Now the kings and there advisers in NZ are trying to figure out how this lucky uneducated half caste Maori has managed to get this huge internet attention and viewers and how did he figure out he has this attention. And they are trying to replicate
this to try and win this election. YEA RIGHT
For one thing I don’t Believe in LUCK I believe LUCK was invented by some corrupt person people to explain why they had more assets/food to some naive people when in reality the corrupt person was robbing the naive people BLIND.
So I’m not lucky.
I believe in FATE as it was fate that these assholes have been hounding me for so long it was fate that I ended in this place and time it is fate because of these assholes that I scoured the internet for corruptions and posted this information on this website It was fate that I found this website it is fate that Iprent made this wonderful website. It is fate that I took my granddaughter to the doctors and had a conversation with that Kenyan
Doctor and gave him my pseudo name and this website. It was fate that joe90 posted those links on Kenya on this web site so every one could see what I posted was true. So my views on the reality’s of our WORLD are real and original . So I thank all the good people on this site and around the WORLD for there contribution to our fight for a safe fair bright future for every thing in our WORLD
Well I will call it steve looks like what was thrown at him stop lying steve.
That’s the way Hillary and Jack put him in line the neo liberal cheat joyce is
Well it was the Wall Street Journal that compared Jacinda to Trump, on immigration
[lprent: If you want to make an bald assertion about a ‘fact’ – then provide a link or a description about how to find your source. This prevents fuckwits from supplying false facts. I read the WSJ most days and I never saw this. ]
Yeah well, the Muslim comparison is crap. But NZ Labour’s immigration policy is pretty fucked up.
At the time of its release I read it side by side with UKIPs immigration policy and that of UK Labour. Far too consistent with UKIP and a million miles away from U Labour. (A few people hereabouts didn’t appreciate the observations)
Seems I should have just compared it to to the UK Tories whose ideas around limiting low skilled immigrants is causing outrage in the UK if today’s headlines are accurate
So my indentured ancestors would have been buggered. Many of my forbears would not have got in under the new regime. It really does seem to be a pull the ladder up jack policy.
If Chinese (or any other ‘ese’) can come in and run our dairy farms better than New Zealanders (ie without paying their workers peanuts or poisoning town water supplies) then perhaps they should be allowed to.
It looks like free trade means best quality is exported and we get the old fish fried with chip plus a half eaten one coz that’s the level of consumer quality. All the best, fish, meat, milk, fruit, etc goes off shore, and then some, average q uaility, leaving the worst still sellable at world prices by under paid staff who half eat a chip in order to get a feed yet still throw it in with the purchase. Key came into office, opened the doors to dotcomers, English learning students, lowers food quality, mine inspection, diary conversions, there is not one aspect of Keys leadership that has not eroded life in nz… …well okay broadband but that was already… …insulation… ..that was a greens overflow policy…. but the bulk of living standards have fallen and they raised GST too.
Are you sure? Lately I’ve been seriously wondering about who and what you stand for, and who has been tickling your man-fanny. Lately, It appears there’s been a serious lean to the “right”, where your balls are tickled just enough to question your supposedly left leaning values, and your foreskin is in competition with that pompous git that should have an ‘H’ branded on his forehead. Maybe you’ll get what you wish for, but the downside is it’ll come with an ‘H’s proclamation on who it is that should be euthanased.
Actually life for a cow in an open paddock system is not a bed of roses. no shelter, cold wet ground, rain, snow frosts.Long walks on rough gravelled tracks on sore feet because of standing in wet ground, heavy udders swinging, frequently trod on causing horrendous often life treatening injuries. Trying to maintain body weight while producing milk on a grass diet with accompanying explosive diarrhoea.
Dairy cows do better in an enclosed housing system, they adapt well, the revulsion comes from urbanised New Zealanders with a romantic view of how an animal should live.Housing animals makes it easier to control their diet and effulent,no manure trampled into the ground, no leaching of nitrates, composted manure and bedding returned to the soil at a time when heavy rain will not leach it into aquifers or water ways.Potentially a win win situation for cow and the environment.
Absolutely agree that paddocks are cruel environments for animals that naturally live in wooded/forested environments. But then, so is an “enclosed housing system”.
Actually, I doubt if there’s a way to farm animals that doesn’t involve a measure of cruelty. But y’know, we could be much less cruel and far more thoughtful. (But then, why have trees taking up the ground space of potential economic units, hm? 👿 )
Not sure why you think rich people who aren’t Kiwis would be any less greedy than NZers. The responsibility for the wellbeing of NZers and the land here is the governments. It’s not rocket science. Put in good environmental protections and resources into R and D for regenag. Put in good employment law that protects workers rights, and resources that support R and D for ethical business.
The biggest hurdle there, apart from values, is the business models based on perpetual growth. We’re at the limits of growth now, so those models have to exploit people and the earth, because that’s the only way they can now keep growing. Instead we need steady state business models. They exist, which begs the question of why we’re not using them. As far as I can tell that’s down to ignorance, greed, and the need to create. Only the last one is an asset and it could be redirected.
Exactly its ecomonics 101 and the law of diminishing returns combined with greed where a ‘reasonable rate of return’ is ditched for ever increasing profits.
Its cause and effect, newtons third law, with the environment, workers, quality etc amongst those who bear the effect ever increasing profits cause.
Eventually capitalism breaks down as the resources are finite.
That’s why “the practices and rules they’re familiar with” can go take a hike if those practices and rules are inferior to what workers have fought for (at least, those that remain after 30 years of Liberal assault).
Please! Granny Herald. I couldn’t give a fuck about whether Tony Street has a “She-Mullet”, or whether Mike fucks chickens.
If either were to stand for election as our political representatives, I might take a little more notice. Members of a 4th Estate they ain’t. Members of the Legends-in-their-own-Minds Club they are.
Probably the best thing they could do IS ekshully to stand for office. As for those that profess their membership to a MSM 4th Estate, I understand your fear. Don’t try and blame others however for your fuckup – the spin won’t count no matter how many lattes, G&Ts you’ll go without and missed mortgage payments with your wifeys still at home.
Christ! – How did it come to this I sometimes ask. All I can come up with is greed (and in the case of some of them – flatulence)
One wonders how many Super Storms the Gulf states will have to endure before their voters will wake up to the realisation that Global Warming is real and coming to get them. These voters consistently vote for representatives who are paid toadies of the Fossil Fuel cartel. I have little sympathy for them – the science has been clear for years – but either through greed and self interest, or simply wilful ignorance, they have ignored the early warnings of Katrina, and Sandy, and daily flooding in downtown Miami, and continually voted into office, Climate Change denialists, who have obfuscated and delayed for decades, not only US action on reducing GHG emissions, but also Global action. Now they have the ultimate idiot in charge – one wishes them everything they have coming to them.
