(Oops slept in) Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step right up to the mike…
The proposal involves three main changes in statute for the Electricity Authority:
An amended objective: “to promote greater use of renewable energy including from distributed generation sources”,
An amended function: “to establish and administer a fair regime for small scale renewable distributed electricity generation power purchase agreements” and
An entirely new section 43 in the Electricity Industry Act detailing how this will be achieved. Including 10 year power purchase agreements and a price set by the Electricity Authority.
The fight against climate change will be the defining struggle of this age.
It is great to see that the Green Party is talking about practical actions that, (hopefully) will turn us away from fossil fuels, to renewable energy use.
Distributed small scale electricity generation will be part of the mix.
But Gareth has gone even further, attacking the big fossil fuel suppliers at their source, and the government, who are conspiring with Solid Energy and the banks, to keep us hooked on fossil fuels for the foreseeable future, with a huge taxpayer subsidy for our country’s biggest coal company.
“The National Government need to take responsibility for their mismanagement of Solid Energy and cut their losses,” said Mr Hughes.
“The banks that made risky loans to Solid Energy need to bear the cost of their mistakes.
“Coal is not going to be the fuel of our future if we are to stabilise our climate.
“New Zealanders and Solid Energy workers need a just transition into more sustainable jobs – jobs that don’t fry the planet.
With these above statements Gareth and the Greens are well on the way to setting up climate change as a major defining election issue for the Greens, sharply differentiating themselves from both Labour and National, who both as well as having broad agreement on other issues of climate change, both support the bailout of Solid Energy, reinforceng and gauranteeing our iron bound addiction to fossil fuels at a time when we should be taking every opportunity to loosen its grip.
Jenny – you were proven yesterday to be a liar regarding Labour’s position and yet you still repeat the same hyperbole ad nauseum today?
One rule I work with is “Never trust an extremist” because they are never honest. Ever. No matter how “correct” the facts behind your argument may be (such as climate change being a real man made thing that’s going to impact over the next 100 years) you are completely misrepresenting the political situation in NZ in order to meet your other preconceptions.
IMO Labour will likely support Solid Energy’s continued existence, and retention as a full SOE. Not only are there many NZ jobs at stake, but also extensive technical and engineering knowledge plus a vital strategic energy source for the nation.
I have been trying to popularise for some, time now the scandal that is Rauauru Ma Raki.
1033 permanent jobs “blown away” in the renewable sector. What is remarkable about this project is that it is but a short commute from Huntly where many coal miners are losing their jobs.
All that is needed to restart this project and give all these laid off workers good jobs according to Wind Energy CEO Eric Pyle is the “right policy settings”, which I imagine would cost little in comparison to the current huge $100 million plus, (and more to come), bail out of Solid Energy.
The Nacts may cry crocodile tears about jobs being lost. But we know they don’t care for working people. The Bailout of Solid Energy is a blatant a case of Corporate Welfare as you can get. Nothing else. As Gareth Hughes says the government should “cut their losses”. What we should be asking CV is why we are covering the losses of the foreign owned Aussie banks?
I have been trying to popularise for some, time now the scandal that is Rauauru Ma Raki.
1033 permanent jobs “blown away” in the renewable sector.
None of these jobs exist. They were future “potential jobs”. You are proposing getting rid of higher paid jobs for jobs which do not exist yet, would take several years to reach a full payroll of staff, and likely pay much less than mining jobs.
As Gareth Hughes says the government should “cut their losses”. What we should be asking CV is why we are covering the losses of the foreign owned Aussie banks?
Who knows. Probably so they don’t take possession of the company and firesale it.
Bottom line is that your religious crusade is all about you Jenny, and very little else.
lprent – in my mind it is not laziness on her part but rather an admission that she is what I stated she is, an extremist. She is looking for evidence that supports her own initial conclusions and ignoring anything else that may *potentially* undermine that.
Jenny – I don’t really know what Labour’s position on the matter of Solid Energy is and, at the moment, I only really have the extra energy to continue being pissed off at National. I come to The Standard because the level of intelligent coverage here outstrips all other available sources but I keep seeing your screeds of outraged bullshit popping up everywhere and it rankles.
It’s difficult to argue with you on the “climate change is bad and we should be doing something about it” because I agree, climate change *is* bad and we *should* do something about it. When it comes to communicate about that *something* though you manage to go jump in to the deep end and shout a giant “fuck you” to anyone who isn’t willing to dive right in next to you. By doing so you alienate anyone who doesn’t share your personal belief and this is no way to build broad support for your position.
Hence why I felt the need this morning to call you on your extremist bullshit.
In my opinion, feel free to continue to post your extremist rhetoric here. It reminds me why I chose to escape association with similar people and why I will continue to.
…in my mind it is not laziness on her part but rather an admission that she is what I stated she is, an extremist.
I’d agree. But really she could be an extremist that looked things up rather her current habit of simply making things up. It has gotten to the point that whenever I read her comments then I treat it exactly like I would for some poor troll coming from Whaleoil or No Minister… I assume it is wrong or quoted completely out of context.
Her habit of usually not leaving links to those she is accusing reinforces that. It implies that she hasn’t used search either on this site or on google to actually find out anything about what she is talking about. As importantly it makes it harder for people to find out if she is sprouting crap or not.
Basically she acts like a modern-day Joseph Goebbels who in Nazi Germany had the role of making inflammatory and inaccurate memes as minister of propaganda. He also had the role of destroying the ability of people to check the veracity of those memes by destroying books that contradicted those memes published as books, pamphlets, speeches, etc…
There are some quite strong extremists (in my view) on this site. But you have to give them credibility because they usually leave links and reasoned argument. They also respond to people disagreeing with them rather than Jenny’s current passion for flying into boring rants and lying about what they said…
I like Gareth, and I vote Green, but he is a bit off about what this deal does. the banks won’t be too happy about this at all.
