Ah….. the landowners, doing their best to hoard their wealth, and stop any government make a more fair society; a fair society where no people are struggling to survive.
John Key gave a tax cut to the wealthiest, that at the lower end was neutral, a pivot point if you will, the higher the income the higher the windfall. Now Key is suggesting another tax cut, yet nobody is asking is that doubled down with a GST rise? No. That would require a media with a zealous regard for its own integrity.
The more we reward rent seekers the more they want, and who pays? Lower and middle income earners. When they awake National are history as party.
Lets prove these bastards wrong…………………if you haven’t done it already, post this link to every friend, foe or loved one overseas who is a progressive voter
Cnr Joe @ 1.1 Yes good Old Armstrong eh? What a commentator. I would really base all my political views on what he says.
Hey……….that article re Cunliffe should resign……………….letter Dong Liu………..Isn’t that all part of the Slatter smear machine. Be afraid NZ Herald journalists. Be very afraid. Wait for the Royal Commission of enquiry. You might sweep it under the carpet but there are significant numbers of us who want forget.
Armstrong and Key certainly made a meal of this.
Wonder why no meal for Parata getting so wrong over her saying often that she had increased teacher numbers by 15% but really it is less than 6%?
Or Keys housing announcement and his example of a $500,000 house being impossible for any one to buy?
Or his being $100,000,000 out on his housing budget. http://norightturn.blogspot.co.nz/2014/09/nationals-housing-numbers-dont-add-up.html
So much for Armstong bias. Huh
Articles like this clearly show why Dirty Politics is not impacting the Polls, National Party friendly media are fighting their fight and doing a very good job. Well done John Armstrong, good work on the PR for National but don’t call yourself a journalist.
Dirty lying dishonest politician stories versus a politician not being able to recall a detail in a complex tax policy…um, which story would a half decent journo work on?
The media has been death riding Cunliffe non-stop (with a lot of help from the PMs office). If Hager’s book won’t make them realise they’ve lost the plot, nothing will.
TBH I can’t see National halting what looks to be a plum strategy, they will just have better comms security next time. And judging by how the media are so quick to fall back into their old place as “repeaters”, I doubt we can hold out much hope for them either.
1000000% Karol.
Can we start a public media ask for donations at least start somewhere, you setup a site on TS &TDB and we are sure everyone can pledge to get a PBS started.?
I have no idea of how this election will go. People have become more polarised since the last one. Those outside the comfortable bubble are angrier, while the government’s PR machine is operating with greater urgency. I do not write off our chances, despite the polls, but if we win I will not be at all surprised by claims that the election has been “stolen,” accompanied by calls for a new election.
Nicky Hager said a lot of journalists asked if there was stuff on them in Slater’s files.
When you read an article like this by Armstrong, it makes me wonder what the dirty politics brigade have on some journalists.
A lot you can bet, as they are the link to control the media, so we know why they are so spooky now eh!
Cant imagine they will print stuff on them though yet, maybe after the royal commission inquest if we ever could be lucky enough to get justice served to have one.
A prime minister, who cares little for the interests of the country. Faced with a wealth of evidence of the corruption and covert, undemocratic manipulations and malevolent black ops of his party and their allies…… he goes shopping, and won’t talk matters of substance.
What are the Nat’s policies for the future? The nasty Nat party exposed, and he just smiles and waves on.
Mark Hotchin issued defamation proceedings over opinions expressed in this column.
Details of what purports to be the contents of a leaked email from blogger Cameron Slater to Mark Hotchin and PR man Carrick Graham, dated October 5, 2011, particularly disturb me.
According to these reports Slater wrote that Justice Minister Judith Collins was “gunning for” Serious Fraud Office boss Adam Feeley. The email, and subsequent revelations, seemed to me to indicate that parties aligned with Hotchin decided, or were advised, that the best way to defend his role in the Hanover Finance debacle was to attack his critics. These appear to include Financial Markets Authority boss Sean Hughes and Feeley.
If it is true, then the leaked October 2011 email also has relevance to this column because a few months earlier Hotchin lodged a defamation claim against the New Zealand Herald and myself for a number of my Weekend Herald opinion columns between November 2008 and March 2011.
This is one thing I hadn’t expected before Dirty Politics was published: the level of attacks, intimidation and blackmail aimed at pulling journalists into line. This must have had a long term corrosive impact on our MSM.
Jim Mora’s snide distortion of Sue Bradford’s comments The Panel is as partisan, as dishonest, as anything on NewstalkZB
Radio NZ National, Friday 5 September 2014
Jim Mora, Nevil Gibson, Denise L’Estrange-Corbet
Following Wednesday’s astonishing outbreak of independent thinking and forthright speaking by Dita Di Boni, Radio NZ’s light chat show The Panel is now firmly back on message. Yesterday (Thursday) the guests were the shallow ex-talkback host Barry Corbett and the equally shallow, pretentious newspaper columnist Joe Bennett. Corbett didn’t say anything particularly idiotic yesterday; he left it all to Bennett.
And Bennett excelled himself. At one point early in the programme, host Jim Mora asked him if he was interested in politics. Bennett paused, then intoned with Olympian disdain: “Uuuuummmmmm, n-n-n-n-nnot really.” Unfortunately, as with similarly ill informed media opinionizers (Mike Hosking, Larry “Lackwit” Williams, Kerre Woodham) this lack of interest and lack of knowledge has not stopped Bennett from broadcasting his opinions. Hilariously, he delivered the following bizarre pronouncement on the bumbling, stumbling, thuggish ACT leader Jamie “I might be ignorant” Whyte: “I’ve read a couple of his books, and he’s a VERY lucid thinker.”
Apart from the risible guests, yesterday’s show was more sinister than normal; the obligatory scoffing at and dismissal of Nicky Hager’s revelations has now become a witch hunt for “Rawshark”, the person responsible for the leaks of Blubberguts’s rancid, highly embarrassing and incriminating email correspondence. Mora seems to take seriously everything that Blubberguts says on his poisonous site, and has now taken to routinely referring to the “stolen” emails that Hager was sent. According to Mora, there is a possibility that the Facebook correspondence could all have been made up. Well, that’s what Blubberguts says, so there MUST be something to it.
Today (Friday) the National Party-friendly tone of the programme continued. Mora delivered one of the most sickeningly insincere little homilies since Barack Obama’s windy rhetoric at Mandela’s funeral. Observing that people in Ashburton have been praising the women who died violently in Ashburton. “Ah, this is the other side of what Sue Bradford said earlier in the week, ISN’T it!” he chirped.
Of course, Sue Bradford did not condemn the women who died. She condemned the vicious government measures that those women and other WINZ staff all over the country are instructed to implement. It takes a particularly stupid person or one who is deliberately engaging in politically motivated mischief to misconstrue her words like Mora did.
Today (Friday) the guests were, if possible, even more dismal than yesterday’s. One was a former Marxist fanatic turned hard right fanatic, the other one was a particularly glib, nasty and shallow fashion designer. I can’t bear the thought of sitting down and transcribing more than a brief taster of what they said. But the following rants, inspired by Mora’s quoting of a Child Poverty Action Group report, are typical….
DENISE L’ESTRANGE-CORBET: It’s like the TV programme Benefit Street. People who are on the dole, who spend their days SMOKING and DRINKING and GAMBLING and they keep on having CHILDREN. … Maybe someone needs to go in and see where the money is going. We just can’t keep on handing out MONEY! …[continues spluttering indignantly about the poor]
NEVIL GIBSON: This poll was carried out by the Child Poverty Action Group, so I’m a bit suspicious of it.
DENISE L’ESTRANGE-CORBET: It comes down to education. Don’t smoke it, don’t drink it, don’t buy Lotto tickets. I don’t believe there IS a shortage of jobs in New Zealand….[et cetera, ad nauseam…]
———————————————–
I sent the following email to the host….
Why did you misrepresent Sue Bradford’s words?
Dear Jim,
You completely misrepresented what Sue Bradford said about the Ashburton shootings. She pointed out, quite correctly, that the staff at WINZ have to carry out government policies which are often cruel and vindictive.
Why did you infer that she was criticizing the frontline WINZ staff when in fact she was criticizing government policies?
You go you good thing. I’m having to maintain my panel appointment listening because for every Bishop or Womble (Denise LSC ) theres a Findlay or de Boni.
But yeah, when the stoopid comes out ( DLSC – ‘ the .com should go back to America and fight for his inno…) uuurgh.
i think l’estrange etc wd have to be the ..(how to word this..?..)…the most unlearned of all the panelists..(and that’s saying something..she has some serious competition..)
..and that bishop on with her is like a superstorm of ignorance/prejudices..
I was shouting at the radio yesterday listening to Denise,”the strange” – why doesn’t she just come out and say what she really means, namely that beneficiaries don’t deserve to live. FFS they have few enough pleasures and she wants to deprive them of their smokes and sex as well! What planet do the privileged elite live on?
Nice work, Moz. The weirdest thing for me was Denise LC talking of being bought up on welfare by a single parent, but apparently learning nothing from the experience. Unintentionally, it was her own mum she was lumping in with the smoking, drinking, gambling, shagging, welfare dependent lifestyle.
Good on you Morrissey, I also was appalled at the depths yesterdays panel had plummeted,( although my email was alot more abusive than yours to Dim). In fact it ruined my Friday night. I have had a fucking gutfull of Dim and his holier than thou Fascists that he parades out every day. For Denise L/C to opine that she didn’t believe there was any unemployment in this country is one step too far even for a whiney voiced halfwit as her, she even had the audacity to get a Free plug in for her 25 years celebration food and fashion show at the Langham, all of next month, (only $89 ).
This has got to stop RNZ, this is my tax money too. I stopped watching TV news years ago, I stopped buying the Herald and my local rightwing rag months ago, so my only source of current affairs is RNZ who I once loved and The Standard ( who I still love 🙂 Now I just want to smash my radio every day.
Thank God for The Standard, may you live forever.
I never listen to “the panel” anymore it is perhaps the most sickening piece of radio on RNZ. Mora is just too biased and has little comprehension of the issues.
Worth a look if only for the new artwork someone has done on a National billboard using Miley Cyrus .. made me smile on this dark morning.
But this didn’t:
“Jim-I’d rather a cardboard box in the PM’s chair with proven Labour’s surplus policies than a corporate takeover by John Key and his banker and republican friends doing an Ireland bankruptcy in slow motion!
2. We will be bankrupt in 3 years like Ireland, that Key helped screw ..our debt will be $135 billion in three years – Christchurch will be a river of dirty money for the banker/insurance industry and the lesser building suppliers like American Peabody and co that see us now as a commodity on wall street..and the TPPA is the legal equivalent of oppression by stealth!”
Here’s hoping HOS and SST make use of their freedoms tomorrow. Sigh.
Participants include Tim Murphy (NZH) and Pete of WO, with the latter claiming that their QC reckons that media cannot publish anything that they have but have not yet published.
It may be that Fairfax, Herald, Mediaworks are doing further legal checks to ensure that they are watertight before publishing.
The hard copy of the weekend Herald has articles on the Slater emails on page A 18. They are pretty much buried within the tabloid fluff and advertising.
The Weekend Herald version has the headline: “Slater gagging order affects only hacker”, and begins,
Judge allows media to publish material already in hand.
Under this is an article that seems to be a new one from David Fisher: “Commission rejects bloggers claims”.
It is further examination of and investigation into the SFO inquiry about Feeley. The article begins:
Blogger Cameron Slater claimed on more than one occasion that his friend and former Cabinet minister Judith Collins was out to have the Serious Fraud Office director sacked according to a new email.
[…]
The new email has Slater claiming to a Herald journalist in 2011 that MNs Collins was trying to widen an enquiry into the former SFO director Adam Feeley
The article goes onto discuss complications in that the SFO cannot easily find records pertaining to staff, etc from 2011.
Look at who owns Fairfax, APN and TV3 and there is your answer,
Overseas finance and investment companies want Key’s government back as they are prepared to sell us to them.
But the headline is: Court injunction plugs Whaledump leak.
Partly, there may be no new news on it today. But, also, the 3 media oultets may publish new material, but aim to mute it somewhat. eg, the Dom Post aricle being on page 2, while the WINZ killing victims story takes up most of page 1, in a quite sensationalist, tabloidish way: headline: ‘Face to face with the Ashburton gunman’.
Next to the Whaledump article on page two, is an article by Hamish Rutherford, about Labour saying the Collins enquiry is too narrow.
The NZ Herald and Stuff may also be aiming to blunt what is yet to come from the Whaledump material, by some very pro-Nats articles preceding it. These are editorial decisions, and not those of the individual journalists who are probably aiming to do their best by the material.
Give them a break.The data has apparently gone to the two leading MSM investigative reporters in the country. given the leaks landed yesterday I would hope Fisher and Nippert would do a little journalism before putting the stuff into their newspapers and online. Otherwise they’re no better than their “repeater” colleagues.
Serious journalism takes more than a 10 minute lick at a press release,especially when they’re building a story that could be the most significant of the year.
And Nippert does write for the Sunday Star Times, first and foremost.
..to tell us all again what a brilliant idea/policy it is to raise the pension-age..
..that should help drive the polls back up..eh..?
..d’yareckon..?
(but no financial transaction tax on the banksters..eh..?
..even tho’ some twenty other oecd countries already have a form of f.t.t…
..too hard..!..that one..?..is it..?..don’t want to/can’t afford to offend said banksters..?
..are they not already sucking enough in profits out of our economy..?
..each and every year..?
..couldn’t even work out how to implement that most small of inter-financial institutions-only tax..?
..instead..let’s make the workers work to an even older age..
..and of course..that policy will be music to the ears of the maori/p.i-vote labour says it is so assiduously courting..eh..?
..what with their almost guaranteed shorter life-spans than pakeha..
..eh..?
..who exactly is it that you are beholden to..?
..it sure as hell isn’t to those workers whose working-life-spans you wish to increase..
..and this is all based on some future we-can’t-afford-it!-scenario..
..a scenario that ignores so many variables..it is just a joke..
..just one of these variables..is that at a time when thinkers are wrestling with what to do with workers..with the rise of automation..thinking shortened work-weeks etc..
..parker/labour are crying ‘fire..!..fire..!’..to justify this vote-killing policy..
..and funny story…!
..what just compounds this clusterfuck of an idea/policy/argument..is the ultimate futility of it all..
..as the coalition partners labour will be relying upon..should they become the govenment..won’t have a bar of it..
..for labour/parker..this is just stupidity piled on top of stupidity..
..and post-election..in the wrap-up..
..must get some ‘award’ all of its’ own..
..’the braindead-policy-award’..?..(as a working title..?..)
Indeed it will happen, and like fake outrage, the unpopular aspect will be long forgotten in the big scheme of things.
Maybe pu either has an obsession with DP and is compelled to publicise it, even if it does border on homo erotic s and m.
Maybe, unlike where he correctly expects the top rate tax earners and banks to pay more to stop poverty, he isn’t prepared to stump up and work a few months to a maximum of 24 in the future to pay for his and others retirements. Maybe he has a trust or a pension plan and doesn’t have to worry about it.
Or maybe he just looks at it all from the wrong angle. Instead of looking at the perceived negatives, focus on the positives. Instead of getting a piss poor pension aged 65-67, one will still be able to claim jobseekers and associated top ups for an extra couple of years, which shocking as it is for a lot of our old people, is money in the bank.
One of the trends I’ve never heard discussed in the superannuation debate is the historical rate and projections for people 65+ in the workforce.
This is from a paper titled ‘Demographic projections from Statistics New Zealand: Aims, methods, and results’ from the Stats Department in 2012 (google the title and when you click on the pdf link you get an automatic download):
“The number of people aged 65+ in the labour force climbed from 25,000 in 1991 to about 130,000 in 2012. Further increases in labour force participation, coupled with more people at older ages, is likely to grow the older segment of the labour force further. It is highly likely that there will be 240,000–500,000 people aged 65+ in 2036, and 280,000–660,000 in 2061 (Figure 35). The largest growth will occur between 2011 and 2031, as the baby boomers move into the 65+ age group (Figure 36).”
And,
“Among those aged 65+, 1 in 16 were in the labour force in 1991. It is 1 in 5 in 2012, and is projected to increase to 1 in 3 by the mid-2020s.
As a result, by 2036, it is expected that between 9 and 15 percent of the labour force will be aged 65+, compared with 3 percent in 2006. By 2061, it is expected that between 10 and 18 percent of the labour force will be aged 65+.
Within the labour force aged 65+, the number of people aged 80 and over (80+) is also expected to increase significantly. From 8,000 in 2012, it is highly likely that there will be 21,000–64,000 people aged 80+ in the labour force in 2036, and 27,000–96,000 in 2061.
Among those aged 80+, about 1 percent were in the labour force in 1991. It is 5 percent in 2012, and is projected to increase to 10 percent by the late 2020s.
Overall, 68 percent of adults (aged 15 years and over) were in the labour force in 2012. The median projection indicates an increase to 69 percent around 2020, then a gradual drop to 67 percent in 2036, and to 65 percent in 2061 (Figure 37). This drop is despite the assumptions of static or increasing LFPRs at most ages. This apparent contradiction is caused by the changing age structure of the population, with more people at the oldest ages where LFPRs are at their lowest.”
So the median projection indicates an overall population labour force participation rate decreasing from 69 percent in 2020 to 65% in 2061.
Has the increasing labour force participation rate for those 65+ been calculated into the fiscal projections for the superannuation ‘burden’?
I’ve usually heard people (politicians) simply say that fewer workers will be supporting more people over 65. That seems a bit simplistic given the trend in labour force participation for the over 65s. (Being in the Labour force they will also be paying tax, of course.)
Also, what counts as “Labour force participation”. I’m over 65 & working, but only for a couple of days a week. Many older people do go onto part time work.
It’s a Merrill Lynch company, in fact it used to be called Merrill Lynch, one of the main ones in their ‘let’s avoid the taxman and stop anybody from finding out who we are’ game. Closely associated with the Bank of America (ie. B(ank)ofAm(erica)L). 12 month profit (well loss actually) -26k. Capital something like 113 million dollars (which considering how high up in the Bank of America tree this company is seems quite low to me). Credit worthiness pretty low. So effectively tax dodging, investigative dodging one of the biggest banks in the world, but if they were a customer instead of a (the?) banker then they wouldn’t be able to raise a loan. John Key was a director of this company for 3 years in the late 90s.
Yes but JK has left all that behind to take a more powerful position where he can ensure his banking mates get a decent slice of this country.
Same motives and outcomes achieved whilst getting treated to protective services, air force transport, royal weddings, world cups, antarctica etc.
As far as JK is concerned its thanks nz the scrapbook is nearly full and the bucket list much reduced just need to sort the knighthood before I leave the juristriction.
Do you have a link to this claim that John Key was a director of Merrill Lynch?
He certainly worked for them in a managerial role but I haven’t seen any evidence of him being a director of the company. The source of your claim, please.
Bofaml Investments was called Merrill Lynch when Key was a director. It is still Merrill Lynch of course although Merrill Lynch is effectively a Bank of America proxy (as reflected in the new name).
You can confirm Key’s directorship via Companies House in the UK in all likelihood.
Akshully it looks kind of interesting that they changed their name (from Merrill Lynch to MLIB) about 10 days after Key became Prime Minister does it not?
You aren’t trying to be serious are you?
The company you link to isn’t Merrill Lynch. It is a fairly small organisation registered in London, whereas Merrill Lynch, the group, is (or was) a very large organisation registered in the US. The company you have found is at best the subsidiary of a subsidiary of a subsidiary of a subsidiary of Merrill Lynch.
To say that someone being a director of such a company is a director of the whole organisation, ie Merrill Lynch is silly but it appears to be what you think.
It is about on a par with saying that a director of Fletcher Construction (Solomon Islands) Limited is a director of Fletcher Building Limited. Well it isn’t that way and the people concerned aren’t.
Well singing from the same song sheet as nadis I see. And making the same mistake in suggesting that the US company is allowed to register itself in the UK. No it’s not, Merrill Lynch in the UK has always been a UK registered company. Merrill Lynch in Switzerland is a Swiss company. Merrill Lynch in New Zealand is a NZ company.