Well, fossil fuel extraction is quite a large part of Gulf state economies. So I expect wilful ignorance to continue for quite a while yet, since so many paychecks depend on it. Probably up until the point renewables get so cheap there’s no more point in extracting dino-juice from places like offshore in the Gulf of Mexico.
Yep I understand that – however just because they want a job doesn’t give them the right to fuck the whole world – because that is what they have done for the past 20+ years.
The US has never been able to go to a Climate Conference in good faith, because the Senate Reps dominated by McConnell et al (himself heavily funded around $1.9m US by the Fossil Fuel industry) would simply vote down any proposal to which the US agreed.
It’ll be hard to avoid schadenfreude when those economies start feeling the pressure from the switch to renewables. Probably at about the same time that climate change really starts to bite hard there. I won’t shed any tears about Russia and other petro-states feeling the economic pain either.
But it will be billions of people across south asia and in africa that will really pay the price.
Wow. Hurricane #Irma is now expected to *exceed* the theoretical maximum intensity for a storm in its environment. Redefining the rules. https://t.co/e4hPjQt159— Eric Holthaus (@EricHolthaus) September 5, 2017
With minimum central pressure of 916 mb & winds of 185 MPH, Irma is stronger than Cat 5 San Felipe (929mb/160mph) which destroyed PR in 1928 https://t.co/WiVpeRFswI— John Morales (@JohnMoralesNBC6) September 6, 2017
Yep 93% of it goes into the oceans – and its not going to go away any time soon.
Just transfer from one form (heat in oceans) to another (wind) and (water vapour).
I used to use the analogy of heating up a pan of water on a stove. You add energy (heat) the water starts to move faster and faster until it boils.
This is what I was getting at in my original comment Andre – I wonder if some of them will finally fess up and say – “Sorry we were wrong – these storms are unprecedented, and are the result of Global Warming, and maybe it is because humans have been adding GHG at an alarming rate, and maybe the quantum physicists were right when they said GHG’s trapped black body radiation.”
🙁 not good – as always the Islands will wear the brunt. Cuba – the nation with one of the least Carbon footprints – is also going to experience the full force. As always those who are the least culpable are the ones who pay the price.
Will be thinking of your nephew and others in the days ahead.
“Jonathan Coleman said National would increase elective surgeries over the next four years to 200,000 a year.”
Wow. that’s impressive. Increase from what?
McFlock
Merely maintaining the status quo would be a decrease unless the population were also static or declining. Which isn’t the case, and furthermore; not only is the population increasing, but so is the average age (with associated health needs) along with the boomer bulge. The kind of operations being performed is also important (from your link):
when you take out eye injections, skin lesion removals, and other surgeries that could have been performed outside of hospitals… despite a growing population, [health boards] performed fewer surgeries compared with the previous year.
“and bill’s given us 170,000 new jobs…”
They keep on saying that but to balance that we have to take off the 169,999 jobs that have disappeared or been reclassified. But it looks good; unless you are one of the ones who can’t get a job.
Here we go – BEWARE BEWARE Federated Farmers pulling on their Brethren cardies and leading the scaremongering this time round:
“Let’s tax this. What are we in for, Labour?
Source: Federated Farmers
—
On the cusp of the election, voters are still in the dark about what taxes they
might be hit with if Labour is part of the next government.
A tax (“royalty”) on water is confirmed. But Jacinda Ardern has refused to rule out
a capital gains tax, a land value tax, and an asset and wealth tax – other than to
say the family home is exempt.
“For Labour to say they’re not able to be more explicit about what they have in mind
until they have recommendations from the yet-to-be-named members of a tax panel is
something of a cop-out, and certainly doesn’t help voters,” Federated Farmers
Vice-President Andrew Hoggard says.
For farmers, their home and surrounding land also happens to be their business and
livelihood. “Even if an exemption applied to the farmhouse, they’ll cop it from new
taxes far more than their urban cousins.”
The prospect of a land tax in particular is alarming to the rural sector, in that it
would have a severe impact on land extensive businesses and others that are
so-called ‘asset rich and income poor’.
The last time a land tax was considered (2010), the agricultural taxable land base
was $105 billion, meaning a 0.5% land tax would cost farmers $525 million per annum
– a massive hit on the sector, and thus on regional economies and rural towns.
“Farmers already pay whacking rates bills in many parts of the country, often
disproportionate to the services they are delivered or actually use,” Mr Hoggard
said.
“Labour delivered more detailed information on their water tax proposal when pushed
into it by Federated Farmers, Irrigation NZ and other groups.
“Voters deserve more details on Labour’s preferences for other taxes before they go
to the polls.”
ENDS
For more information contact:
Andrew Hoggard, Federated Farmers of NZ Vice-President
Phone: 027 230 7363
Simon Edwards | Communications Advisor, Federated Farmers
Email: sedwards@fedfarm.org.nz, Mobile: +64 (0)21 408 672
I don’t seem to recall the farmers being concerned with all the detrimental effects of all reforms that benefited them. In fact, they seem to have been getting it all their own way since forever.
I think it’s time they stopped whinging and got on with doing the right thing for society.
We all no that bills brother was head of that outfit a couple of years ago .
So the English strings are still on the puppets that lead that outfit and what a coincidence that federated farmers got a good spokes person just before the election.
Well I don’t believe in coincidences as there is usually something sinister that causes those coincidences .
Now I have nothing against farmers that are compliant with our rules to protected our environment.
Is it a coincident that Willy Leferink was on 7 sharp tonight to smooth it over for federated farmers propaganda .
Now i will say it again Jacinda is not going to over tax any industry as thats fucken stupid and Jacinda would not be were she is if she was fucken stupid.
So the labour party is not neo liberals so they are not going to look you people in the face and lie.
They are going tailor there taxes so everyone is paying there fair shear so our country can function in a economically and environmentally sustainable way Cemmon.
Hope my actions did not cause you to much trouble Iprent apologies if It did.
Any effort to even put modest restrictions on farming activities that are detrimental to the environment are looked upon by FF as Stalinist agriculture collectivization, with fears of Ardern sending truckloads of armed agriculture commissars to every family farm in New Zealand to seize at gunpoint.
This drivel goes for six and a half minutes. Here’s a transcript of the first 4 minutes and 23 seconds….