The shares they are getting do not pay dividends, and can only be sold back to the crown at the price they paid for them, when and if the crown ever wants to buy them.
Basically SE has had a lot of debt to the banks written off, 350M has been paid off by the crown, and the rest of the debt will be recovered if and when the crown buys back those shares.
The alternative is winding the company up. That doesn’t mean the mines close. It means a receiver tries to get as much value as possible out of SE’s assets, (that would be the mines and licenses to mine), as they can in order to pay back as much of the debt as they can.
Yes, great to see the moves by the Green Party on Solar Power, what such Regulation and Legislation will allow anyone with a mind to to become a power supplier the legal framework which will allow them to do so and presumably be able to sell the power generated at much the same rates as the present Electricity Cartel does,
From what the Green Party are saying it seems likely that those wishing to install solar power arrays will be able to, instead of having to also install very expensive battery systems, feed the power they generate straight into the retail system making such a system far more streamlined than what has presently been achieved,
In a Green future i can well see a large industry being built up around household solar arrays where the home-owner could add solar panels to their own system as they have spare funds to do so and where eventually households doing so would be supplying much of the countries daytime electricity needs,
It doesn’t take much to imagine the average workers solar paneling generating power by day into the grid while they are busy at work and thus creating enough credit for those doing so to have basically the free use of electricity while they are at home via the credits earned,
What is needed is work on a standardized design of such solar power systems with work being put into the efficacy of producing the whole systems here in New Zealand, which along with the installation and maintanence of will create clean green sustainable employment…
Yeah you may have a point, but, just for arguments sake, say an investment in Solar Thermal of a billion dollars generates X amount of power, this is owned either by Government or private companies, (with the threat of privatization if Government owned), and such electricity is then sold to the consumer at a profit,
Consider then IF the same billion dollars spent on household solar generation arrays on the roof of average homes produced the same X of power which is then sold by the householder via a binding agreement at a fair set price to the retailer, given that there is room on the average houses roof for one hell of an array of solar paneling it would not be inconceivable that the average house could generate and sell enough electricity during the day to make a households electricity usage all up basically free,
i am tho fascinated by the thought of having some very big magnifying glasses able to track around with the sun being able to direct beans of light to ‘a boiler’, thus creating steam and thus creating usable energy in a number of forms…
I wouldn’t preclude larger scale thermal plants, but I think that distributed installations for households, motels, hotels, schools, hospitals etc. would be (and in fact are) very workable.
For a typical household, a power bill saving of $50-$60 month would be quite significant.
Yesterday I praised Gareth Hughes and the Green Party for coming out and and strongly condemning the bailout of Solid Energy.
I asked why, almost a week later, there had been no post on The Standard by any author about the criminal and immoral Bailout of Solid Energy. karol kindly took the time to reply saying that, they were working on it.
“An author has been working on a draft of a solid energy post.”
I also asked yesterday why Labour had not commented on the bail out.
Qot pointed out to me something that I had missed, that Clayton Cosgrove for the Labour Party had actually come out in support of the bailout. With a cryptic comment that “the deal announced on Tuesday was too little too late.”
So I can understand why the mysterious Standard poster is haveing trouble trying to finish their agonised philosophical wrestling over their “draft Solid Energy post”, before most likely, finally deciding to leave it in the too hard basket.
[lprent: good thing that karol saw it before me. I’d have simply banned you for a week for trying to tell us how we should be running the site. ]
Almost certainly less than 15kg of carbon released, depending on how it is done. Sadly, I’ve just seen a notice that the man who self immolated in the US National Mall in Washington DC has died. Another milestone in the match of the plutocrats.
The solid energy post is a post that I am working on but I need to understand the intricacies of the recent announcements and get these right before I finish it.
You should also understand that the Standard bloggers are a disparate diffuse group of people who have things like jobs and lives. Posts and contributions are a totally voluntary thing. For me I am also in the middle of a local body election campaign so posts will be made
And your original comment was that Labour has stayed silent on the issue and as shown by QoT you are totally incorrect.
And your original comment was that Labour has stayed silent on the issue and as shown by QoT you are totally incorrect.
mickysavage
But you must admit mj that there is some confusion around where Labour sit on this issue, as evidenced by Zorr at at 9:33 am.
Hopefully you will be able to clear this up for us.
[lprent: Get off your lazy bigoted and obviously stupid arse and look it up. FFS it isn’t hard – read the press releases, they stream in the Feeds every day.
If you *ever* use this type of line again on either Labour, the Greens or even National without doing some research yourself.
To encourage you in this endeavour, I will take a page out of your book and assume you are guilty unless it is clear in the first paragraph that you have searched. And I will impose a 12 week ban if you do not show evidence of having looked for what you are asking for from political parties before accusing them. Everyone is welcome to point out what she missed… ]
So Jenny, the Labour Party did comment on the Solid Energy bailout, instead of posting even more bullshit here, an ”i was wrong with my assertion yesterday” would have been sufficient,
Perhaps you are a masochist and feel that when you do, after what seems huge effort on your part, get a spanking, you spend your time in purgatory nurturing along your view of having been ‘the victim’…
Posted yesterday… ” *Yes I did miss this. But that is not the same as being a “fucking liar” ”
I think Jenny is passionate about her cause and far less rude, abrasive, insulting and retarded as some commenters are in stating their positions.
I don’t see what she posts as a problem. Like anything (or anyone’s opinions) it can be ignored or dismissed without rancour or resorting to obscenities that make point scoring a hollow gesture.
I think you’re being incredibly charitable towards Jenny. She has had opportunity after opportunity to check her shit.
