I’ve just been watching Max Keiser Report number 947, and it gave me food for thought.
Inequality has become quite grotesque in the USA and in New Zealand, with the richest people in this country increasing their wealth by obscene amounts while the rest of the country struggle to make ends meet. (Slight exaggeration)
It seems to me that, unless we elect a government determined to reverse this trend, we really will end up as serfs. Automation will destroy jobs in the future, so more and more people will join the precariate, while the profits from employing less humans will go straight to the top ten per-cent.
So, as I would suggest, we stand at a crossroads in the history of our country. If we continue on as we are, then we will cement in a new aristocracy, the money-owners, and a new peasantry, the working class who exist on minimum wages and zero hours, or reluctant government handouts.
Or we can take a really radical direction and aim to share the benefits of the economy equally among all the people who live in this country. Radical reform may include a UBI. It must include tax redistribution, shifting the burden of tax from the poor, who can’t escape paying, to the rich, who now avoid paying.
What is absolutely certain is that we cannot do nothing.
Just as an aside, this is why I would support a Trump presidency. Will Clinton nothing meaningful will change. She has been bought and paid for by the very people who don’t want to see economic equality, and she’ll do their bidding.
With the Donald, hell, we don’t know what we’re getting, but it sure isn’t
e*t*b*i*h*e*t. (I bet that will get past moderation!) Yes, I think the man is a shallow showman, and there’s more than a suggestion he might be deliberately throwing his chances of being elected, but if he does get the nod, he won’t tug his forelock to the – to that word again.
But I look in vain in New Zealand for a political party with the gumption to propose a legislative revolution. I fear we shall have to take to the streets in the end, to force political change and to unseat the (God, there’s that word again – can I never get away from it?)
“It seems to me that, unless we elect a government determined to reverse this trend, we really will end up as serfs.”
Unless we also look at improving our political structure, the elite (through political donations or corporate lobbying) can end up commanding the Government we elect.
Tony, there are historical parallels for your Trump leaning. And history tells us that they always work out badly for working people. Reagan, Thatcher, the Austrian bloke who ran Germany in the thirties … all elected on the promise to end the establishment. All cemented the establishment in place.
It’s an infantile pretension, similar to the extreme left concept that we need concentration camps before the lumpen proles will rise up.
On the up side, Trump, who had to admit lying this morning, has surged to a massive 8% chance of winning, according to 538. Hillary Clinton has a mere 91% chance of becoming president.
TRP – I do really agree with what you’re saying. If I were an American voter I would cast my ballot for Jill Stein, and to hell with the consequences. But don’t look to HRC for any meaningful change in the USA.
And perhaps it is unhealthy to oppose the Clintons?
Trump’s Democratic opponents and a growing number of republicans say Trump is temperamentally unsuitable for the presidency. They need to delete the ‘tempera’ part of the adverb. He is mentally ‘unsuitable’..
Honestly, if he were an ordinary person ranting on the street without his money or power, the people in white coats would pick him up, give him a nice room and some medication.
te reo putake I don’t think there is any chance of a goodwin when we talk about what a fascist state has done to working people.
I know Bill and I bring up Franco a lot, there is a reason. Franco’s Spain was a nightmare, the way that economy worked was to brutalise sections of the working class based on ethnicity and/or whether they had fought for republic or not. Even then the so called pro-Franco peasants did not do that well.
trump is a fascist, he may not be a hitler, but his economics and his approach is fascist. This does not bode well for working people, the sick, the disabled, and most of all women. And we should smack him and his ideas down like the destructive force they are.
…while the profits from employing less humans will go straight to the top ten per-cent.
As it always has done under capitalists type systems. We see the same thing in Ancient Greece, Rome and Egypt and we all know what happened to them.
It really is capitalism that doesn’t work. Unfortunately a few get rich until it all falls down and they’re the ones making the rules to suit themselves.
If we continue on as we are, then we will cement in a new aristocracy, the money-owners, and a new peasantry, the working class who exist on minimum wages and zero hours, or reluctant government handouts.
QFT
Of course, the money owners like that idea which is why they always advocate and lobby government for the policies that will bring it about.
Radical reform may include a UBI. It must include tax redistribution, shifting the burden of tax from the poor, who can’t escape paying, to the rich, who now avoid paying.
It must include a UBI and changing all businesses to cooperatives. The workers need to control the business and have a say in who gets paid how much. Shares will need to be converted to loans so that shareholders no longer have a say in running a business and the business itself cannot be owned by the workers either – it needs to be self-owned.
It must include tax redistribution, shifting the burden of tax from the poor, who can’t escape paying, to the rich, who now avoid paying.
That’s how capitalism works. The rich get rich by having the poor pay them for everything. And that is why it also fails.
But I look in vain in New Zealand for a political party with the gumption to propose a legislative revolution.
And that is the problem that we have. No political party is willing to throw out the failed system that is capitalism and look for a better system.
Look ahead a bit to the long game with Trump. The likes of Koch brothers haven’t just tamely accepted it but will move onto the next strategy.
Should Trump get in he would be surrounded by the Republican far right who will isolate him as much as possible and do the governing in his name.
And how long is it before Trump is impeached or assassinated ( not that I would wish that on anyone) and then Mike Pence ( a tea party far right) becomes president in a job nobody would ever vote him into. At that point the Tea party has the reigns of power.
Coming down the road behind every Trotsky is a Lenin and a Stalin.
But HRC really needs to up her game to and make concrete moves towards the Bernie position. Other wise there will be an action replay of this in 4 years.
We became serfs in our own country a long time ago its just credit and low interest rates and cheap crappy goods and men like Key smiling and telling us in a soothing voice we all can be rich if we just elect him and his party and BELIEVE in the BRIGHTER FUTURE we can all have our own cardboard box too live in or move up to the family stationwagon or garage.
Exactly why did someone assign today – the coldest and wettest day of the year – to get me up at 6am to put up their electoral hoardings?
To my colleagues who are joining me, to you I say: OMG, and Solidarity Forever.
In the great Leftie Second Coming, all those who actually did pull their boots on, and their raincoats, and got out there and hauled timber for yet another local government election effort, will be read aloud and praised to the victorious crowds in the Lamb’s Book of Life.
I don’t always agree with Chris Trotter, but this quote from a Daily Blog posting is, I think, quite pertinent:
“Practical progressive organisations like the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) are few and far between. Vastly outnumbering them are the tens-of-thousands of self-defined progressives who confuse posting comments on Facebook or The Daily Blog with effective political action.”
Chris Trotter: The Daily Blog.
I’m off this morning to help in the John Minto campaign to become mayor of Christchurch!
Tony Veitch (not the partner-bashing 3rd rate broadcaster) 3.1
If you are anywhere near Moorhouse Ave at 11, Tony, there’s a protest outside Pak n Slave. These corporate shits pay their South Island workers $2 an hour less than their Nth Island counterparts.
This morning on the Al Jazeera news they did a story on homelessness in NZ, it wasn’t a short piece, Bernard Hickey was interviewed, and at the end of the story the news presenter said that they had asked the Minister of Social Housing for an interview a number of times but they declined. Tried to find a link on line for it, but couldnt. Disappointing that government could not even take a few moments to comment on a story about a situation they have created which has lead to one of the worlds largest news networks doing a report on it.
Enough suffering, time for change, thanks Al Jazeera for your coverage on one of the most desperate situations our people have ever faced.
yes certainly shows up our hopeless jonkey nact agenda bought tv journalism Hoskings and Henry style …and corporate bought foreign ownership mainstream media newspapers…only John Campbell and RNZ escapes imo
Chooky- I inadvertently caught two of Hosking’s smirk sentences the other night- Mea culpa.
It said, complete with trademark smirk,”You know what the trouble is with Education today ? The unions….” At which point my usual frantic Henry/Hosking search for the remote was successful.
And yes, I have listened in the past which is why I don’t listen now.
Chooky
‘Only JC and RNZ escapes imo’. If only I could agree. JC has been taught a lesson about challenging your employers view. RNZ is struggling to maintain funding and quality journalism. There are a few glimmers of hope @ RNZ, Media Watch, JC, Phil Pennington, Kim Hill, and then I begin to run out of suggestions. RNZ is sadly deteriorating and slowly drowning. A healthy and broad alternative media is essential. Australian Public Broadcast current affairs is far better than ours.
“Rumors of war – this time in the South China Sea. Washington appears – step by step – to be moving away from a policy of engagement with Beijing to one of confrontation. This is a policy approach counterproductive for all involved. Attempting to contain China militarily is nothing less than dangerous.
CrossTalking with Harry Kazianis, James Bradley and Peter Navarro.”
and
“Japan summons Chinese ambassador over ships
Japan’s foreign ministry Friday summoned China’s ambassador to protest what it said were intrusions into its territorial waters by Chinese coast guard and fishing vessels. The two countries are locked in a long-running dispute over uninhabited islets in the East China Sea known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China. Japanese vice foreign minister Shinsuke Sugiyama called in Cheng Yonghua, Beijing’s ambassador to Tokyo, the foreign ministry said. Sugiyama “strongly protested” to Cheng that the incursions were a “violation of Japan’s sovereignty.” The Japan Coast Guard said that two coast guard vessels from China’s State Oceanic Administration entered territorial waters near the Senkaku islands during the afternoon before eventually departing. (AFP)”
This is totally predictable. The USA is a war machine. I will say it again for all you duped fans of the yanks–The USA is a war machine.
If you don’t believe me just ask yourself why it has more military might than the rest of the world combined and why it has 1,000 military bases around the world.
“China has hit out at Japan, which has urged it to abide by the terms of a recent international ruling that challenges Beijing’s claims to the South China Sea. Meanwhile, South Asian countries have also failed to display a united position on the ruling.
‘ ‘Ill-founded, farcical’: Beijing blasts South China Sea ruling, vows to defend its interests’
“We at The Peace Place are very excited that Auckland Peace Action will be launching their campaign and national petition against the up-coming Weapons Expo and US Warship Visit here at The Peace Place this coming Saturday 6th August at 4pm.”
Outgoing Tory’ leader Cameron’s granting of knighthoods and peerages to his millionaire money donors is corrupt, blatant and understandable but the OBE , whatever that is, awarded to his wife’s stylist, for ‘political and public service’ was ludicrous.
What next? A knighthood for Bill English’s hairdresser? Certainly not Stephen Joyce’s.
Good on the Aussies for dismissing this medieval/feudal anachronism. When, oh when will New Zealand grow up?
This is grimly amusing, especially with the timing that coincides (not coincidentally?) with the start of the Brazil Olympics.
The committee set up to investigate the lack of transparency in Panama’s financial system itself lacks transparency, Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz has said after resigning from the Panama Papers commission…
Stiglitz and Swiss anti-corruption expert Mark Pieth joined a seven-member commission to investigate Panama’s notoriously opaque financial system, but both quit the group on Friday, saying Panama refused to guarantee the committee’s report would be made public… last week they received a government letter that drew back from its commitment to making the findings public…
“I have had a close look at the so called Panama Papers and I must admit that, even as an expert on economic and organised crime, I was amazed to see so much of what we talk about in theory was confirmed in practice,” Pieth said…
“We’re being asked to do this as a courtesy for them and we’re paraded in front of the world media first,” said Pieth, a criminal law professor at Basel University. “Then we’re told to shut up when they don’t like it.”