If Merrill Lynch goes broke in the US that will not effect the UK Merrill Lynch.
I have never said that John Key was a director of the US Merrill Lynch.
I seem to have lit a fire. I’m still not sure how or why it’s still burning.
Notice the registration number 1062001, it’s the same Company registration number as the company that John Phillip Key (New Zealander) was a director of.
As you can see it was called Merrill Lynch International Bank in 2000. That was the main Merrill Lynch company in the UK at the time.
Have a look at my comment above Tracey regarding the difference between small companies and the directors of the group of which the small company is a part.
You claimed yesterday, by the way, that Rupert Murdoch owned 30% of APN. I asked that you provide a link to the source of the claim.
You haven’t answered yet. Dis you have trouble reading the request or did you fail to comprehend what I said? Do you have a weakness in such things?
Wow, you’ve spotted a typo. Aren’t you the clever one?
Now are you dissing me junior?
Tracey hasn’t seem the comment though or I’m sure she would have explained by now how she decided that Rupert Murdoch was a major owner of APN and therefore the NZ Herald.
I wouldnt get excited. What you are looking at is just a special purpose vehicle company. These are typically used for one off transactions and reused again and again. And names change all the time. Their might be a tax reason, or just a need to hold assets in a discrete vehicle, but there’s nothing conspiratorial here. I worked for an investment bank, my area maintained upwards of a hundred separate companies which were used to put together specific transactions. All had names that were either completely generic, i.e. “Sabre 2008 Ltd” or were a play on either our banks name or the customers name. At one time I was a director (unpaid) of about 30 companies.
The real Merrill Lynch or actually Merrill Lynch Fenner Pierce and Smith was a New York incorporated company listed on the NY stock exchange. So not the same thing.
I didn’t really think there was anything particularly conspiratorial about this other than the normal shenanigans that ‘those at the top who pay no tax’ get up to. I was just pointing out that the director of Merrill Lynch International Bank Limited was at one stage in the late 90s a certain John Phillip Key from New Zealand. And that despite capital (but not assets) over 100 million this company was paying no tax and has a loss that is small enough despite that significant capital to raise suspicions that it is artificial.
Now if you want to see if what we are talking about is a ‘discrete vehicle’ whatever the hell that is or the actual Merrill Lynch UK version well then this should put you right;
Check the bottom to see the main entity for each country. You will see that the UK entities are Merrill Lynch International Bank Limited (i.e. the entity that John Key was a directer of) and MLPF&S. Also Bofaml Limited as the company is now known has been in business since 1971 or so, so it’s hardly a company along the lines of ‘throw some liabilities in there and liquidate it’ vehicle is it?
Now there may have been some name changes and movement to different company registrations since (a trivial exercise even for someone as small fry as myself) but the main Merrill Lynch vehicle in the UK had as its director in the late 90s, a certain Mr JP Key. I’m not interested in the US version, I never said that John Key was a director of any American company.
Please don’t try and pull rank on me again (I was an investment banker), I’m quite capable of figuring out what is going on here.
Now back to the beginning again, what’s conspiratorial here?
I don’t really think that he is the devil incarnate, yeshe, as that blog seems to think that he is. He’s just playing the game on behalf of somebody else. And being richly rewarded for it. And he’s a bit of pr*&k as well but the main lizard he is not.
I just want nadis to tell me what is conspiratorial about this. As I didn’t see that on my first post.
Yes Rich, but playing the game for the lizards does not make you any less despicable than the lizards. He is a proven liar and a crazy danger to NZ as he serves his masters’ avarice.
As long as you know that story is there and proven … good luck with nadis !
Hi Rich
Was this true that JK was planning with Alex Krieger to undermine the NZ dollar and make a reward from Krieger for services, when he was working at NY Merrill Lynch?
Isn’t that a deliberate attempt to destabilise the financial state of NZ and what is the charge, is it wilful sabotage?
Giles Parkinson10 Nov 2008, 10:54 AM
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John Key is living proof that not all heads of derivatives operations for large US investment banks end up in the dog house. Some get to run their own country.
Key was elected prime minister of New Zealand last weekend after his National Party achieved a crushing victory over the incumbent Labour government of Helen Clark.
The timing of his elevation, in the midst of a financial crisis, may be quite prophetic. After all, Key’s rise to prominence in foreign exchange circles came after he struck a rewarding relationship at Bankers Trust with Andy Krieger, a daring New York-based trader who launched a legendary raid against the NZ dollar in 1987.
Krieger reportedly bet more than the country’s entire money supply against the currency, forcing it down sharply and taking massive profits in what is still described as one of the finest forex plays ever completed.
Key’s role in this raid is not entirely clear. The timing of his arrival at BT suggests he might not have had a great deal to do with it, but he benefited from Krieger’s continuing interest in the currency, which helped Key lift BT to top of the local currency tables and attract interest from international investment banks.
New Zealand’s new leader also knows a lot about job losses, having by his own admission earned the reputation of being the “smiling assassin” during his short stint at the Sydney offices of Merrill Lynch in 2001 when he reportedly helped fire some 500 staff.
He had been through this process before, after Merrills incurred massive losses as a result of the Asian crisis. Key, then head of the bank’s forex operations in London, is credited by former colleagues for his ability to hold a demoralised team together, even while sacking, in his own words “dozens fewer than 100”, a comment that reveals an early talent for political spin.
Key began his career as an auditor in Christchurch before joining Elders Finance in the mid 1980s as a foreign exchange dealer. Within two years he was the head forex trader at Elders before moving to BT in 1988 and then to Merrill Lynch, where he headed the Asian forex operations from Singapore.
From there, he quickly rose to become head of Merrills’ global forex operations in London, where he is said to have commanded a multi-million dollar salary, before deciding to turn to politics to pursue his childhood dream of becoming PM. Now that he is there, his take on what many people expect to be a heavy re-regulation of world financial markets should be interesting.
In an interview for an article jointly authored by London’s Financial Times and New Zealand’s Sunday Star-Times earlier this year, Key admitted a great admiration for Krieger.
“He was a pioneer, in the sense he was one of the few people in the world who understood the options market before it was really established. He blazed a trail and that gave him a strategic advantage early on.”
Key also said he did not believe there was a moral issue for the traders who made speculative attacks on currencies, or for the dealing rooms that carry out their orders.
“I can’t remember whether Andy Krieger was buying or selling, it might have been selling with me, but at the time it would have reflected the economic fundamentals at play in New Zealand. The markets are ultimately too large for any one individual to manipulate.
“There is much more good gained from having a fully functioning financial market than there ever is from not having that. We provided liquidity, we provided stability.
“There would be plenty of exporters today who would be cheering from the sidelines if Andy Krieger came in to sell a whole lot of New Zealand dollars. And equally if he was buying it there would be plenty of importers who would be cheering from the rafters. So it’s not as clear-cut as some people might think.”
Disturbed .. if you haven’t, please read the link I posted for Rich above at 8.3.1.1 —
travellerev takes apart the PR, blustering denials and memory lapses to prove Key had to be there with Krieger at the same they came close to destroying NZ currency and personally must have made millions and millions from it.
The dates are very clear; including details of why Key was required to fire 500 Merrill employees.
Key is incapable of seeing anything as a moral issue. He seems to be completely amoral. Ironically, he owes his early success to the first ACT government, which deregulated the finance sector and opened up opportunities for parasites who never felt ethical burdens. Maybe this explains his affection for ACT?
Notice the registration number 1062001, it’s the same Company registration number as the company that John Phillip Key (New Zealander) was a director of.
As you can see it was called Merrill Lynch International Bank in 2000. That was the main Merrill Lynch company in the UK at the time.
Now, re your reference to conspiratorial, what is conspiratorial? What’s the theory (or theories) that you are criticising?
The polls. Has anyone thought of standing outside the supermarket today and polling 1000 people on their voting intention? Probably take 1-2 hours. Be very interesting to see if that type of poll mirrors mainstream ones – especially in particular areas. I’d do it if there were others who would too in areas different to mine.
Noticed this amongst all the “National has already won” shallow journalism on the stuff website.
“The undecided vote remained steady at 13 per cent, which is higher than in some other polls. Benson said if Ipsos included those who said they were undecided, but when pressed were leaning towards a particular party, that number dropped to about 7 per cent and saw National’s vote come in about 2 percentage points lower.”
The undecideds are clearly mostly trying to decide which opposition party to vote for. That suggests that factoring in all of the undecideds, National would be showing about 4% lower in the polls.
Despite the importance of this, all of the headlines and graphs are all about ‘decided’ voters and most reports barely mention the undecided. The high undecided figure highlights the inappropriateness of the “All over bar the shouting” message coming from much of the MSM which could also be self-fulfilling if it helps demoralize undecided voters into staying at home.
I’ve already voted, as have David Cunliffe and Metiria Turei. A good turnout favours the Left so encourage people to vote ASAP. There are hopeful signs for the Left in the high Advance Voting.
The BEST WAY TO GET RID OF KEY (putting aside partisan constituency feelings) is:
Green Party Supporters-Party Vote Green
Labour Party Supporters-Party Vote Labour
Internet-Mana Supporters-Party Vote Internet-Mana (IMP)
TE TAI TOKERAU Constituency
Green, Labour and IMP supporters Candidate Vote IMP-Hone Harawira
EPSOM Constituency
Green, Labour and IMP supporters Candidate Vote National-Paul Goldsmith
EAST COAST BAYS Constituency
Green, Labour and IMP supporters Candidate Vote National-Murray McCully
OHARIU Constituency
Green, Labour and IMP supporters Candidate Vote Labour-Virginia Andersen
WAIARIKI Constituency
Green, Labour and IMP supporters Candidate Vote IMP-Annette Sykes
TE TAI HAUAURU Constituency
Green, Labour and IMP supporters Candidate Vote Labour-Adrian Rurawhe
If you don’t vote like this in these constituencies YOU ARE EFFECTIVELY VOTING FOR JOHN KEY.
But first you have to make up your mind. And here in the Otaki exectorate I have seen 1 count it 1 Labour bill board, and a few of NatKey/Guy ones and thats it.
It’s like no one gives a rats arse up here..
And the only stuff that’s been stuffed in my Mail box I put return to Sender, back to the Nats and Nathan Guy.
So no door knockers.
And buggers all hordings.
No Street meetings.
No Mailbox policy drops.
No politicians,
Nice to be in an such an important electorate /sarc
Thanks for the link, satty; amazing. Especially important for a September election given the likelihood of unsettled weather. I voted early and did so because of the push from the Greens (wouldn’t have thought to otherwise).
Labour released their conservation policy last week. It contains a firm pledge to extend no mining protection under Schedule 4 to all conservation land between Thames and the Kaimai rail tunnel. A huge swath of high value DOC estate.
Thanks exitlane, great to see better legal protection of the conservation estate. Hopefully the msm will realise some parties do have quite important policy releases any day now…
Corruption case to answer and a police investigation must be ordered by the opposition, here are some facts.
A simple search last night of “Polls can be manipulated” – Google
found about 1,400,000 results.
Below leaves us all now with the knowledge of what in New Zealand is actually going on, it is more corruption of our MSM conducting manipulated polling results, and opposition now must call this as it is, corruption of the MSM and manipulation of all polls.
We were contacted Friday 22nd of August at 4pm by Herald Digipoll by a lady who first said we are conducting a poll and could we participate?
We said yes, then she said my supervisor is listening in, is that o/k?
I hesitated but agreed and she went through a ten minute questioning, and then abruptly said we don’t need your input thanks, and hung up!
This left us so disturbed we searched the web and found all 1.4 million cases of poll manipulations globally on Goggle, which include what is called “selective polling”
We believe we were a victim of a Herald Digipoll selective polling strategy.
NZ pols are corrupted, is this a crime?
This is just one case of the 1.4 million sites on Goggle in India which may show what is happening here in NZ.
quote;
New Delhi: Public opinion gathered by leading opinion poll agencies is often tweaked to give misleading results, Operation Prime Minister, a sting operation by a private news network, News Express, has revealed Tuesday. Well-known faces from leading opinion poll agencies have been caught on hidden camera agreeing to such malpractices.
Operation Prime Minister shows how opinion polls are conducted and manipulated at the instance of political parties, their results traded to show a particular party in a favourable position, for a price. Presenting snippets from the sting operation at a press conference, Editor-in-chief of News Express, Vinod Kapri said, “Our motivation behind conducting the sting operation was a letter written by the Election Commission of India to all regional and national parties inviting their views on the publication of opinion polls.
We wanted to investigate the concerns of the Commission.” In its letter dated 4 Oct, 2013, the Election Commission had said, “The Commission has been suggesting to the government that there should be a similar prohibition or restriction on opinion polls also as there could be several manipulated opinion polls which could impact the voting pattern.”
Another motivation behind the sting operation was the mushrooming of opinion polls. “There used to be one or two opinion polls every election. But now, one sees an opinion poll almost every week. Which leads us to the question- how is the data generated so quickly and processed,” said Kapri.
“Operation Prime Minister has exposed eleven opinion poll agencies, whose surveys are published in leading newspapers and magazines besides being broadcast by leading news channels”, it was claimed in the sting opertaion.
It demonstrates how the 810 million voters of our country are duped into believing trends or waves that are manipulated. – See more at:
“Opinion polls seem to have become the latest weapon in the poll campaign.
For a price, the prediction of seats tally can be changed to suit the interests of political parties.
The agencies have no qualms accepting even black money for this purpose”,
News Express claimed. The influence of opinion poll agencies goes beyond mere opinion polls. In some cases, the poll agencies have claimed they can even prop up dummy candidates in the constituencies where the rival candidate is on a strong wicket.
It has also been claimed that some leading editors are hand in glove with these poll agencies.
This is just a few of the 1.4 million sites on Goggle. – See more at:
disturbed +100% …great comment and links ..this should a Post !
I have seen similar comments over on the Daily Blog
..Skewed polling is a deliberate attempt to manipulate the minds of the undecided New Zealand voter to undermine their confidence and decision to vote for a change of government …and should be exposed for what it is
…falsified statistics used in a spurious PR campaign with supposed scientific validity
(I myself refuse to answer polls…and I have been asked a number of times by a number of different polling companies.. don’t know why…I know others who have never been asked…and others who lie when asked)
And DPF trying to say that the polling was kosher so I called him on it ( I had a call and was cut out halfway through the ‘interview’) That was the end of the Conversation with him.
I sent this post to all the left wing opposition parties, and TDB,
I ask if anyone wants to set up this as a repost, I give my total consent.
I am a little lost at posting so chooky or anyone who can do it justice PLEASE go ahead and set up a post and when the feedback comes in I will send it all to the left wing opposition parties being damaged by this to get something done about this next week as it is as bad as the Leaders debate Bias that David Cunliffe complained to TVNZ about.
Thanks Disturbed for this article and links so interesting and frightening. I have been rung 4 times in the last 7 weeks with exactly the same strategy as you describe, lots of questions and then the ‘supervisor’ obviously said no! and hung up with no bye you way – rude as much as anything. I then had another call and they asked straight out what my age group was and replied oh your too old we don’t need anything more from oldies. I swore at them which I won’t print here! Polls are a huge scam.
I am prepared to go to Campbell live, how can we do this any Ideas please Karol how we can discuss?
Can you post a site where it will ask if others have been contacted and dropped after some discussion after age was approved and poll questions begin and end with no acceptance?
as i understand it, the scab has been ripped off an ugly sore,
it shows, if not corruption, then highly inappropriate behaviour by at least one senior politician.
then the party shows a lift in some polls.
i want to provocatively suggest that if any one is polled to answer that they are voting for the right, or hard right.
this could possibly cause: complacency by the right.
a rally to arms by the left.
possibly have the media question the veracity of these polls.
i agree with the notion that polling should stop well before the election.
Again, it would be helpful if you’d explain what the link is. Not everyone has a Trademe account. Mind you, if it’s interesting to you, it’s almost certainly pants.
That’s right you need an account to log in and view the message board.
I’ll copy and paste the first post.
There’s evidence mounting of DC’s inappropriate behavior and blurred lines between his personal and private lives. Rumor has been going for sometime but now the evidence has been accumulated.
There’s also a senior Labour MP possibly in the firing line over a sexual assault. I say “possibly” as much depends on whether the victim chooses to take it further. She has the evidence.
I note this as someone who has personally seen the evidence for both incidents from the people involved and not third parties. It is compelling and thorough. The holders of the evidence have taken extensive legal advice, have affidavits signed and witnessed, and are very respectable people who are above reproach.
I’d suggest the next two weeks will be the most infamous in the history of NZ politics.
[karol: These are just personal smears from the gutter, spreading them with no evidence.]
So, I was right. Pants from start to finish. Cheers, though, BM, it’s always great to see examples of right wing desperation such as that comment. Obviously, if the incidents were real, we’d already know about it.
If you have heard rumours you must hang around some pretty vile people, you really have turned out to be quite a vile person morality and ethics wise…
You remind me of many described in dirty politics, and this comment/posting of yours is beyond contempt. Especially when you dont condemn the behaviour which has been proven to impact the governing of nz. Cunliffe has no power… The right are showing themselves to be beyond despicable.
more crafted dirty tricks, from a camp that specialises in them. The fingerprints of invention are all over it – including the “blurred lines” innuendo.
Another load of bullshit with no evidence, just like all the threats Slug Boy makes. Funny how the “left” (except maybe for Mallard) only releases stuff when there is hard evidence, but with the morans it’s always “I’ve seen the evidence of Cunliffe fellating a goat. The goat is likely to make a statement any day now.”
IB are you kidding,
“I am sure these polls are not rigged”
Using a mop?
Go find a dirty floor, you must work in the bee hive.
Try 9th floor,
We have upwards to 15 cases now since we have been on two sites complaining about unusual poll calls, and been dropped after answering primary questions to check for required selection and then going through a 10 minute polling questionnaire to be dropped at breakneck speed with out any reason or even thank you for your time by these “professional polling companies ” we are onto you, you crooked fucks.
Oh we asked one pooling group that was not crooked and they heard this and said we should put in a complaint to the electoral commission or Police so which do you prefer?
They did. Or at least Fran O”Sullivan claimed Bill English came out on top. Yep the Finance minister who has no fresh ideas (whereas Parker iterated fresh policy after fresh policy) won the debate.
I was astounded and felt ashamed for Fran O’Sullivan when she said that English won the debate! He did not!
Anyone, even with a tiny amount of integrity can see that David Parker was clearly very lucid and brilliant. He won that debate hands down. English failed on so many counts.
Strangely, later in the discussions, Fran mentioned that Parker has shown a lot of thinking in his policies. That was a compliment, but to say that English won the debate is completely wrong, biased and pretty stupid.
Here is the entire debate, about 20 plus minutes.
Well worth watching by all, including the right wing. It shows Parker will be an excellent very able finance minister and that there is no problem giving your party vote to Labour for a strong Labour led government. See for yourself: http://www.3news.co.nz/tvshows/thenation/debate-economy-and-coalitions-2014090613
I thought Parker’s best moment was when Bill English was being chased around about the ethics of taking credit card details from websites and English goes “there are more serious issues”.
Parker then steps up and goes something like “yes trying to derail a serious fraud investigate and pervert the course of justice.”
And this is not some detail of a policy that is yet to be written clause by clause into legislation – this is about basic ethics. Just as was the question that Guyon Espiner posed to Key over Collins.
Cunliffe can’t answer a detail about policy – Key and English can’t answer fundamental questions about their personal ethics.
I wonder which the media believe has made a ‘gaffe’?
i have been staying in the far north for a week with a fellow harawira enthusist.
he was of the opinion that the mana/internet coalition could be in for a tuff time ref the opposite stances on marijuana.
i notice hone was away when laila was speaking about reform of policy.
there are also questions around how hone hamdled his recent car prang.