When she hated the Greens, it was daily postings on how “the Greens have been silent!!!!” and when she had multiple blog posts and press releases pointed out to her, her defence was “oh, well it’s not on the front page of their website”.
Now she hates Labour, so it’s daily postings on how “Labour have been silent!!!!!” and when multiple media statements are again pointed out to her, her defence is “well that’s not clear enough for me.”
The only reasonable conclusion for anyone to draw after this amount of time and a complete refusal to back up her statements is that Jenny is – and I’m so not ashamed to “resort to obscenties” – a fucking liar.
The only reasonable conclusion for anyone to draw after this amount of time and a complete refusal to back up her statements is that Jenny is – and I’m so not ashamed to “resort to obscenties” – a fucking liar.
Funny that you should mention Rob Gilchrist again Lynn. I had been thinking of this despicable individual since you tried to compare him to me in a nasty piece of character assassination.
That was an outright lie and made me kind of annoyed, especially as it was part of the kind of rethorical accusorial waffle that seems to be all that she can maintain these days.
Sure I compared her to Gilchrist because the previous comment from Murray Olsen responding to one from Pascal’s bookie was about cops and police spies acting like her in movements. But my comment was hardly comparing her to Rob Gilchrist because I think that she is mostly just a bit of a extremist nutter. Unfortunately Rob never acted like that or he’d have never have had as much penetration into a variety of movements as he did.
My disagreement with Pascal’s bookie was that you had to always be wary of any extremist credulous fools who couldn’t credibly explain how they get from their ideological position to actually being able to implement some of it. You don’t need to use the “cop” to think that people acting that way are dangerous to the movement and to those around them.
This was rather signalled by my first paragraph quoting Murray
..you have just made one of the most stupid and cowardly statements that it’s possible for an activist to make.
Wrong approach. Treat any activist going over the top with due caution and suspicion.
Basically like you, I just call people I consider to be misguided, unthinking, fools, idiots or liars just that with some reasons why. This allows others to make up their own minds.
Hell with QoT, I’ve even be known to do milder forms of it to her (and her to me – but of course i was *right* 😉 ). But I just disagree and I’m usually quite willing to explain why. It usually provokes some interesting discussion and much of the time falls into “agree to disagree”.
But Jenny these days mostly just accuses people who disagree with her of being some kind of traitor as she asks rhetorical questions and in my case lies about what I have previously said. Not a behaviour that I’m particularly tolerant on. And it is a pity that she doesn’t seem to have enough perspective to understand that people disagreeing with her is a good thing. It is when they don’t bother then she has lost her argument and audience.
I tend to take accusations of being police or government agents personally and seriously. I was accused of being an SIS agent back in the 80s, before I understood the dynamic of much of the left and that this has been a historical tactic of the 3rd International since at least 1926. It has been suggested here, by travellerev, that I could be a government agent, basically on the grounds that I was an admin of a Facebook page aimed against John Key and banned people who couldn’t get past the WTC, the Illuminati, and cut and pastes from Alex Jones sites. There is basically no reasonable defence against it, which is why I am so careful and make sure I have a hell of a lot of evidence before I would even raise such an issue.
For the record, Jenny has never rung any of my bells in this area. She comes across as more of an unreasoning fundamentalist who, even if she does have something worthwhile to say, says it in such a manner that she loses any potential audience pretty quickly.
By the standards of many here, I am undoubtedly an extreme Marxist, but I do my best to address people somewhere near the level they can identify with. My being right on any particular issue is actually not that important to me. Any latent ability I have to help people think outside their comfort zones is far more important. By the nature of this blog, we are potential leaders, not followers. We have a duty to check supposedly factual material when we post it, and I feel I have a duty to treat fellow contributors with respect until they prove to my satisfaction that they deserve otherwise. We also have a duty to challenge what we consider misinformation and diversion. I think Jenny and Penny Worth both act to divert issues, mainly via the style they use.
As always, I never claim infallibility in my politics, and not even always in my Physics, but I like to think that I can defend my positions without personal attacks. However, I am not above retaliating with a dose of passion when something is directed against me personality.
As far as the mechanics of this blog is concerned, they are not decided by me. If I object too strongly, I can always leave. Free speech to me on this blog means you don’t charge me to post, as long as I stay within the guidelines. If I ever set up my own blog, I would probably take a similar approach to my contributors, even though I doubt I’d have to take my socks off to count them.
PS The closest to my views are expressed by Red Rattler, although we use quite different styles of expression.
“I think you’re being incredibly charitable towards Jenny.”
Perhaps, but in truth, no more so than to most others.
Doesn’t mean I don’t see or feel your pain where other posters are concerned. Interestingly, just this week I’ve been guilted for not remembering commentators are real people and this isn’t just a blog, but a serious blog for the big boys and girls.
I should harden the fu*k up and just get on with it 😆
“I think Jenny is passionate about her cause and far less rude, abrasive, insulting and retarded as some commenters are in stating their positions.”
True, but most commenters are less rude than shes is. And it’s not rudeness, abrasiveness etc that is the problem with Jenny. It’s her tr0lling. Tr0lling isn’t even the right word, because I don’t think she does it intentionally. She just garners herself alot of negative attention because of how she posts and how she consequently behaves..
“I don’t see what she posts as a problem. Like anything (or anyone’s opinions) it can be ignored or dismissed without rancour or resorting to obscenities that make point scoring a hollow gesture.”
It’s true that I can ignore her. But why should I have to ignore the huge number of other people that stop commenting on other things in order to respond to her ‘inaccuracies’ and flamming? It’s the long threads of blah fucking blah that annoy me.
A report commissioned by the Climate Vulnerable Forum, a partnership of 20 developing countries threatened by climate change was released to the media in September 2012. The report concluded that:
More than 100 million people will die…
The causes of this mega-death were listed as:
….five million deaths occur each year from air pollution, hunger and disease as a result of climate change and carbon-intensive economies, and that toll would likely rise to six million a year by 2030 if current patterns of fossil fuel use continue.