MORA: Ah, Megan Whelan, Story of the Day! MEGAN WHELAN: So Google has released, ahhmmm, its most searched “How To” questions globally, ahhh, which gives us an insight into the things that people struggle with day to day. So the most searched How-To question globally—does anyone want to take a guess? MORA: Oh look. Go on, have a go.
Silence….
MEGAN WHELAN: Anyone? PETER FA’AFIU: No you’re good. MORA: No, all right— VICTORIA STEWART: No, no. MORA: It is hard, it’s hard, it’s hard, actually. MEGAN WHELAN: I thought it would have been something like “How to cook rice”, or something like that. MORA: Oh yeah. VICTORIA STEWART: Ohh yeah. MEGAN WHELAN: Um, that is sort of second. “How to tie a tie”—- MORA:[with mock dismissiveness] No-o! VICTORIA STEWART: Ahhhhh… MEGAN WHELAN: Which I find fascinating! Because not all of the population has to do it, but apparently it’s a thing that those people who do, frequently forget. MORA:[affecting a tone of incredulity] “How to tie a tie” is number ONE!?!? MEGAN WHELAN: “How to tie a tie” is number one! It’s the most searched “How To” question in the world. Ah, “How to kiss” is in second place. MORA: Ahhh! MEGAN WHELAN: Which makes me worry a little bit about the future of humanity. MORA: Ha! VICTORIA STEWART: Ha ha! MEGAN WHELAN: As does number three, which is “How to get pregnant”. MORA: Yes! VICTORIA STEWART: Ooh goodness. PETER FA’AFIU:[snickering] Kkk-k-k-k! MEGAN WHELAN: Number four: “How to lose weight.” MORA: Yeah. PETER FA’AFIU: Oh yeah. MORA: I would’ve thought that’d be RIGHT up the top. MEGAN WHELAN: “How to draw”. MORA: “How to DRAAWW”? MEGAN WHELAN: “How to make money.” VICTORIA STEWART: Ha ha. MEGAN WHELAN: Ha ha. And then sort of “How to cook rice”—“how to make pancakes”. MORA:[very softly, in a tone of bemused wonderment] Pancakes. VICTORIA STEWART: “How to write a cover letter” AND “How to cook French toast.” Ahhhmmm…. MORA: What?!?!? VICTORIA STEWART: Followed by “How to lose belly fat”. Ah, so, ho, we’re very worried about losing weight but also having good breakfasts! MORA: What a STRANGE list! MEGAN WHELAN: Isn’t that a strange list! PETER FA’AFIU: Just trying to figure out how many of those I’ve, uh, ha ha ha ha! MORA: Okay, you can tie a tie. PETER FA’AFIU: Pancakes, yeah. Tie…. MORA: Pancakes? You know how to make money? PETER FA’AFIU: Yeah. MORA: Do you know how to write a cover letter? PETER FA’AFIU: Yes. MORA: Ahh, do you know how to lose fat around your tummy? PETER FA’AFIU: No. MORA: Okay. I won’t ask you the REST! PETER FA’AFIU: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! I know how to kiss. I know how to kiss. MEGAN WHELAN: So Simon Rogers, Google’s data editor, one of the things he mentioned is that these “How To” searches have increased a hundred and forty per cent—so more than doubled—since two thousand and FOUR, and MUCH of that interest is directed at how to sort of FIX things, so oftentimes it’s how to fix a lightbulb or replace your window or fix your washing-machine or even the toilet. So I had a look at Google Trends, ahhh, which is how you can search some of this stuff yourself, for New Zealand for the past twelve months— MORA: Aah! MEGAN WHELAN: So related searches, our ones, so this is not the exact data that THAT list is, the global list is, ‘cos it’s not broken down in the same way, but searching “How To” and getting related searches for that for New Zealand, we searched “How to draw”, “How to screenshot”— MORA: Oh yeah. MEGAN WHELAN: And someone has texted in to say that when THEY searched it, they got the auto complete, so often when you google something “how to” it will fill in the sentence for you? They got “How to make SLIME”, which is number THREE in New Zealand. We also searched “How to make slime without borax”, which seems a VERY specific thing—- PETER FA’AFIU: A ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! MORA: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! MEGAN WHELAN: “How to proNOUNCE” is number four—- MORA: “How to pronounce”? MEGAN WHELAN: “How to pronounce”. So, presumably, there is another word following that one. “How to lose weight”, “How to make money”, “How to tie a tie”, then that’s the slime without borax. How to-o-o-o-o-o, oh, er, break a —I can’t read my own HANDWRITING!—I think it was something like “break an iPhone”? Ummmmmm—- VICTORIA STEWART: Easily—- MEGAN WHELAN: Ha ha ha ha! VICTORIA STEWART:—is the way I think of that. Drop it! MEGAN WHELAN: Ha ha. And then, LASTLY, in our New Zealand related searches taught you “How to delete Instagram accounts”. I’m a little bit worried what New Zealanders have been doing on their Instagram accounts that they feel the need to delete them! PETER FA’AFIU: Hyunhh, hyunnhh. MORA: Yeah, exactly. MEGAN WHELAN: Yeahhhh! MORA: The slime thing will be children, ‘cos our twins make slime. MEGAN WHELAN: Yes! PETER FA’AFIU: Same. For me. MEGAN WHELAN: Has that been quite a thing in the last twelve months? MORA: Yeah it has recently. Yeah. MEGAN WHELAN: Right. MORA: So THAT’ll be a current thing, the slime thing. I didn’t know, they don’t know about the borax. MEGAN WHELAN: Yeahhh. MORA: So, we search for the most trivial things as well, don’t we. VICTORIA STEWART: Yes. I think a lot of this is about the sentence construction? So you might find that people searching for recipes aren’t searching—so for me, I wouldn’t google “How to cook pancakes”, I would google “Pancake recipe”— PETER FA’AFIU: Mmmm. VICTORIA STEWART: “EASY pancake recipes”. Ha ha! MEGAN WHELAN: Yeah. Or something like that. Or a specific pancake recipe, which is my favorite pancake recipe, but, errr, so, but I might search “How to tie a tie”, ‘cos that sentence makes more sense than “pancake recipe.” Yeah. MORA: Okay, but, there’s um, very little of, uh, “How can I be nicer?” or “What is the meaning of life?” or those [with mock sententiousness] profound questions…. MEGAN WHELAN: “How can I be nicer?” Okaaayyy….