It’s occurred to me that this government and it’s conniving, hero-worshiping media are deliberately trying to divert the election campaign up a dead-end tunnel where the light of truth, decency and honesty cannot penetrate. They are doing this by trying to get everyone talking about policy. Strange that before Dirty Politics it was all about personality and perception (because they had little policy worth talking about) but post-Dirty Politics it is now vital that we should only be talking about policy. The mainstream media can’t wait to agree.
However, because of Dirty Politics, it is now more important than ever that this election is about WHO CAN THE PEOPLE TRUST to run the country; which party can be relied upon to carry out the functions of government without the greed, corruption and disdain for democracy as practiced by this current lot. Which bloc believes in devil-take-the-hindmost, give me the money, I’m all right Jack cronyism and which one believes in fairplay, equality before the law, a fair go for all, everyone sharing in the wealth of this country etc.
This election now needs to be about electing a government which is TRUSTWORTHY and has INTEGRITY and CARES ABOUT PEOPLE BEFORE PROFIT.
Hi Phillip – I see it as Labour/Greens/InternetMana and maybe NZ First combined. That bloc is unbeatable I think.
We need to elect a government of the people for the people; one we can rely on to govern for all NZer’s of all persuasions including the right. Utopia? Maybe, but why not try?
The media are not so very interested in talking about policy, even now, or they would have been more focused on how many policies Cunliffe talked about in the debate in Christchurch and noted that Key hardly mentioned any of National’s. (I don’t think National have many) They preferred, however to fixate on one error that Cunliffe made and ignored the many failings of what Key saw fit to present to (inflict on) the voting audience.
I agree with you comment, and would also add that a narrative about what sound democracy requires is a vote-worthy issue too.
Labour sums it up fairly well here (my bet is the Greens and IMP have similar pages too)
hmmm, this is not good. I’m sure mostly it’s DPF and the rest of the crew shitstirring (Farrar has a post up about it this morning), but Labour and Cunliffe need to do much better than basically parroting what Key has been saying all this time about his own staff’s involvement with Slater, not least because we know that Key has been lying through his teeth. Simply saying “you can trust us, nothing to see here, move on” is an inadequate response in these circumstances.
Labour’s leader has confirmed his chief of staff has had dealings with blogger Cameron Slater but is refusing to say what they’ve involved.
David Cunliffe says Matt McCarten has had contact Mr Slater and that he has no concerns about this.
And despite saying sunlight is the best disinfectant with regard to the release of Mr Slater’s hacked computer data, Mr Cunliffe is declining to say what the dealings might have been.
“There is nothing to fear and there is nothing to hide. I don’t go around releasing peoples’ private communications.”
Why is that any kind of story? (Sorry, I won’t be around to respond further) But having watched yesterday’s Otago debate, I was struck by the fact that only one of the participants (Prof Jackson) appeared to have read and actually understood the implications of what Hager had highlighted in ‘Dirty Politics’. The others, and this is in line with this non-scandal of McCarten talking to a blogger, didn’t seem able to differentiate between somebody being called a sheep shagger or talking to a sheep shagger (oh, so scandalous!), and a very deliberate system being set up by a political party allowing blogs (Whaleoil and Kiwiblog) to be used as a conduit for smears and misdirections to be picked up and reported by msm.
If McCarten had been trying to plant stories through Whaleoil, then yeah…different matter. But, what’s the chances of a component of National’s attack machine accommodating anything coming from the left? That’s right – none. Meanwhile, if McCarten wants to converse with Slater….so fucking what?
quick edit – if academics don’t get it, and they’re meant to be erm…smart, then what chance is there of ordinary people perceiving the serious dangers Hager has outlined?
Well quite. So how come Labour aren’t saying that? They don’t have to make a big deal out of it, just say what kind of contact McCarten has had, and point out the difference between that and Slatergate.
re the academics, I haven’t watched the video yet, but I have to wonder if much of this not getting it is the result of people who don’t spend time in the blogosphere not understanding what the blogosphere actually is.
Labour are trying not to get suckered into whataboutery war. If they give the story too much oxygen or release these comms then it validates him some more and Slater can talk some shit about releasing X email from X MP that he’s made up on the spot, then it’s Bill Liu’s donation all over again.
It’s a trap Labour are avoiding. And it’s Nationals main play, shift the story to be about communication not about the behaviour of the main individual involved.
“look everyone sends emails, everyone talks to bloggers, we’re all the same, nothing to see here.”
I agree about not getting sucked into it, and I agree it’s important to normalise contact with blogs. The problem is at the moment Labour are mirroring Key’s response to Slatergate. They have to differeniate themselves from that or run the risk of affirming Key while undermining themselves (thanks MSM). I don’t think it would be that hard to come up with a short statement that does what Bill is talking about above – not all contact with blogs is the same or has the same implications.
I saw Cunliffe make a comment about McCarten’s communications with Slater – it was on a TV News in the last couple of days. Cunliffe just said that McCarten had some communication with Slater but it wasn’t anything significant.
“quick edit – if academics don’t get it, and they’re meant to be erm…smart, then what chance is there of ordinary people perceiving the serious dangers Hager has outlined?”
This is where the MSM should be stepping up. But they don’t get it either (or are embedded and compromised). Am thinking it’s time that the feral media started doing more organising and active outreach into the mainstream (by feral I mean blogs, tweeps, fb etc, and probably offline strategies too).
BM is parrotting, or creating, some sleaze aroud cunliffe. Precisely because the media have failed abysmally to make it clear this is about people in power abusing that power…
“.didn’t seem able to differentiate between somebody being called a sheep shagger or talking to a sheep shagger (oh, so scandalous!), and a very deliberate system being set up by a political party allowing blogs (Whaleoil and Kiwiblog) to be used as a conduit for smears and misdirections to be picked up and reported by msm.”
Plus 1000
Thankfully a high court judge could make the differentiation
Yes, Prof Jackson gave a good summation of the book, what it reveals, and why it matters. I have found him interesting and perceptive on other forums.
I nearly lost the will to live during the panel discussion, the usual generic media comms pontification.
My guess is that Prof Jackson is used to visceral and confronting themes in his subject area of peace studies, and would have no trouble grasping the importance of Dirty Politics.
I am starting to think that accepting the enormity of the corruption of our democracy as elucidated by Prof Jackson is too much for most people, whether they be ‘smart’ academics or ‘ordinary’ folk.
Not sure why anyone wants McCarten gone, but yes, Labour should be… ah right, Labour and “should be’s”. Strategy is not their strong point.
McCarten get’s “dumped”, guilty or not = validates Nat line that “the left do it too”.
Coms published = side show and implies the “left are capable of doing it too”
No coms published = doubt over “Labour” is capable of doing it too.
Who made the error? Cunliffe, by confirming a rumour, inviting sunlight, and then quickly pulling down the shades. Fail. I think the word is catastrophuck.
On the up-side, apparently voters are unconcerned with Dirty Politics, therefore, no harm done regardless of anything. Maybe Cunliffe could run with that. e.g.
“John Key’s supporters appear to have the majority of polls so far. If that is the truly the case, any contact my chief of staff might have had with Cameron Slater is well within their range of the harmlessly acceptable.”
Another piece of evidence showing our increasingly degraded environment.
To save the Hauraki Gulf.
Another reason to vote Green this year.
“Water health may reach tipping point
Water pollution from decades of farming may be approaching a “tipping point” which threatens marine life in the Hauraki Gulf, says an experienced scientist.
Research by Dr John Zeldis, principal scientist for marine ecology at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Niwa), shows that water in the Firth of Thames has become increasingly acidic because of a build-up of nutrients from rivers which receive run-off from farms on the Hauraki Plains.”
Speaking of catastrophuck, The Labour Party president has got into the mindboggling situation of telling the public (via media) that Gibson and Dickson are unacceptable Labour candidates, even though they’re on the ballot. She says Gibson won’t be chosen as candidate again. Twisted. Cunliffe says anyone can vote for whoever they want.
I’m (or at least was) near that top tax bracket when the tax cuts came in and I got like an extra $30 odd in my pay packet per week (or fifty a fortnight – can’t quite remember now).
I would have been more than to have stayed on the same tax rate. $30 meant little to me but was a lot to others.
According to something i read the other day only the top 10% of households have seen an increase in real household income in the last few years, everyone else in the negatives…
In fact, only the richest 10% of households are benefitting from rising inequality — they are much better off than than they would be if everyone’s income had grown evenly.
It shows ONLY the top 10% have increased their income 29%
Whereas all other income groups income have had a negative change.
The Greens say that they have COMMON GROUND with National and CAN work with them!
Being shameless sap sucking parasites of Labour damaging its party vote, now these opportunist numbnuts are signalling some thing else and indirectly propping up National’s electoral chances..
Bastards.
These pretentious cunning crooks will never get my vote.
The greens got $400m to insulate cold kiwi homes out of a post election memorandum of understanding. I can’t imagine the greens giving confidence and supply to key let alone go into coalition with him, based on the diametric positions of a raft of social issues, though knowing time is running out re climate change, the world may not have enough of it for labour to sort out it’s voter apathy, who could blame them for making a start under the nats?
On a lighter side, according to some recent reports re David Parker, MT and RN working with English would be less treacherous and deviant as hone around the cabinet table dealing with the labour finance minister… By all accounts. 😉
“I can’t imagine the greens giving confidence and supply to key let alone go into coalition with him,”
Neither can the GP. Below is what Norman actually said, that Clem conveniently left out (my emphaisis).
This isn’t the GP starting with the Nats, it’s the position they’ve taken for a number of years. As you say, they’ve made some gains before. It’s part of co-operative politics, and it’s part of the GP being mainstream and picking up some middle votes because they can work with anyone on policy.
The Greens say they can work with National, just not in a formal coalition.
Party co-leader Russel Norman was tipped by many as one of the winners of last night’s TVNZ minor leaders’ debate.
Current political polling took up much of the debate, with the Greens saying they want at least 15 percent support.
Dr Norman says he admires Finance Minister Bill English and afterwards said he could work with National.
“We’ve got $400 million projects out of National over the last six years. Mostly the home insulation scheme, which was a huge, fantastic project,” he says. “So we work with parties where there is common ground.”
I read what RN said, and it sure adds the missing context to the common ground quote above.
Interesting call to take for the leadership team to take on election night if labour don’t get it together though.
15% plus is looking a good bet, but that could just be a bit of wishful thinking coming through.
They are looking a good combo in all the debates.
Given their strength in the polls and on TV, wonder how successful a less whiny than colin’s last minute push to be included in the key v DC debate finale would go?
Dunne’s worm/Clegg’s winner effect in action.
By so signalling the Greens are actually indirectly propping up National’s electoral chances and damaging Labour’s chances some more. Don’t you get that?
“By so signalling the Greens are actually indirectly propping up National’s electoral chances and damaging Labour’s chances some more. Don’t you get that?”
I don’t see the greens doing any of that which you claim, other than taking votes of labour it can’t hold on to, which I take you don’t seem to like much, So no, no I don’t get that.
Yes, they may be trying to steal some soft votes off from National, but will scare off many more voters from National going to Labour. Greens have already stolen lots of votes off Labour and have weakened it to such an extent that getting the 50% to form a progressive government is getting harder. I think MOST Green supporters are those that would normally vote for Labour.
Even if the progressives are able to form a government, the Greens greed, extremist policies, narrow outlook and short term thinking will more likely than not to have such a coalition with a strong Green contingent being kicked out in three years.
If Nats form a coalition, the Greens will prop them up as they ‘have a common ground’ with them stated by Norman for a few crumbs as usual, feel smug and shortchange the leftist long term cause.
It is much better for Labour as well as the Greens and the progressive block if Labour is much stronger at about 40% plus and the Greens at about 10% minus.
You called me a ‘fool’. In fact, I think that it is Norman that is a short term thinking fool who has managed to fool a lot of voters with his nice sounding sweet talk. [He even PAID people to collect signatures for the anti asset sale referendum petition! How foolish and dumb is that!]
You say the GP would prop up a National govt. By that I take it you mean give them confidence and supply. You have absolutely no evidence of that and are just making shit up because you hate the GP.
Greens have already stolen lots of votes off Labour and have weakened it to such an extent that getting the 50% to form a progressive government is getting harder. I think MOST Green supporters are those that would normally vote for Labour.
Diddums. If Labour want to be a big party again, they need to get rid of the ABCs, and move left and sort out their environmental and social policies. There’s a reason that the GP have picked up so many left votes, and it’s not because the GP are nasty thieves. It’s because Labour never me the needs of those voters.
Labour don’t own left wing votes. They have to earn them. If the GP start doing the same stupid shit that Labour have done, then they will deserve to lose those votes too.
“You say the GP would prop up a National govt. By that I take it you mean give them confidence and supply. You have absolutely no evidence of that and are just making shit up because you hate the GP”
Norman said that ‘the Greens have common ground with National’ and that ‘the Greens can work with National, just not in a formal coalition’
He said he got 400 million from National last time as policy concession. National would not have given that free without some support in return.
National will give them diddly squat without a confidence and supply arrangement or some sort of memorandum of understadning. If you believe they do, then you are naive. C & S or MoUis different from ‘formal coalition’ as he put it.
I do not ‘hate the Greens’ as you put it, but hate their stupid narrow minded short sighted politically naive cocky attitude and greedy suicidal policies and methods which will end up alienating the majority of voters in the country and thus damage the entire progressive movement sooner than later. Why do you think the progressive moment struggles to come close to 50%? Greens are the primary reason in my opinion. There is genuine fear and distrust of the Greens apart from those that make up their 10% to 15% support. So Greens rising in polls, simultaneously causing Labour to languish or causing the Labour voters moving away to National, NZF or the Cons is actually a bad situation for the progressive left cause. Greens getting 16% or 20% does not make the situation any better, but that must worse in the long run from a political and electoral point of view. Greens can achieve much more for a much longer time, without causing mayhem if Labour is around 40% and Greens are at about 10%, unless the Greens can convince the majority in the country and get over 50% support on their own. Remote chance of that happening any time soon. We NEED the centre votes back in, not just the left and far left.
So, in your enthusiasm for the greens do not also be a Labour’s Green albatross denialist.
Norman has shown scant trust, respect and confidence in David Parker by stating that he want’s David’s finance figures scrutinised by some outside finance agency. What an audacious, dumbarse, cocky, arrogant stance to make against Labour and its finance spokesman, Parker!
When asked which political leader he admired most, Norman said Bill English! Go figure!
He said he got 400 million from National last time as policy concession. National would not have given that free without some support in return.
National will give them diddly squat without a confidence and supply arrangement or some sort of memorandum of understadning. If you believe they do, then you are naive. C & S or MoUis different from ‘formal coalition’ as he put it.
Okey dokey, so it would be simple for you to point out where Greens voted to keep the national government in confidence and supply in the last three years.
Which budget did the greens vote for? And if there was one, were they the deciding vote between confidence and a government collapse?
@ Clemgeopin
Actually to be quite straightforward and not wishful about them or excusing Labour, they have lost their own support.
Greens want to keep doing the good things they were started to do and continue to do. Labour aren’t finished farting around in their recovery from the scarring of the Rogernome years. They are putting up a good front, and have lots of dedicated helpers, but haven’t come forward with the strong policies needed to fire support. Like Colonial Viper has been saying.
Greens are just planning on continuing to carry out worth while policies of value to the people. Why should they consider only Labour? Labour won’t even consider talking to them before the election. Stupid foolish to be aiming for the highest count possible for Labour alone. Stupid pride. The game is the thing not aiming for high points on the honours board. So talking to Greens might dilute the results for Labour alone, might swell into a win for the Left. That’s the important thing.
Clemo .. no one has STOLEN any votes… surely that would be against the law??!! Labour has lost votes (like mine.. remember only 18% of males plan to vote labour) because while some of the policies are okay (like Parker’s Kiwisaver vs OCR) it’s their people that are unvoteworthy.. Mallard, Moroney, Mackey… ps what is in the water up there?? a couple of weeks ago you predicted IMP to poll 6.8%
The Greens simultaneously “steal” labour votes with their “extremist” policies, in order to “prop up” national.
Because they really want to end up with the support level of the Maori Party, but without any electorate seats.
Clem, maybe you should stop gnashing your teeth and actually (as an alleged Labour supporter) “campaign positive”. Or are you the Labour party equivalent of Hutton Gibson – so Labour that you’re more Labour than the Labour party?
Oi, this is a message board to express one’s views. I vote Labour. That does not mean I can’t say what I think. What I stated about the Greens is a positive message for all, including the Greens.
I had a vision once about a rainbow alliance coming together united, to rid us from the nats and their dreg cling ons once and for good, but it looks like politicians acting like politicians, let politics get in the way of a good plan.
Wairarapa electorate has a large number of undecideds and Ron Mark might just split the right vote enough to let Labour’s McAnulty through. Plus McAnulty is getting out there campaigning well. So no Green candidate for me this time as this an opportunity too good to miss, might be close http://www.nzherald.co.nz/wairarapa-times-age/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503414&objectid=11319756
“It looks like a high volume of traffic is affecting the ability of customers to browse intermittently on broadband or mobile,” Spark spokesman Richard Llewellyn said shortly after 9am.
He said it wasn’t yet clear what particular event may have caused the surge in traffic and subsequent outages.
Yeah, privatisation is just sooo much better than state services…
Especially good look for a company that says they want out of the boring job of maintaining telephone lines, and would prefer the rock-star job of internet TV.
In regard to post 14, Polls manipulated. Chooky.
WE CAN WITH CONFIDENCE NOW SAY WE ARE LIVING IN THE WORST CORRUPT TIME IN OUR SHORT HISTORY.
I sent this post to all the left wing opposition parties, and TDB,
I ask if anyone wants to set up this as a repost, I give my total consent.
I am a little lost at SETTING UP A FEATURE posting so chooky or anyone who can do it justice PLEASE go ahead and set up a post and when the feedback comes in I will send it all to the left wing opposition parties being damaged by this to get something done about this next week as it is as bad as the Leaders debate Bias that David Cunliffe complained to TVNZ about.
He is probably trying to soften the public and mislead them into thinking that he is a good guy who is not part of the Dirty Politics in the background. Now wait for the rouge right wing dirty politics being unleashed like clockwork against Labour and Cunliffe in the coming days. Wouldn’t surprise me. Their modi operandi is clear to me and to those that see.
Why does everyone decry the media? it makes both ‘sides’ look ridiculous. There are two massive echo chambers, one on either side of the political divide, equally convinced that the media is biased.
Normally we want evidence, but on this particular topic, 100% subjective ranting seems to be all we need.
The media aren’t biased, they have simply disappeared so far up their own anus that all we get are the echoed calls for help from within. Just yesterday there was an outburst over whaledump/rawshark that could be summed up:
“It’s not that it’s illegal, it’s just that if anyone can do it, we don’t have a job anymore.”
der, Chaff, have you read about media bias do you know what this means?
Is our democracy not as important as India’s?
At least their Government held an investigation into their MSM sorry (Main stream media.)
Did you hear or read the emails that connect the media directly to the Government of the Prime minister? “Unbridled influence” Connections to Slater who for years has been sending dirty emails threateningly to media and many others? interested?
Lesson number one, read on how it ends in other counties better than here.
New Delhi news.
Sting operation reveals massive manipulation by opinion poll agencies
ET Bureau Feb 26, 2014, 04.43AM IST
(A TV news channel today claimed…)
NEW DELHI: A number of opinion polling agencies approached by undercover reporters agreed to manipulate poll data, a television news channel has claimed, sparking a fresh controversy in a heated election season as senior ministers and political parties called for an investigation.
Clips from the sting operation aired by the channel showed many pollsters agreeing to produce favourable numbers by leveraging the so-called margin of error, a statistical concept meant to indicate the quality of sampling and the accuracy to be expected from survey results.
“For a price, the prediction of seats tally can be changed to suit the interests of political parties.
The agencies have no qualms accepting even black money for this purpose,” the channel, News Express, said in a statement. Polling agencies approached by the channel include QRS, CVoter, Ipsos India, MMR and DRS, apart from a clutch of littleknown ones. Representatives from these agencies are seen responding variously to the undercover reporters, who posed as consultants for political parties.