More than 90 percent of those deaths will occur in developing countries….
Reuters LONDON Sept 26, 2012
“A combined climate-carbon crisis is estimated to claim 100 million lives between now and the end of the next decade,” the report said.
Well, I’m glad others have responded to Jenny today, because I’m in no mood for her constant attacks – made worse by being based on unreliable info/judgments.
As one included in the authors attacked for not posting on her chosen issue, I am more than pissed off. Very tired tonight after a day’s work and a particularly busy and stressful week. And I suspect that’s the same for many TS authors.
Jenny only needs to look to see how few new posts there have been in the last couple of days – on any topic. Under this government there are many crucial issues that need highlighting. Most of us post mostly on issues we know most about. Science and the economy are not my strengths – unless it’s about how they are represented in the MSM. It takes a fair amount of research for me to comment on such things.
Also, the strength of this site is in the discussions. Jenny doesn’t really seem to come here to engage in discussion. She mostly spends her time here in attack mode. She most often sounds to me like she’s on a soap box: haranguing people and talking down to us, and not taking much notice of any responses to her attacks.
Then when she breaks some basic TS rules (like not telling authors what to write) and gets banned for it, she starts complaining that her views on climate change are being censored. No matter how many times the reason for the bans are explained, and the evidence presented, she just seems to choose not to understand.
Why should I bother to read any more of Jenny’s comments?
I think you are exceptionally patient Karol. I’m sorry you have to put up with this shit. Despite what I said above to the Al1en, it’s ulitmately not so onerous for me to ignore Jenny or get over what she is doing because my input here is fairly uncommitted. But if I had been putting in the effort you have and had that degree of committment, I’d be spitting tacks by now.
Jenny is a very nice girls name…all the Jennys I have ever known have been nice , sweet, charming girls….
From wiki:
Jennifer is a feminine given name, a Cornish form of Gwenhwyfar[1] adopted into English during the 20th century.
It may mean “white fairy” (from Proto-Celtic *Uindo-seibrā “white phantom”). Despite the name’s similarity to the Old English words jenefer, genefer and jinifer, all of which were variants of Juniper used to describe the juniper tree,[2] there is no evidence that it comes from these.
Other meanings of Jenny:
An amazing, beautiful, caring, creative girl. She is the epitome of a goddess, and anyone would kill to have her. She can do anything she sets her mind to, and she’s wonderful.
A girl who acts like a true sister. She may not be blood line relatives, but she will care for you no matter what, even when hated she will love you. She tends to fall for the wrong type, but in the end she will never give up on someone she loves. She’s socially active but naughty at times.
Wow Chooky that Cornish name is really something. But I’ve gone off Jenny after Jenny Shipley. While the name has sweet connotations too often the owner doesn’t.
Greywarbler & the Allen…..smirk….well parents choose lovely names for their baby girls ….but they dont always turn out as expected…they could grow up to be a troll(ess) or a horrible old witch with nasty duplicitous designs and spells.
….yes Jenny Shipley is a Jenny I hadn’t thought of….you are very realistic greywarbler …adds a whole new complexion to the name Jenny….
…Now Gwenhwyfar is a very romantic name …maybe a better name to write songs about or have sweet dreams upon……not too many Gwenhwyfars around (down under) to spoil the illusion….
Hi Chooky I had a look at name meanings. My Mum was Gwendolyn and great greats came from Cornwall so I guess that was a connection with the name. I noticed that Gwenhwyfar is the Cornish, Welsh, Celtic? form of Guinevere. Gwen means white, holy, blessed and there are St Gwens.
There is a rich source of names in the Celtic directory. Maybe people could look there for a more personal name than following pop stars or adopting country’s names, Hello New Zealand how are you today – Austria, Australia to Zambia? A bit weird.
The Allen
I had to check on your irrelevant remark about an oggie so went to the Urban Dictionary for total irrelevance. You do learn something every day – sometimes two things!
Mmmm Cornish pasties, and i liked that idea of savoury one end and sweet the other. How practical – a two course meal in one.
Thanks, weka. Well, it’s also that there are authors here that post very knowledgeably about things like climate change (and economic issues) but Jenny still goes on about authors ignoring the topic. And it seems completely unrealistic to expect those kind of posts to be prepared every few days…. or even every week. But, anyway, as I comments before, we had a couple of very good ones on climate change last weekend.
To many issues, too much destructive NAct actions, so much needing to be done to take a positive new direction, so little time to post on all of them.
“To many issues, too much destructive NAct actions, so much needing to be done to take a positive new direction, so little time to post on all of them.”
It’s also the case that climate change is a global issue. There are hundreds of excellent websites from around the world dealing with climate change, the science behind it, etc. There aren’t nearly so many websites on the internet dealing with general NZ politics. Why should this site focus solely or mainly on climate change, when there are plenty of other sites that do it already?
And didn’t he add something to the effect “yes Matthew we all know you’re running a campaign against the living wage”. I think Susan Wood did a wee squeal at that one.
Hooton was trying on his old trick… taking control of the conversation and interrupting and talking over the top of his rival. Rod Oram wasn’t having it. Love to see him up against Hooton on the Monday morning RNZ political slot. Unfortunately he’s not a political commentator by profession which is a pity.
Oram is always a good listen to, i missed Q@A but always have a good listen to rod when He is on RadioNZ,
He tends to give a far fuller answer to any question of economics being discussed, usually giving the right-wing view an airing as well while pointing out why He thinks that is wrong and offering the alternatives…
Thanks Curtis. And others who raised the Q&A item. The Right claim huge job losses if Living Wage was begun. (Would it follow that if the Min Wage was dropped to say $5 an hour there would be wholesale increase in Employment?)