At that point, I reached the point of maximum disgust, and could take no more of this drivel. The inanity, the determined triviality of this chatter, the complete and utter contempt for the listeners are bad enough, but what really angered me was that last statement by Jim Mora. His suggestion that he cares about “profound questions” is disproven by the subject matter and the tenor of the discussions on his show. And as for “How can I be nicer?”—well, let’s have a look at a few instances of how “nice” Jim Mora is….
Excellent piece by Gordon Campbell that neatly counters Nationals scare tactics…should be required reading before entering the polling booth
‘Its not a new thing. Remember when John Key used to describe Working For Families as “communism by stealth”? Now WFF is core National policy. And Kiwisaver? (Key : “It won’t work. It’s a glorified Christmas Club.”) Now, Kiwisaver too is core National policy. Remember when climate change was just a fanciful notion of those wacky, scary Greens? Now National’s deputy is proudly proclaiming National’s commitment to the Paris agreement.”
i’ve spent a bit of time thinking about the legacy the last labour party left and what the nats legacy is (thinking positive as even the nats can’t be totally useless )
labour ; kiwisaver ,kiwibank . wwf (still would prefer proper wages) ,cullin fund,
china fta.
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TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
April has been a quiet month at A Phuulish Fellow. I have had an exceptionally good reading month, and a decently productive writing month – for original fiction, anyway – but not much has caught my eye that suggested a blog article. It has been vaguely frustrating, to be honest. ...
A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 21, 2024 thru Sat, April 27, 2024. Story of the week Anthropogenic climate change may be the ultimate shaggy dog story— but with a twist, because here ...
Hi,I spent about a year on Webworm reporting on an abusive megachurch called Arise, and it made me want to stab my eyes out with a fork.I don’t regret that reporting in 2022 and 2023 — I am proud of it — but it made me angry.Over three main stories ...
The new Victoria University Vice-Chancellor decided to have a forum at the university about free speech and academic freedom as it is obviously a topical issue, and the Government is looking at legislating some carrots or sticks for universities to uphold their obligations under the Education and Training Act. They ...
Do you remember when Melania Trump got caught out using a speech that sounded awfully like one Michelle Obama had given? Uncannily so.Well it turns out that Abraham Lincoln is to Winston Peters as Michelle was to Melania. With the ANZAC speech Uncle Winston gave at Gallipoli having much in ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Council members voted 21 to 4 in favour of Ahluwalia returning to the Laucala campus following a much-awaited meeting in Vanuatu this week. It comes as USP and its two unions — the Association of the University of the South Pacific Staff (AUSPS) and the Administration and Support Staff Union ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicola Henry, Professor & Australian Research Council Future Fellow, Social and Global Studies Centre, RMIT University Shutterstock Following an emergency meeting of the National Cabinet this week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced a raft of measures to tackle the problem ...
Analysis - A poll showing the opposition is more popular than the government raises questions, politicians go through their 'trial by pay rise' and a Green MP loses her cool in the debating chamber. ...
The entire stretch of Tokomaru Bay on the East Coast will be subject to a joint customary marine title for two hapū, and extending up to four miles out to sea. A High Court judge has found the two groups, who during the case settled a dispute over boundaries for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Hall, Lecturer, Media & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University A longstanding feud between TikTok and Universal Music Group seems to have finally reached an end, with both parties signing a deal that will see Universal-backed music returned to the social media ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Siobhan O’Dean, Postdoctoral Research Associate, The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use, University of Sydney After several highly publicised alleged murders of women in Australia, the Albanese government this week pledged more than A$925 million over five years ...
Political parties have now fully disclosed the donations they received last year - with National getting more than double the cash of any other party. ...
A Pacific regionalism expert has called out New Zealand's Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters for withholding information from the public on AUKUS military pact. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard de Grijs, Professor of Astrophysics, Macquarie University Bruno Scramgnon/Pexels All systems are “go” for tonight’s launch of China’s next step in a carefully planned lunar exploration program. Placed on top of a powerful Long March 5 rocket, the Chang’e 6 ...
National returned a massive donation the day after a Newsroom story linked the donors to a property being investigated for operating unlawfully as a migrant workers’ hostel. The party’s 2023 donation filings, released on Friday, show it returned a $200,000 donation from Buen Holdings on August 23. That was the ...
Pacific Media Watch New Zealand has slumped to an unprecedented 19th place in the annual Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index survey released today on World Press Freedom Day — May 3. This was a drop of six places from 13th last year when it slipped out of its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joshua Black, Political Historian and Administrator Officer, Australian Historical Association, Australian National University Australia has had its fair share of public record-keeping controversies in recent years. Some have been mere farce, as in the case of two formerly government-owned filing cabinets (containing ...
Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL), a United Nations-affiliated organization dedicated to fostering peace through civilian-led initiatives, has issued a statement in response to the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran. ...
A poem by Tessa Keenan, from AUP New Poets 10. Mātou These days we are a photograph; one of a farm strewn with cows that used to be bright harakeke or swamp. The kids point at it and say the sun sits behind a smudge (left by someone at Christmas); ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (Faber & Faber, $25)The masterful Irish writer ...
Marriage and civil union statistics record the number of marriages and civil unions registered in New Zealand each year, and divorce statistics record the number of divorces granted in New Zealand each year. Key facts Marriages and civil unions In ...
Marriage and civil union statistics record the number of marriages and civil unions registered in New Zealand each year, and divorce statistics record the number of divorces granted in New Zealand each year. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lennon Y.C. Chang, Associate Professor of Cyber Risk and Policy, Deakin University Taiwan stands out as a beacon of democracy, innovation and resilience in an increasingly autocratic region. But this is under growing threat. In recent years, China has used a variety ...
In this excerpt from her new memoir, Dame Susan Devoy remembers her turn as star contestant on the 2022 season of Celebrity Treasure Island. The most anxious time of every day was pre-elimination, when you knew this could be your final day on the show. I felt such contradictory emotions, ...
A week that began in triumph ended in an all-too-familiar disaster for the Green Party. Duncan Greive asks if there’s something in the mission that breaks its best and brightest. A long, strange week for the Green party began with a fantastic poll result. On one level this is hardly ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Vanuatu’s former prime minister and opposition MP Ishmael Kalsakau has stepped down — just two days after he confirmed he was the rightful opposition leader. Kalsakau, MP for Port Vila, confirmed to ABC’s Pacific Beat, and the Vanuatu Daily Post on Thursday that he ...
What’s to blame for the coalition’s choppy start? Six months in, and the mojo meter is in the doldrums. A new poll would put National out of power and sees its leader, Chris Luxon, sliding in popularity. How much is it about policy, how much coalition management and a perception ...