India Today magazine and Times NOW have said they were suspending opinion polls conducted by C-Voter, pending an explanation from the agency.
Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party called for an investigation. Union Law Minister Kapil Sibal urged the Election Commission to urgently take up the matter. “This (the expose) is a very serious development. It shows these agencies are trying to manipulate public opinion. It is nothing but paidnews, manufactured to serve vested interests.
This is an extremely serious offense that warrants a full-fledged inquiry… I also call upon the Election Commission to take all effective steps to ensure such shady operators are not allowed to manipulate the public opinion in the run up to the elections.”
In November last year, the Election Commission had written to the government asking that a law be passed to restrict release of opinion poll results after the notification of elections. Fourteen out of fifteen national parties had agreed to the proposal.
BJP opposed the proposal, saying such a move would impinge on freedom of expression. “We got the idea for the sting operation from the Election Commission letter.
And then the fact that there seemed to be a new opinion poll almost every day now. Everybody is a pollster and a psephologist it seems,” said Vinod Kapri, editor in chief of News Express.
He added that he was not calling into question any surveys aired or published so far. C-Voter CEO Yashwant Deshmukh said the conversations have been selectively edited.
“The very first thing I said is that C-Voter won’t do this, Yashwant Deshmukh is not available to do this.
Why are they not showing that? I’m explaining the concept of margin of error and talking about the limitations of the poll. Am I anywhere saying that I’m ready to fudge the figures?”
A spokesperson for DRS said the executive who spoke with the undercover reporters is no longer with the company. “Manipulation is a term which is being used incorrectly here,” Ipsos said in a statement explaining the concept of margin of error.
“We have no say in the data collection or analysis by any pollster.
But we will ask C Voter for a clarification and till the time we are satisfied with their response, we have decided to suspend all opinion polls done by them in our channel,” Times Now editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami said
That reminds me of the famous poll that the Murdoch press put out on the eve of the election where Rudd won a landslide against Howard. The lead in The Australian was “Too Close To Call”. It was a last ditch attempt to motivate disengaged (and pissed off) Coalition voters to get out on polling day.
We still haven’t solved the problem of low-value exports. Exports are about 30% of GDP. Under National, this proportion is almost the same as when they took office. It seems we need more R&D, innovative products, more of our food and beverage companies growing into Australia and succeeding, a lower NZ dollar. There are some good examples of export growth (infant formula, boat-building, computing, clean technology, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, Icebreaker clothing, wine, NZ King salmon) but we are still not there. I wonder what is stopping us from creating more high-value exports.
————————-
July 4, 2012
————————-
Jordan Williams, 7/4, 11:02am
mate, this shit I’m hearing about kim dot com is crazy
————————-
Cameron Slater, 7/4, 11:02am
what shit
————————-
Jordan Williams, 7/4, 11:02am
is someone keeping you in the loop re how much the police fucked it all up
————————-
Cameron Slater, 7/4, 11:02am
nope
Crown law made the fuck up really though not the Police
————————-
Jordan Williams, 7/4, 11:03am
sorry yes, but let me tell you how they did too.
okay, so the day before the raid, a car load of coppers rock up to the main gates and to their surprise get waved through by DotCom’s security guys
————————-
Cameron Slater, 7/4, 11:03am
write it up as a post?
————————-
Jordan Williams, 7/4, 11:04am
they go in then turn round and come back out
(presumably they wanted to be able to say that they needed the warrant to enter the premises)
————————-
Cameron Slater, 7/4, 11:05am
except they were invited in…bugger
————————-
Jordan Williams, 7/4, 11:06am
they cut some fibre optic cables that connected 2 servers to a wall instead of unscrewing them from the wall which means that crown law are going to have to send them to the manufacturers to get the data off them as the optic cables are hard wired into the server.
————————-
Cameron Slater, 7/4, 11:07am
that sounds like bs to me
————————-
Jordan Williams, 7/4, 11:08am
instead of landing on the chopper pad, the helicopter the cops used landed on the drive way and sand basted a merc and damaged the chopper
it came from a lawyer within crown law (albeit another devision)
————————-
And from the same Jordan Williams / Cameron Slater correspondence, giving a little insight into the century they came from, before being mistakenly transported to the 21st century:
————————-
January 10, 2013
————————-
Jordan Williams, 1/10, 10:11am
women; if they didn’t have a fxxxy between their legs they’d have a bounty on their heads
nice pic with Judith holding Truth
————————-
Cameron Slater, 1/10, 10:13am
if they didn;t have cxxxs we’d chuck rocks at them
In a functioning democracy, she would exclude herself. On Planet Key, it probably gives her expert knowledge and makes her better suited. There is after all precedent for this, with the IPCA using police to investigate police. The average Kiwi swallows that.
Brian Mulroney, in a series of interviews this week (marking the 30th anniversary since he won a majority and became Canadian Prime Minister) has really let rip at Stephen Harper. I thought this comment could apply equally well to the current PM here in NZ:
“If you’re concerned about popularity and you’re conserving your popularity, you can be certain that your impact upon history will be very, extremely modest. You have to govern, I think, as I’ve said, not for easy headlines in 10 days but for a better Canada in 10 years.”
“So what do you want to do — do you want to be remembered as some guy who was popular, or do you want to be remembered 50 years from now as somebody who made profound social and economic and political changes in the country, and who thereby shaped his nation in a beneficial way for future generations?”
“…….National strategists insist Dirty Politics and hacked emails are a “beltway issue” that only journalists are interested in. The polls say they may be right. The number of times dirty politics stories make the daily best read list on Stuff.co.nz says they’re wrong.”
“The rest of this ‘story’ is that after he had left the building, his staff corrected his spelling mistake – we’re posting the original because the spin around this guy is sickening .
Left on a whiteboard after the last leader’s debate- Thanks Simon”
Key raises lots of questions. Tells reporters: “I can’t answer those questions. It’s not my stupid policy.” This is presumably what National meant when it told media to move on from dirty politics and start focusing on “the high level policy debate”.
Indeed. Seriously, Key has been acting a bit like a petulant schoolboy at times lately.
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Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
The government’s attack on Māori health this week is committing tangata-whenua to a premature death, says Te Pāti Māori. “The government have begun their onslaught on Māori health with the abolishment of the Māori Health Authority and smokefree laws in the same day” said health spokesperson and co-leader, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. ...
"The Government is moving quickly to realise an additional $46 million in tariff savings in the EU market this season for Kiwi exporters,” Minister for Trade and Agriculture, Todd McClay says. Parliament is set, this week, to complete the final legislative processes required to bring the New Zealand – European ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
Pacific Media Watch Ismail al-Ghoul, an Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent who was held for 12 hours at Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital, says Israeli forces rounded up Palestinian journalists at the facility and made them kneel on the ground for hours, while naked and blindfolded. “The occupation forces handcuffed and blindfolded us ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Wood, Program Director, Energy, Grattan Institute chinasong, Shutterstock Electricity customers in four Australian states can breathe a sigh of relief. After two years in a row of 20% price increases, power prices have finally stabilised. In many places they’re ...
Chumbawamba have reportedly issued the deputy PM a cease-and-desist notice after he used their song 'Tubthumping' before his state of the nation speech. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deborah Lupton, SHARP Professor, Vitalities Lab, Centre for Social Research in Health and Social Policy Centre, and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, UNSW Sydney kitzcorner/Shutterstock The assertion from Queensland’s chief health officer John Gerrard that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Shutterstock Why are musicians so keen to get played on the radio? It can’t be because of the money. In Australia they are paid at rates so low they ...
"Farmers make a point not to tell our urban cousins how to live, yet Chlöe from central Auckland is hell-bent on having her say about farmers," says ACT Rural Communities spokesman Mark Cameron. “On her first day in the House as Green ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Curran, Associate Professor of Ecology, Lincoln University, New Zealand Getty Images/Gerald Corsi In the latest move to reform environmental laws in New Zealand, the coalition government has introduced a bill to fast-track consenting processes for projects deemed to ...
Uber has argued it does not have as much control over drivers as the unions suggest, and wants a judgment ruling that drivers are employees and not contractors set aside and sent back to the Employment Court. The 2022 ruling followed a three-week hearing in which four drivers sought to ...
What can and can’t be purchased by disabled people or their carers has been slashed in an effort by the Ministry of Disabled People Whaikaha to save money. The purchasing guidelines, a set of rules that sets out what can be purchased using the various streams of Government disability funding, ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Tod Wright and Hien Nguyen, Fiscal incidence in New Zealand: The effects of taxes and benefits on household incomes in tax year 2018/19 . Analyses of the distributional impact of taxation and government ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Cory Davis, Boston Hart and Benjamin Stubbing, Household cost-of-living impacts from the Emissions Trading Scheme and using transfers to mitigate regressive outcomes . This Analytical Note ...
A coalition of public transport and climate organisations, united as ‘Transport for All’, is actively opposing the government’s transport proposals. The draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) includes plans for higher fares for public transport, ...
Greater Wellington is inviting feedback on proposed changes to its Revenue and Financing Policy. The Revenue and Financing Policy covers the Council’s various sources of funding, and how the cost of services is shared across the region. This includes ...
Labour has conceded it could have done more to deal with disruptive state housing tenants while in government but says the current coalition is going too far. ...
The band has asked their record label to issue a cease and desist to stop the NZ First leader using their 1997 hit to support his ‘misguided political views’. “I get knocked down, but I get up again,” blared through the speakers on Sunday as Winston Peters took the stage ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Food rationing is underway in remote areas in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands following torrential rain and flash flooding. More than 20 people have been reported dead in Chimbu Province. In nearby Enga Province, the centre of last month’s massacre, a 15-year-old boy has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Hughes, Lecturer, Research School of Management, Australian National University After months of debate and intrigue, the AFL’s 19th and newest team, the Tasmania Devils, finally launched its jumper, logo and colours in Devonport this week. The Devils will wear green, ...
Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews the debut novel by Saraid de Silva.One of the most baffling things for children who move to a new country is what their parents’ (or grandparents’) lives were like prior to moving – for kids in particular, they’re too busy trying to fit in in their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT University Narelle Portanier/Binge “If you don’t know who your mob are, you don’t know who you are,” Detective Andrea “Andie” Whitford (played by Leah Purcell) is told early into the new crime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Associate professor, Australian National University It’s commonly accepted that women do the vast majority of caregiving in Australian society. But less appreciated is that Indigenous women do larger amounts of unpaid care than any other group. Working with the Aboriginal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Joe Biden and Donald Trump have both secured their parties’ nominations for the November 5 United States general election by winning a ...
Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. This one-off documentary presents three intimate portraits of young Polynesians who are pulled into a Korean cultural phenomenon. K-POLYS is directed by Litia Tuiburelevu, Produced by Hex ...
There’s ample evidence demonstrating free school lunch programmes provide wide benefits across schools, households and communities according to public health researchers. ACT Minister David Seymour wants to reduce the spending on Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Fiji is facing an exodus of Fijians as many are leaving for overseas seeking employment and education and others are migrating, says Opposition MP Viliame Naupoto. Speaking in Parliament, he said: “His Excellency’s speech (Ratu Wiliame Katonivere) comes after a little over one year of ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
SAFE is urgently calling on the Environment Committee to reject the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill, and is urging New Zealanders to rally behind the call. The proposed Bill, currently under consideration with the Environment select committee, ...
Teammates who spend all their time picking fights with spectators are only helpful for the other team, writes Madeleine Chapman. Anyone who has ever played a team sport competitively, particularly as a child and particularly, for some reason, basketball, will know that there’s a lot of politics involved. While there ...
The long-running Wellington music festival is too focused on the Jim Beam-ness and not enough on the Homegrown-ness.There is something about Homegrown that’s difficult to place. A barely perceptible-ness. Like feeling a ghost is watching you from the corner of the room but when you look, there’s nothing there. ...
The latest Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor reveals that fewer New Zealanders believe crime / law and order is one of the top issues facing our country. In 2018, Ipsos New Zealand started tracking the key issues facing New Zealand. In this wave ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Deputy Program Director, Budgets and Government, Grattan Institute Australia’s political donations rules are woefully inadequate, but donations reform is finally on the agenda. The federal government has signalled its interest in reform and will soon begin briefing MPs on its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University Naiyana Somchitkaeo/Shutterstock A recent study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine has linked microplastics with risk to human health. The study ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Van Dijk, Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University Global climate records were shattered in 2023, from air and sea temperatures to sea-level rise and sea-ice extent. Scores of countries recorded their hottest year ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a teacher explains why he and his partner are in frugal mode – and how they’re making it work. Gender: Male Age: 35Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: I am an intermediate school teacher and my partner is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Bendall, Senior Lecturer, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University Binge Mary & George, the new British television drama series, depicts the real-life story of Mary Villiers and her son George, and their social climbing at the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason Nassios, Associate Professor, Centre of Policy Studies, Victoria University This article is part of The Conversation’s series examining the housing crisis. Read the other articles in the series here. Australian state and federal governments spend money in many ways to ...
The finance minister is denying that there’s a $5.6b shortfall in paying for the government’s campaign promises, including tax cuts. At his post-cabinet press conference yesterday, the PM refused to rule out new taxes to pay for the cuts, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s ...
Kāinga Ora tenants abused by their neighbours are doubting the government's crackdown on disruptive tenants will make a difference on their behaviour. ...
Kāinga Ora is New Zealand’s biggest residential landlord, housing more than 180,000 vulnerable people in more than 67,000 properties. Yesterday the government announced a crackdown on its tenants who fall behind on rent. One longtime Kāinga Ora tenant shares her experience.For 18 years I lived in a 1960s standalone ...
Why does this myth persist, and what’s the real reason our skin is suffering?It’s one of the biggest international grievances New Zealanders hold, up there with the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior and 1981’s underarm incident. We’re quick to tell international travellers that the world’s pollution led to the ...
Opinion: We are fast approaching a fundamental change in prisons. As the number of people on custodial remand looks set to overtake the number of sentenced prisoners, the main function of prisons in New Zealand may become incarcerating un-sentenced people who may not be guilty of offending. We have already ...
A huge seven months lies in store for the White Ferns, beginning this week with the visit of England and culminating with the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in September and October. Starting on Tuesday in Dunedin, the world ranked No. 2 visitors will play five T20s and three ODIs, ...
Opinion: In a move that has shocked road safety advocates across the country, the new Minister of Transport, Simeon Brown, is poised to abandon the previous government’s speed limit reduction policy, particularly around schools. Even more alarmingly, he wants school speed limits to be variable rather than full-time, arguing ...
Auckland Council is opposing a fast-track development backed by Sir John Kirwan and Spark NZ, because it doesn’t meet stringent new climate adaptation requirements The post Surf-data centre faces new 3.8C climate warming rules appeared first on Newsroom. ...
When the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act was introduced in 2009 it was firmly targeted at gangs and drugs. The legislation means police no longer need a conviction to seize assets that criminals can’t prove were paid for legitimately, as long as their alleged offences are punishable by more than a ...
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Bob’s relationship with certain members of Lincoln’s academic staff continued to deteriorate in the 1990s. Others supported him publicly, though articles such as Roland Clark’s 1993 piece in Growing Today cannot have pleased the university management. Clark wrote that Bob was selling onions from the Biological Husbandry Unit to a ...
SailGP’s races feature in-your-face action, with agile, hydro-foiling catamarans tacking and jibing for the title over several days. However, public comments ahead of the global series’ return to New Zealand have left this past year’s controversy in the shadows, as a key appointment attracts criticism from dolphin advocates. A year ...
The letters, which were published last week, were addressed to Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) Chairperson Megawati Sukarnoputri, National Democrat Party (NasDem) Chairperson Surya Paloh, National Awakening Party (PKB) Chairperson Muhaimin Iskandar, Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS) President Ahmad Syaikhu and United Development Party (PPP) Chairperson Muhammad Mardiono. In ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
The government says it still intends to deliver tax cuts by July, but will not lock them in until they have got them past their coalition partners. ...
Kiingi Tuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII has hosted members of the Green Party Caucus at Tuurangawaewae Marae in Ngaaruawahia. The audience follows the King’s Hui-aa-Motu on 20 January, where more than 10,000 people gathered to discuss national ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dr Rachael Potter, Research Associate and Lecturer in Work and Organisational Psychology, University of South Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Pregnant women and workers with children are often unfairly treated by their bosses and colleagues, despite laws to protect against workplace discrimination ...
Pretty good article from John Armstrong in this morning Herald. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/election-2014/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503581&objectid=11319892
Oh Cancy, The Armstrong who wrote this?
http://m.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11276526
Ah….. the landowners, doing their best to hoard their wealth, and stop any government make a more fair society; a fair society where no people are struggling to survive.
John Key gave a tax cut to the wealthiest, that at the lower end was neutral, a pivot point if you will, the higher the income the higher the windfall. Now Key is suggesting another tax cut, yet nobody is asking is that doubled down with a GST rise? No. That would require a media with a zealous regard for its own integrity.
The more we reward rent seekers the more they want, and who pays? Lower and middle income earners. When they awake National are history as party.
http://www.elections.org.nz/voters/get-ready-enrol-and-vote/enrol-and-vote-overseas
Lets prove these bastards wrong…………………if you haven’t done it already, post this link to every friend, foe or loved one overseas who is a progressive voter
Cnr Joe @ 1.1 Yes good Old Armstrong eh? What a commentator. I would really base all my political views on what he says.
Hey……….that article re Cunliffe should resign……………….letter Dong Liu………..Isn’t that all part of the Slatter smear machine. Be afraid NZ Herald journalists. Be very afraid. Wait for the Royal Commission of enquiry. You might sweep it under the carpet but there are significant numbers of us who want forget.
Armstrong and Key certainly made a meal of this.
Wonder why no meal for Parata getting so wrong over her saying often that she had increased teacher numbers by 15% but really it is less than 6%?
Or Keys housing announcement and his example of a $500,000 house being impossible for any one to buy?
Or his being $100,000,000 out on his housing budget. http://norightturn.blogspot.co.nz/2014/09/nationals-housing-numbers-dont-add-up.html
So much for Armstong bias. Huh
Articles like this clearly show why Dirty Politics is not impacting the Polls, National Party friendly media are fighting their fight and doing a very good job. Well done John Armstrong, good work on the PR for National but don’t call yourself a journalist.
Dirty lying dishonest politician stories versus a politician not being able to recall a detail in a complex tax policy…um, which story would a half decent journo work on?
The media has been death riding Cunliffe non-stop (with a lot of help from the PMs office). If Hager’s book won’t make them realise they’ve lost the plot, nothing will.
TBH I can’t see National halting what looks to be a plum strategy, they will just have better comms security next time. And judging by how the media are so quick to fall back into their old place as “repeaters”, I doubt we can hold out much hope for them either.
That is why we so desperately need a strong, non-commercial, public service media.
1000000% Karol.
Can we start a public media ask for donations at least start somewhere, you setup a site on TS &TDB and we are sure everyone can pledge to get a PBS started.?
+1
As it stands, the MSM is part of the problem that is destroying our nation.
+1
Our media sucks big time.
Se above Draco we need to start now my pledge $1000
Lets get started.!
Trotter on this sort of thing, from a global perspective:
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2014/09/05/by-other-means-bringing-down-a-government-or-keeping-one-in-power-no-longer-requires-tanks/
I have no idea of how this election will go. People have become more polarised since the last one. Those outside the comfortable bubble are angrier, while the government’s PR machine is operating with greater urgency. I do not write off our chances, despite the polls, but if we win I will not be at all surprised by claims that the election has been “stolen,” accompanied by calls for a new election.
Nicky Hager said a lot of journalists asked if there was stuff on them in Slater’s files.
When you read an article like this by Armstrong, it makes me wonder what the dirty politics brigade have on some journalists.
A lot you can bet, as they are the link to control the media, so we know why they are so spooky now eh!
Cant imagine they will print stuff on them though yet, maybe after the royal commission inquest if we ever could be lucky enough to get justice served to have one.
Could John Key sound any more like a petulant school boy? And one who hasn’t managed to develop any moral or ethical values? Not interested: don’t care; ‘grow up’.