If Firms paid a Living Wage then maybe there would be an exodus from those firms paying Min Wage and those firms would have to compete by lifting wages up from the Min to match the Living wage to hang on to their staff.
Shame that Hooton wasn’t picked up on two claims he made – that NZ has the highest min wage in $ terms and the fourth highest min wage to average wage ratio in the OECD.
I’ll assume those claims are true. And so the question that needs answering is, is there any merit in having the highest min wage in absolute and comparative terms if you also have disproportionately large numbers of people only earning the min wage and employers receiving tax payers money to ‘take the edge off’ widespread and systemic poverty?
what’s that tactic where they come up with bullshit with such frequency that taking the time to correct anything simply gets one swamped with more bullshit, but trying to keep up simply leaves them to say “but you agreed earlier” and their bullshit unchallenged?
“Gish Gallop”. That sounds about right for Mr Hooten.
And for that matter the famous Campbell interview with John Key. Breathless Key Gallop to run over the top of any tricky questions and a dig or two at the honesty/integrity of John Campbell. If the cap fits…..
Country Minimum wage Annual Standard Hourly Percent of
(US$)[2] workweek (US$) GDP per
Australia A$16.37 per hour 33355 38 16.88 0.471
Luxembourg €1,921.03 per month 29611 40 14.24 0.253
Monaco €1,593.67 per month 25744 39 12.69 15.8%[106]
France €1,430.22 per month 22003 35 12.09 0.534
Belgium €1,501.82 per month 23104 38 11.69 0.503
San Marino €8.96 per hour 22400 37.5 11.49 0.389
New Zealand NZ$13.75 per hour 23252 40 11.18 0.555
Ireland €1,461.85 per month 22490 39 11.09 0.428
Netherlands €1,477.80 per month 22735 40 10.93 0.461
United Kingdom £6.31 per hour 19896 38.2 10.02 0.472
Canada C$9.95 to C$11.00 per hour 22766 44[40] 9.95 0.415
Sorry Phillip, have to disagree with you on this one. Rod did make some good points which any sensible, fair minded person would have to agree with but Hooton just carried on as if nothing had happened and always got the last word in – people tend to remember the last word. He just kept repeating his lines and there is no answer to that if you don’t have a killer blow up your sleeve so to speak. Hooton also ignored what the Australian CTU president had to say with regards to the minimum wage etc.
I noticed also there was no mention of the latest Roy Morgan poll, and a dig at Cunliffe for the gaffe about the young property investor finding it harder to buy his ‘first home’.
Though. Hooton’s continued talking made him look pretty shallow and waffley along side Oram. I don’t know how the majority of viewers would see it though.
To ALL sick, disabled and with incapacity for work – on WINZ benefits: Download and read the PDF submission to be found via this link, and READ IT, please!
Please DO take NOTE of this, which I tried to point out the other night, but it appears to have not been noticed by most, it is EXTREMELY important:
This affects ALL sick and disabled on BENEFITS: THERE are major changes happening, yet again, and it is highly worrying stuff!!!
MSD’s Principal Health Advisor Dr Bratt and his team seem to be preparing new ways of outsourcing Work Capability Assessments, to be done by selected professionals!
This smells too much like the “stench” that has been attached to the involvement of Atos Healthcare as the private assessor for the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) in the UK.
I have not heard or read anything about MSD’s plans in this direction yet, but it sounds extremely worrying, hence the serious concerns also, the New Zealand Medical Association (NZMA) expresses.
Something is being prepared to involve people to make assessments for WINZ, who are not even proper medical experts.
I will try to keep you posted, but this is a must read, and must be taken very seriously!
Hi Xtasy
IMHO This government fairly obviously intends to duplicate at least partly, the fascist treatment of beneficiaries in the U$K. A cruel and heartless attitude which has no justification for NZ, It is not the Kiwi way, but this government is led by a neoliberal puppet called Key and his opportunist collaborator Bennett.
johnm – I agree, but the brainwashing, distraction and whole bureaucratic agenda is so “perfected” now, Goebbles could not have done a better job, they are getting away with it, while most are scared into submission, lulled into misinformation and indifference, or simply lied to to a degree, they do not dare to question anything anymore.
We have fascism at work here, right now in NZ, but most do not realise it, as they think, hey this cannot be fascism, as that is much worse. Those will wake up too late to what is going on, and too many woke up too late in the 1930s and 1940s in Germany too!
Spurs have significant historic links with the jewish community and the Hammers were a bastion against fascism in the thirties, supporters of the club having shielded East End jews against the Black Shirts and succesfully opposed them in the battle of Cable Street.
The last time the clubs met a moronic minority of WHU fans disgraced the club and its traditions by using anti-Semitic chants and hissing to mimic gas chambers. Hopefully there won’t be a repeat tomorrow.
Well said Muzza, I could write a book on my experiences as a kid in the fifties how we were treated and looked after by the “adults” mainly dockers when we went to watch Millwall play at New Cross. Visited the pie & eel shop first for a bit of lunch, then got the underground to New Cross. A great afternoon for an east end kid that did not cost much. Millwall was always in the third division,but what the fuck we went there for the football(soccer)
Don’t watch hardly any sport these days, fucking sick of hearing team “A” with this sponsored shirt going to “take out” team “B” with that sponsored shirt playing on this sponsored ground. brought to you by such & such product on the fucking minute /half minute. Sport is now a load of fucking crap.
Hope you are right but WHU seem to have a core of knuckle dragging diehards determined to have fun ‘cmon guvnor ….you awwright then my son …..just havin a larf’ like when they play millwall.
lets hope millwalls current issues put them in a good mood and they behave.