They always release their polls on a Sunday. Over the last 18 months, the gap between each CB has varied between 6 and 8 weeks. Tomorrow, It’ll be an outrageous 9 weeks since their last release. Can we expect it to lead One News 6pm tomorrow night or has the Pollster just thrown in the towel along with Herald-Digi ?
“you must be the only lefties who actually looks forward to the polls”
Dunno about that. The polls through March-June were by no means all bad news for the Opposition* – Roy Morgan, UMR and Curia all had the Nats sliding during all or part of that period. The current interest is in finding out how reliable the last (Nat-friendly) Roy Morgan was.
* Oppo Bloc = Yes, I know, Winnie could swing either way (politically-speaking, you understand).
Perhaps they are waiting on one that favours Key maybe ??? I don’t know how they set their polling periods. SF can you enlighten or will we see one 2 nite.
“I don’t know how they set their polling periods. SF can you enlighten or will we see one 2 nite.”
Not sure. The gap usually varies from 6 to 8 weeks. Fieldwork generally takes place over 5-6 days (always starts on a Saturday and is completed by Wednesday or Thursday). Then roughly 6-8 weeks until the next one. Probably depends on how busy they are with their more commercial work. Or maybe the timing’s entirely dictated by One News.
But now 9 weeks and counting, so I’m assuming there’ll be one tomorrow on One News 6pm. (Colmar Brunton always release on a Sunday). Then again, maybe like Roy Morgan they’ve decided to make it less regular ? *
* Their director, Andrew Robertson (who blogs as Grumpollie) has recently left for a new position in the Public Service, so that upheaval might have delayed things.
I was polled by Reid Research about a week ago. The do the ones for TV3 don’t they?
There may be one on TV3 tomorrow night or the following Sunday depending upon where they were in the poll when they rang me.
3 News/Newshub usually release their Reid Research polls between 3-5 days after the final day of polling. Their fieldwork generally takes place over 6-8 days.
So your one should be released at some point over the next week (unlike Colmar Brunton, they don’t restrict their release to a particular day of the week – in CB’s case: Sunday).
Have a look at 3 News tonight – Can’t rule out a release today – if so, maybe upstaging a Colmar Brunton tomorrow ?
If one emerges in the next few days, then I will be sorely tempted to accuse them of… waiting until nearly the end of a month-plus long parliamentary recess before conducting the poll. Such polls always favour the governing party because they are the only ones afforded any publicity. Example… post Xmas holiday recess. There is invariably a poll released around the beginning of February.
Cynical I know, but having been a keen observer of politics and the media for several decades it’s an understandable conclusion to come to.
The few laws that govern and restrain the actions of NZ Judges, have been eroded.
in 2010 the Supreme Court of NZ ruled by a 3-2 margin in Attorney General v Chapman that rights guaranteed by the NZ Bill of Rights Act 1990 were no longer enforceable against judges.
Then there was the Public Records Act 2005 which required all branches of government to create and maintain accurate public records of their affairs. In March 2009, Ministry of Justice Counsel Jeff Orr asserted that judges were exempt – stating judges are governed by their own customs and “not by the requirements of any enactment (eg the Public Records Act, the Crimes Act 1961)”.
In Greer v Smith [2015] all five judges of the Supreme Court of NZ convened privately, without submissions from government or public, to rule a single judge in their court can issue private judgments refusing access to public records at our highest court – and that such a private order was also unappealable.
Last month, the Official Information Act 1982 became the object of judicial exemption when the Ombudsman rejected an appeal against the Judicial Office for Higher Courts’ refusal to provide an “official agenda” for a taxpayer-paid judge retreat earlier this year on the ground, “The judicial conference agenda does not constitute ‘official information’ because it is held by the judiciary which is not subject to the OIA.”
But the judiciary are only exempt from such transparency in their judicial function. Taxpayer funded official agendas and judicial cocktail parties are not exempt.
The exemption from law extends beyond our 61 High Court judges and 144 lower court judges. The Judicial Office for Higher Courts has 115 staff employees – all of whom are exempt from the Official Information Act
Then there is the Supreme Court Act 2003 which requires under section 16 that Supreme Court judges give reasons for refusals. The dirty secret that is uniquely NZ is many Supreme Court decisions are kept off the record, which is helpful in evading this law which pertains entirely to judges.
And those who challenge the off-record secrecy are shut out of the courts altogether.
No links and the structure that is very much what you’d see on conspiracy websites that are all about telling you how bad government is. I suspect that if we could properly investigate the allegations and get the correct context it would be nothing like what he said.
If you keep an eye on HRC’s campaign schedule compared to Trump’s, you’ll see that she conducts way fewer public engagements than he does. Whereas he might do 2 engagements in a day, HRC might do one every 2 or 3 days.
Saw that ugly alright say anything against the big owners and bang your dead youd have to be brave to take them on .By the sound of it the american fruit co stacked up a few bodies too putting it mildly was that in nicuagrua or the hondures? sorry not much good at spelling or geography !.Incidentely bananas grow just fine in northland .I eat my own most days and for weeks at a time depending on how theyre producing .Ive usually got enough to dry some also .
what a great woman!…and it is wonderful her story turned out well!
…other women were destroyed by the baby snatchers and their snatched babies also were destroyed …i read of one woman who searched the rest of her life for her daughter and her daughter searched for her mother…they were very close to finding each other but both committed suicide before they could meet…a tragedy!
this is a story of crimes against women and their children
That was the normal situation when I was a young woman.
In fact I know some very prominent New Zealand women of that day who still have not talked publically about the secret babies they bore, who were adopted.
One was a married woman who unexpectedly found herself pregnant when she separated from her abusive husband – she already had a toddler and arranging a job that would allow for her to care for them both was impossible. There was no benefit available, and her husband vanished. In effect, giving the child away was her only option apart from murder/suicide, so she had her little girl adopted and grieved for ever after.
Thank god, and Second Wave feminists, that the DPB was introduced in the 1970s, though it was over the dead body of some MPs. I recall one who said “If you play, you pay”, and that was the attitude of men in power in those days.
See the other post here today reminding us of the Prime Minister’s and the Speaker’s abominable treatment of female MPs last year, and I think those attitudes are still there, just hidden under a thin veneer of pretend tolerance.
yes sexism is entrenched alright…(my daughter working independently in the workforce is now recognising it in some patronising older men, after pooh poohing feminism in her teens…)
I have nothing but absolute admiration for the women that came before me and their struggles and tragedies …these women were the shock troops for women’s rights and feminism…
birth control contraception and abortion were absolute rights fought for and won by New Zealand women! (despite the misogynist Catholic Church)…also the DPB to enable women to keep and look after their babies and children
…and equal education opportunities and equal pay for equal work recognised in principle but not in actuality…also legislation against sexual harassment and assault
…and these fundamental rights are still NOT for many women around the world!
The Guardian draws opinion from all over the globe and this article is by Dunedin based writer, Eleanor Roy. In it, in part, she describes John Key’s brighter future…
”we have the second highest rate of youth suicide in the OECD. That a third of our children live below the poverty line and 10% of our working-age population is on social welfare.”
What you dont know about NZ is: its really expensive to live there, when you are someone who has to work for a living. Salaries are comparatively low (I am an engineer) and a normal job has normal 40h+/week working hours. House prices are sky rocking in Auckland. Renting is no real option and again expensive. The 4 season a day weather results in one of the highest global asthma rates and damp houses with very low ceilings (the newly built ones). Life in NZ is: lawn mawing, barbecue, rugby, talking about the All Blacks and mortgages, sailing if you can afford it. Everything closes by 6pm, streets are empty at the latest by 10pm. Kiwis are usually friendly people, but I felt that life down there was very narrow. Kiwis usually live a close knit family life that includes childhood friends. Activities are lived in their back yard. For overseas newcomers its relatively difficult to get access. In work life, things are done the Kiwi way, sometimes the laws of physics, chemistry etc. are ignored to “save” costs thereby resulting in even damper houses. Business partners conduct meetings a little like village talk as everyone somewhat knows everyone else and is somehow related, part of family etc. which has an effect on how decisions are made > resulting in a lack of quality > the job does not always go to the best, but the best related person group etc. Life down there felt like living in a transit and I am very glad to be back in Europe again.
The bolded bit among others, brutally true of New Zealand decision makers short-sightedness on so many crucially important projects and policy for future generations.
Not at all. People don’t know each other as another comment on the blog where I sourced this from attests to.
Having lived a lot in London and auckland I must say that socially London is a lot better. I know most of the people who live in my street, which was never true in auckland. Benefit of terraced housing and walking to school maybe?
I’d agree with this in that that New Zealand fails badly on security of community. The amateur landlord class flipping properties for capital gain has rendered low income renting communities powerless and transient.
Low income New Zealand renters just want to be stable and have security of tenancy. They want their kids to be able to attend the same school without fear of disruption through no fault of their own. They want their kids to know the neighbours kids without being moved on by some property flipping investor. However, the fuelling of the investment property market both internally and through the advertising of the same to offshore buyers with cheap money is destroying that community spirit.
The truth is that lower wages and poverty can account for so many of the things that older generations find so mystifying about millennials.
For example, millennials drive less than their parent’s generation—and until recently, at least—were relatively uninterested in buying cars. As The Atlantic reported in 2012, this crisis prompted automakers to appoint “youth emissaries” and come up with new car colors like “techno pink” and “denim.”
But trying to make cars cooler doesn’t change the fact that, as CityLab found, there’s a significant gap in vehicle miles traveled between millenials who make over $30,000 a year and those who make less. Simply put: Cars cost money and millennials have less of it.
Dude goes to town on Trump’s “economic” advisers –
I get preferring businessmen over "economists", but Trump's team is dominated by vulture sectors of the economy. None of 'em make stuff.— Justin Wolfers (@JustinWolfers) August 5, 2016
"Hope, get me the former chief economist at Bear Stearns. Must be a smart guy. Maybe he'll advise me on economics." https://t.co/yHLsEsHphI— Justin Wolfers (@JustinWolfers) August 5, 2016
Offering a rare insider analysis of the climate assessment process, Carnegie’s Katharine Mach and colleagues at the Department of Global Ecology examined the writing and editing procedures by which the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change creates summaries of their findings for policymakers. Despite recent critiques that these summaries are too difficult for non-experts, Mach and colleagues found them comparable to reference texts in terms of reading comprehension level. Their results are published by Science Advances.
“Using multiple tools for measuring reading ease, we found that IPCC reports are designed for grownups, but they are not harder to read than other science documents, including those written for the public by professional writers,” said co-author Chris Field, who served as the co-chair of the second IPCC Working Group.
Nevertheless, Mach and colleagues also suggest ways that the summary reports could be improved by using less jargon and more cohesive language to link the ideas they contain. The summaries could also be enhanced by graphics, videos, animations, and online multimedia, in addition to extensive media availability by panel leadership.