A prime minister, who cares little for the interests of the country. Faced with a wealth of evidence of the corruption and covert, undemocratic manipulations and malevolent black ops of his party and their allies…… he goes shopping, and won’t talk matters of substance.
What are the Nat’s policies for the future? The nasty Nat party exposed, and he just smiles and waves on.
Ha! Yesterday Vance tweeted apic of Paratas fingernails admiring them – I called it minister porn
Chances are our PM would have had a hand in planning the corrupt black ops.
Of that I have no doubt, but even if you proved it with pictures and a filmed confession, the Sheeple just will plod happily off to the meatworks.
John Armstrong insults the intelligence of the average voter in his assumption that they will be swayed by sophistry and dedication to fact-checking.
More broadly though, he may be right ..
brian gaynor on hotchin and slater
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11319837
Mark Hotchin issued defamation proceedings over opinions expressed in this column.
Details of what purports to be the contents of a leaked email from blogger Cameron Slater to Mark Hotchin and PR man Carrick Graham, dated October 5, 2011, particularly disturb me.
According to these reports Slater wrote that Justice Minister Judith Collins was “gunning for” Serious Fraud Office boss Adam Feeley. The email, and subsequent revelations, seemed to me to indicate that parties aligned with Hotchin decided, or were advised, that the best way to defend his role in the Hanover Finance debacle was to attack his critics. These appear to include Financial Markets Authority boss Sean Hughes and Feeley.
If it is true, then the leaked October 2011 email also has relevance to this column because a few months earlier Hotchin lodged a defamation claim against the New Zealand Herald and myself for a number of my Weekend Herald opinion columns between November 2008 and March 2011.
This is a really fascinating article …
This is one thing I hadn’t expected before Dirty Politics was published: the level of attacks, intimidation and blackmail aimed at pulling journalists into line. This must have had a long term corrosive impact on our MSM.
(this is about all that is wrong with the interviewing styles of gower et.al…
..i have also had my five cents worth on the subject..
..and those wanting that can go here..
http://whoar.co.nz/2014/newsnight-editor-says-end-%E2%80%98mexican-stand-off%E2%80%99-in-political-interviews-ed-cd-someone-send-this-one-to-patrick-gower-and-most-of-the-rest-of-the-interviewing-section-of-the-p/
(excerpt:..)
“….i am so tired of the gotcha!-style interviews of politicians..
..(as practised by gower et.al..)
..whose idea of an interview is to go in there with it already scripted..and starring them….”
..and those who would rather not..
..can go directly to the source..
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/sep/05/ian-katz-newsnight-political-interview-boring-change
..either way..it should be read by those who should/need to read it..
Jim Mora’s snide distortion of Sue Bradford’s comments
The Panel is as partisan, as dishonest, as anything on NewstalkZB
Radio NZ National, Friday 5 September 2014
Jim Mora, Nevil Gibson, Denise L’Estrange-Corbet
Following Wednesday’s astonishing outbreak of independent thinking and forthright speaking by Dita Di Boni, Radio NZ’s light chat show The Panel is now firmly back on message. Yesterday (Thursday) the guests were the shallow ex-talkback host Barry Corbett and the equally shallow, pretentious newspaper columnist Joe Bennett. Corbett didn’t say anything particularly idiotic yesterday; he left it all to Bennett.
And Bennett excelled himself. At one point early in the programme, host Jim Mora asked him if he was interested in politics. Bennett paused, then intoned with Olympian disdain: “Uuuuummmmmm, n-n-n-n-nnot really.” Unfortunately, as with similarly ill informed media opinionizers (Mike Hosking, Larry “Lackwit” Williams, Kerre Woodham) this lack of interest and lack of knowledge has not stopped Bennett from broadcasting his opinions. Hilariously, he delivered the following bizarre pronouncement on the bumbling, stumbling, thuggish ACT leader Jamie “I might be ignorant” Whyte: “I’ve read a couple of his books, and he’s a VERY lucid thinker.”
Apart from the risible guests, yesterday’s show was more sinister than normal; the obligatory scoffing at and dismissal of Nicky Hager’s revelations has now become a witch hunt for “Rawshark”, the person responsible for the leaks of Blubberguts’s rancid, highly embarrassing and incriminating email correspondence. Mora seems to take seriously everything that Blubberguts says on his poisonous site, and has now taken to routinely referring to the “stolen” emails that Hager was sent. According to Mora, there is a possibility that the Facebook correspondence could all have been made up. Well, that’s what Blubberguts says, so there MUST be something to it.
Today (Friday) the National Party-friendly tone of the programme continued. Mora delivered one of the most sickeningly insincere little homilies since Barack Obama’s windy rhetoric at Mandela’s funeral. Observing that people in Ashburton have been praising the women who died violently in Ashburton. “Ah, this is the other side of what Sue Bradford said earlier in the week, ISN’T it!” he chirped.
Of course, Sue Bradford did not condemn the women who died. She condemned the vicious government measures that those women and other WINZ staff all over the country are instructed to implement. It takes a particularly stupid person or one who is deliberately engaging in politically motivated mischief to misconstrue her words like Mora did.
Today (Friday) the guests were, if possible, even more dismal than yesterday’s. One was a former Marxist fanatic turned hard right fanatic, the other one was a particularly glib, nasty and shallow fashion designer. I can’t bear the thought of sitting down and transcribing more than a brief taster of what they said. But the following rants, inspired by Mora’s quoting of a Child Poverty Action Group report, are typical….
DENISE L’ESTRANGE-CORBET: It’s like the TV programme Benefit Street. People who are on the dole, who spend their days SMOKING and DRINKING and GAMBLING and they keep on having CHILDREN. … Maybe someone needs to go in and see where the money is going. We just can’t keep on handing out MONEY! …[continues spluttering indignantly about the poor]
NEVIL GIBSON: This poll was carried out by the Child Poverty Action Group, so I’m a bit suspicious of it.
DENISE L’ESTRANGE-CORBET: It comes down to education. Don’t smoke it, don’t drink it, don’t buy Lotto tickets. I don’t believe there IS a shortage of jobs in New Zealand….[et cetera, ad nauseam…]
———————————————–
I sent the following email to the host….
Why did you misrepresent Sue Bradford’s words?
Dear Jim,
You completely misrepresented what Sue Bradford said about the Ashburton shootings. She pointed out, quite correctly, that the staff at WINZ have to carry out government policies which are often cruel and vindictive.
Why did you infer that she was criticizing the frontline WINZ staff when in fact she was criticizing government policies?
Yours sincerely,
Morrissey Breen
Northcote Point
You go you good thing. I’m having to maintain my panel appointment listening because for every Bishop or Womble (Denise LSC ) theres a Findlay or de Boni.
But yeah, when the stoopid comes out ( DLSC – ‘ the .com should go back to America and fight for his inno…) uuurgh.
i think l’estrange etc wd have to be the ..(how to word this..?..)…the most unlearned of all the panelists..(and that’s saying something..she has some serious competition..)
..and that bishop on with her is like a superstorm of ignorance/prejudices..
..and yep..!..mora totally twisted/distorted bradfords’ words/message..
..and interesting how none in the mainstream media seem to have anything to say about all the copycat threats..up and down the country..
..nothing to see there..eh..?
..symptomatic of not very much..?..
..and not just confirming what bradford actually said..?
Denise L’Estrange-Corbett…….demonstrably not a contender in matters cerebral.
I was shouting at the radio yesterday listening to Denise,”the strange” – why doesn’t she just come out and say what she really means, namely that beneficiaries don’t deserve to live. FFS they have few enough pleasures and she wants to deprive them of their smokes and sex as well! What planet do the privileged elite live on?
‘denise’ ..as shown by her own words..has that potent mix of ignorance and arrogance going on..
..and all the self-awareness of that flawed-realty she unloads onto listeners…of a rock..
..she just keeps on braying them out…
As if these useless talking donkeys care what we think.
Quite
Nice work, Moz. The weirdest thing for me was Denise LC talking of being bought up on welfare by a single parent, but apparently learning nothing from the experience. Unintentionally, it was her own mum she was lumping in with the smoking, drinking, gambling, shagging, welfare dependent lifestyle.
heh
Good on you Morrissey, I also was appalled at the depths yesterdays panel had plummeted,( although my email was alot more abusive than yours to Dim). In fact it ruined my Friday night. I have had a fucking gutfull of Dim and his holier than thou Fascists that he parades out every day. For Denise L/C to opine that she didn’t believe there was any unemployment in this country is one step too far even for a whiney voiced halfwit as her, she even had the audacity to get a Free plug in for her 25 years celebration food and fashion show at the Langham, all of next month, (only $89 ).
This has got to stop RNZ, this is my tax money too. I stopped watching TV news years ago, I stopped buying the Herald and my local rightwing rag months ago, so my only source of current affairs is RNZ who I once loved and The Standard ( who I still love 🙂 Now I just want to smash my radio every day.
Thank God for The Standard, may you live forever.
I never listen to “the panel” anymore it is perhaps the most sickening piece of radio on RNZ. Mora is just too biased and has little comprehension of the issues.
stuff online and herald online at 8am… you wldnt know those organisations won a fight for free press and public interest yesterday
Yeah. Thinking the same.
it’s a devastating absence.
And NZ Herald desperately spinning for Craig over Peters. They realise Peters would not necessarily ensure a Nat-led government.
http://www.3news.co.nz/politics/slater-gets-temporary-injunction-against-hacker-2014090517#disqus_thread
Comments almost 100% against Key et al.
Worth a look if only for the new artwork someone has done on a National billboard using Miley Cyrus .. made me smile on this dark morning.
But this didn’t:
“Jim-I’d rather a cardboard box in the PM’s chair with proven Labour’s surplus policies than a corporate takeover by John Key and his banker and republican friends doing an Ireland bankruptcy in slow motion!
2. We will be bankrupt in 3 years like Ireland, that Key helped screw ..our debt will be $135 billion in three years – Christchurch will be a river of dirty money for the banker/insurance industry and the lesser building suppliers like American Peabody and co that see us now as a commodity on wall street..and the TPPA is the legal equivalent of oppression by stealth!”
Here’s hoping HOS and SST make use of their freedoms tomorrow. Sigh.
As usual the stories are 100% NACT pap. but the comments tell the full story.
I am absolutely not surprised.
Yeo thought that too. Speak up media, you won your right to speak because to be allowed to do so is in the public interest.
I picked up this interesting twitter exchange via Graeme Edgeler’s Twitter feed.
https://twitter.com/tmurphyNZH/status/507970888726097920
Participants include Tim Murphy (NZH) and Pete of WO, with the latter claiming that their QC reckons that media cannot publish anything that they have but have not yet published.
It may be that Fairfax, Herald, Mediaworks are doing further legal checks to ensure that they are watertight before publishing.
They’re both just planning on releasing it for the Sunday rags. Doubt it has anything to do with caring about that injunction.
Doesnt explain them not going headline on their win? Herald today would normally trumpet their success on anything…
The hard copy of the weekend Herald has articles on the Slater emails on page A 18. They are pretty much buried within the tabloid fluff and advertising.
The top article is a revamping of last night’s online article by Rob Kidd.
The Weekend Herald version has the headline: “Slater gagging order affects only hacker”, and begins,
Under this is an article that seems to be a new one from David Fisher: “Commission rejects bloggers claims”.
It is further examination of and investigation into the SFO inquiry about Feeley. The article begins:
The article goes onto discuss complications in that the SFO cannot easily find records pertaining to staff, etc from 2011.
Underneath this is an article by Adam Bennett. It looks like this one from Herald online, midday yesterday.
The new email referred to by David Fisher is one in a Herald chain of emails that include Jared Savage.
thx karol
Why is ssc first rennie and now this publically discussing something to be covered by an inquiry?!?
Look at who owns Fairfax, APN and TV3 and there is your answer,
Overseas finance and investment companies want Key’s government back as they are prepared to sell us to them.
Yep we are lambs to the Government for slaughter, wished the average kiwi would see this beforee its to late.
Looking at the hard copy of today’s Dom Post. It has an article on the injunction on page 2.
It looks like this article that went online last night.
But the headline is: Court injunction plugs Whaledump leak.
Partly, there may be no new news on it today. But, also, the 3 media oultets may publish new material, but aim to mute it somewhat. eg, the Dom Post aricle being on page 2, while the WINZ killing victims story takes up most of page 1, in a quite sensationalist, tabloidish way: headline: ‘Face to face with the Ashburton gunman’.
Next to the Whaledump article on page two, is an article by Hamish Rutherford, about Labour saying the Collins enquiry is too narrow.
The NZ Herald and Stuff may also be aiming to blunt what is yet to come from the Whaledump material, by some very pro-Nats articles preceding it. These are editorial decisions, and not those of the individual journalists who are probably aiming to do their best by the material.
Give them a break.The data has apparently gone to the two leading MSM investigative reporters in the country. given the leaks landed yesterday I would hope Fisher and Nippert would do a little journalism before putting the stuff into their newspapers and online. Otherwise they’re no better than their “repeater” colleagues.
Serious journalism takes more than a 10 minute lick at a press release,especially when they’re building a story that could be the most significant of the year.
And Nippert does write for the Sunday Star Times, first and foremost.
here’s an idea for labours’ tacticians..
..why not wheel out parker again..?
..to tell us all again what a brilliant idea/policy it is to raise the pension-age..
..that should help drive the polls back up..eh..?
..d’yareckon..?
(but no financial transaction tax on the banksters..eh..?
..even tho’ some twenty other oecd countries already have a form of f.t.t…
..too hard..!..that one..?..is it..?..don’t want to/can’t afford to offend said banksters..?
..are they not already sucking enough in profits out of our economy..?
..each and every year..?
..couldn’t even work out how to implement that most small of inter-financial institutions-only tax..?
..instead..let’s make the workers work to an even older age..
..and of course..that policy will be music to the ears of the maori/p.i-vote labour says it is so assiduously courting..eh..?
..what with their almost guaranteed shorter life-spans than pakeha..
..eh..?
..who exactly is it that you are beholden to..?
..it sure as hell isn’t to those workers whose working-life-spans you wish to increase..
..and this is all based on some future we-can’t-afford-it!-scenario..
..a scenario that ignores so many variables..it is just a joke..
..just one of these variables..is that at a time when thinkers are wrestling with what to do with workers..with the rise of automation..thinking shortened work-weeks etc..
..parker/labour are crying ‘fire..!..fire..!’..to justify this vote-killing policy..
..and funny story…!
..what just compounds this clusterfuck of an idea/policy/argument..is the ultimate futility of it all..
..as the coalition partners labour will be relying upon..should they become the govenment..won’t have a bar of it..
..for labour/parker..this is just stupidity piled on top of stupidity..
..and post-election..in the wrap-up..
..must get some ‘award’ all of its’ own..
..’the braindead-policy-award’..?..(as a working title..?..)
🙄
Yeah
but credit where credit is due..parker is doing well up against english on the nation..
..english isn’t helping his case tho’..
..him showing himself up as an idea-free zone..
The retirement age is *going* to be raised sooner or later. It’s inevitable.
Better to raise it gradually with a lot of forewarning now, than do it in a mad rush later.
Indeed it will happen, and like fake outrage, the unpopular aspect will be long forgotten in the big scheme of things.
Maybe pu either has an obsession with DP and is compelled to publicise it, even if it does border on homo erotic s and m.
Maybe, unlike where he correctly expects the top rate tax earners and banks to pay more to stop poverty, he isn’t prepared to stump up and work a few months to a maximum of 24 in the future to pay for his and others retirements. Maybe he has a trust or a pension plan and doesn’t have to worry about it.
Or maybe he just looks at it all from the wrong angle. Instead of looking at the perceived negatives, focus on the positives. Instead of getting a piss poor pension aged 65-67, one will still be able to claim jobseekers and associated top ups for an extra couple of years, which shocking as it is for a lot of our old people, is money in the bank.
One of the trends I’ve never heard discussed in the superannuation debate is the historical rate and projections for people 65+ in the workforce.
This is from a paper titled ‘Demographic projections from Statistics New Zealand: Aims, methods, and results’ from the Stats Department in 2012 (google the title and when you click on the pdf link you get an automatic download):
“The number of people aged 65+ in the labour force climbed from 25,000 in 1991 to about 130,000 in 2012. Further increases in labour force participation, coupled with more people at older ages, is likely to grow the older segment of the labour force further. It is highly likely that there will be 240,000–500,000 people aged 65+ in 2036, and 280,000–660,000 in 2061 (Figure 35). The largest growth will occur between 2011 and 2031, as the baby boomers move into the 65+ age group (Figure 36).”
And,
“Among those aged 65+, 1 in 16 were in the labour force in 1991. It is 1 in 5 in 2012, and is projected to increase to 1 in 3 by the mid-2020s.
As a result, by 2036, it is expected that between 9 and 15 percent of the labour force will be aged 65+, compared with 3 percent in 2006. By 2061, it is expected that between 10 and 18 percent of the labour force will be aged 65+.
Within the labour force aged 65+, the number of people aged 80 and over (80+) is also expected to increase significantly. From 8,000 in 2012, it is highly likely that there will be 21,000–64,000 people aged 80+ in the labour force in 2036, and 27,000–96,000 in 2061.
Among those aged 80+, about 1 percent were in the labour force in 1991. It is 5 percent in 2012, and is projected to increase to 10 percent by the late 2020s.
Overall, 68 percent of adults (aged 15 years and over) were in the labour force in 2012. The median projection indicates an increase to 69 percent around 2020, then a gradual drop to 67 percent in 2036, and to 65 percent in 2061 (Figure 37). This drop is despite the assumptions of static or increasing LFPRs at most ages. This apparent contradiction is caused by the changing age structure of the population, with more people at the oldest ages where LFPRs are at their lowest.”
So the median projection indicates an overall population labour force participation rate decreasing from 69 percent in 2020 to 65% in 2061.
Has the increasing labour force participation rate for those 65+ been calculated into the fiscal projections for the superannuation ‘burden’?
I’ve usually heard people (politicians) simply say that fewer workers will be supporting more people over 65. That seems a bit simplistic given the trend in labour force participation for the over 65s. (Being in the Labour force they will also be paying tax, of course.)
Have I missed something?
Also, what counts as “Labour force participation”. I’m over 65 & working, but only for a couple of days a week. Many older people do go onto part time work.
Why is it inevitable? As far as I’m concerned, TINA just means a lack of creativity.
Just looking around the UK upper level domain for antics from a certain PM and came across this (my filter bubble allowed it, surprise, surprise).
https://www.check-business.co.uk/business/01062001/bofaml-investments/
It’s a Merrill Lynch company, in fact it used to be called Merrill Lynch, one of the main ones in their ‘let’s avoid the taxman and stop anybody from finding out who we are’ game. Closely associated with the Bank of America (ie. B(ank)ofAm(erica)L). 12 month profit (well loss actually) -26k. Capital something like 113 million dollars (which considering how high up in the Bank of America tree this company is seems quite low to me). Credit worthiness pretty low. So effectively tax dodging, investigative dodging one of the biggest banks in the world, but if they were a customer instead of a (the?) banker then they wouldn’t be able to raise a loan. John Key was a director of this company for 3 years in the late 90s.
Yes but JK has left all that behind to take a more powerful position where he can ensure his banking mates get a decent slice of this country.
Same motives and outcomes achieved whilst getting treated to protective services, air force transport, royal weddings, world cups, antarctica etc.
As far as JK is concerned its thanks nz the scrapbook is nearly full and the bucket list much reduced just need to sort the knighthood before I leave the juristriction.
Well hopefully it’s his marching orders and a criminal investigation.
Do you have a link to this claim that John Key was a director of Merrill Lynch?
He certainly worked for them in a managerial role but I haven’t seen any evidence of him being a director of the company. The source of your claim, please.
It’s on the site that I linked;
https://www.check-business.co.uk/business/01062001/bofaml-investments/#anchor-people
Just choose ‘Previous Directors’ in the drop down menu which probably now shows ‘Current Directors’. He’s between Alan Stern and John Charles Cooper.
https://www.check-business.co.uk/director/53719380002/john-philip-key
Bofaml Investments was called Merrill Lynch when Key was a director. It is still Merrill Lynch of course although Merrill Lynch is effectively a Bank of America proxy (as reflected in the new name).