Fingers crossed, TC. The Hammers have a proud history of anti-racism (even their hooligan crew, the ICF, were multi-racial) and the club were rightly mortified at last year’s events. However, there has been significant growth in the influence of neo-nazis in the East End, which may be reflected in the stands. Not much that can be done about it, but life bans would be a start.
Yes and the financial and football gap developed recently between the 2 isn’t helping with Joe Lewis’s billions backing Spurs onto the champions league so he can allegedly cash out the asset.
Whereas the more frugal streetwise Gold/Sullivan saw a club in need of their backing at West Ham after cashing up at Birmingham City and rescued it from an Icelandic meltdown.
The growing divide between the haves and have nots feeds all sorts of discontent.
Something is being prepared to involve people to make assessments for WINZ, who are not even proper medical experts.
Well who would be surprised? It’s bit like Charter Schools beings set up with teachers who are not teachers by profession. It’s all part of a culture/mindset that looks down on those considered inferior stock (unemployed people and sickness beneficiaries head the list) and who they deem to be only worthy of second class assistance.
It’s also part of a campaign to employ ‘yes men/women’ who they know will come up with the answers the government are wanting enforced. And on that note:
I saw recently that John Key looks like he is about to do another ‘Ian Fletcher’ only this time it’s the SIS. A new position of SIS deputy C.E.O has been created. The successful applicant will be spending most of his/her time attached to the PM’s office, and will be liasing with the SIS etc. on matters raised by the PM. Watch this space. Another mate about to be appointed to an highly sensitive position?
In Slippery the PM’s language i would consider that ”being attached to the PM’s Office and liasing with the SIS etc on matters raised by the PM” to mean ”people He wants the SIS to open a file on”….
Maybe Key’s got a Cousins, Aunts, Brothers, Sisters, Best Mate’s, number mysteriously on his phone, And it was, just an Accident that he bumped into him in town the other day..
Its quite clever from the nats, the more cronies they appoint, and stuff they break up, merge, realign, refocus etc makes a new govts job a shed load tougher with installed obstacles and broken structures.
I just had a good idea for better and more satisfying education for youngsters. Spend time on helping them with the basics plus teach them a variety of things. And then make the goal to help them find what they like doing and give them the chance to do more of it. And use that as a carrot and reward to get them through their basic learning in a capable manner. To use a current expression, the child then ‘owns’ his or her education.
There was an interview on radionz today on a place called the Corelli school which encourages children with artistic interests and will take them from an early age, and they also do educational subjects to Cambridge level. Parents said it was working out well for children who had been too shy, hadn’t the chance to flourish at school.
Now that would be a good educational experiment. And one that would be done principally to suit the children’s interests. Unlike what I heard educational scientists discuss this week about Christchurch. Apparently money saving and efficiency was not the basis for many of the school closures and amalgamations there, it was a desire to experiment with new processes. The ground zero effect after the earthquakes was to be the genesis of a new approach to education with of course the object of ‘better educational performance’ or such.
The fact that the children actually needed security, continuity, accessibility without lengthy travel and so on, didn’t come into the thinking of these highly educated, highly paid educational policy queens. From their royal height they pushed around the children of the poor so they could watch to see which maze they progressed through best.
There are no doubt some kings in the mix, but it seems to me post-women’s lib has enabled a great bunch of university trained middle class girls to become professional women with little interest or empathy with wider society beyond their own sculpted lives and suburbs.
Ok for those of you who were querying about it, I have fixed a timeout on the cookies that was showing up in W3 Total Cache. It was setting the timeout on cookies to 7200 seconds (about 2 hours). I have changed that to 1512000 seconds (~30 days).
This should prevent you from having re-enter your cookie values more often than that.
So the Serious Fraud Office has another secret $100,050 National Party donation before the Courts in a major scandal that looks set to quash any chances Simon Bridges had of winning the 2020 election.Yesterday, Newsroom reported:The Serious Fraud Office prosecution of four people over donations to the National Party involves ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Review... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Iceberg twice the size of Washington, D.C., breaks off Pine Island glacier in Antarctica Story Highlights: The Pine Island ...
Prof Philippa Howden-ChapmanHousing policy is building up to be the key election issue again. In this blog I reflect on the importance of the role of the New Zealand Government in improving access to affordable housing. I look at what the Government has been doing to increase quality public housing ...
Writing on The Spinoff, Danyl Mclauchlan argues that we have a vacuum in our political system, in that there is no longer an anti-establishment party anymore:I think there’s a vacuum in our political system. There are obvious problems with the status quo but no real critics offering reform. It’s a ...
Stuff today has a piece about the government discovering it has been oversubsidising polluters for a decade under the Emissions Trading scheme:The Government is pledging to urgently fix an issue within the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), after it emerged some polluters are likely being over-compensated with taxpayer-funded carbon credits. [...] ...
The Marlborough District Council, tired of public scrutiny, wants to increase the amount it charges for LGOIMA requests:The cost of requesting official information from Marlborough's government agency could almost double after a jump in "fishing expeditions". Charges could be raised from $60 to $100 an hour for information supplied by ...
When Winston Peters was caught money laundering donations and stalking journalists, the Greens were conspicuous by their silence. It was another example of how getting along with their government partners was eroding their values and their own reputation. It was obviously unsustainable, and so now James Shaw has finally spoken ...
I am among the most pro-free speech people I know. I don’t doubt there are others more strident than me, but I’m certainly up there. And my support for freedom of expression isn’t limited to opposition to government-imposed restrictions. It extends to a belief that employers should have limited powers ...
