to be a mill stone for the winner because of the TPPA and who ever has to take responsibility for selling our sovereignty will be damned as the leader ,which plays nicely for Key because it will probably swing a third term for him and if not will probably paint another PM as a liar and give them only a term which is all Key needs to complete his economic and political mission to squash any major left wing destruction of his last 2 terms ,a sacrifice, if needs be by Key to get done what he knows will happen to NZ and not be made directly responsible for it and if he gets his 3rd term he will be able to annihilate the left and any of the old NZ left values will be gone for good unless there is a real revolution brought about by the mass of losers that will be most of us
Clever Key you think ,just a scenario I dreamed up