You can confirm Key’s directorship via Companies House in the UK in all likelihood.
Akshully it looks kind of interesting that they changed their name (from Merrill Lynch to MLIB) about 10 days after Key became Prime Minister does it not?
You aren’t trying to be serious are you?
The company you link to isn’t Merrill Lynch. It is a fairly small organisation registered in London, whereas Merrill Lynch, the group, is (or was) a very large organisation registered in the US. The company you have found is at best the subsidiary of a subsidiary of a subsidiary of a subsidiary of Merrill Lynch.
To say that someone being a director of such a company is a director of the whole organisation, ie Merrill Lynch is silly but it appears to be what you think.
It is about on a par with saying that a director of Fletcher Construction (Solomon Islands) Limited is a director of Fletcher Building Limited. Well it isn’t that way and the people concerned aren’t.
Well singing from the same song sheet as nadis I see. And making the same mistake in suggesting that the US company is allowed to register itself in the UK. No it’s not, Merrill Lynch in the UK has always been a UK registered company. Merrill Lynch in Switzerland is a Swiss company. Merrill Lynch in New Zealand is a NZ company.
If Merrill Lynch goes broke in the US that will not effect the UK Merrill Lynch.
I have never said that John Key was a director of the US Merrill Lynch.
I seem to have lit a fire. I’m still not sure how or why it’s still burning.
Here’s the proof that you don’t want;
http://www.isda.org/protocol/pdf/mlibl.pdf
Notice the registration number 1062001, it’s the same Company registration number as the company that John Phillip Key (New Zealander) was a director of.
As you can see it was called Merrill Lynch International Bank in 2000. That was the main Merrill Lynch company in the UK at the time.
alwyn — is that u bronagh ?
Did you read it?
Has anyone else noticed that reading and comprehension seem to be a weakness amongst those who support Key, and Key himself
Have a look at my comment above Tracey regarding the difference between small companies and the directors of the group of which the small company is a part.
You claimed yesterday, by the way, that Rupert Murdoch owned 30% of APN. I asked that you provide a link to the source of the claim.
You haven’t answered yet. Dis you have trouble reading the request or did you fail to comprehend what I said? Do you have a weakness in such things?
Dis – french? (say, talk)
Or some other language?
Wow, you’ve spotted a typo. Aren’t you the clever one?
Now are you dissing me junior?
Tracey hasn’t seem the comment though or I’m sure she would have explained by now how she decided that Rupert Murdoch was a major owner of APN and therefore the NZ Herald.
I wouldnt get excited. What you are looking at is just a special purpose vehicle company. These are typically used for one off transactions and reused again and again. And names change all the time. Their might be a tax reason, or just a need to hold assets in a discrete vehicle, but there’s nothing conspiratorial here. I worked for an investment bank, my area maintained upwards of a hundred separate companies which were used to put together specific transactions. All had names that were either completely generic, i.e. “Sabre 2008 Ltd” or were a play on either our banks name or the customers name. At one time I was a director (unpaid) of about 30 companies.
The real Merrill Lynch or actually Merrill Lynch Fenner Pierce and Smith was a New York incorporated company listed on the NY stock exchange. So not the same thing.
I didn’t really think there was anything particularly conspiratorial about this other than the normal shenanigans that ‘those at the top who pay no tax’ get up to. I was just pointing out that the director of Merrill Lynch International Bank Limited was at one stage in the late 90s a certain John Phillip Key from New Zealand. And that despite capital (but not assets) over 100 million this company was paying no tax and has a loss that is small enough despite that significant capital to raise suspicions that it is artificial.
Now if you want to see if what we are talking about is a ‘discrete vehicle’ whatever the hell that is or the actual Merrill Lynch UK version well then this should put you right;
http://www.casact.org/education/reinsure/2009/handouts/GS-2-Cohen.pdf
Check the bottom to see the main entity for each country. You will see that the UK entities are Merrill Lynch International Bank Limited (i.e. the entity that John Key was a directer of) and MLPF&S. Also Bofaml Limited as the company is now known has been in business since 1971 or so, so it’s hardly a company along the lines of ‘throw some liabilities in there and liquidate it’ vehicle is it?
Now there may have been some name changes and movement to different company registrations since (a trivial exercise even for someone as small fry as myself) but the main Merrill Lynch vehicle in the UK had as its director in the late 90s, a certain Mr JP Key. I’m not interested in the US version, I never said that John Key was a director of any American company.
Please don’t try and pull rank on me again (I was an investment banker), I’m quite capable of figuring out what is going on here.
Now back to the beginning again, what’s conspiratorial here?
have you seen these pages Rich ? Something else for alwyn to fester about …. hosted by travellev, a well known poster here on TS
http://aotearoaawiderperspective.wordpress.com/2008/12/17/open-letter-to-eugene-bingham-or-would-you-have-voted-for-john-key-if-you-had-known/
I don’t really think that he is the devil incarnate, yeshe, as that blog seems to think that he is. He’s just playing the game on behalf of somebody else. And being richly rewarded for it. And he’s a bit of pr*&k as well but the main lizard he is not.
I just want nadis to tell me what is conspiratorial about this. As I didn’t see that on my first post.
Yes Rich, but playing the game for the lizards does not make you any less despicable than the lizards. He is a proven liar and a crazy danger to NZ as he serves his masters’ avarice.
As long as you know that story is there and proven … good luck with nadis !
Yes somehow I don’t think that nadis is going to tell me why it’s conspiratorial.
I suspect it’s something along the lines of ‘his interest in NZ is more Merrill Lynch than Bryndwr or Remuera’. Which is true enough.
Hi Rich
Was this true that JK was planning with Alex Krieger to undermine the NZ dollar and make a reward from Krieger for services, when he was working at NY Merrill Lynch?
Isn’t that a deliberate attempt to destabilise the financial state of NZ and what is the charge, is it wilful sabotage?
Bad enough he worked in Australia to fire 500 workers also. He really is a saboteur.
http://www.businessspectator.com.au/article/2008/11/10/financial-markets/keys-house
MARKETS: Shadow banking in the spotlight
Giles Parkinson10 Nov 2008, 10:54 AM
Financial Services
Politics
Industries
Global Financial Crisis
Financial Markets
Global News
Economy
Markets
John Key is living proof that not all heads of derivatives operations for large US investment banks end up in the dog house. Some get to run their own country.
Key was elected prime minister of New Zealand last weekend after his National Party achieved a crushing victory over the incumbent Labour government of Helen Clark.
The timing of his elevation, in the midst of a financial crisis, may be quite prophetic. After all, Key’s rise to prominence in foreign exchange circles came after he struck a rewarding relationship at Bankers Trust with Andy Krieger, a daring New York-based trader who launched a legendary raid against the NZ dollar in 1987.
Krieger reportedly bet more than the country’s entire money supply against the currency, forcing it down sharply and taking massive profits in what is still described as one of the finest forex plays ever completed.
Key’s role in this raid is not entirely clear. The timing of his arrival at BT suggests he might not have had a great deal to do with it, but he benefited from Krieger’s continuing interest in the currency, which helped Key lift BT to top of the local currency tables and attract interest from international investment banks.
New Zealand’s new leader also knows a lot about job losses, having by his own admission earned the reputation of being the “smiling assassin” during his short stint at the Sydney offices of Merrill Lynch in 2001 when he reportedly helped fire some 500 staff.
He had been through this process before, after Merrills incurred massive losses as a result of the Asian crisis. Key, then head of the bank’s forex operations in London, is credited by former colleagues for his ability to hold a demoralised team together, even while sacking, in his own words “dozens fewer than 100”, a comment that reveals an early talent for political spin.
Key began his career as an auditor in Christchurch before joining Elders Finance in the mid 1980s as a foreign exchange dealer. Within two years he was the head forex trader at Elders before moving to BT in 1988 and then to Merrill Lynch, where he headed the Asian forex operations from Singapore.
From there, he quickly rose to become head of Merrills’ global forex operations in London, where he is said to have commanded a multi-million dollar salary, before deciding to turn to politics to pursue his childhood dream of becoming PM. Now that he is there, his take on what many people expect to be a heavy re-regulation of world financial markets should be interesting.
In an interview for an article jointly authored by London’s Financial Times and New Zealand’s Sunday Star-Times earlier this year, Key admitted a great admiration for Krieger.
“He was a pioneer, in the sense he was one of the few people in the world who understood the options market before it was really established. He blazed a trail and that gave him a strategic advantage early on.”
Key also said he did not believe there was a moral issue for the traders who made speculative attacks on currencies, or for the dealing rooms that carry out their orders.
“I can’t remember whether Andy Krieger was buying or selling, it might have been selling with me, but at the time it would have reflected the economic fundamentals at play in New Zealand. The markets are ultimately too large for any one individual to manipulate.
“There is much more good gained from having a fully functioning financial market than there ever is from not having that. We provided liquidity, we provided stability.
“There would be plenty of exporters today who would be cheering from the sidelines if Andy Krieger came in to sell a whole lot of New Zealand dollars. And equally if he was buying it there would be plenty of importers who would be cheering from the rafters. So it’s not as clear-cut as some people might think.”
Interesting read, disturbed.
Disturbed .. if you haven’t, please read the link I posted for Rich above at 8.3.1.1 —
travellerev takes apart the PR, blustering denials and memory lapses to prove Key had to be there with Krieger at the same they came close to destroying NZ currency and personally must have made millions and millions from it.
The dates are very clear; including details of why Key was required to fire 500 Merrill employees.
Read it and weep.
Key is incapable of seeing anything as a moral issue. He seems to be completely amoral. Ironically, he owes his early success to the first ACT government, which deregulated the finance sector and opened up opportunities for parasites who never felt ethical burdens. Maybe this explains his affection for ACT?
And for you too little nadis (investment banker).
Here’s the proof that you don’t want;
http://www.isda.org/protocol/pdf/mlibl.pdf
Notice the registration number 1062001, it’s the same Company registration number as the company that John Phillip Key (New Zealander) was a director of.
As you can see it was called Merrill Lynch International Bank in 2000. That was the main Merrill Lynch company in the UK at the time.
Now, re your reference to conspiratorial, what is conspiratorial? What’s the theory (or theories) that you are criticising?
The polls. Has anyone thought of standing outside the supermarket today and polling 1000 people on their voting intention? Probably take 1-2 hours. Be very interesting to see if that type of poll mirrors mainstream ones – especially in particular areas. I’d do it if there were others who would too in areas different to mine.
you could do what campbell-live did..
..set up a table..with jars..marbles/whatever…
..so passers-bye can vote with their marbles/whatever..
..(far more user-friendly that accosting passers-bye..while wielding a clip-board..and demanding to know their voting intentions..)
Noticed this amongst all the “National has already won” shallow journalism on the stuff website.
“The undecided vote remained steady at 13 per cent, which is higher than in some other polls. Benson said if Ipsos included those who said they were undecided, but when pressed were leaning towards a particular party, that number dropped to about 7 per cent and saw National’s vote come in about 2 percentage points lower.”
The undecideds are clearly mostly trying to decide which opposition party to vote for. That suggests that factoring in all of the undecideds, National would be showing about 4% lower in the polls.
Despite the importance of this, all of the headlines and graphs are all about ‘decided’ voters and most reports barely mention the undecided. The high undecided figure highlights the inappropriateness of the “All over bar the shouting” message coming from much of the MSM which could also be self-fulfilling if it helps demoralize undecided voters into staying at home.
Well spotted Harry. This election will go to the wire.
+1
I still say that polling should be banned at least during the electioneering period and preferably for the 3 months before hand as well.
But how will the people of the right know what to think?
Irrelevant. People of the Right just know, they don’t think.
On a little bit more positive note. The advance voting statistics show significantly higher numbers in early votes compared to earlier general elections:
http://www.elections.org.nz/events/2014-general-election/advance-voting-statistics
I’ve already voted, as have David Cunliffe and Metiria Turei. A good turnout favours the Left so encourage people to vote ASAP. There are hopeful signs for the Left in the high Advance Voting.
The BEST WAY TO GET RID OF KEY (putting aside partisan constituency feelings) is:
Green Party Supporters-Party Vote Green
Labour Party Supporters-Party Vote Labour
Internet-Mana Supporters-Party Vote Internet-Mana (IMP)
TE TAI TOKERAU Constituency
Green, Labour and IMP supporters Candidate Vote IMP-Hone Harawira
EPSOM Constituency
Green, Labour and IMP supporters Candidate Vote National-Paul Goldsmith
EAST COAST BAYS Constituency
Green, Labour and IMP supporters Candidate Vote National-Murray McCully
OHARIU Constituency
Green, Labour and IMP supporters Candidate Vote Labour-Virginia Andersen
WAIARIKI Constituency
Green, Labour and IMP supporters Candidate Vote IMP-Annette Sykes
TE TAI HAUAURU Constituency
Green, Labour and IMP supporters Candidate Vote Labour-Adrian Rurawhe
If you don’t vote like this in these constituencies YOU ARE EFFECTIVELY VOTING FOR JOHN KEY.
But first you have to make up your mind. And here in the Otaki exectorate I have seen 1 count it 1 Labour bill board, and a few of NatKey/Guy ones and thats it.
It’s like no one gives a rats arse up here..
And the only stuff that’s been stuffed in my Mail box I put return to Sender, back to the Nats and Nathan Guy.
So no door knockers.
And buggers all hordings.
No Street meetings.
No Mailbox policy drops.
No politicians,
Nice to be in an such an important electorate /sarc
Thanks for the link, satty; amazing. Especially important for a September election given the likelihood of unsettled weather. I voted early and did so because of the push from the Greens (wouldn’t have thought to otherwise).
This is so bad. The US Govt’s secret plans to spy for US corporations.
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/09/05/us-governments-plans-use-economic-espionage-benefit-american-corporations/
so ugly. what odds waihopai is involved in that ?
Labour released their conservation policy last week. It contains a firm pledge to extend no mining protection under Schedule 4 to all conservation land between Thames and the Kaimai rail tunnel. A huge swath of high value DOC estate.
see this map
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/31214727/Mining/Ecological%20Districts%20Map.JPG
Presently only conservation land north of Thames on the Coromandel has Schedule 4 protection from mining.
Remember when 40,000 people marched up Queen Street and many more protested against National’s plans to take land OUT of Schedule 4?
Great policy like this from Labour has been buried under a steaming pile of dirty politics.
Thanks exitlane, great to see better legal protection of the conservation estate. Hopefully the msm will realise some parties do have quite important policy releases any day now…
NZ polls are manipulated.
Corruption case to answer and a police investigation must be ordered by the opposition, here are some facts.
A simple search last night of “Polls can be manipulated” – Google
found about 1,400,000 results.
Below leaves us all now with the knowledge of what in New Zealand is actually going on, it is more corruption of our MSM conducting manipulated polling results, and opposition now must call this as it is, corruption of the MSM and manipulation of all polls.
We were contacted Friday 22nd of August at 4pm by Herald Digipoll by a lady who first said we are conducting a poll and could we participate?
We said yes, then she said my supervisor is listening in, is that o/k?
I hesitated but agreed and she went through a ten minute questioning, and then abruptly said we don’t need your input thanks, and hung up!
This left us so disturbed we searched the web and found all 1.4 million cases of poll manipulations globally on Goggle, which include what is called “selective polling”
We believe we were a victim of a Herald Digipoll selective polling strategy.
NZ pols are corrupted, is this a crime?
This is just one case of the 1.4 million sites on Goggle in India which may show what is happening here in NZ.
quote;
New Delhi: Public opinion gathered by leading opinion poll agencies is often tweaked to give misleading results, Operation Prime Minister, a sting operation by a private news network, News Express, has revealed Tuesday. Well-known faces from leading opinion poll agencies have been caught on hidden camera agreeing to such malpractices.
Operation Prime Minister shows how opinion polls are conducted and manipulated at the instance of political parties, their results traded to show a particular party in a favourable position, for a price. Presenting snippets from the sting operation at a press conference, Editor-in-chief of News Express, Vinod Kapri said, “Our motivation behind conducting the sting operation was a letter written by the Election Commission of India to all regional and national parties inviting their views on the publication of opinion polls.
We wanted to investigate the concerns of the Commission.” In its letter dated 4 Oct, 2013, the Election Commission had said, “The Commission has been suggesting to the government that there should be a similar prohibition or restriction on opinion polls also as there could be several manipulated opinion polls which could impact the voting pattern.”
Another motivation behind the sting operation was the mushrooming of opinion polls. “There used to be one or two opinion polls every election. But now, one sees an opinion poll almost every week. Which leads us to the question- how is the data generated so quickly and processed,” said Kapri.
“Operation Prime Minister has exposed eleven opinion poll agencies, whose surveys are published in leading newspapers and magazines besides being broadcast by leading news channels”, it was claimed in the sting opertaion.
It demonstrates how the 810 million voters of our country are duped into believing trends or waves that are manipulated. – See more at:
“Opinion polls seem to have become the latest weapon in the poll campaign.
For a price, the prediction of seats tally can be changed to suit the interests of political parties.
The agencies have no qualms accepting even black money for this purpose”,
News Express claimed. The influence of opinion poll agencies goes beyond mere opinion polls. In some cases, the poll agencies have claimed they can even prop up dummy candidates in the constituencies where the rival candidate is on a strong wicket.
It has also been claimed that some leading editors are hand in glove with these poll agencies.
This is just a few of the 1.4 million sites on Goggle. – See more at:
http://www.ummid.com/news/2014/February/26.02.2014/opinion-poll-companies-exposed.html#sthash.wqSJ2ylu.dpuf
http://www.sciences360.com/index.php/statistics-16350/
http://www.ummid.com/news/2014/February/26.02.2014/opinion-poll-companies-exposed.html#sthash.h8rTzw8V.dpuf
http://ibnlive.in.com/videos/471548/exit-polls-manipulated-modi-will-never-be-pm-samajwadi-party.html
http://www.rediff.com/news/report/general-impression-that-opinion-polls-can-be-manipulated-sibal/20131109.htm
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Many-agencies-manipulating-opinion-poll-projections-claims-sting-operation/articleshow/31013534.cms
http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/video/2764415112001
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misuse_of_statistics
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/mhp-furious-over-opinion-poll-manipulation-claims.aspx?pageID=238&nID=62184&NewsCatID=338
disturbed +100% …great comment and links ..this should a Post !
I have seen similar comments over on the Daily Blog
..Skewed polling is a deliberate attempt to manipulate the minds of the undecided New Zealand voter to undermine their confidence and decision to vote for a change of government …and should be exposed for what it is
…falsified statistics used in a spurious PR campaign with supposed scientific validity
(I myself refuse to answer polls…and I have been asked a number of times by a number of different polling companies.. don’t know why…I know others who have never been asked…and others who lie when asked)
And DPF trying to say that the polling was kosher so I called him on it ( I had a call and was cut out halfway through the ‘interview’) That was the end of the Conversation with him.
In regard to post 14, Polls manipulated. Chooky.
I sent this post to all the left wing opposition parties, and TDB,
I ask if anyone wants to set up this as a repost, I give my total consent.
I am a little lost at posting so chooky or anyone who can do it justice PLEASE go ahead and set up a post and when the feedback comes in I will send it all to the left wing opposition parties being damaged by this to get something done about this next week as it is as bad as the Leaders debate Bias that David Cunliffe complained to TVNZ about.
Thanks Chooky.
A great column disturbed and disturbed we should be too. And there is something strange about our current polls. Be hard to prove but…
Thanks Disturbed for this article and links so interesting and frightening. I have been rung 4 times in the last 7 weeks with exactly the same strategy as you describe, lots of questions and then the ‘supervisor’ obviously said no! and hung up with no bye you way – rude as much as anything. I then had another call and they asked straight out what my age group was and replied oh your too old we don’t need anything more from oldies. I swore at them which I won’t print here! Polls are a huge scam.