Well after this horror week for rugby, I think I just witnessed a player do a ‘mince’ walk to accept his award for winning the competition. Then the whole team received tankards as individual prizes. Maybe players and the whole rugby culture are a bit slow in learning, or maybe it’s best to leave it out there for all to see.
Everyone at the awards ceremony pretty cool about it all, though? If so, it just goes to show that the $$$$$/sporting section of the community they are most in touch with and that they care most about don’t give a ****.
Yeah pretty much, the guy is being congratulated for his walk on twitter.
I wonder if a few supporters are questioning their membership for next year though. Be interesting to look at a certain franchise’s balance sheet for 2017.
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Since becoming the world’s first openly transexual mayor and member of parliament, Georgina Beyer has been recognised as a trailblazer for trans rights. Daphna Whitmore talks with her about where she sees the current trans movement We start out talking about legislation the government put on hold that would have ...
If FFNZ really put their faith in “Top Medical Journals” they would now be amending their billboards to recognise new research results. Image from FFNZ but updated to agree with the latest research. ...
National Messiah? Chris Luxon identifies himself as an evangelical Christian. If he is genuine in this self-characterisation, then he will take every opportunity his public office provides to proselytise on behalf of his faith. He will also feel obliged to bear witness against beliefs and practices he believes to be ...
I'm going to make a Reckless Prediction™ that the Tories have 'topped out' in the 'poll of polls' / Britain Elects multipoll tracker at about 38%, and in the next week we will start to see Labour creep up on them.In fact, we might just be seeing the start of ...
by The Council of Disobedient Women Lizzie Marvelly: “I may have missed this… has @afterellen gone all terf-y? Or am I reading something incorrectly? “ https://twitter.com/LizzieMarvelly/status/1191840059105742849 After Ellen is a lesbian website that is unashamedly pro-lesbian, as you’d expect. So why is Ms Marvelly so bothered about lesbians having their ...
Did you know there once was a time when it was illegal to be a gypsy (aka Romani) in Britain?That was between 1530, when the Egyptians Act was passed, and 1856, when it was repealed.Amongst other things, the act forbade the entry of 'Egyptians' into England, ordered those already there ...
Some days I sit and think, “what will I write…?” What do you say when you get to 1000 posts? Maybe you just start where you are, diverge to where this all began, then offer a collection of reader’s favourite posts, and a few of your own? (And throw in ...
Counter-Puncher: The “activists” and “radicals” (his own words) from the Indian community who took such strong exception to Shane Jones’ remarks about Immigration NZ’s treatment of arranged marriages, may end up bitterly regretting their intervention. Jones is not the sort of person who turns the other cheek to his critics.SHANE ...
In the spirit of Remember, remember the fifth of November, let's keep this in mind FOREVER.
Oh dear. Extraordinary interview on PM with Andrew Bridgen and @EvanHD just now. Bridgen was defending Jacob Rees Mogg’s Grenfell comments. Evan asked him if JRM had meant to say he would have left ...
Collision Course? In conditions of ideological white-out, the international bankers’ “Woop-Woop! Pull Up!” warning may have come too late to save global capitalism.WHAT DOES IT MEAN when international bankers are more willing to embrace radical solutions than our politicians and their electors? At both the International Monetary Fund and the ...
Pertussis (whooping cough) is a conundrum. It is a disease that was described hundreds of years ago and the bacteria that causes it (Bordetella pertussis) isolated in 1906. We have had vaccines for about 80 years but this disease is defiant in the face of human immunity. I wanted to ...
The Zero Carbon Bill has just passed its third reading, uanimously. In the end, National supported it - but we all know they'll turn around and gut it the moment they regain power. Meanwhile, I guess ACT's David Seymour didn't even bother to show up. I am on record as ...
Dr Lindsay Robertson, Dr Jerram Bateman, Professor Janet HoekMembers of the public health community hold divergent views on how access to vaping products or electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) products should be arranged. Some believe ENDS should be as widely available as smoked tobacco and argue for liberal ...
When the Police were trying to cover up for the National Party over Dirty Politics, they went all-in with their abuses of power. They illegally search Nicky Hager's house, violating his journalistic privilege and invading his privacy. They unlawfully acquired Hager's bank records. They did the same to left-wing blogger ...
Last month, in response to a wave of protests by Extinction Rebellion, the British government purported to ban their protests from the whole of London. It was a significant interference with the freedoms of expression and assembly, and another sign of the country's decline into tyranny. But now, a court ...
Last year, the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security reported on significant problems with the intelligence warrant system. While they were unwilling to declare any warrant "irregular" (meaning unlawful) due to the recent law change, they were also not willing to give the system a clean bill of health. Now, they've ...
The National Party has come out in support of encouraging greater vaccination uptake. But it sure isn’t the way I’d do it. National’s suggested docking the benefits of those on benefit whose kids aren’t keeping up with their vaccinations. Some in National have suggested extending that to payments under Working ...
Feeding The Flames: It is simply not enough to demand an end to “corruption”, or “inequality”, or the overbearing influence of the authorities in Beijing. These are just “lowest common denominator” demands: the sort of slogans that pull people onto the streets. They are not a plan.WHERE’S THE PLAN? Across ...
The labour market statistics have been released, and unemployment has risen to 4.2%. There are 115,000 unemployed - 11,000 fewer than when Labour took office. In that time the minimum wage has gone up by $2 an hour, which shows that the right's fears about increases causing unemployment are simply ...
The Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee has called for submissions on Andrew Little's tyrannicalTerrorism Suppression (Control Orders) Bill. Normally I encourage participation in the democratic process. I am not doing so in this case. Instead, I encourage all of you to boycott this submissions process, and to post ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzIf tiny concentrations of carbon dioxide can hold enough heat ...
Aviation is one of the fastest growing sources of greenhouse gas emissions, and within it, one of the fastest sources is elite travel: billionaires flitting around the world in their private jets, spewing excessive pollution into the atmosphere just so they can avoid mixing with us dirty peasants. But in ...
That's what we face if we don't stop climate change, according to a warning from 11,000 scientists:The world’s people face “untold suffering due to the climate crisis” unless there are major transformations to global society, according to a stark warning from more than 11,000 scientists. “We declare clearly and unequivocally ...
by Phil Duncan Here’s just a few of the kind of threats issued day in and day out against gender-critical women – feminists, marxists, etc – overwhelmingly by MEN (albeit men identifying as women). “Kill all Terfs”. “Shoot a Terf today”. “All terfs deserve to be shot in the head”. ...
This is the third of the synopses of parts of the opening chapter of John Smith’s Imperialism in the 21st Century (New York, Monthly Review Press, 2016). The synopsis and commentary below is written by Phil Duncan. Unlike the humble cup of coffee and t-shirt that we looked at in ...
Tom MooreTraditionally a food source and cutting tool, freshwater mussels/kākahi are now widely valued as water filters that help clean our waterbodies and maintain ecosystem health throughout Aotearoa. The improvement they provide in water quality can make it easier for other animals to live in streams and rivers, as ...
And to think he gave all the potential goodwill away with that moronic, cult-like statement (repeated ad nauseam by many National hardliners) that Key is quite simply “the greatest PM we ever had”…Installation complete: this was nothing ...
The Zero Carbon Bill is back in the House today for its second reading. While this isn't the final stage, its still effectively D-Day for the bill. Because today, at around 5pm, is when we're going to find out if it has a majority, whether National will support it or ...
Winston Peters is in court today, suing a bunch of former Minister and civil servants over their pre-election leak of his superannuation repayment. He's characterised the leak as malicious, and said that it is repugnant that his information was passed on to Ministers to use for political advantage. And he's ...
Murray CoxDo I have to finish my favourite genome? That’s an often-asked question. Geneticists generally strive to produce high-quality genomes that sequence every last gene, making full use of the state-of-the-art technologies coming on stream. Sequencing DNA means determining the order of the four chemical building blocks – called ...
Transformative Politics: The idea is to turn each recipient into an unwitting accomplice in their own transformation. From interested observer to hyped-up activist, sharing our messages promiscuously with ‘friends’. You’ll be part of an ever-expanding circulatory system, Jennifer, for the ideas that will win us the election.”JENNIFER SKITTERED her chair ...
The boycott is a fundamental tool of protest. By choosing who we buy from, we can send a message, and hopefully change corporate behaviour. Historically, boycotts have been effective, for example over apartheid in South Africa and Israel, in forcing divestment from Myanmar, and in ending bus segregation in the ...
Jan Rivers spoke at the Abortion Legislation Select Committee in favour of the bill, but in opposition to calls from other submitters to exchange the word ‘woman’ for ‘person’ throughout the bill. Jan is a supporter of the feminist group Speak Up For Women and has recently written an excellent ...
I checked my traffic stats:I was intrigued by 'monica29' - who was this very dedicated individual? I clicked on the link, to be greeted with ...Ho, hum.Spreadin' the word, spreadin' the word. Doesn't matter who hears it, as long as it gets out there. ...
There have been three polls since the election was announced, and I will shamelessly steal YouGov / UK Polling Report's Anthony Wells' summary of them:Survation – CON 34%, LAB 26%, LDEM 19%, BREX 12%, GRN 1% Ipsos MORI – CON 41%, LAB 24%, LDEM 20%, BREX 7%, GRN 3% YouGov ...
The following article is translated from Lutte Ouvrière, the weekly newspaper of the organisation usually known by the same name in France. When, for the second time this year, Chilean President Piñera announced an increase in the price of Metro tickets from 800 to 830 pesos, students in the high ...
Today, a worker contacted me asking if she could go to the police over her employer stealing thousands of dollars from her in unpaid wages. The employer also did not pay this worker’s taxes or student loan which amounts to tax fraud. As a workers rights activist, who founded the ...
Signed, Sealed, Delivered, They're Yours: Is there any person more vulnerable than a jilted lover on the rebound? Or, anything more certain than that the charmer, the predator, the glib spinner of lies and promises will seek such broken people out? Yes, of course, he will love every one of ...
Though Jonathan Romain is a fairly high profile Rabbi, writing in several papers and popping up on TV and the radio, this story doesn't seem to have made it to the Guardian yet, so I'll take the unusual step of linking the Stephen Pollard edited Jewish Chronicle:Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain ...
There's an election afoot, and that is when noted opinion formers such as myself get to make wild fools of ourselves by pretending we have the faintest idea what will happen.So, here is my absurdly optimistic prediction:Labour - 285Conservative - 262SNP - 53Lib Dems - 20PC - 5Ireland - 18 ...
Image Credit:Increase Social Media Traffic & Website Traffic I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. If your ...
Belinda CridgeI was reading my son a story last night. A great tale of derring-do of five mountaineers scaling the Matterhorn for the first time. One in the party had tried six times previously and failed, this was the last attempt before winter closed another season. They tried a ...
As introduced, the Zero Carbon Bill included an expansive secrecy clause, which would have covered virtually all decisions by the Climate Change Commission over our most important policy area. The Ministry for the Environment admitted this was a mistake (or as they put it, an "oversight"), and the select committee ...
Rachael Shaw, Victoria University of WellingtonWhen we think about animals storing food, the image that usually comes to mind is a squirrel busily hiding nuts for the winter. We don’t usually think of a small songbird taking down an enormous invertebrate, tearing it into pieces and hiding these titbits ...