The striking report goes far beyond the proposed repeal of the Oranga Tamariki Act’s Treaty of Waitangi provision, and its impact should be felt far beyond the unique circumstances of the claim it addresses. Earlier this week, the Waitangi Tribunal released an interim report on the government’s proposed repeal of ...
The world has been experiencing a productivity slowdown, from which New Zealand has not been exempt. COVID-19 temporarily boosted labour productivity, but more recently, productivity has retreated. The overall trend since 2007 has been one of slow productivity ...
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Now the kings and there advisers in NZ are trying to figure out how this lucky uneducated half caste Maori has managed to get this huge internet attention and viewers and how did he figure out he has this attention. And they are trying to replicate
this to try and win this election. YEA RIGHT
For one thing I don’t Believe in LUCK I believe LUCK was invented by some corrupt person people to explain why they had more assets/food to some naive people when in reality the corrupt person was robbing the naive people BLIND.
So I’m not lucky.
I believe in FATE as it was fate that these assholes have been hounding me for so long it was fate that I ended in this place and time it is fate because of these assholes that I scoured the internet for corruptions and posted this information on this website It was fate that I found this website it is fate that Iprent made this wonderful website. It is fate that I took my granddaughter to the doctors and had a conversation with that Kenyan
Doctor and gave him my pseudo name and this website. It was fate that joe90 posted those links on Kenya on this web site so every one could see what I posted was true. So my views on the reality’s of our WORLD are real and original . So I thank all the good people on this site and around the WORLD for there contribution to our fight for a safe fair bright future for every thing in our WORLD
Well I will call it steve looks like what was thrown at him stop lying steve.
That’s the way Hillary and Jack put him in line the neo liberal cheat joyce is
We were told by our PM that 60% of tenants get support from the Accomodation Supplement, so I infer that 60% of landlords have their “investment” incomes toped up by the government. Think of that next time Andrew King from the Property Investors Assoc espouses why any change in a govt policy and we get his standard scaremongering of increase in rents. And if rents should rise does that not mean that the govt will be paying these increases and not the tenant ?
In a healthy growing economy should not wage increases reduced the need for Accomodation Supplements NOT for Nat to increase this ?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/95651463/insulation-standards-fewer-capital-gains-may-combine-to-hit-tenants-in-the-pocket
https://www.landlords.co.nz/article/6245/nzpif-opposes-wellington-rental-wof
https://www.odt.co.nz/business/labour-housing-policy-flawed-federation-says
JDS watch #1, first in what will be a long series:
– Farrar is now comparing Jacinda to Trump.
Well it was the Wall Street Journal that compared Jacinda to Trump, on immigration
[lprent: If you want to make an bald assertion about a ‘fact’ – then provide a link or a description about how to find your source. This prevents fuckwits from supplying false facts. I read the WSJ most days and I never saw this. ]
A tweet from the Wall Street Journal, which was not even fact checked.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/96519787/wall-street-journal-compares-labour-leader-jacinda-ardern-to-donald-trump
Desperate stuff from Tory idiots.
Yeah well, the Muslim comparison is crap. But NZ Labour’s immigration policy is pretty fucked up.
At the time of its release I read it side by side with UKIPs immigration policy and that of UK Labour. Far too consistent with UKIP and a million miles away from U Labour. (A few people hereabouts didn’t appreciate the observations)
Seems I should have just compared it to to the UK Tories whose ideas around limiting low skilled immigrants is causing outrage in the UK if today’s headlines are accurate
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/sep/05/leaked-document-reveals-uk-brexit-plan-to-deter-eu-immigrants.
So my indentured ancestors would have been buggered. Many of my forbears would not have got in under the new regime. It really does seem to be a pull the ladder up jack policy.
http://www.labour.org.nz/immigration
Trotter, quoted in the Wall Street Journal says that he “disagreed with the Wall Street Journal comparison”.
Give it up, Dirk.
If Chinese (or any other ‘ese’) can come in and run our dairy farms better than New Zealanders (ie without paying their workers peanuts or poisoning town water supplies) then perhaps they should be allowed to.
I don’t think NZers want to see cows in crates, not being allowed to walk around a fucking paddock. That was intended by at least one Chinese group.
Better is such a subjective term.
Such ‘operations’ already exist in NZ. My understanding is it’s in order to produce ‘marbled’ beef.
It looks like free trade means best quality is exported and we get the old fish fried with chip plus a half eaten one coz that’s the level of consumer quality. All the best, fish, meat, milk, fruit, etc goes off shore, and then some, average q uaility, leaving the worst still sellable at world prices by under paid staff who half eat a chip in order to get a feed yet still throw it in with the purchase. Key came into office, opened the doors to dotcomers, English learning students, lowers food quality, mine inspection, diary conversions, there is not one aspect of Keys leadership that has not eroded life in nz… …well okay broadband but that was already… …insulation… ..that was a greens overflow policy…. but the bulk of living standards have fallen and they raised GST too.
FarrowFresh and Moore Wilson’s still have the good stuff.
Are you sure? Lately I’ve been seriously wondering about who and what you stand for, and who has been tickling your man-fanny. Lately, It appears there’s been a serious lean to the “right”, where your balls are tickled just enough to question your supposedly left leaning values, and your foreskin is in competition with that pompous git that should have an ‘H’ branded on his forehead. Maybe you’ll get what you wish for, but the downside is it’ll come with an ‘H’s proclamation on who it is that should be euthanased.
I’m sure.
Since you’re not used to dealing with complex positioning, let me be clear that im not interested in your online abuse.
Do not ever respond to me again.
Actually life for a cow in an open paddock system is not a bed of roses. no shelter, cold wet ground, rain, snow frosts.Long walks on rough gravelled tracks on sore feet because of standing in wet ground, heavy udders swinging, frequently trod on causing horrendous often life treatening injuries. Trying to maintain body weight while producing milk on a grass diet with accompanying explosive diarrhoea.
Dairy cows do better in an enclosed housing system, they adapt well, the revulsion comes from urbanised New Zealanders with a romantic view of how an animal should live.Housing animals makes it easier to control their diet and effulent,no manure trampled into the ground, no leaching of nitrates, composted manure and bedding returned to the soil at a time when heavy rain will not leach it into aquifers or water ways.Potentially a win win situation for cow and the environment.
Absolutely agree that paddocks are cruel environments for animals that naturally live in wooded/forested environments. But then, so is an “enclosed housing system”.