This appears to be a very serious problem if it is happening to more than a few people.
Hi Marg, Karol,
Proof of selective polling.
I am prepared to go to Campbell live, how can we do this any Ideas please Karol how we can discuss?
Can you post a site where it will ask if others have been contacted and dropped after some discussion after age was approved and poll questions begin and end with no acceptance?
You should go to Campbell live with this, I’m sure they’d be all over it.
as i understand it, the scab has been ripped off an ugly sore,
it shows, if not corruption, then highly inappropriate behaviour by at least one senior politician.
then the party shows a lift in some polls.
i want to provocatively suggest that if any one is polled to answer that they are voting for the right, or hard right.
this could possibly cause: complacency by the right.
a rally to arms by the left.
possibly have the media question the veracity of these polls.
i agree with the notion that polling should stop well before the election.
Interesting
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Community/MessageBoard/Messages.aspx?id=1469591&topic=7
Again, it would be helpful if you’d explain what the link is. Not everyone has a Trademe account. Mind you, if it’s interesting to you, it’s almost certainly pants.
That’s right you need an account to log in and view the message board.
I’ll copy and paste the first post.
[karol: These are just personal smears from the gutter, spreading them with no evidence.]
Is Slater/Ede/Odgers now using trade me for sleazy dirty poltics
‘now’? I think you mean ‘still’.
Plenty of people are of the opinion that the TradeMe user “feeder” is DPF – that account certainly went a bit quiet when he was in Nepal.
trademe forums have been a shithole since forever.
So, I was right. Pants from start to finish. Cheers, though, BM, it’s always great to see examples of right wing desperation such as that comment. Obviously, if the incidents were real, we’d already know about it.
I’d be pretty surprised if there was any truth to any of it.
Oh so more of Slater’s shit that he and his cronies have been trying to seed around social media.
Already heard the outline of these claims, just another attempt by these sock puppets to ratfuck Cunliffe.
Was waiting for a dick like BM to try and post it here, “just saw it on the TM forums”…. yeah right… Cameron’s been grinding this axe all week.
Yeah, I’ve heard of few rumors over the past couple of weeks.
Not in that sort of detail though which is what I found interesting, if it is made up, the author of that post may be in a bit of trouble.
I’m sure DC wouldn’t be happy to have his name dragged through the mud like that and would no doubt take steps to clear it.
If you have heard rumours you must hang around some pretty vile people, you really have turned out to be quite a vile person morality and ethics wise…
You remind me of many described in dirty politics, and this comment/posting of yours is beyond contempt. Especially when you dont condemn the behaviour which has been proven to impact the governing of nz. Cunliffe has no power… The right are showing themselves to be beyond despicable.
Now
Fuck off
Oh rumo(u)rs. How substantive.
Don’t care. (that’s one of your mates favourites).
More dirty politics from the right – nothing else there.
And more american spellings too. I thought they’d figured that one out?
By infamous they mean sleazy?!?
more crafted dirty tricks, from a camp that specialises in them. The fingerprints of invention are all over it – including the “blurred lines” innuendo.
You’re a degenerate fuck.
Just a quick question – How does someone blur personal and privates lives?
“blurred lines between his personal and private lives“???
That’s nonsensical.
Edit: Sorry miravox. I should have read the whole thread first!
No problem Pg. The more people who notice that sort of idiocy the better.
It is nonsensical, although I guess the author couldn’t be sued for defamation with that line 😉
Another load of bullshit with no evidence, just like all the threats Slug Boy makes. Funny how the “left” (except maybe for Mallard) only releases stuff when there is hard evidence, but with the morans it’s always “I’ve seen the evidence of Cunliffe fellating a goat. The goat is likely to make a statement any day now.”
Pathetic, BM. Bristol 6 for that one.
Has any one noticed that the three poll results issued this week by the professional polling companies are almost identical with the results released two weeks before the 2011 election day by the same companies. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_New_Zealand_general_election,_2011
Whilst I am sure these polls are not rigged, I am wondering if we are heading for a status quo result with most voters staying ‘tribal’
IB are you kidding,
“I am sure these polls are not rigged”
Using a mop?
Go find a dirty floor, you must work in the bee hive.
Try 9th floor,
We have upwards to 15 cases now since we have been on two sites complaining about unusual poll calls, and been dropped after answering primary questions to check for required selection and then going through a 10 minute polling questionnaire to be dropped at breakneck speed with out any reason or even thank you for your time by these “professional polling companies ” we are onto you, you crooked fucks.
Oh we asked one pooling group that was not crooked and they heard this and said we should put in a complaint to the electoral commission or Police so which do you prefer?
On the Nation Parker has turned English into a mop and is wiping the floor with him.
But how will the Panel report it?
Probably the other way.
They did. Or at least Fran O”Sullivan claimed Bill English came out on top. Yep the Finance minister who has no fresh ideas (whereas Parker iterated fresh policy after fresh policy) won the debate.
Wasn’t O’Sullivan implicated in Dirty Politics?
And the media still use her as a commentator.
What. A. Joke.
She and jared savage. But their editor, tim murphy (who thinks a statement and an affidavit are the same) said they are not.
Hope that clears it up.
I was astounded and felt ashamed for Fran O’Sullivan when she said that English won the debate! He did not!
Anyone, even with a tiny amount of integrity can see that David Parker was clearly very lucid and brilliant. He won that debate hands down. English failed on so many counts.
Strangely, later in the discussions, Fran mentioned that Parker has shown a lot of thinking in his policies. That was a compliment, but to say that English won the debate is completely wrong, biased and pretty stupid.
The debate on The Nation TV3 is not on line yet.
Here is the entire debate, about 20 plus minutes.
Well worth watching by all, including the right wing. It shows Parker will be an excellent very able finance minister and that there is no problem giving your party vote to Labour for a strong Labour led government. See for yourself:
http://www.3news.co.nz/tvshows/thenation/debate-economy-and-coalitions-2014090613
I thought Parker’s best moment was when Bill English was being chased around about the ethics of taking credit card details from websites and English goes “there are more serious issues”.
Parker then steps up and goes something like “yes trying to derail a serious fraud investigate and pervert the course of justice.”
No-plan Double Dipton says “the plan is to continue with the plan”.
It would be hilarious if he weren’t so tragic.
Is it ok? Is it ok? Is it ok, Mr English? Is it ok? Is it ok?
They just refuse to answer.
And this is not some detail of a policy that is yet to be written clause by clause into legislation – this is about basic ethics. Just as was the question that Guyon Espiner posed to Key over Collins.
Cunliffe can’t answer a detail about policy – Key and English can’t answer fundamental questions about their personal ethics.
I wonder which the media believe has made a ‘gaffe’?
Bill intends to continue with the plan
So in 3 years another 30 billion in debt.!!!
you are fucken kidding me…!
..gower just excelled himself..his worst interview ever…
..12 mins interview with harre/harawira..
..trying to drive a wedge between internet and mana cannabis policies..
..that was the whole fucken interview…!
..un-fucken-believable..
..third rate tabloid hack…
..gower owns that tawdry crown..
..and an undoubted nadir in the coverage of this election..
..i can’t see it being/getting worse than this effort..
The Twitter feed was a little scathing as well and Gower’s still waffling on.
i have been staying in the far north for a week with a fellow harawira enthusist.
he was of the opinion that the mana/internet coalition could be in for a tuff time ref the opposite stances on marijuana.
i notice hone was away when laila was speaking about reform of policy.
there are also questions around how hone hamdled his recent car prang.
It’s occurred to me that this government and it’s conniving, hero-worshiping media are deliberately trying to divert the election campaign up a dead-end tunnel where the light of truth, decency and honesty cannot penetrate. They are doing this by trying to get everyone talking about policy. Strange that before Dirty Politics it was all about personality and perception (because they had little policy worth talking about) but post-Dirty Politics it is now vital that we should only be talking about policy. The mainstream media can’t wait to agree.
However, because of Dirty Politics, it is now more important than ever that this election is about WHO CAN THE PEOPLE TRUST to run the country; which party can be relied upon to carry out the functions of government without the greed, corruption and disdain for democracy as practiced by this current lot. Which bloc believes in devil-take-the-hindmost, give me the money, I’m all right Jack cronyism and which one believes in fairplay, equality before the law, a fair go for all, everyone sharing in the wealth of this country etc.
This election now needs to be about electing a government which is TRUSTWORTHY and has INTEGRITY and CARES ABOUT PEOPLE BEFORE PROFIT.
Nothing less will do.
that wd be grns/int-mana together being more in numbers than labour..
..that is the only way i can see happening what you and many others want..
..when that happens..that will happen..
Hi Phillip – I see it as Labour/Greens/InternetMana and maybe NZ First combined. That bloc is unbeatable I think.
We need to elect a government of the people for the people; one we can rely on to govern for all NZer’s of all persuasions including the right. Utopia? Maybe, but why not try?
yah +++++++
+111
+1 Kenny
The media are not so very interested in talking about policy, even now, or they would have been more focused on how many policies Cunliffe talked about in the debate in Christchurch and noted that Key hardly mentioned any of National’s. (I don’t think National have many) They preferred, however to fixate on one error that Cunliffe made and ignored the many failings of what Key saw fit to present to (inflict on) the voting audience.
I agree with you comment, and would also add that a narrative about what sound democracy requires is a vote-worthy issue too.
Labour sums it up fairly well here (my bet is the Greens and IMP have similar pages too)
http://campaign.labour.org.nz/democracy
http://campaign.labour.org.nz/broadcasting
And Dunne is complicit. Dismisses dirty politics as muvk raking… While championing the importance of family…
100% Kenny. This thought I will send to all left opposition MPs today as in all our public interest.
We on the left don’t delve in dirt, only good policy ideas and input as our democratic right.
Integrity or lack of it is National’s Achilles heel.
Jason Ede = Antarctic Lemur
labourscandals
sirhumphreys
…
hmmm, this is not good. I’m sure mostly it’s DPF and the rest of the crew shitstirring (Farrar has a post up about it this morning), but Labour and Cunliffe need to do much better than basically parroting what Key has been saying all this time about his own staff’s involvement with Slater, not least because we know that Key has been lying through his teeth. Simply saying “you can trust us, nothing to see here, move on” is an inadequate response in these circumstances.
Labour’s leader has confirmed his chief of staff has had dealings with blogger Cameron Slater but is refusing to say what they’ve involved.
David Cunliffe says Matt McCarten has had contact Mr Slater and that he has no concerns about this.
And despite saying sunlight is the best disinfectant with regard to the release of Mr Slater’s hacked computer data, Mr Cunliffe is declining to say what the dealings might have been.
“There is nothing to fear and there is nothing to hide. I don’t go around releasing peoples’ private communications.”
http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/auckland/news/121713709-cunliffe-confirms-mccarten-contacted-slater
That’s a piece by Felix Marwick. Do we know where he fits into Slatergate?
Why is that any kind of story? (Sorry, I won’t be around to respond further) But having watched yesterday’s Otago debate, I was struck by the fact that only one of the participants (Prof Jackson) appeared to have read and actually understood the implications of what Hager had highlighted in ‘Dirty Politics’. The others, and this is in line with this non-scandal of McCarten talking to a blogger, didn’t seem able to differentiate between somebody being called a sheep shagger or talking to a sheep shagger (oh, so scandalous!), and a very deliberate system being set up by a political party allowing blogs (Whaleoil and Kiwiblog) to be used as a conduit for smears and misdirections to be picked up and reported by msm.
If McCarten had been trying to plant stories through Whaleoil, then yeah…different matter. But, what’s the chances of a component of National’s attack machine accommodating anything coming from the left? That’s right – none. Meanwhile, if McCarten wants to converse with Slater….so fucking what?
quick edit – if academics don’t get it, and they’re meant to be erm…smart, then what chance is there of ordinary people perceiving the serious dangers Hager has outlined?
Well quite. So how come Labour aren’t saying that? They don’t have to make a big deal out of it, just say what kind of contact McCarten has had, and point out the difference between that and Slatergate.
Here’s Bomber’s take on it,
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2014/09/05/hone-harawira-biased-polls-matt-mccarten-examples-of-the-msm-still-pimping-for-whaleoil/
re the academics, I haven’t watched the video yet, but I have to wonder if much of this not getting it is the result of people who don’t spend time in the blogosphere not understanding what the blogosphere actually is.
Labour are trying not to get suckered into whataboutery war. If they give the story too much oxygen or release these comms then it validates him some more and Slater can talk some shit about releasing X email from X MP that he’s made up on the spot, then it’s Bill Liu’s donation all over again.
It’s a trap Labour are avoiding. And it’s Nationals main play, shift the story to be about communication not about the behaviour of the main individual involved.
“look everyone sends emails, everyone talks to bloggers, we’re all the same, nothing to see here.”
I agree about not getting sucked into it, and I agree it’s important to normalise contact with blogs. The problem is at the moment Labour are mirroring Key’s response to Slatergate. They have to differeniate themselves from that or run the risk of affirming Key while undermining themselves (thanks MSM). I don’t think it would be that hard to come up with a short statement that does what Bill is talking about above – not all contact with blogs is the same or has the same implications.
They’re also preempting the Ede stories about to come out, with the old play ground chant “but they did it too” also fits Keys persona.
even more reason for Labour to start making the differences really bloody clear.
So how come Labour aren’t saying that?
I saw Cunliffe make a comment about McCarten’s communications with Slater – it was on a TV News in the last couple of days. Cunliffe just said that McCarten had some communication with Slater but it wasn’t anything significant.
Here is Cunliffe talking to TV One about it.
As Bradbury says, it’s just Team Key running diversions and distractions.
I was more surprised by the 3/4 Australian accents.
“quick edit – if academics don’t get it, and they’re meant to be erm…smart, then what chance is there of ordinary people perceiving the serious dangers Hager has outlined?”
This is where the MSM should be stepping up. But they don’t get it either (or are embedded and compromised). Am thinking it’s time that the feral media started doing more organising and active outreach into the mainstream (by feral I mean blogs, tweeps, fb etc, and probably offline strategies too).
BM is parrotting, or creating, some sleaze aroud cunliffe. Precisely because the media have failed abysmally to make it clear this is about people in power abusing that power…
“.didn’t seem able to differentiate between somebody being called a sheep shagger or talking to a sheep shagger (oh, so scandalous!), and a very deliberate system being set up by a political party allowing blogs (Whaleoil and Kiwiblog) to be used as a conduit for smears and misdirections to be picked up and reported by msm.”
Plus 1000
Thankfully a high court judge could make the differentiation
Yes, Prof Jackson gave a good summation of the book, what it reveals, and why it matters. I have found him interesting and perceptive on other forums.
I nearly lost the will to live during the panel discussion, the usual generic media comms pontification.
My guess is that Prof Jackson is used to visceral and confronting themes in his subject area of peace studies, and would have no trouble grasping the importance of Dirty Politics.
I am starting to think that accepting the enormity of the corruption of our democracy as elucidated by Prof Jackson is too much for most people, whether they be ‘smart’ academics or ‘ordinary’ folk.
“…an inadequate response in these circumstances.”
Not sure why anyone wants McCarten gone, but yes, Labour should be… ah right, Labour and “should be’s”. Strategy is not their strong point.
McCarten get’s “dumped”, guilty or not = validates Nat line that “the left do it too”.
Coms published = side show and implies the “left are capable of doing it too”
No coms published = doubt over “Labour” is capable of doing it too.
Who made the error? Cunliffe, by confirming a rumour, inviting sunlight, and then quickly pulling down the shades. Fail. I think the word is catastrophuck.
On the up-side, apparently voters are unconcerned with Dirty Politics, therefore, no harm done regardless of anything. Maybe Cunliffe could run with that. e.g.
“John Key’s supporters appear to have the majority of polls so far. If that is the truly the case, any contact my chief of staff might have had with Cameron Slater is well within their range of the harmlessly acceptable.”
Another piece of evidence showing our increasingly degraded environment.
To save the Hauraki Gulf.
Another reason to vote Green this year.
“Water health may reach tipping point
Water pollution from decades of farming may be approaching a “tipping point” which threatens marine life in the Hauraki Gulf, says an experienced scientist.
Research by Dr John Zeldis, principal scientist for marine ecology at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Niwa), shows that water in the Firth of Thames has become increasingly acidic because of a build-up of nutrients from rivers which receive run-off from farms on the Hauraki Plains.”
http://m.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11319874
But, but, but the rock star economy
What the hell is up with this muppet?
http://www.radiolive.co.nz/Introducing-Labours-Selwyn-candidate/tabid/615/articleID/53976/Default.aspx
Yeah he mad.
Speaking of catastrophuck, The Labour Party president has got into the mindboggling situation of telling the public (via media) that Gibson and Dickson are unacceptable Labour candidates, even though they’re on the ballot. She says Gibson won’t be chosen as candidate again. Twisted. Cunliffe says anyone can vote for whoever they want.
They need to sort out pre-selection vetting, this kind of thing can’t happen again.
Gibson should be expelled from the party.
Wheels have completely come off the Labour election-mobile.
Cunliffe away with the fairies.
Nah did you hear about National’s Kelston candidate who also used to be an MP?
You fullas have probably already seen this, but I found it a good read this morning and no harm in sharing.
I’m in Ohariu and pleased to see its going to be close…
http://bryanbruce.co.nz/blog/election-2014/how-create-child-friendly-parliament-voting-strategically
Bill English
“We think the tax structure for income tax is about right at the top end,” .
Yeah, ’cause at the height of the GFC, you gave yourself millions in tax cuts. Nice to know you’re alright, Jack.
“Any moderate tax reductions should be for low and moderate income earners,”.
We count the cake, you count the crumbs, and those with nothing can count their blessings.
Vote National.
“We think the tax structure for income tax is about right at the top end,” .
Yep Bill
So why is the National debt now
NZ$ 86,699,710,575
I’m (or at least was) near that top tax bracket when the tax cuts came in and I got like an extra $30 odd in my pay packet per week (or fifty a fortnight – can’t quite remember now).
I would have been more than to have stayed on the same tax rate. $30 meant little to me but was a lot to others.
According to something i read the other day only the top 10% of households have seen an increase in real household income in the last few years, everyone else in the negatives…
Look at this
Interactive: See how well off you are with our inequality calculator
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/personal-finance/news/article.cfm?c_id=12&objectid=11317223
In fact, only the richest 10% of households are benefitting from rising inequality — they are much better off than than they would be if everyone’s income had grown evenly.
It shows ONLY the top 10% have increased their income 29%
Whereas all other income groups income have had a negative change.
Thats it. Thanks dv
I’m in the -17% worse off category – I knew we were going backwards, didn’t realise it was that bad
Hang on if tax cuts are good, why not 0%.
Isnt that what tge right say about the minimum wage?
The Greens say that they have COMMON GROUND with National and CAN work with them!
Being shameless sap sucking parasites of Labour damaging its party vote, now these opportunist numbnuts are signalling some thing else and indirectly propping up National’s electoral chances..
Bastards.
These pretentious cunning crooks will never get my vote.
http://www.3news.co.nz/politics/greens-and-national-share-some-common-ground-2014090608
The greens got $400m to insulate cold kiwi homes out of a post election memorandum of understanding. I can’t imagine the greens giving confidence and supply to key let alone go into coalition with him, based on the diametric positions of a raft of social issues, though knowing time is running out re climate change, the world may not have enough of it for labour to sort out it’s voter apathy, who could blame them for making a start under the nats?
On a lighter side, according to some recent reports re David Parker, MT and RN working with English would be less treacherous and deviant as hone around the cabinet table dealing with the labour finance minister… By all accounts. 😉
Isnt that a higher economic slice than MP got during that term?
I believe so, and they didn’t get bmw’s either, just warmer houses.
“I can’t imagine the greens giving confidence and supply to key let alone go into coalition with him,”
Neither can the GP. Below is what Norman actually said, that Clem conveniently left out (my emphaisis).
This isn’t the GP starting with the Nats, it’s the position they’ve taken for a number of years. As you say, they’ve made some gains before. It’s part of co-operative politics, and it’s part of the GP being mainstream and picking up some middle votes because they can work with anyone on policy.