Jenny Marcroft MP, Spokesperson for Health New Zealand First backs the public to decide on the End of Life Choice Bill via a referendum at the 2020 General Election. The Bill, with New Zealand First’s referendum provision incorporated, passed its final reading in Parliament this evening. New Zealand First Spokesperson for ...
Darroch Ball, Spokesperson for Justice New Zealand First is proud that a key Coalition Agreement commitment which will provide for a more transparent and effective criminal justice system has been realised. Legislation to establish the Criminal Cases Review Commission, an independent body focused on identifying and responding to possible miscarriages of ...
"Today we have made a choice that will leave a legacy... I hope that means that future generations will see that we, in New Zealand, were on the right side of history." - Jacinda Ardern, Third Reading of the Zero Carbon Bill ...
Darroch Ball, New Zealand First List MP A Member’s bill has been proposed that would provide income tax exemptions for all New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) personnel while on operational deployment overseas. The Income Tax (Exemption for Salary or Wages of NZDF Members on Active Deployment) Amendment Bill proposed by New Zealand First ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, New Zealand First Leader New Zealand First is proud to have brought common sense to the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill, which passed its final reading in Parliament today. Party Leader Rt Hon Winston Peters says months of hard work went into negotiating a balanced ...
Jenny Marcroft MP, Spokesperson for Health New Zealand First has listened to calls to recognise paramedics as registered health professionals under the Health Practitioners’ Competence Assurance Act (the Act).Today, the Coalition Government announced plans for paramedics to be registered as health practitioners under the Act, and the establishment of a ...
We began the week by commemorating the New Zealand Wars and celebrating a major increase in the number of teachers. Then, we were busy supporting offenders into work and getting our rail back on track after years of underinvestment. And that's just the start! ...
In October I was sworn in as the Mayor of Lower Hutt.It’s the privilege of my life to serve Hutt people as their Mayor. There is something really special to be able to serve the community where I was raised, and where I live. ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Racing Racing Minister Winston Peters met with Korea Racing Authority Chairperson Nak Soon Kim in Seoul today to discuss closer cooperation between the New Zealand and Korean horse racing industries. As part of the visit to the Seoul Racecourse, Mr Peters witnessed ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is investing $10 million to establish Otago as the centre of New Zealand’s creative digital industry over the next ten years, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. “The initiative will bring us closer to the vision of ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF)’s skills and employment programme will help young Otago people into long-term forestry careers, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. Te Ara Mahi will invest $63,000 in the 2020 school year to support eight 17 and 18 ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) will support local plans to revitalise and stimulate economic development opportunities in Otago, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has announced. The four Regional Economic Development Ministers have approved an in-principle investment of $19.9 million towards the region’s ...
Mark Patterson, Spokesperson for Primary Industries New Zealand First is pleased to have received the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) report on the Coalition Government’s Mycoplasma bovis eradication efforts, which shows significant progress in the fight against the disease. New Zealand First Spokesperson for Primary Industries, Mark Patterson, says the report’s findings ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development Hon David Parker, Minister for Trade and Export Growth The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is investing to support economic growth opportunities for Otago’s engineering and manufacturing sectors, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones and Trade and Export Minister David Parker announced today. Almost $20 million ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Foreign Minister Winston Peters and his South Korean counterpart, Kang Kyung-wha, discussed in Seoul today opportunities to work more closely in the Pacific and the situation on the Korean Peninsula. Mr Peters and Minister Kang confirmed New Zealand and the ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development Hon Nanaia Mahuta, Minister for Māori Development The three marae in the historic Parihaka Pa complex in Taranaki have been upgraded to high speed broadband with the support of the Provincial Growth Fund (PGF), Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. “Connecting the ...
Hon Ron Mark, Minister of Defence Minister of Defence Ron Mark will today launch the Advancing Pacific Partnerships 2019 Defence Assessment during a speech at Te Papa. The Assessment outlines how Defence will partner with our Pacific Island neighbours and invest in Pacific regional security architecture. The Plan aligns with the Coalition ...
A new Provincial Growth Fund investment could create about 80 new jobs in Gisborne over the next two years, turning a local small business into a “beacon of employment” in the process. Regional Economic Development Parliamentary Under-Secretary Fletcher Tabuteau said the PGF’s Te Ara Mahi funding stream would provide $1.6m ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters will travel to the Republic of Korea and Japan next week. “The Republic of Korea and Japan are two of New Zealand’s closest partners in the region with whom we share common values and ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced today that New Zealand is leading a police support mission in Bougainville as the region prepares to vote in a non-binding referendum on its political future. “New Zealand has accepted an invitation ...
The Government has confirmed its third major mental health facility upgrade since the Budget, this time at Palmerston North Hospital. The Prime Minister and Health Minister today visited MidCentral DHB to announce that $30 million has been allocated to upgrade its acute mental health facility. It follows earlier announcements in ...
The roll out of the National Bowel Screening Programme has reached the halfway mark, with 10 out of 20 District Health Boards now part of the programme. MidCentral DHB, which covers Palmerston North, Manawatu and surrounding districts, this week became the latest to DHB to offer free bowel screening to ...
The Government welcomes PHARMAC’s decision to fund a vaccine to protect young people from meningococcal disease from 1 December this year. “Meningococcal disease is a serious threat which people at higher risk should be protected from,” says Associate Health Minister Julie Anne Genter. “The combined pharmaceutical budget was increased by ...
Groups involved with innovative fisheries research projects are encouraged to apply for government support in the latest funding round from the Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures programme. Fisheries Minister Stuart Nash says the SFF Futures funding is designed to be flexible enough to support small or large projects across a ...
The Government has fixed an issue affecting how Immigration New Zealand has processed visa applications for culturally arranged marriages, which will now see a consistent process applied which ensures people with legitimate arranged marriages can visit New Zealand while also preventing any rorting of the system. Earlier this year Immigration ...
The Royal Commission into the Attacks on Christchurch Mosques will report back on 30 April 2020 to give it more time to hear submissions and consider information, Internal Affairs Minister Tracey Martin announced today. The Royal Commission was originally scheduled to report back to Government by 10 December 2019. “There has ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Washington DC today to attend a ministerial meeting focused on defeating ISIS, and to continue pursuing New Zealand’s trade opportunities. Mr Peters will participate in a meeting of Foreign and Defence Ministers from key countries contributing to the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS. ...
The recently crowned Bird of the Year, the hoiho/yellow eyed penguin, is getting a much needed helping hand alongside more than 168 other community conservation projects announced Minister for Conservation Eugenie Sage today. 168 community conservation projects throughout New Zealand are benefiting from $8 million in government grants, including $500,000 ...
Controls on assault rifles and semi-automatic firearms are to be broadened to include some types of pistols, under changes to a bill currently making its way through Parliament. Police Minister Stuart Nash has tabled a Supplementary Order Paper to the Arms Legislation Bill, which is currently before a Select Committee ...
Minister of Defence Ron Mark will travel to Singapore today to conduct a counterpart visit and to co-chair the third annual Singapore-New Zealand Defence Ministers’ Meeting with his counterpart, Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen. “Singapore is one of our most important defence partners in the region, and our ...
Nelson’s Salisbury School is to be rebuilt, creating a modern and suitable learning environment for students at the residential special school, Education Minister Chris Hipkins and Associate Education Minister Tracey Martin announced today. The school for girls aged 8-15, in Richmond, was earmarked for closure by National until the process ...
The panel undertaking a comprehensive review of the Resource Management Act has identified the main issues to be addressed and options for reform and is calling for feedback to inform its final report. In July the Government announced the comprehensive review of the resource management system, including the RMA - ...
An important safety valve has been added to New Zealand’s criminal justice system with the third reading of the Criminal Cases Review Commission Bill today. The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) will investigate claimed miscarriages of justice. “We’ve seen how our justice system can very occasionally get things spectacularly wrong, ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters welcomes the tabling of the Racing Industry Transition Agency (RITA) 2019 Annual Report in Parliament today. He says the 2019 Annual Report marks the point when New Zealand’s racing industry’s decline was arrested and a turnaround started. RITA’s 2019 Annual Report recorded an industry net profit ...
The New Zealand Government is today sending 21 firefighters to help fight the ongoing catastrophic Australian bushfires. “The fires in Australia are in some of the toughest, most challenging conditions ever,” says Internal Affairs Minister Tracey Martin. “As of yesterday morning, there were 100 active bushfire-related incidents across Queensland and ...
More frontline support for schools through a new education agency, as part of a redesigned Ministry of Education More support for principals and school boards including through a new centre of leadership and local leadership advisor roles New independent disputes panels for parents and students Management of school property ...
The Government’s reform of the Tomorrow’s Schools system is a watershed moment in education and an opportunity to create meaningful change for ākonga Māori and their whānau, Associate Education Minister Kelvin Davis said today. “Last year through Kōrero Mātauranga | Education Conversation, Māori teachers, parents, ākonga, whānau, hapū and iwi ...
Infrastructure Minister is welcoming the first of many updated project pipelines from the newly established New Zealand Infrastructure Commission today. The New Zealand Infrastructure Commission, Te Waihanga, has released an expanded pipeline of major capital projects – another crucial step towards delivering better infrastructure outcomes. “The first iteration of the ...
Tougher gun laws designed to improve public safety through firearms prohibition orders are proposed in a new document released for public input. Police Minister Stuart Nash says firearms prohibition orders (FPOs) would give new powers to Police to ensure high-risk individuals come nowhere near firearms. “We have already prohibited the ...
Andy Coupe has been confirmed as TVNZ’s new Board Chair. “Mr Coupe has strong commercial and capital markets experience and TVNZ has benefited from his technical knowledge of business and finance, as well as his extensive governance experience,” the Minister of Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media Kris Faafoi said. Andy ...
Associate Minister of Transport Julie Anne Genter today officially opened a separated pathway, following the completion of the Kaiwharawhara Stream bridge, which will improve safety for cyclists and pedestrians along Hutt Road. The $6.8m Hutt Road project provides a separated path for cycling and pedestrians, the replacement of informal parking ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters today announced the appointment of career diplomat Si’alei van Toor as New Zealand’s next Ambassador to Russia. “I’m pleased to appoint Ms van Toor to this position. She brings a wealth of experience to the role having previously served as Senior Trade Adviser to the ...
The Treasury’s 2019 Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU) will be released on Wednesday December 11, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. The Coalition Government will publish the 2020 Budget Policy Statement at the same time, outlining the priorities for Budget 2020. Further details on arrangements for the release will ...
A new initiative to better support small businesses through hands-on mentoring and advice has been launched by the Minister for Small Business. The first event in the Kiwi Business Boost series of regional workshops and online tools has been launched in Wairoa by Stuart Nash. “The Business Boost initiative combines ...
The latest Quarterly Connectivity Report shows that more and more New Zealanders are moving to Ultra-fast Broadband (UFB), with Rolleston having the highest uptake at 74 per cent, as at the end of September. “This means that nearly three quarters of Rolleston’s households and businesses have moved to ultra-fast services. ...