Actually, I doubt if there’s a way to farm animals that doesn’t involve a measure of cruelty. But y’know, we could be much less cruel and far more thoughtful. (But then, why have trees taking up the ground space of potential economic units, hm? 👿 )
Not sure why you think rich people who aren’t Kiwis would be any less greedy than NZers. The responsibility for the wellbeing of NZers and the land here is the governments. It’s not rocket science. Put in good environmental protections and resources into R and D for regenag. Put in good employment law that protects workers rights, and resources that support R and D for ethical business.
The biggest hurdle there, apart from values, is the business models based on perpetual growth. We’re at the limits of growth now, so those models have to exploit people and the earth, because that’s the only way they can now keep growing. Instead we need steady state business models. They exist, which begs the question of why we’re not using them. As far as I can tell that’s down to ignorance, greed, and the need to create. Only the last one is an asset and it could be redirected.
Exactly its ecomonics 101 and the law of diminishing returns combined with greed where a ‘reasonable rate of return’ is ditched for ever increasing profits.
Its cause and effect, newtons third law, with the environment, workers, quality etc amongst those who bear the effect ever increasing profits cause.
Eventually capitalism breaks down as the resources are finite.
And if they feel culturally safer employing compatriots and applying the employment practices and rules they’re familiar with, then why not.
Workers died to win whatever rights we have.
That’s why “the practices and rules they’re familiar with” can go take a hike if those practices and rules are inferior to what workers have fought for (at least, those that remain after 30 years of Liberal assault).
+ 100 to Bill and Weka
They can’t. We really do seem to be the best at farming. Which is probably why China allows Fonterra to have farms in China.
Yes Obama is calling out that neo liberal dick head that is why Obama is on my list of people I admire
and aspire to.
Please! Granny Herald. I couldn’t give a fuck about whether Tony Street has a “She-Mullet”, or whether Mike fucks chickens.
If either were to stand for election as our political representatives, I might take a little more notice. Members of a 4th Estate they ain’t. Members of the Legends-in-their-own-Minds Club they are.
Probably the best thing they could do IS ekshully to stand for office. As for those that profess their membership to a MSM 4th Estate, I understand your fear. Don’t try and blame others however for your fuckup – the spin won’t count no matter how many lattes, G&Ts you’ll go without and missed mortgage payments with your wifeys still at home.
Christ! – How did it come to this I sometimes ask. All I can come up with is greed (and in the case of some of them – flatulence)
One wonders how many Super Storms the Gulf states will have to endure before their voters will wake up to the realisation that Global Warming is real and coming to get them. These voters consistently vote for representatives who are paid toadies of the Fossil Fuel cartel. I have little sympathy for them – the science has been clear for years – but either through greed and self interest, or simply wilful ignorance, they have ignored the early warnings of Katrina, and Sandy, and daily flooding in downtown Miami, and continually voted into office, Climate Change denialists, who have obfuscated and delayed for decades, not only US action on reducing GHG emissions, but also Global action. Now they have the ultimate idiot in charge – one wishes them everything they have coming to them.
Well, fossil fuel extraction is quite a large part of Gulf state economies. So I expect wilful ignorance to continue for quite a while yet, since so many paychecks depend on it. Probably up until the point renewables get so cheap there’s no more point in extracting dino-juice from places like offshore in the Gulf of Mexico.
Yep I understand that – however just because they want a job doesn’t give them the right to fuck the whole world – because that is what they have done for the past 20+ years.
The US has never been able to go to a Climate Conference in good faith, because the Senate Reps dominated by McConnell et al (himself heavily funded around $1.9m US by the Fossil Fuel industry) would simply vote down any proposal to which the US agreed.
It’ll be hard to avoid schadenfreude when those economies start feeling the pressure from the switch to renewables. Probably at about the same time that climate change really starts to bite hard there. I won’t shed any tears about Russia and other petro-states feeling the economic pain either.
But it will be billions of people across south asia and in africa that will really pay the price.
Here is a list of the Senators and their most recent funding by Fossil Fuel industry:
http://www.iflscience.com/environment/republicans-urged-trump-exit-paris-funded-fossil-fuel-companies/
Off the chart.
There is no category 6… Seem like they might have to add one.
Yep – and its heading straight for the Gulf States clipping Southern Florida on the way.
FEMA is expected to run out of money this week as Hurricane Irma approaches. The Disaster Relief Fund has just $1.01 billion on hand, less than half of the $2.14 billion that was there last Thursday morning – a spend rate of $9.3 million an hour.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-05/fema-is-almost-out-of-money-as-hurricane-irma-threatens-florida
All that missing heat.
http://firsthandweather.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/sst.png
Yep 93% of it goes into the oceans – and its not going to go away any time soon.
Just transfer from one form (heat in oceans) to another (wind) and (water vapour).
I used to use the analogy of heating up a pan of water on a stove. You add energy (heat) the water starts to move faster and faster until it boils.
“Mother of All Storms” by Barnes is starting to look a little less like fiction and a little more like science.
This is what I was getting at in my original comment Andre – I wonder if some of them will finally fess up and say – “Sorry we were wrong – these storms are unprecedented, and are the result of Global Warming, and maybe it is because humans have been adding GHG at an alarming rate, and maybe the quantum physicists were right when they said GHG’s trapped black body radiation.”
I find it touching that you seem to think southern repugs might retain even a vestigial sense of shame and responsibility.
With a nephew living and working in the Turks and Caicos Islands, this is all getting a bit worrisome.
🙁 not good – as always the Islands will wear the brunt. Cuba – the nation with one of the least Carbon footprints – is also going to experience the full force. As always those who are the least culpable are the ones who pay the price.
Will be thinking of your nephew and others in the days ahead.
My question is simple, is it because they are Muslims, is that we are not talking about it?
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/02/rohingya-fleeing-myanmar-tales-ethnic-cleansing
Probably not.
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-05092017/#comment-1379111
https://thestandard.org.nz/search/Rohingya+/?search_comments=true
Thanks joe90, that makes me feel a little better.
Not completely, because no one commented on your post *sigh*
The Karen aren’t regularly commented about, either.
Much happening in Chechnya or North Ossetia lately? Everyone happy in North Korea? Eritrea?
Lots of places in the world where people are being shat on in large numbers.
Joyce isn’t the only one being caught lying with dodgy figures.
Our Minister of Health, Jonathan Coleman, has been caught promising to raise elective surgery numbers to a level he claimed we achieved last year.
“Jonathan Coleman said National would increase elective surgeries over the next four years to 200,000 a year.”