With over 69,000 confirmed cases and 1,600 deaths, here’s your round-up of the latest coronavirus news. New disease and virus have now officially been named On the 11th February, the WHO Director General announced a new name for the disease: COVID-19 which is short for coronavirus disease 2019. The naming ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Feb 9, 2020 through Sat, Feb 15, 2020 Editor's Pick ANALYSIS-Climate change opens up 'frontier' farmland, but at what cost to the planet?Climate change could expand farmland globally by ...
After cross-examination Jones knew he would lose the defamation case he took against film maker Renae Maihi. That’s why he threw in the towel. The weight of evidence was clearly against the old tycoon with the defense presenting fifty articles to confirm Jones’ racist views.Being unable to harass somebody into ...
Sprung! Former NZ First president, Lester Gray, chats with RNZ's Guyon Espiner in the carpark of a Tauranga shopping centre.(Photo supplied anonymously to NZ First and The BFD.)IT’S CLEAR THAT an important aspect of Jacinda Ardern’s political success is her willingness to seek – and take – advice. This ...
Ruth Cunningham, Charlotte Paul, Andrew MoorePublic health responses to infectious diseases such as COVID-19 require us to draw on our common humanity and be explicit about our values. Recognising this will help us make good decisions in difficult situations so that, for example, the need to impose restrictive measures ...
The Helen Clark Foundation has released its report on the housing crisis, and found that house-hoarders are to blame for it:Property investors are to blame for New Zealand's high house prices, a new research paper published by the Helen Clark Foundation says. [...] McArthur said previous attempts to address housing ...
The Abortion Legislation Committee has reported back on the Abortion Legislation Bill and recommended that it be passed with some amendments. Unfortunately, the latter include even more hoops to jump through for those seeking abortions after 20 weeks, including a time-wasting requirement to consult a second doctor. No-one casually seeks ...
Brexit is likely to be a disaster for the UK (how sad, never mind). But now that they're out of the EU, the latter has finaly taken the opportunity to blacklist one of their key tax havens:The Cayman Islands, a British overseas territory, is to be put on an EU ...
I’m not quite sure of what to make of the new figures for COVID-19 (as we must now call the novel coronavirus – though I’m not sure the capitalisation is correct) from Hubei province:Image from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-51495484The spike yesterday is a consequence of a using a different way of ...
Bob Jones has dropped his defamation case against Renae Maihi. Good. But at the same time, it perfectly exposes what the case was all about: not protecting Jones' reputation, but punishing someone who had dared to criticise him, and deterring others from doing the same. This rich pompous asshat dragged ...
As I've done for the past few years, I'm curating and presenting The Listening Lounge, the talk programme at Splore. On the morning of Saturday the 22nd at the Living Lounge stage, the korero goes like this.Yes, we're talking about drugs again, not just because I'm professionally interested in drug ...
What Were They Thinking? RNZ's CEO Paul Thompson (left) and Jim Mather, Chairman of the RNZ Board of Governors, attempt to justify the debacle arising out of their attempt to downgrade RNZ Concert to the Economic Development, Science and Innovation Select Committee at Parliament on Thursday, 13 February 2020.WHAT IS ...
Dame Tariana Turia with former PM John KeyWhat is it about Tariana Turia’s grudge against the Labour Party? Not content with attacking the Government over Whānau Ora funding, which was increased by $80 million in 2019, she has now made it personal by saying that Jacinda Ardern is out of her ...
Back in 2017, right after being elected, Jacinda Ardern promised that there would be no new mines on conservation land. Since then, her government has done nothing to make that happen, and now the policy has been officially "parked" for the election:West Coast-Tasman MP Damien O'Connor says the "no new ...
So the guy who advocated for public burning and beheading feels offended because someone called him a racist!Perhaps Bob Jones hasn't heard of the very old saying; Live by the sword, die by the sword?I mean for someone who often writes opinionated nonsense about Maori; this is a ridiculous case ...
The government today announced a major support package aimed at reducing homelessness. A thousand new transitional housing places, more support for people to find homes (or not lose them in the first place), all good stuff. The one problem with it is that they're going to start charging people in ...
Courtroom Drama: There is no off-switch in a courtroom. Neither is it possible to turn the page in disgust. Ill-formed and ill-defended opinions will be exposed ruthlessly and unapologetically. As Shakespeare put it: “Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit, and lost without deserving.” Sometimes the ...
As of today, the novel coronavirus spreading in China is called COVID-19. Why does it matter? Around the office, we’ve had several conversations over the past few weeks about how 2019-nCoV needed its own name. First, it was getting annoying calling it by the above designation, and ‘novel coronavirus’ doesn’t ...
by Philip Ferguson Last month B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, reported: “In 2019, Israeli security forces killed 133 Palestinians, including 28 minors. Of the casualties, 104 were killed in the Gaza Strip, 26 in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and three within ...
A ballot for a single Member's Bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Arms (Firearms Prohibition Orders) Amendment Bill (No 2) (Brett Hudson)Its basicly more "tough on crime" nonsense (its already illegal for unlicensed people to own guns) designed to wedge NZ First against its arsehole base. ...
In 2015 the world agreed to the Paris Agreement to fight climate change. Each country would offer a Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) "that it intends to achieve", and "pursue domestic mitigation measures, with the aim of achieving [it]". And every five years, they'd improve on it, ratcheting up ambition until ...
In theory, the emissions trading scheme should reduce emissions. Making polluters pay for permits to pollute lets them save money by reducing pollution, giving them a financial incentive to do the right thing. But right from the start the ETS was broken with a system of free allocation, so polluters ...
Irish voters went to the polls on Saturday in parliamentary elections, and perhaps delivered a political revolution. Since independence, Irish politics has been dominated by two parties, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. Basicly patronage networks with indistinguishable policies, their cleavage isn't ideology, but who killed whose father or grandfather in ...
Once again the Aotearoa Bike Challenge is on us, and once again I’m participating. In principle this is not hard because it does not represent a significant switch in behavior for me. I already bike nearly every day. The Bicycle The fascinating thing about cycling is the realisation that this ...