The Greens say they can work with National, just not in a formal coalition.
Party co-leader Russel Norman was tipped by many as one of the winners of last night’s TVNZ minor leaders’ debate.
Current political polling took up much of the debate, with the Greens saying they want at least 15 percent support.
Dr Norman says he admires Finance Minister Bill English and afterwards said he could work with National.
“We’ve got $400 million projects out of National over the last six years. Mostly the home insulation scheme, which was a huge, fantastic project,” he says. “So we work with parties where there is common ground.”
I read what RN said, and it sure adds the missing context to the common ground quote above.
Interesting call to take for the leadership team to take on election night if labour don’t get it together though.
15% plus is looking a good bet, but that could just be a bit of wishful thinking coming through.
They are looking a good combo in all the debates.
Given their strength in the polls and on TV, wonder how successful a less whiny than colin’s last minute push to be included in the key v DC debate finale would go?
Dunne’s worm/Clegg’s winner effect in action.
By so signalling the Greens are actually indirectly propping up National’s electoral chances and damaging Labour’s chances some more. Don’t you get that?
“By so signalling the Greens are actually indirectly propping up National’s electoral chances and damaging Labour’s chances some more. Don’t you get that?”
I don’t see the greens doing any of that which you claim, other than taking votes of labour it can’t hold on to, which I take you don’t seem to like much, So no, no I don’t get that.
“By so signalling the Greens are actually indirectly propping up National’s electoral chances and damaging Labour’s chances some more.”
They’re not propping up National’s electoral chances you fool, they’re stealing their votes.
The GP have about the same responsibility for Labour’s chances as Labour have for the GP’s.
Yes, they may be trying to steal some soft votes off from National, but will scare off many more voters from National going to Labour. Greens have already stolen lots of votes off Labour and have weakened it to such an extent that getting the 50% to form a progressive government is getting harder. I think MOST Green supporters are those that would normally vote for Labour.
Even if the progressives are able to form a government, the Greens greed, extremist policies, narrow outlook and short term thinking will more likely than not to have such a coalition with a strong Green contingent being kicked out in three years.
If Nats form a coalition, the Greens will prop them up as they ‘have a common ground’ with them stated by Norman for a few crumbs as usual, feel smug and shortchange the leftist long term cause.
It is much better for Labour as well as the Greens and the progressive block if Labour is much stronger at about 40% plus and the Greens at about 10% minus.
You called me a ‘fool’. In fact, I think that it is Norman that is a short term thinking fool who has managed to fool a lot of voters with his nice sounding sweet talk. [He even PAID people to collect signatures for the anti asset sale referendum petition! How foolish and dumb is that!]
You say the GP would prop up a National govt. By that I take it you mean give them confidence and supply. You have absolutely no evidence of that and are just making shit up because you hate the GP.
Greens have already stolen lots of votes off Labour and have weakened it to such an extent that getting the 50% to form a progressive government is getting harder. I think MOST Green supporters are those that would normally vote for Labour.
Diddums. If Labour want to be a big party again, they need to get rid of the ABCs, and move left and sort out their environmental and social policies. There’s a reason that the GP have picked up so many left votes, and it’s not because the GP are nasty thieves. It’s because Labour never me the needs of those voters.
Labour don’t own left wing votes. They have to earn them. If the GP start doing the same stupid shit that Labour have done, then they will deserve to lose those votes too.
“You say the GP would prop up a National govt. By that I take it you mean give them confidence and supply. You have absolutely no evidence of that and are just making shit up because you hate the GP”
Norman said that ‘the Greens have common ground with National’ and that ‘the Greens can work with National, just not in a formal coalition’
He said he got 400 million from National last time as policy concession. National would not have given that free without some support in return.
National will give them diddly squat without a confidence and supply arrangement or some sort of memorandum of understadning. If you believe they do, then you are naive. C & S or MoUis different from ‘formal coalition’ as he put it.
I do not ‘hate the Greens’ as you put it, but hate their stupid narrow minded short sighted politically naive cocky attitude and greedy suicidal policies and methods which will end up alienating the majority of voters in the country and thus damage the entire progressive movement sooner than later. Why do you think the progressive moment struggles to come close to 50%? Greens are the primary reason in my opinion. There is genuine fear and distrust of the Greens apart from those that make up their 10% to 15% support. So Greens rising in polls, simultaneously causing Labour to languish or causing the Labour voters moving away to National, NZF or the Cons is actually a bad situation for the progressive left cause. Greens getting 16% or 20% does not make the situation any better, but that must worse in the long run from a political and electoral point of view. Greens can achieve much more for a much longer time, without causing mayhem if Labour is around 40% and Greens are at about 10%, unless the Greens can convince the majority in the country and get over 50% support on their own. Remote chance of that happening any time soon. We NEED the centre votes back in, not just the left and far left.
So, in your enthusiasm for the greens do not also be a Labour’s Green albatross denialist.
Norman has shown scant trust, respect and confidence in David Parker by stating that he want’s David’s finance figures scrutinised by some outside finance agency. What an audacious, dumbarse, cocky, arrogant stance to make against Labour and its finance spokesman, Parker!
When asked which political leader he admired most, Norman said Bill English! Go figure!
Read more: http://www.3news.co.nz/politics/greens-and-national-share-some-common-ground-2014090608#ixzz3CWMinUxJ
Okey dokey, so it would be simple for you to point out where Greens voted to keep the national government in confidence and supply in the last three years.
Which budget did the greens vote for? And if there was one, were they the deciding vote between confidence and a government collapse?
@ Clemgeopin
Actually to be quite straightforward and not wishful about them or excusing Labour, they have lost their own support.
Greens want to keep doing the good things they were started to do and continue to do. Labour aren’t finished farting around in their recovery from the scarring of the Rogernome years. They are putting up a good front, and have lots of dedicated helpers, but haven’t come forward with the strong policies needed to fire support. Like Colonial Viper has been saying.
Greens are just planning on continuing to carry out worth while policies of value to the people. Why should they consider only Labour? Labour won’t even consider talking to them before the election. Stupid foolish to be aiming for the highest count possible for Labour alone. Stupid pride. The game is the thing not aiming for high points on the honours board. So talking to Greens might dilute the results for Labour alone, might swell into a win for the Left. That’s the important thing.
Clem, given your definition of ‘extremist’ Green policies included the proposed top tax rate that is still at the lower end of the OECD, your antipathy towards the Greens appears irrational and ill-informed.
http://thestandard.org.nz/key-cant-work-with-the-greens-because/#comment-875952
So the Greens are “extremist”, and aiming to take centre/right wing votes, and prop up a National government? Makes peeerrrfect sense.
* frowning *
Clemo .. no one has STOLEN any votes… surely that would be against the law??!! Labour has lost votes (like mine.. remember only 18% of males plan to vote labour) because while some of the policies are okay (like Parker’s Kiwisaver vs OCR) it’s their people that are unvoteworthy.. Mallard, Moroney, Mackey… ps what is in the water up there?? a couple of weeks ago you predicted IMP to poll 6.8%
this is fucking hilarious.
The Greens simultaneously “steal” labour votes with their “extremist” policies, in order to “prop up” national.
Because they really want to end up with the support level of the Maori Party, but without any electorate seats.
Clem, maybe you should stop gnashing your teeth and actually (as an alleged Labour supporter) “campaign positive”. Or are you the Labour party equivalent of Hutton Gibson – so Labour that you’re more Labour than the Labour party?
Oi, this is a message board to express one’s views. I vote Labour. That does not mean I can’t say what I think. What I stated about the Greens is a positive message for all, including the Greens.
wow, I’d hate to see what you regard as “negative-as-fuck, deranged, and obsessive idiocy”.
The negative bits were for a positive effect.
fwiw, it was the blatant self-contradiction that made me laugh, not the negativity.
Greens/NZ First may have to sit cross bench but we prefer they all get together and sort differences out.
We have pleaded for this, will they listen?
We have all to get rid before we are doomed.
Even if combining with Inernet Mana.
I had a vision once about a rainbow alliance coming together united, to rid us from the nats and their dreg cling ons once and for good, but it looks like politicians acting like politicians, let politics get in the way of a good plan.
The death of the Labour party is sealed… although, Labour should have disbanded many years ago, and formed under a new, more fitting name…
“sort of national” ?
Wairarapa electorate has a large number of undecideds and Ron Mark might just split the right vote enough to let Labour’s McAnulty through. Plus McAnulty is getting out there campaigning well. So no Green candidate for me this time as this an opportunity too good to miss, might be close
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/wairarapa-times-age/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503414&objectid=11319756
Spark users experience internet meltdown
Yeah, privatisation is just sooo much better than state services…
Oh, wait.
Especially good look for a company that says they want out of the boring job of maintaining telephone lines, and would prefer the rock-star job of internet TV.
In regard to post 14, Polls manipulated. Chooky.
WE CAN WITH CONFIDENCE NOW SAY WE ARE LIVING IN THE WORST CORRUPT TIME IN OUR SHORT HISTORY.
I sent this post to all the left wing opposition parties, and TDB,
I ask if anyone wants to set up this as a repost, I give my total consent.
I am a little lost at SETTING UP A FEATURE posting so chooky or anyone who can do it justice PLEASE go ahead and set up a post and when the feedback comes in I will send it all to the left wing opposition parties being damaged by this to get something done about this next week as it is as bad as the Leaders debate Bias that David Cunliffe complained to TVNZ about.
Thanks Chooky.
The hypocracy of Tracy and her Ilk is appalling, language is also revealing
The hypocracy of Tracy and her Ilk is appalling, language is also revealing
so is your spelling, and more so than anything you try to write numptynuts.
Truthfully hypocracy sounds like a good description of our current system. It’s certainly not democracy.
Not sure how it got through the spell checks though, when I wrote it out it changed automatically to ‘hypocrisy’.
lol “her Ilk”. It’s true I have seen her wandering around with a yak-like creature on a lead. Perhaps you mistook it for a small Elk?
The Leader speaks.
“Public moved on from dirty politics – Key”
http://m.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11320138
That’s us told then.
He is probably trying to soften the public and mislead them into thinking that he is a good guy who is not part of the Dirty Politics in the background. Now wait for the rouge right wing dirty politics being unleashed like clockwork against Labour and Cunliffe in the coming days. Wouldn’t surprise me. Their modi operandi is clear to me and to those that see.
Where’s the terms of reference he promised us last week? oh another lie!!
Why does everyone decry the media? it makes both ‘sides’ look ridiculous. There are two massive echo chambers, one on either side of the political divide, equally convinced that the media is biased.
Normally we want evidence, but on this particular topic, 100% subjective ranting seems to be all we need.
The media aren’t biased, they have simply disappeared so far up their own anus that all we get are the echoed calls for help from within. Just yesterday there was an outburst over whaledump/rawshark that could be summed up:
“It’s not that it’s illegal, it’s just that if anyone can do it, we don’t have a job anymore.”
der, Chaff, have you read about media bias do you know what this means?
Is our democracy not as important as India’s?
At least their Government held an investigation into their MSM sorry (Main stream media.)
Did you hear or read the emails that connect the media directly to the Government of the Prime minister? “Unbridled influence” Connections to Slater who for years has been sending dirty emails threateningly to media and many others? interested?
Lesson number one, read on how it ends in other counties better than here.
New Delhi news.
Sting operation reveals massive manipulation by opinion poll agencies
ET Bureau Feb 26, 2014, 04.43AM IST
(A TV news channel today claimed…)
NEW DELHI: A number of opinion polling agencies approached by undercover reporters agreed to manipulate poll data, a television news channel has claimed, sparking a fresh controversy in a heated election season as senior ministers and political parties called for an investigation.
Clips from the sting operation aired by the channel showed many pollsters agreeing to produce favourable numbers by leveraging the so-called margin of error, a statistical concept meant to indicate the quality of sampling and the accuracy to be expected from survey results.
“For a price, the prediction of seats tally can be changed to suit the interests of political parties.
The agencies have no qualms accepting even black money for this purpose,” the channel, News Express, said in a statement. Polling agencies approached by the channel include QRS, CVoter, Ipsos India, MMR and DRS, apart from a clutch of littleknown ones. Representatives from these agencies are seen responding variously to the undercover reporters, who posed as consultants for political parties.
India Today magazine and Times NOW have said they were suspending opinion polls conducted by C-Voter, pending an explanation from the agency.
Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party called for an investigation. Union Law Minister Kapil Sibal urged the Election Commission to urgently take up the matter. “This (the expose) is a very serious development. It shows these agencies are trying to manipulate public opinion. It is nothing but paidnews, manufactured to serve vested interests.
This is an extremely serious offense that warrants a full-fledged inquiry… I also call upon the Election Commission to take all effective steps to ensure such shady operators are not allowed to manipulate the public opinion in the run up to the elections.”
In November last year, the Election Commission had written to the government asking that a law be passed to restrict release of opinion poll results after the notification of elections. Fourteen out of fifteen national parties had agreed to the proposal.
BJP opposed the proposal, saying such a move would impinge on freedom of expression. “We got the idea for the sting operation from the Election Commission letter.
And then the fact that there seemed to be a new opinion poll almost every day now. Everybody is a pollster and a psephologist it seems,” said Vinod Kapri, editor in chief of News Express.
He added that he was not calling into question any surveys aired or published so far. C-Voter CEO Yashwant Deshmukh said the conversations have been selectively edited.
“The very first thing I said is that C-Voter won’t do this, Yashwant Deshmukh is not available to do this.
Why are they not showing that? I’m explaining the concept of margin of error and talking about the limitations of the poll. Am I anywhere saying that I’m ready to fudge the figures?”
A spokesperson for DRS said the executive who spoke with the undercover reporters is no longer with the company. “Manipulation is a term which is being used incorrectly here,” Ipsos said in a statement explaining the concept of margin of error.
“We have no say in the data collection or analysis by any pollster.
But we will ask C Voter for a clarification and till the time we are satisfied with their response, we have decided to suspend all opinion polls done by them in our channel,” Times Now editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami said
http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-02-26/news/47705569_1_opinion-poll-public-opinion-sting-operation
That reminds me of the famous poll that the Murdoch press put out on the eve of the election where Rudd won a landslide against Howard. The lead in The Australian was “Too Close To Call”. It was a last ditch attempt to motivate disengaged (and pissed off) Coalition voters to get out on polling day.
I have lost all the info and formatting down the right hand side of these pages … anyone else ? thx
fixed it .. but cant delete …thx
Need Labour core flute signs urgently?
I picked up a load this morning from Northbridge Signs in Albany. I ordered them on Thursday evening.
http://northbridgesigns.co.nz. Call James or Paul on 09 415 0145. All they need is a .pdf that you can get from HO.
$31.50 + gst FOR large 2.44 x1.2 .
$12.50 +gst FOR. 900x 600
We still haven’t solved the problem of low-value exports. Exports are about 30% of GDP. Under National, this proportion is almost the same as when they took office. It seems we need more R&D, innovative products, more of our food and beverage companies growing into Australia and succeeding, a lower NZ dollar. There are some good examples of export growth (infant formula, boat-building, computing, clean technology, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, Icebreaker clothing, wine, NZ King salmon) but we are still not there. I wonder what is stopping us from creating more high-value exports.
I wish I had heard about this protest earlier – already had alternative arrangements for today.
But it looks like it got a significant amount of support: “Crowds march for child poverty awareness”
This tweet:
Email attached to the tweet. It’s also in this on Jackal’s blog:
And from the same Jordan Williams / Cameron Slater correspondence, giving a little insight into the century they came from, before being mistakenly transported to the 21st century:
————————-
January 10, 2013
————————-
Jordan Williams, 1/10, 10:11am
women; if they didn’t have a fxxxy between their legs they’d have a bounty on their heads
nice pic with Judith holding Truth
————————-
Cameron Slater, 1/10, 10:13am
if they didn;t have cxxxs we’d chuck rocks at them
That says it all really. Creeps. I’d call them misogynist but they probably see everyone in terms of personal gratification.
The Voice of Labour, Josie Pagani, out shooting with Slater (and Simon Lusk?) I wonder what they talked about?
————————-
May 8, 2012
————————-
Jordan Williams, 5/8, 8:41am
Is Josie pagani, john’s daughter?
————————-
Cameron Slater, 5/8, 8:41am
Went shooting with her on Sunday
wife
Also this
————————-
June 24, 2013
————————-
Jordan Williams, 6/24, 12:14am
hey, you know an easy way to push dunn out?
get him to stand for Wgtn mayor
have the conversation with him
————————-
Cameron Slater, 6/24, 12:19am
I know a much easier way
release details of his donations (undeclared) that he received personally from tobacco companies
Pretty dark if Crown Law really are leaking.
Hope this comes out in the inquiry.
and considering the Dep Solicitor General of Crown Law at that same exact time is now heading the SIS inquiry for Key and Collins.
Oh, how I hope Cheryl Gwyn is better and with more integrity than all this might suggest.
(From last dumps by WD .. and if the Sunday papers have nothing tomorrow, whar will he/she do I wonder ?)
edit: can this be used to demand Cheryl Gwyn resile from the inquiry on the grounds It appears to be her own dept leaking?
In a functioning democracy, she would exclude herself. On Planet Key, it probably gives her expert knowledge and makes her better suited. There is after all precedent for this, with the IPCA using police to investigate police. The average Kiwi swallows that.
Brian Mulroney, in a series of interviews this week (marking the 30th anniversary since he won a majority and became Canadian Prime Minister) has really let rip at Stephen Harper. I thought this comment could apply equally well to the current PM here in NZ:
“If you’re concerned about popularity and you’re conserving your popularity, you can be certain that your impact upon history will be very, extremely modest. You have to govern, I think, as I’ve said, not for easy headlines in 10 days but for a better Canada in 10 years.”
“So what do you want to do — do you want to be remembered as some guy who was popular, or do you want to be remembered 50 years from now as somebody who made profound social and economic and political changes in the country, and who thereby shaped his nation in a beneficial way for future generations?”
an encouraging note from Tracy Watkins on Stuff …
“…….National strategists insist Dirty Politics and hacked emails are a “beltway issue” that only journalists are interested in. The polls say they may be right. The number of times dirty politics stories make the daily best read list on Stuff.co.nz says they’re wrong.”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/10468444/Many-grenades-on-this-campaign-trail
Also reports Key left a hand written note in the classroom of St Margaret’s College that was his pre-debate room:
“Meanwhile, social media is going feral about Key’s note to St Margaret’s pupils – he had an apostrophe in the wrong place.” Oh dear.
Oh well now that could be interesting. Anyone know what the apostrophe was, then I can do a search here.
must be on twitter or somesuch .. no more details, sorry. maybe email Tracy Watkin ?
or just spend the same time getting ten more people to vote !!!
😀
Nothing unique about it unfortunately, it’s one of the most common right wing mistakes. Your instead of you’re.
you found it ? that’s pathetic from Key, hollow man an’ all that he is.
It’s on twitter too, but found it on National Party Billboard Makeovers (facebook)
Thx BL and wow! we need a handwriting analyst to have a look at that — such childish writing and haphazard … hmmm.
Handwriting analyst was my first thought too! Would be great!
did you see this underneath that photo? omg …
“The rest of this ‘story’ is that after he had left the building, his staff corrected his spelling mistake – we’re posting the original because the spin around this guy is sickening .
Left on a whiteboard after the last leader’s debate- Thanks Simon”
They mean “leaders’ debate”, of course.
I’m surprised he can write. He certainly has trouble reading anything.
And this bit re the CGT debate:
Key raises lots of questions. Tells reporters: “I can’t answer those questions. It’s not my stupid policy.” This is presumably what National meant when it told media to move on from dirty politics and start focusing on “the high level policy debate”.
Indeed. Seriously, Key has been acting a bit like a petulant schoolboy at times lately.
More like an arrogant banker I’d suggest.
Banksy says it so well.
https://twitter.com/thereaIbanksy/status/507755263831867393
https://twitter.com/thereaIbanksy
Intimations of life in NZ if Craig and his witch-burners get anywhere near the levers of power ?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11320492