The passing of the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill will help ensure a safe planet for our kids and grandkids, the Minister for Climate Change James Shaw said today. The landmark legislation which provides a framework to support New Zealanders to prepare for, and adapt to, the effects ...
The review of Oranga Tamariki practice around the planned uplift of a Hastings baby in May shows significant failings by the Ministry and that the planned and funded changes to shift from a child crisis service to a proper care and protection service need to be accelerated, Children’s Minister Tracey ...
Education Minister Chris Hipkins has wished students the best of luck for this year’s NCEA and New Zealand Scholarship exams which start tomorrow. Around 140,000 students will have participated in 119 NCEA and New Zealand Scholarship exams by the end of the exam period on 3 December. “I want to ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters today announced the appointment of Bede Corry as New Zealand’s next High Commissioner to the United Kingdom. “The appointment of a senior diplomat to this important role underlines the significance New Zealand places on our relationship with the United Kingdom,” said Mr Peters. “The United ...
An innovative approach to boosting the number of frontline Police has seen 20 new officers graduate from one of the uncommon training wings in Auckland. Police Minister Stuart Nash says the graduation of 20 constables today means that 1,765 new Police officers have been deployed since the coalition government took ...
Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis says the 1.2 million hours of community work completed by offenders in the last financial year has helped local communities right across the country. “Community work sentences are a great way for people to pay something positive back to society. There is a massive benefit to ...
"A pathway for Police in leadership with Iwi Māori, to achieve the aspirations of Māori whānau." Police launch of Te Huringa o Te Tai, Pipitea Marae, Thorndon Quay, Wellington Nau mai, haere mai. Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, ka nui te mihi, ki a koutou. Hello everyone, warm greetings to you all. ...
Working New Zealanders are getting more in their back pockets under the Coalition Government’s economic plan. Stats NZ data today shows average weekly ordinary time earnings are up by $83 since the Government took office. This shows that working New Zealanders are getting higher take-home pay, and that employers are ...
The Government is supporting schools to cut down their energy consumption and reduce environmental impacts, with a quarter of all schools having their lights replaced with LEDs, a sustainability contestable fund and a plan to improve the environmental sustainability of all schools in the future. Education Minister Chris Hipkins and ...
Tourism Minister Kelvin Davis heads to China on Friday to lead the New Zealand Government presence at the China-New Zealand Year of Tourism closing ceremony. The ceremony will take place at Canton Tower in Guangzhou on Sunday 10 November. “The Year of Tourism has been mutually beneficial for both New ...
Should we plan for drought or deluge and how is CO2 released from the ocean’s floor? Several climate change projects were given a boost in the latest Marsden Fund investment of $83.6 million, Research, Science and Innovation Minister Megan Woods said today. “Climate change is long-term challenge that requires out-of-the-box ...
Leaders of 16 countries negotiating the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) have announced the completion of negotiation on the text as well as agreement on virtually all market access issues between 15 countries. The leaders said they will work with India to resolve its outstanding concerns in a way that ...
Civil Defence Minister Hon Peeni Henare says World Tsunami Awareness Day today (5 November) is a chance for all New Zealanders to learn more about the tsunami risk in our regions and the right actions to take to stay safe. “All of New Zealand’s coastline is at risk of tsunami. ...
New Zealand’s more than 1000 paramedics are to have their role as key frontline health professionals formally recognised and regulated in the same way as doctors and nurses, Health Minister David Clark says. The Government has agreed to regulate paramedics under the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003. “Paramedic leaders ...
Changes to insolvency law announced by the Government today will include requirements to honour up to 50 per cent of the value of gift cards or vouchers held by consumers, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Kris Faafoi says. “When a business is insolvent, these consumers are often left out of ...
After Massey University in Wellington cancelled Feminism 2020 last month, the controversial event has found a new home in the parliament banquet hall. The controversial Feminism 2020 event cancelled last month by Massey University is scheduled to be held instead in the parliamentary banquet hall this Friday night. Billed as “the ...
The Migrant Workers Association says it is wrong to ask immigration officials to treat couples in culturally arranged marriages differently from other partnership cases. ...
A single public broadcaster would be too powerful and bad for democracy, National leader Simon Bridges says, after news of a proposal to replace RNZ and TVNZ. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Ward, PhD candidate, University of Sydney The ABC has announced it will not provide live radio coverage of the Olympics for the first time in 67 years for budgetary reasons, and because Australians now have the “increased ability to access Olympics ...
For Amy Russell, ceasing deforestation of her lower limbs was a declaration of independence.When I wrote on The Spinoff recently about going barefoot everywhere, and then about being a fat runner, I got a lot more positive feedback than I expected, and a lot less criticism. So I thought clearly ...
Lecretia Seales would have been "incredibly proud" of last night's End of Life Choice vote, her husband says, while doctors continue to voice their opposition. ...
Dr Susan Wardell, a His Dark Materials fan who grew up to be a social anthropologist, reviews the much-anticipated sort-of sequel, The Secret Commonwealth.Is the world fundamentally dead, or alive? Philip Pullman asks in this new book, a thinly-veiled philosophical interrogation of “progressive thinking”. The book is rich in both human ...
The newly launched Sustainable New Zealand Party’s first and biggest challenge is to prove that it is in fact sustainable, and not just another flash in the new party pan. ...
The fate of RNZ and TVNZ may soon be in the hands of Cabinet ministers; and the chair of the Medical Association says it will be difficult to put safeguards in place to prevent people from being subtlety coerced into euthanasia. ...
New Zealanders now have the casting vote on whether to make euthanasia legal, after Parliament voted 69 votes to 51 in favour of the End of Life Choice Bill. ...
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.Euthanasia Mike Hosking (Newstalk ZB): Euthanasia bill proves there’s power in a party-of-one Sam Sachdeva ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sally Wasef, Postdoctoral research fellow, Griffith University These days, not many Aussies consider the ibis a particularly admirable creature. But these birds, now colloquially referred to as “bin chickens” due to their notorious scavenging antics, have a grandiose and important place in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Ward, PhD candidate, University of Sydney The ABC has announced it will not provide live radio coverage of the Olympics for the first time in 67 years for budgetary reasons, and because Australians now have the “increased ability to access Olympics ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Philip Mosley, Research Fellow, Systems Neuroscience Laboratory, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute Parkinson’s disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder affecting one in 350 Australians. It’s caused by the loss of cells deep within the brain that produce a neurotransmitter called dopamine. Degeneration ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael James Walsh, Assistant Professor Social Science, University of Canberra The concept of “home” refers to more than bricks and mortar. Just as cities are more than buildings and infrastructure, our homes carry all manner of emotional, aesthetic and socio-cultural significance. Our ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lin Crase, Professor of Economics and Head of School, University of South Australia The deal to crank up Adelaide’s desalination plant to make more water available to farmers in the drought-stricken Murray-Darling Basin makes no sense. It involves the federal government paying ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Fiona Andreallo, Lecturer in digital culture, University of Sydney When thinking of sexbots, companionship might not be the first word that comes to mind. But sexbot advertising promises more than sex toys. It is also selling emotional intimacy: robots marketed as if ...
Ahead of the 50 Shades of Green march on parliament today, Jon Pemberton – chairman of the Ag Proud NZ Trust – urges members of the rural community to avoid confrontation and focus on rebuilding the relationship with our urban friends. “Ag Proud NZ understands ...
Paula Bennett and Anne Tolley are financially off the hook after Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters accepted they did not leak his private information. ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Another unexpected OCR move, NZ First Foundation donations under scrutiny, and End of Life Choice bill passes pending referendum.Reserve Bank governor Adrian Orr seems intent on giving as many surprises as possible with the OCR. After slashing it in August when it was ...
The fate of RNZ and TVNZ may soon be in the hands of Cabinet ministers, with a proposal to disestablish both broadcasters and create an entirely new public media entity. ...
Electricity retailing is about to be changed by artificial intelligence and the move away from fossil fuels. Watch a video interview with Simply Energy's Murray Dyer. ...
Tomorrow the Australian minister for agriculture is in Christchurch to lobby for a ban on words like “milk” and “meat” from the labels of meat and dairy alternatives. Shama Sukul Lee, the founder of alternative meat startup Sunfed, says the campaign is not about the consumer: it’s driven by a ...
It’s setting up a high school and John Key is an investor, but leaked documents show the $380m education startup locks parents into tough contracts worth tens of thousands of dollars.A tutoring company with former prime minister John Key on its board is charging parents as much as $60,000 to ...
"It's highly concerning that Parliament has voted for the End of Life Choice Bill to become law, pending a referendum," says Renée Joubert, Executive Officer of Euthanasia-Free NZ . ...
The End-of-Life Choice Society is pleased MPs have recognised that the majority of voters across a wide spectrum of society want a law change to allow the terminally ill to die free of intolerable pain and suffering, its president Dr Mary Panko said ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brian Oliver, Research Leader in Respiratory cellular and molecular biology at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research and Senior Lecturer, School of Medical & Molecular Biosciences, University of Technology Sydney New South Wales and Queensland are in the grip of a devastating ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Toni Noble, Adjunct Professor, Institute for Positive Psychology & Education, Australian Catholic University More than 600 schools have been closed, and some damaged, in recent days as bushfires rage across Queensland and New South Wales. Some students have been urgently evacuated while ...
Early on Thursday NZ time, the Trump impeachment inquiry kicks into high gear, as the previously closed-door proceedings are replaced with televised public hearings. Here’s the lowdown.What’s about to happen?Just over seven weeks since Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced an impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump’s dealings with Ukraine, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Grace Moore, Senior lecturer in English, the University of Otago, New Zealand, University of Otago Bushfire writing has long been a part of Australian literature. Tales of heroic rescues and bush Christmases describe a time when the fire season was confined only ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tanya M Howard, Senior research fellow, University of New England It’s five years since government worker Glen Turner was murdered by a farmer in a confrontation over land clearing laws. Media reporting after his death frequently propagated the image of the “poor ...
The option of requesting assisted dying for people with terminal illness as provisioned by the proposed End of Life Choice Bill has all but divided the country. ...
The Deputy Prime Minister's case against two top civil servants, two former ministers, and a ministry has wrapped at the Auckland High Court, with the judge is reserving his decision. ...
The extension of the Royal Commission report to 30 April 2020 means all other government responses to the mosque attack should be equally delayed, according to the Council of Licenced Firearms Owners (COLFO). ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rick Sarre, Professor of Law and Criminal Justice, University of South Australia Australians woke to the news last weekend that a 19-year-old Warlpiri man had been shot and killed by a police officer in Yuendumu, 300km north-west of Alice Springs. A confrontation ...
Excessively stringent freshwater policies that won’t achieve significantly better water quality outcomes will cost New Zealanders more than $80 billion over the next thirty years, says DairyNZ chief executive Dr Tim Mackle. “The water quality limits ...
Yesterday the government announced their reform of 1989’s Tomorrow’s Schools legislation. Claire Amos, a school principal in Auckland, reflects on what it all means. When the first draft of the Tomorrow’s School Report landed back in December 2018, I reflected that “the only real concern is that we are not brave enough ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alex Simpson, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, Macquarie University It has been called “the robbery of the century”. Martin Shields and Nicholas Diable, two British investment bankers, are on trial in Germany for helping structure a massive tax evasion scheme, known as cum-ex ...