Wow. that’s impressive. Increase from what?
” Last year, we planned to deliver 186,000 surgeries; we actually delivered 200,000.“
The National party: calling the status quo an increase.
McFlock
Merely maintaining the status quo would be a decrease unless the population were also static or declining. Which isn’t the case, and furthermore; not only is the population increasing, but so is the average age (with associated health needs) along with the boomer bulge. The kind of operations being performed is also important (from your link):
nah, it’s an increase, Coleman said so. And Joyce spotted $11b hole in Labour’s budget, and bill’s given us 170,000 new jobs…/sarc 🙁
“and bill’s given us 170,000 new jobs…”
They keep on saying that but to balance that we have to take off the 169,999 jobs that have disappeared or been reclassified. But it looks good; unless you are one of the ones who can’t get a job.
Yeah, but they ain’t rich so national doesn’t care.
Ardern’s anger at Trump comparison will push English off TVNZ front slot, which takes English’s policy announcement to 2nd slot.
Mean play but good game.
Here we go – BEWARE BEWARE Federated Farmers pulling on their Brethren cardies and leading the scaremongering this time round:
“Let’s tax this. What are we in for, Labour?
Source: Federated Farmers
—
On the cusp of the election, voters are still in the dark about what taxes they
might be hit with if Labour is part of the next government.
A tax (“royalty”) on water is confirmed. But Jacinda Ardern has refused to rule out
a capital gains tax, a land value tax, and an asset and wealth tax – other than to
say the family home is exempt.
“For Labour to say they’re not able to be more explicit about what they have in mind
until they have recommendations from the yet-to-be-named members of a tax panel is
something of a cop-out, and certainly doesn’t help voters,” Federated Farmers
Vice-President Andrew Hoggard says.
For farmers, their home and surrounding land also happens to be their business and
livelihood. “Even if an exemption applied to the farmhouse, they’ll cop it from new
taxes far more than their urban cousins.”
The prospect of a land tax in particular is alarming to the rural sector, in that it
would have a severe impact on land extensive businesses and others that are
so-called ‘asset rich and income poor’.
The last time a land tax was considered (2010), the agricultural taxable land base
was $105 billion, meaning a 0.5% land tax would cost farmers $525 million per annum
– a massive hit on the sector, and thus on regional economies and rural towns.
“Farmers already pay whacking rates bills in many parts of the country, often
disproportionate to the services they are delivered or actually use,” Mr Hoggard
said.
“Labour delivered more detailed information on their water tax proposal when pushed
into it by Federated Farmers, Irrigation NZ and other groups.
“Voters deserve more details on Labour’s preferences for other taxes before they go
to the polls.”
ENDS
For more information contact:
Andrew Hoggard, Federated Farmers of NZ Vice-President
Phone: 027 230 7363
Simon Edwards | Communications Advisor, Federated Farmers
Email: sedwards@fedfarm.org.nz, Mobile: +64 (0)21 408 672
Should Labour get in, they choose which lobbyists they ever see. Passes revoked, frozen out, no invites or facetime, no policy initiatives.
Standard stuff for The Terrace.
I don’t seem to recall the farmers being concerned with all the detrimental effects of all reforms that benefited them. In fact, they seem to have been getting it all their own way since forever.
I think it’s time they stopped whinging and got on with doing the right thing for society.
I’m meeting with them on Friday. I’ll pass on your view, Draco, if you wish 🙂
Go for it.
We all no that bills brother was head of that outfit a couple of years ago .
So the English strings are still on the puppets that lead that outfit and what a coincidence that federated farmers got a good spokes person just before the election.
Well I don’t believe in coincidences as there is usually something sinister that causes those coincidences .
Now I have nothing against farmers that are compliant with our rules to protected our environment.
Is it a coincident that Willy Leferink was on 7 sharp tonight to smooth it over for federated farmers propaganda .
Now i will say it again Jacinda is not going to over tax any industry as thats fucken stupid and Jacinda would not be were she is if she was fucken stupid.
So the labour party is not neo liberals so they are not going to look you people in the face and lie.
They are going tailor there taxes so everyone is paying there fair shear so our country can function in a economically and environmentally sustainable way Cemmon.
Hope my actions did not cause you to much trouble Iprent apologies if It did.
Fonterra will have to get more value for there products man I bet they wish they brought Nestle when they had the chance .
Any effort to even put modest restrictions on farming activities that are detrimental to the environment are looked upon by FF as Stalinist agriculture collectivization, with fears of Ardern sending truckloads of armed agriculture commissars to every family farm in New Zealand to seize at gunpoint.
NewstalkZB is shallow, trivial, and nasty radio.
But is it any worse than Jim Mora’s light chat show?
The Panel preshow, RNZ National, Tuesday 5 September 2017
Jim Mora, Peter Fa’afiu, Victoria Stewart, Megan Whelan
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/thepanel/audio/201857382/the-panel-pre-show-for-5-september-2017
This drivel goes for six and a half minutes. Here’s a transcript of the first 4 minutes and 23 seconds….
MORA: Ah, Megan Whelan, Story of the Day!
MEGAN WHELAN: So Google has released, ahhmmm, its most searched “How To” questions globally, ahhh, which gives us an insight into the things that people struggle with day to day. So the most searched How-To question globally—does anyone want to take a guess?
MORA: Oh look. Go on, have a go.
Silence….
MEGAN WHELAN: Anyone?
PETER FA’AFIU: No you’re good.
MORA: No, all right—
VICTORIA STEWART: No, no.
MORA: It is hard, it’s hard, it’s hard, actually.
MEGAN WHELAN: I thought it would have been something like “How to cook rice”, or something like that.
MORA: Oh yeah.
VICTORIA STEWART: Ohh yeah.
MEGAN WHELAN: Um, that is sort of second. “How to tie a tie”—-
MORA: [with mock dismissiveness] No-o!
VICTORIA STEWART: Ahhhhh…
MEGAN WHELAN: Which I find fascinating! Because not all of the population has to do it, but apparently it’s a thing that those people who do, frequently forget.
MORA: [affecting a tone of incredulity] “How to tie a tie” is number ONE!?!?
MEGAN WHELAN: “How to tie a tie” is number one! It’s the most searched “How To” question in the world. Ah, “How to kiss” is in second place.
MORA: Ahhh!
MEGAN WHELAN: Which makes me worry a little bit about the future of humanity.
MORA: Ha!
VICTORIA STEWART: Ha ha!
MEGAN WHELAN: As does number three, which is “How to get pregnant”.
MORA: Yes!