A group of about a dozen MPs from Labour and National have addressed a last-minute protest at Parliament, on the day the End of Life Choice Bill is due to pass its final reading. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Mathews, Professor, School of Law, Queensland University of Technology Two judges in the High Court of Australia this morning referred Cardinal George Pell’s application for special leave to appeal his convictions to a full bench of the High Court. While not ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has opened for submissions on Supplementary Order Paper No 408 to the Arms Legislation Bill. Submissions can be made online and close on Friday 29 November 2019 at midnight. Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) 408 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stanley Shanapinda, Research Fellow, La Trobe University Yesterday, New South Wales and Queensland issued fire warnings classified as either “catastrophic”, “severe” or “extreme” – and these conditions will remain in the coming days. The Bureau of Meteorology’s fire danger rating for Wednesday, ...
Newly launched carbon offsetting company Carbonclick want to make it easier for businesses and consumers to save the planet. CEO Dave Rouse and CPO Jan Czaplicki explain that while carbon offsetting isn’t the solution to global warming, it’s necessary.We have pumped our skies full of greenhouse gases for over 200 ...
Premiering tonight on TVNZ DUKE, Tara Ward explores the salty depths of Spiky Gold Hunters. Spiky Gold Hunter is Country Calendar for hard arses. DUKE’s new documentary series follows six Kiwis as they search the Foveaux Strait for kina, a job with great financial reward but huge risk. These divers work ...
The Reserve Bank announced on Wednesday that it hold the Official Cash Rate at 1 percent when bank economists had widely predicted and recommended a 25 basis point cut. ...
It’s time for our leaders to harness their power to take action on meaningful and sustained welfare policy changes, so that all children can have the opportunity to live good lives and to experience a happy, healthy childhood, says Child Poverty ...
Winston Peters' lawyer appears to have accepted in the High Court that two former National ministers he is suing for $450,000 for breaching his privacy were not the source of the leak or responsible for it. ...
Artist Lema Shamamba highlights the threads that connect cellphone use to violence and exploitation in the Democratic Republic of Congo in her first solo exhibition at Auckland’s Objectspace. Embroidered into a purple and yellow dress, a woman has one baby slung on her front and another on her back. Looking at ...
Gloria Steinem speaks to On the Rag about what she has learned from over 50 years of feminist activism. In this very special episode of On the Rag, we are joined by journalist, author, activist and feminist hero Gloria Steinem ahead of the launch of her new book The Truth Will ...
Open mike 06/08/2016 
Open mike is your post.
The End of Life Choice Bill passed its third reading last night, 69 - 51. Thanks to a compromise with NZ First - which looks to have been necessary on the final numbers - the commencement of the bill will be subject to a referendum. Given the ugliness of the ...17 mins ago
Recently more than 150 post-graduate students and young scientists presented an open letter to the Green Party via The Spinoff, encouraging them to reconsider their position on genetic modification. Their target is tackling climate change issues.[1] Can any party continue to be dismissive about genetic modification (GM) contributing to ...4 hours ago
by Deirdre O’Neill Under Thatcher and then Blair and continuing up until our contemporary moment, the working class has seen its culture slowly and progressively destroyed. The change from an industrial society to a service society produced a marked shift in focus from the working class as the backbone of ...18 hours ago
It seems fair to say that we currently live in a problematic political moment in world history. Democracies are in decline and dictatorships are on the rise. Primordial, sectarian and post-modern divisions have re-emerged, are on the rise or have been accentuated by political evolutions of the moment such as ...22 hours ago
by The Council of Disobedient Women In her excellent oral submission to the Abortion reform select committee on 31st October on behalf of Otago University’s Department of Public Health, historian and public health researcher Hera Cook stated: “We would ask that the committee not use the term ‘pregnant persons’ and ...2 days ago
Distract And Divert: The rise of what we have come to call “Identity Politics” represents the ideological manifestation of the ruling class’s objective need to destroy class politics, and of the middle-class’s subjective need to justify their participation in the process.THE RELIEF of the ruling class can only be imagined. ...2 days ago
2 days ago
If FFNZ really put their faith in “Top Medical Journals” they would now be amending their billboards to recognise new research results. Image from FFNZ but updated to agree with the latest research. ... 4 days ago
And to think he gave all the potential goodwill away with that moronic, cult-like statement (repeated ad nauseam by many National hardliners) that Key is quite simply “the greatest PM we ever had”…
Installation complete: this was nothing ... 1 week ago
Today, a worker contacted me asking if she could go to the police over her employer stealing thousands of dollars from her in unpaid wages. The employer also did not pay this worker’s taxes or student loan which amounts to tax fraud. As a workers rights activist, who founded the ...2 weeks ago
Image Credit: Increase Social Media Traffic & Website Traffic I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. If your ... 2 weeks ago
Jenny Marcroft MP, Spokesperson for Health New Zealand First backs the public to decide on the End of Life Choice Bill via a referendum at the 2020 General Election. The Bill, with New Zealand First’s referendum provision incorporated, passed its final reading in Parliament this evening. New Zealand First Spokesperson for ...3 hours ago
"Today we have made a choice that will leave a legacy... I hope that means that future generations will see that we, in New Zealand, were on the right side of history." - Jacinda Ardern, Third Reading of the Zero Carbon Bill ...6 days ago
The Government has confirmed its third major mental health facility upgrade since the Budget, this time at Palmerston North Hospital. The Prime Minister and Health Minister today visited MidCentral DHB to announce that $30 million has been allocated to upgrade its acute mental health facility. It follows earlier announcements in ...32 mins ago
Carrot works better than stick when it comes to applying road safety regulations, says Road Transport Forum (RTF) chief executive Nick Leggett. ...13 mins ago
After Massey University in Wellington cancelled Feminism 2020 last month, the controversial event has found a new home in the parliament banquet hall. The controversial Feminism 2020 event cancelled last month by Massey University is scheduled to be held instead in the parliamentary banquet hall this Friday night. Billed as “the ...19 mins ago
The Migrant Workers Association says it is wrong to ask immigration officials to treat couples in culturally arranged marriages differently from other partnership cases. ...21 mins ago
Sanford's full year profit has failed to meet expectations as the company says climate change is the biggest risk it faces to its business. ...31 mins ago
The housing market's revival continues with the national median house price ticking over $600,000 for the first time. ...57 mins ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Ward, PhD candidate, University of Sydney The ABC has announced it will not provide live radio coverage of the Olympics for the first time in 67 years for budgetary reasons, and because Australians now have the “increased ability to access Olympics ...1 hour ago
Mysterious foundation loaning New Zealand First money; and Auckland ports' move to Whangarei: explained ...3 hours ago
New Zealand’s MPs yesterday stepped towards history as they debated the bill, which would hand the final decision on assisted dying to the public. ...3 hours ago
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New Zealand baggage handling equipment maker Glidepath has been sold to a French company. ...4 hours ago
Philip Matthews celebrates two remarkble - and remarkably different - portraits of the great Colin McCahon. ...6 hours ago
Electricity retailing is about to be changed by artificial intelligence and the move away from fossil fuels. Watch a video interview with Simply Energy's Murray Dyer. ...6 hours ago
Arranged marriages where partners had the freedom to say no may not be included under a new partnership visa fix. Dileepa Fonseka explains. ...6 hours ago
National's education plans has some good stuff, but the promises that will resonate most could have come from Labour. ...6 hours ago
Elite female sporting events will ultimately speak for themselves to fans who need convincing they are worthwhile watching. ...7 hours ago
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The University of Auckland's Dr Louise Humpage makes a plea to Jacinda Ardern to ban private fireworks once and for all. ...7 hours ago
A new Māori policing strategy, designed to get reoffending numbers down, has been met with skepticism. ...7 hours ago
Despite its best efforts to lower power prices, the Government might see a retail rate hike just six months before next year's election. ...17 hours ago
The price of avocados has been smashed to their lowest in almost three years, and the price of other fruit and veges are also falling. ...22 hours ago
The Reserve Bank announced on Wednesday that it hold the Official Cash Rate at 1 percent when bank economists had widely predicted and recommended a 25 basis point cut. ...22 hours ago
The Reserve Bank has held the Official Cash Rate steady at a record low 1 percent. ...22 hours ago
Winston Peters' lawyer appears to have accepted in the High Court that two former National ministers he is suing for $450,000 for breaching his privacy were not the source of the leak or responsible for it. ...22 hours ago
An undeclared conflict of interest has seen the initial Budget leak probe abandoned, an a new investigation launched. ...22 hours ago
I’ve just been watching Max Keiser Report number 947, and it gave me food for thought.
Inequality has become quite grotesque in the USA and in New Zealand, with the richest people in this country increasing their wealth by obscene amounts while the rest of the country struggle to make ends meet. (Slight exaggeration)
It seems to me that, unless we elect a government determined to reverse this trend, we really will end up as serfs. Automation will destroy jobs in the future, so more and more people will join the precariate, while the profits from employing less humans will go straight to the top ten per-cent.
So, as I would suggest, we stand at a crossroads in the history of our country. If we continue on as we are, then we will cement in a new aristocracy, the money-owners, and a new peasantry, the working class who exist on minimum wages and zero hours, or reluctant government handouts.
Or we can take a really radical direction and aim to share the benefits of the economy equally among all the people who live in this country. Radical reform may include a UBI. It must include tax redistribution, shifting the burden of tax from the poor, who can’t escape paying, to the rich, who now avoid paying.
What is absolutely certain is that we cannot do nothing.
Just as an aside, this is why I would support a Trump presidency. Will Clinton nothing meaningful will change. She has been bought and paid for by the very people who don’t want to see economic equality, and she’ll do their bidding.
With the Donald, hell, we don’t know what we’re getting, but it sure isn’t
e*t*b*i*h*e*t. (I bet that will get past moderation!) Yes, I think the man is a shallow showman, and there’s more than a suggestion he might be deliberately throwing his chances of being elected, but if he does get the nod, he won’t tug his forelock to the – to that word again.
But I look in vain in New Zealand for a political party with the gumption to propose a legislative revolution. I fear we shall have to take to the streets in the end, to force political change and to unseat the (God, there’s that word again – can I never get away from it?)
Got any links to those policies you want on the Trump website?
“It seems to me that, unless we elect a government determined to reverse this trend, we really will end up as serfs.”
Unless we also look at improving our political structure, the elite (through political donations or corporate lobbying) can end up commanding the Government we elect.
+1
The rich already command our government. Hell, they actually make up the present government.
Tony, there are historical parallels for your Trump leaning. And history tells us that they always work out badly for working people. Reagan, Thatcher, the Austrian bloke who ran Germany in the thirties … all elected on the promise to end the establishment. All cemented the establishment in place.
It’s an infantile pretension, similar to the extreme left concept that we need concentration camps before the lumpen proles will rise up.
On the up side, Trump, who had to admit lying this morning, has surged to a massive 8% chance of winning, according to 538. Hillary Clinton has a mere 91% chance of becoming president.
https://theintercept.com/2016/08/05/donald-trump-admits-doesnt-understand-sees-television/
TRP – I do really agree with what you’re saying. If I were an American voter I would cast my ballot for Jill Stein, and to hell with the consequences. But don’t look to HRC for any meaningful change in the USA.
And perhaps it is unhealthy to oppose the Clintons?
http://forum.clonehost.net/topic/30/hillary-clinton/7
It’s going to be an easy Trump win. Bring on the TV debates – the ones that Hillary are scared to death of.
Trump’s Democratic opponents and a growing number of republicans say Trump is temperamentally unsuitable for the presidency. They need to delete the ‘tempera’ part of the adverb. He is mentally ‘unsuitable’..
Honestly, if he were an ordinary person ranting on the street without his money or power, the people in white coats would pick him up, give him a nice room and some medication.
te reo putake I don’t think there is any chance of a goodwin when we talk about what a fascist state has done to working people.
I know Bill and I bring up Franco a lot, there is a reason. Franco’s Spain was a nightmare, the way that economy worked was to brutalise sections of the working class based on ethnicity and/or whether they had fought for republic or not. Even then the so called pro-Franco peasants did not do that well.
trump is a fascist, he may not be a hitler, but his economics and his approach is fascist. This does not bode well for working people, the sick, the disabled, and most of all women. And we should smack him and his ideas down like the destructive force they are.
As it always has done under capitalists type systems. We see the same thing in Ancient Greece, Rome and Egypt and we all know what happened to them.
It really is capitalism that doesn’t work. Unfortunately a few get rich until it all falls down and they’re the ones making the rules to suit themselves.
QFT
Of course, the money owners like that idea which is why they always advocate and lobby government for the policies that will bring it about.
It must include a UBI and changing all businesses to cooperatives. The workers need to control the business and have a say in who gets paid how much. Shares will need to be converted to loans so that shareholders no longer have a say in running a business and the business itself cannot be owned by the workers either – it needs to be self-owned.
That’s how capitalism works. The rich get rich by having the poor pay them for everything. And that is why it also fails.
And that is the problem that we have. No political party is willing to throw out the failed system that is capitalism and look for a better system.
Look ahead a bit to the long game with Trump. The likes of Koch brothers haven’t just tamely accepted it but will move onto the next strategy.
Should Trump get in he would be surrounded by the Republican far right who will isolate him as much as possible and do the governing in his name.
And how long is it before Trump is impeached or assassinated ( not that I would wish that on anyone) and then Mike Pence ( a tea party far right) becomes president in a job nobody would ever vote him into. At that point the Tea party has the reigns of power.
Coming down the road behind every Trotsky is a Lenin and a Stalin.
But HRC really needs to up her game to and make concrete moves towards the Bernie position. Other wise there will be an action replay of this in 4 years.
We became serfs in our own country a long time ago its just credit and low interest rates and cheap crappy goods and men like Key smiling and telling us in a soothing voice we all can be rich if we just elect him and his party and BELIEVE in the BRIGHTER FUTURE we can all have our own cardboard box too live in or move up to the family stationwagon or garage.
Exactly why did someone assign today – the coldest and wettest day of the year – to get me up at 6am to put up their electoral hoardings?
To my colleagues who are joining me, to you I say: OMG, and Solidarity Forever.
In the great Leftie Second Coming, all those who actually did pull their boots on, and their raincoats, and got out there and hauled timber for yet another local government election effort, will be read aloud and praised to the victorious crowds in the Lamb’s Book of Life.
Amen to that!
I don’t always agree with Chris Trotter, but this quote from a Daily Blog posting is, I think, quite pertinent:
“Practical progressive organisations like the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) are few and far between. Vastly outnumbering them are the tens-of-thousands of self-defined progressives who confuse posting comments on Facebook or The Daily Blog with effective political action.”
Chris Trotter: The Daily Blog.
I’m off this morning to help in the John Minto campaign to become mayor of Christchurch!
Actually a reply to Ad in 2 above.
If you are anywhere near Moorhouse Ave at 11, Tony, there’s a protest outside Pak n Slave. These corporate shits pay their South Island workers $2 an hour less than their Nth Island counterparts.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/82855675/pak-n-save-workers-relying-on-food-banks-says-union
This morning on the Al Jazeera news they did a story on homelessness in NZ, it wasn’t a short piece, Bernard Hickey was interviewed, and at the end of the story the news presenter said that they had asked the Minister of Social Housing for an interview a number of times but they declined. Tried to find a link on line for it, but couldnt. Disappointing that government could not even take a few moments to comment on a story about a situation they have created which has lead to one of the worlds largest news networks doing a report on it.
Enough suffering, time for change, thanks Al Jazeera for your coverage on one of the most desperate situations our people have ever faced.
Gosh the only international photo op that National, turned down!
yes certainly shows up our hopeless jonkey nact agenda bought tv journalism Hoskings and Henry style …and corporate bought foreign ownership mainstream media newspapers…only John Campbell and RNZ escapes imo
Chooky- I inadvertently caught two of Hosking’s smirk sentences the other night- Mea culpa.
It said, complete with trademark smirk,”You know what the trouble is with Education today ? The unions….” At which point my usual frantic Henry/Hosking search for the remote was successful.
And yes, I have listened in the past which is why I don’t listen now.
the quality of Hosking discussion is so infantile, lacking in depth, brainless and jonkey nact fawning and obsequious
…that New Zealanders are in danger of becoming brain dead if they watch that programme.
Chooky
‘Only JC and RNZ escapes imo’. If only I could agree. JC has been taught a lesson about challenging your employers view. RNZ is struggling to maintain funding and quality journalism. There are a few glimmers of hope @ RNZ, Media Watch, JC, Phil Pennington, Kim Hill, and then I begin to run out of suggestions. RNZ is sadly deteriorating and slowly drowning. A healthy and broad alternative media is essential. Australian Public Broadcast current affairs is far better than ours.
Grow an orchard!
http://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/news/82816934/riverton-the-heritage-fruit-capital-of-new-zealand
great stuff!…this is what really matters
‘South China Sea’
https://www.rt.com/shows/crosstalk/345282-us-china-dangerous-confrontation/
“Rumors of war – this time in the South China Sea. Washington appears – step by step – to be moving away from a policy of engagement with Beijing to one of confrontation. This is a policy approach counterproductive for all involved. Attempting to contain China militarily is nothing less than dangerous.
CrossTalking with Harry Kazianis, James Bradley and Peter Navarro.”
and
“Japan summons Chinese ambassador over ships
Japan’s foreign ministry Friday summoned China’s ambassador to protest what it said were intrusions into its territorial waters by Chinese coast guard and fishing vessels. The two countries are locked in a long-running dispute over uninhabited islets in the East China Sea known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China. Japanese vice foreign minister Shinsuke Sugiyama called in Cheng Yonghua, Beijing’s ambassador to Tokyo, the foreign ministry said. Sugiyama “strongly protested” to Cheng that the incursions were a “violation of Japan’s sovereignty.” The Japan Coast Guard said that two coast guard vessels from China’s State Oceanic Administration entered territorial waters near the Senkaku islands during the afternoon before eventually departing. (AFP)”
This is totally predictable. The USA is a war machine. I will say it again for all you duped fans of the yanks–The USA is a war machine.
If you don’t believe me just ask yourself why it has more military might than the rest of the world combined and why it has 1,000 military bases around the world.
Not just USA involved in this..but surrounding countries Japan and Vietnam …
‘South China Sea: What to look out for in the UN tribunal ruling
Case brought by the Philippines challenges some of Beijing’s maritime claims’
https://next.ft.com/content/3c7d51b0-34e1-11e6-ad39-3fee5ffe5b5b
‘Arbitration on the South China Sea: Rulings from The Hague’
https://amti.csis.org/ArbitrationTL/
China refuses to accept other countries claims and at odds with neighbours:
‘South China Sea row: Hague Tribunal rules in favor of Philippines, China to ignore decision’
https://www.rt.com/news/350756-south-china-sea-hague/
‘Butt out of South Sea dispute, China tells ‘shameful’ Japan’
https://www.rt.com/news/353066-china-asean-sea-japan/
“China has hit out at Japan, which has urged it to abide by the terms of a recent international ruling that challenges Beijing’s claims to the South China Sea. Meanwhile, South Asian countries have also failed to display a united position on the ruling.
‘ ‘Ill-founded, farcical’: Beijing blasts South China Sea ruling, vows to defend its interests’
https://www.rt.com/news/350792-china-south-sea-farce/
http://www.smh.com.au/world/south-china-sea-dispute-chinas-gone-ballistic-since-the-hague-ruling-20160805-gqmffh.html
just as well China can’t manipulate wiki the way they do all their own news outlets
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senkaku_Islands_dispute#Japanese_position
Seen this?
“We at The Peace Place are very excited that Auckland Peace Action will be launching their campaign and national petition against the up-coming Weapons Expo and US Warship Visit here at The Peace Place this coming Saturday 6th August at 4pm.”
The Peace Place
22 Emily Place
Auckland City
Two Prominent Anti-Clinton Activists Found Dead in Two Days; Mainstream Media Blackout
http://forum.clonehost.net/post/136
I wonder if Donald Trump knows this?!
….surely if true there must be a very public discussion and inquiry because it would seem to reinforce the very worst accusations leveled against her
and from Zero Hedge
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-08-05/lead-attorney-anti-clinton-dnc-fraud-case-mysteriously-found-dead
Clonehost? real objective investigative journalism.Yeah right1sarc.
Outgoing Tory’ leader Cameron’s granting of knighthoods and peerages to his millionaire money donors is corrupt, blatant and understandable but the OBE , whatever that is, awarded to his wife’s stylist, for ‘political and public service’ was ludicrous.
What next? A knighthood for Bill English’s hairdresser? Certainly not Stephen Joyce’s.
Good on the Aussies for dismissing this medieval/feudal anachronism. When, oh when will New Zealand grow up?
This is grimly amusing, especially with the timing that coincides (not coincidentally?) with the start of the Brazil Olympics.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/06/two-resign-from-panama-papers-commission-over-publicity-of-report
Anyone heard from BLiP lately?
NZ’s closest neighbour may be entering another period of revolutionary crisis:
http://readingthemaps.blogspot.co.nz/2016/08/a-quick-note-on-tongas-new-crisis.html
Poll Drought
Surely time for another Colmar Brunton ?
They always release their polls on a Sunday. Over the last 18 months, the gap between each CB has varied between 6 and 8 weeks. Tomorrow, It’ll be an outrageous 9 weeks since their last release. Can we expect it to lead One News 6pm tomorrow night or has the Pollster just thrown in the towel along with Herald-Digi ?
Swordfish – you must be the only lefties who actually looks forward to the polls.
I do enjoy your analysis of them. You must put a lot of time and effort into it and it’s appreciated.
Cheers, James.
“you must be the only lefties who actually looks forward to the polls”
Dunno about that. The polls through March-June were by no means all bad news for the Opposition* – Roy Morgan, UMR and Curia all had the Nats sliding during all or part of that period. The current interest is in finding out how reliable the last (Nat-friendly) Roy Morgan was.