VICTORIA STEWART: Ooh goodness.
PETER FA’AFIU: [snickering] Kkk-k-k-k!
MEGAN WHELAN: Number four: “How to lose weight.”
MORA: Yeah.
PETER FA’AFIU: Oh yeah.
MORA: I would’ve thought that’d be RIGHT up the top.
MEGAN WHELAN: “How to draw”.
MORA: “How to DRAAWW”?
MEGAN WHELAN: “How to make money.”
VICTORIA STEWART: Ha ha.
MEGAN WHELAN: Ha ha. And then sort of “How to cook rice”—“how to make pancakes”.
MORA: [very softly, in a tone of bemused wonderment] Pancakes.
VICTORIA STEWART: “How to write a cover letter” AND “How to cook French toast.” Ahhhmmm….
MORA: What?!?!?
VICTORIA STEWART: Followed by “How to lose belly fat”. Ah, so, ho, we’re very worried about losing weight but also having good breakfasts!
MORA: What a STRANGE list!
MEGAN WHELAN: Isn’t that a strange list!
PETER FA’AFIU: Just trying to figure out how many of those I’ve, uh, ha ha ha ha!
MORA: Okay, you can tie a tie.
PETER FA’AFIU: Pancakes, yeah. Tie….
MORA: Pancakes? You know how to make money?
PETER FA’AFIU: Yeah.
MORA: Do you know how to write a cover letter?
PETER FA’AFIU: Yes.
MORA: Ahh, do you know how to lose fat around your tummy?
PETER FA’AFIU: No.
MORA: Okay. I won’t ask you the REST!
PETER FA’AFIU: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! I know how to kiss. I know how to kiss.
MEGAN WHELAN: So Simon Rogers, Google’s data editor, one of the things he mentioned is that these “How To” searches have increased a hundred and forty per cent—so more than doubled—since two thousand and FOUR, and MUCH of that interest is directed at how to sort of FIX things, so oftentimes it’s how to fix a lightbulb or replace your window or fix your washing-machine or even the toilet. So I had a look at Google Trends, ahhh, which is how you can search some of this stuff yourself, for New Zealand for the past twelve months—
MORA: Aah!
MEGAN WHELAN: So related searches, our ones, so this is not the exact data that THAT list is, the global list is, ‘cos it’s not broken down in the same way, but searching “How To” and getting related searches for that for New Zealand, we searched “How to draw”, “How to screenshot”—
MORA: Oh yeah.
MEGAN WHELAN: And someone has texted in to say that when THEY searched it, they got the auto complete, so often when you google something “how to” it will fill in the sentence for you? They got “How to make SLIME”, which is number THREE in New Zealand. We also searched “How to make slime without borax”, which seems a VERY specific thing—-
PETER FA’AFIU: A ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
MORA: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
MEGAN WHELAN: “How to proNOUNCE” is number four—-
MORA: “How to pronounce”?
MEGAN WHELAN: “How to pronounce”. So, presumably, there is another word following that one. “How to lose weight”, “How to make money”, “How to tie a tie”, then that’s the slime without borax. How to-o-o-o-o-o, oh, er, break a —I can’t read my own HANDWRITING!—I think it was something like “break an iPhone”? Ummmmmm—-
VICTORIA STEWART: Easily—-
MEGAN WHELAN: Ha ha ha ha!
VICTORIA STEWART:—is the way I think of that. Drop it!
MEGAN WHELAN: Ha ha. And then, LASTLY, in our New Zealand related searches taught you “How to delete Instagram accounts”. I’m a little bit worried what New Zealanders have been doing on their Instagram accounts that they feel the need to delete them!
PETER FA’AFIU: Hyunhh, hyunnhh.
MORA: Yeah, exactly.
MEGAN WHELAN: Yeahhhh!
MORA: The slime thing will be children, ‘cos our twins make slime.
MEGAN WHELAN: Yes!
PETER FA’AFIU: Same. For me.
MEGAN WHELAN: Has that been quite a thing in the last twelve months?
MORA: Yeah it has recently. Yeah.
MEGAN WHELAN: Right.
MORA: So THAT’ll be a current thing, the slime thing. I didn’t know, they don’t know about the borax.
MEGAN WHELAN: Yeahhh.
MORA: So, we search for the most trivial things as well, don’t we.
VICTORIA STEWART: Yes. I think a lot of this is about the sentence construction? So you might find that people searching for recipes aren’t searching—so for me, I wouldn’t google “How to cook pancakes”, I would google “Pancake recipe”—
PETER FA’AFIU: Mmmm.
VICTORIA STEWART: “EASY pancake recipes”. Ha ha!
MEGAN WHELAN: Yeah. Or something like that. Or a specific pancake recipe, which is my favorite pancake recipe, but, errr, so, but I might search “How to tie a tie”, ‘cos that sentence makes more sense than “pancake recipe.” Yeah.
MORA: Okay, but, there’s um, very little of, uh, “How can I be nicer?” or “What is the meaning of life?” or those [with mock sententiousness] profound questions….
MEGAN WHELAN: “How can I be nicer?” Okaaayyy….
At that point, I reached the point of maximum disgust, and could take no more of this drivel. The inanity, the determined triviality of this chatter, the complete and utter contempt for the listeners are bad enough, but what really angered me was that last statement by Jim Mora. His suggestion that he cares about “profound questions” is disproven by the subject matter and the tenor of the discussions on his show. And as for “How can I be nicer?”—well, let’s have a look at a few instances of how “nice” Jim Mora is….
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-16022015/#comment-969675
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-14062013/#comment-648511
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-12122014/#comment-939112
Excellent piece by Gordon Campbell that neatly counters Nationals scare tactics…should be required reading before entering the polling booth
‘Its not a new thing. Remember when John Key used to describe Working For Families as “communism by stealth”? Now WFF is core National policy. And Kiwisaver? (Key : “It won’t work. It’s a glorified Christmas Club.”) Now, Kiwisaver too is core National policy. Remember when climate change was just a fanciful notion of those wacky, scary Greens? Now National’s deputy is proudly proclaiming National’s commitment to the Paris agreement.”
http://gordoncampbell.scoop.co.nz/2017/09/06/gordon-campbell-on-nationals-fake-news-onslaught/#more-4932
i’ve spent a bit of time thinking about the legacy the last labour party left and what the nats legacy is (thinking positive as even the nats can’t be totally useless )
labour ; kiwisaver ,kiwibank . wwf (still would prefer proper wages) ,cullin fund,
china fta.
nats ; seriously i got nothing ,