* Oppo Bloc = Yes, I know, Winnie could swing either way (politically-speaking, you understand).
Perhaps they are waiting on one that favours Key maybe ??? I don’t know how they set their polling periods. SF can you enlighten or will we see one 2 nite.
Aunty Helen falls lower in the race for the top UN job.
http://m.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11688342
Seems that anything John Key touches these days is doomed to failure. Flag change, TPPA, Clark’s UN bid.
“I don’t know how they set their polling periods. SF can you enlighten or will we see one 2 nite.”
Not sure. The gap usually varies from 6 to 8 weeks. Fieldwork generally takes place over 5-6 days (always starts on a Saturday and is completed by Wednesday or Thursday). Then roughly 6-8 weeks until the next one. Probably depends on how busy they are with their more commercial work. Or maybe the timing’s entirely dictated by One News.
But now 9 weeks and counting, so I’m assuming there’ll be one tomorrow on One News 6pm. (Colmar Brunton always release on a Sunday). Then again, maybe like Roy Morgan they’ve decided to make it less regular ? *
* Their director, Andrew Robertson (who blogs as Grumpollie) has recently left for a new position in the Public Service, so that upheaval might have delayed things.
I was polled by Reid Research about a week ago. The do the ones for TV3 don’t they?
There may be one on TV3 tomorrow night or the following Sunday depending upon where they were in the poll when they rang me.
Ahhh that’s interesting.
3 News/Newshub usually release their Reid Research polls between 3-5 days after the final day of polling. Their fieldwork generally takes place over 6-8 days.
So your one should be released at some point over the next week (unlike Colmar Brunton, they don’t restrict their release to a particular day of the week – in CB’s case: Sunday).
Have a look at 3 News tonight – Can’t rule out a release today – if so, maybe upstaging a Colmar Brunton tomorrow ?
Can we assume you chose the Mana Party, alwyn ?
Ta muchly SF. I had visions of them polling every day until they got a Nact result for the right number of days – although I know that is not allowed!
If one emerges in the next few days, then I will be sorely tempted to accuse them of… waiting until nearly the end of a month-plus long parliamentary recess before conducting the poll. Such polls always favour the governing party because they are the only ones afforded any publicity. Example… post Xmas holiday recess. There is invariably a poll released around the beginning of February.
Cynical I know, but having been a keen observer of politics and the media for several decades it’s an understandable conclusion to come to.
The few laws that govern and restrain the actions of NZ Judges, have been eroded.
in 2010 the Supreme Court of NZ ruled by a 3-2 margin in Attorney General v Chapman that rights guaranteed by the NZ Bill of Rights Act 1990 were no longer enforceable against judges.
Then there was the Public Records Act 2005 which required all branches of government to create and maintain accurate public records of their affairs. In March 2009, Ministry of Justice Counsel Jeff Orr asserted that judges were exempt – stating judges are governed by their own customs and “not by the requirements of any enactment (eg the Public Records Act, the Crimes Act 1961)”.
In Greer v Smith [2015] all five judges of the Supreme Court of NZ convened privately, without submissions from government or public, to rule a single judge in their court can issue private judgments refusing access to public records at our highest court – and that such a private order was also unappealable.
Last month, the Official Information Act 1982 became the object of judicial exemption when the Ombudsman rejected an appeal against the Judicial Office for Higher Courts’ refusal to provide an “official agenda” for a taxpayer-paid judge retreat earlier this year on the ground, “The judicial conference agenda does not constitute ‘official information’ because it is held by the judiciary which is not subject to the OIA.”
But the judiciary are only exempt from such transparency in their judicial function. Taxpayer funded official agendas and judicial cocktail parties are not exempt.
The exemption from law extends beyond our 61 High Court judges and 144 lower court judges. The Judicial Office for Higher Courts has 115 staff employees – all of whom are exempt from the Official Information Act
Then there is the Supreme Court Act 2003 which requires under section 16 that Supreme Court judges give reasons for refusals. The dirty secret that is uniquely NZ is many Supreme Court decisions are kept off the record, which is helpful in evading this law which pertains entirely to judges.
And those who challenge the off-record secrecy are shut out of the courts altogether.
…I may have missed something, but shouldn’t this be in Open Mike?
And probably under a ‘fantasy’ tag.
or it could be good info which we would otherwise not know about
Nope, it sounds like BS based around a few well chosen but misrepresented facts spread to scare people. In other words, well crafted lies.
Or your paranoid draco What was it about that persons comment that made it suspect ?
No links and the structure that is very much what you’d see on conspiracy websites that are all about telling you how bad government is. I suspect that if we could properly investigate the allegations and get the correct context it would be nothing like what he said.
Im sure mods are quite capable of picking that up uncooked or are we supposed to be impressed with your detective work ?
This article asks the question, “What happens if the President is mentally impaired?”
(HRC has been seen with a hand tremor among other things)
http://www.theorganicprepper.ca/earth-wrong-hillary-clinton-08042016
If you keep an eye on HRC’s campaign schedule compared to Trump’s, you’ll see that she conducts way fewer public engagements than he does. Whereas he might do 2 engagements in a day, HRC might do one every 2 or 3 days.
I’d hardly call it an article. This one on Reagan and possible methods for early detection of Alzheimer’s is far more interesting, though perhaps less dramatic if that is what you are after – http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/31/health/parsing-ronald-reagans-words-for-early-signs-of-alzheimers.html?_r=0
The ugly story behind New Zealand’s most popular fruit
Saw that ugly alright say anything against the big owners and bang your dead youd have to be brave to take them on .By the sound of it the american fruit co stacked up a few bodies too putting it mildly was that in nicuagrua or the hondures? sorry not much good at spelling or geography !.Incidentely bananas grow just fine in northland .I eat my own most days and for weeks at a time depending on how theyre producing .Ive usually got enough to dry some also .
NZ’s hidden ‘baby scoop’ shame – unmarried women had their babies taken from them
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/82793165/NZs-hidden-baby-scoop-shame-unmarried-women-had-their-babies-taken-from-them
what a great woman!…and it is wonderful her story turned out well!
…other women were destroyed by the baby snatchers and their snatched babies also were destroyed …i read of one woman who searched the rest of her life for her daughter and her daughter searched for her mother…they were very close to finding each other but both committed suicide before they could meet…a tragedy!
this is a story of crimes against women and their children
That was the normal situation when I was a young woman.
In fact I know some very prominent New Zealand women of that day who still have not talked publically about the secret babies they bore, who were adopted.
One was a married woman who unexpectedly found herself pregnant when she separated from her abusive husband – she already had a toddler and arranging a job that would allow for her to care for them both was impossible. There was no benefit available, and her husband vanished. In effect, giving the child away was her only option apart from murder/suicide, so she had her little girl adopted and grieved for ever after.
Thank god, and Second Wave feminists, that the DPB was introduced in the 1970s, though it was over the dead body of some MPs. I recall one who said “If you play, you pay”, and that was the attitude of men in power in those days.
See the other post here today reminding us of the Prime Minister’s and the Speaker’s abominable treatment of female MPs last year, and I think those attitudes are still there, just hidden under a thin veneer of pretend tolerance.
yes sexism is entrenched alright…(my daughter working independently in the workforce is now recognising it in some patronising older men, after pooh poohing feminism in her teens…)
I have nothing but absolute admiration for the women that came before me and their struggles and tragedies …these women were the shock troops for women’s rights and feminism…
birth control contraception and abortion were absolute rights fought for and won by New Zealand women! (despite the misogynist Catholic Church)…also the DPB to enable women to keep and look after their babies and children
…and equal education opportunities and equal pay for equal work recognised in principle but not in actuality…also legislation against sexual harassment and assault
…and these fundamental rights are still NOT for many women around the world!
The Guardian draws opinion from all over the globe and this article is by Dunedin based writer, Eleanor Roy. In it, in part, she describes John Key’s brighter future…
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/aug/05/trump-brexit-is-new-zealand-your-escape-route-too
Some of those comments are pretty revealing.
The bolded bit among others, brutally true of New Zealand decision makers short-sightedness on so many crucially important projects and policy for future generations.
So, NZ is a backward hick country where town closes early, life revolves around enjoying the basics and people actually know each other.
I trust whoever it is finds the new Europe much more to their liking.
Not at all. People don’t know each other as another comment on the blog where I sourced this from attests to.
I’d agree with this in that that New Zealand fails badly on security of community. The amateur landlord class flipping properties for capital gain has rendered low income renting communities powerless and transient.
Low income New Zealand renters just want to be stable and have security of tenancy. They want their kids to be able to attend the same school without fear of disruption through no fault of their own. They want their kids to know the neighbours kids without being moved on by some property flipping investor. However, the fuelling of the investment property market both internally and through the advertising of the same to offshore buyers with cheap money is destroying that community spirit.
Even working class Europe has what we don’t.
Kiwis are welcome to move to London for a better community life. Where the average house price is now £600,000.
Heh. You are like Farrar and Hooten comparing modern day amenities with Victorian times and calling it a win for the National party.
The average wage in London is £50,000. Did you forget that bit?
The Unsexy Truth About Millennials: They’re Poor
Welcome to the wealth siphon that is capitalism that takes wealth from the many and gives it to the rich.
Dude goes to town on Trump’s “economic” advisers –
Tweets by JustinWolfers
tl;dr needs more pictures
Offering a rare insider analysis of the climate assessment process, Carnegie’s Katharine Mach and colleagues at the Department of Global Ecology examined the writing and editing procedures by which the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change creates summaries of their findings for policymakers. Despite recent critiques that these summaries are too difficult for non-experts, Mach and colleagues found them comparable to reference texts in terms of reading comprehension level. Their results are published by Science Advances.
“Using multiple tools for measuring reading ease, we found that IPCC reports are designed for grownups, but they are not harder to read than other science documents, including those written for the public by professional writers,” said co-author Chris Field, who served as the co-chair of the second IPCC Working Group.
Nevertheless, Mach and colleagues also suggest ways that the summary reports could be improved by using less jargon and more cohesive language to link the ideas they contain. The summaries could also be enhanced by graphics, videos, animations, and online multimedia, in addition to extensive media availability by panel leadership.
http://phys.org/news/2016-08-climate-summaries-grownups-difficult-policymakers.html
Well after this horror week for rugby, I think I just witnessed a player do a ‘mince’ walk to accept his award for winning the competition. Then the whole team received tankards as individual prizes. Maybe players and the whole rugby culture are a bit slow in learning, or maybe it’s best to leave it out there for all to see.
Everyone at the awards ceremony pretty cool about it all, though? If so, it just goes to show that the $$$$$/sporting section of the community they are most in touch with and that they care most about don’t give a ****.
Yeah pretty much, the guy is being congratulated for his walk on twitter.
I wonder if a few supporters are questioning their membership for next year though. Be interesting to look at a certain franchise’s balance sheet for 2017.
50/50 between whether more people walk away disgusted or join up for more of the same.
Pretty sure the sponsorship dollars are going to go up in either event.
From 1984 – the bloated beast that is America’s Presidential candidate selection process.