Lately there has been a great deal of misinformation regarding the origins and purpose of Skeptical Science. As John Cook wrote nearly a decade ago, Skeptical Science is primarily a website that debunks climate misinformation with peer-reviewed science. Despite the ever-worsening impacts from climate change, with record after record being broken in ...
Under Attack: By sacking not only RNZ Concert’s presenters, but also its producers and librarians, and reducing the station to an automated purveyor of classical music in-between parliamentary broadcasts, RNZ’s CEO, Paul Thompson, wasn’t simply announcing an operational shake-up, he was declaring war on one of the most important guardians of ...
Story of the Week... Editorial of the Week... Toon of the Week... Quote of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Reviews... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week... Story of the Week... Australian smoke plume sets recordsThe recent wildfires in Australia sent one of ...
The Global Protest to #FightInequality was powerful – thankyou and what next? Dear allies, We started the decade with a huge protest to #FightInequality that was heard around the world, including the 1% at Davos. Watch and share the highlights on facebook and twitter. A huge thank you. Together we ...
The Ministry of Health have announced a package that might ensure NZ will never experience another measles epidemic. While at the time of writing the details are still limited it appears that the important limitations in our current programme have been acknowledged and the intent is to address them. Great ...
Prof Nick Wilson, Prof Michael BakerIn this blog we briefly summarise our assessment of the highly uncertain new coronavirus threat. Given its potential to become a severe and prolonged global pandemic, a precautionary response now means activating all components of our pandemic plan, with a particular focus on ‘keep ...
When Labour was running for election, Jacinda Ardern famously said that climate change was "my generation's nuclear free moment". The implication was that her government would take the problem seriously, and act swiftly to reduce emissions. The reality:New Zealand will emit a million more tonnes of greenhouse gases in 2020 ...
James Renwick is Professor of Physical Geography at Victoria University of Wellington. He studied at Canterbury and the University of Washington and has worked on diverse aspects of climate science, including global atmospheric circulation and Antarctic sea ice. In December 2019 he was appointed to the New Zealand Climate Change ...
by Philip Ferguson Exit polls are showing a three-way virtual tie between the main parties in the south of Ireland. Sinn Fein, Fianna Fail and Fine Gael are all on just over 22%. FG on 22.4, SF on 22.3, FF on 22.2. Exit polls indicate that over 30% of 18-24 ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Feb 2, 2020 through Sat, Feb 8, 2020 Editor's Pick New Report Details How Fossil Fuel Industry's Climate Destruction Also Exacerbates Human Rights Abuses"Even in the face of the ...
In a previous post I described briefly when and how the Starlink satellite chains – recent launches by Space-X in a scheme to bring 5G internet connectivity to the whole globe – could be seen from New Zealand with the naked eye. Here I provide an update and predictions for ...
Keeping The Faith: This Government’s broad, new, heavily moderated, progressive faith does not require a prime minister with the powers of a medieval pope. Jacinda’s regime has no need of subterranean torture chambers to ensure compliance. A gift for diplomacy and the ability to inspire her fellow human-beings is all ...
Jonathan Freedland of the Guardian has penned a column which chastises the left wing of the Labour party for daring to retain principles and ideals, qualities - it seems - that should be jettisoned in pursuit of power.Never mind that Freedland was an ardent Remainer, that is to say, one ...
Tonight’s news suggests the coronavirus outbreak may have originated from pangolins. Details are very sketchy, almost nothing at all beyond a claim of high similarity. My impression is this claim comes from a press release by South China Agricultural University. Initial discussion online suggests this is a more likely candidate ...
by Susanne Kemp The Fire and Emergency service (FENZ) has recently asked firefighters in Auckland Areas 3, 4 and 5 to take on an additional duty that has rather ominous implications. Namely, to collect names and addresses of everyone on the premises of fires they attend. The firefighters’ union, the ...
Part of the story of the Nazis' rise to power in Germany was the willingness of mainstream right-wing parties to work with them to keep out the left. Because of this, one of the fundamental rules of postwar German politics has been "do not work with Nazis". As a result, ...
There has long been a truism in public broadcasting: don't mess with Concert FM. The theory was that although the station has been in a long-term audience decline, and that audience is steadily ageing out, it has powerful establishment support – and any threat to it would provoke a fury.As ...
This is a re-post from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists The heat absorbed in Earth’s oceans reached a new record in 2019, found a recent study published in the journal Advances in Atmospheric Sciences. Despite the fact that this has been the case for almost every year over the past decade, this information ...
We are confronted with the spectre of Simon Bridges making clear he cannot, will not, trust Winston Peters – the oft-cited “King Maker” in New Zealand politics.Supporters are lauding it as a master stroke, naturally, because in their eyes, it prevents him being the tail that wags the dog. ...
by Don Franks Under a government claiming empathy with the fine arts, Radio New Zealand ( RNZ) is poised to cut back its classical music station, RNZ Concert. The plan is replacing it on FM radio with music “for a younger audience” as part of a new multimedia music brand. ...
More Thwaites This past week we heard disturbing news about Antarctica's Thwaites Glacier. Helping to fill in the longer term history of Thwaites' behavior and especially helpful in interpreting results of the recent drilling project and what it may say about the future of this unstable mass of ice is Revealing the ...
Inaccuracies are very common in scientific paper abstracts. Image credit:Science in the Abstract: Don’t Judge a Study by its Cover I have come to accept anti-fluoride campaigners will never stop cherry-picking research and findings ...
“The scene is set, the players met…”. And what players they are in this farce of an Election coming up in the United States this year. There is a multi-faceted anger in the broader situation the world finds itself in, in which the false promises of so-called “moderates” find themselves ...
A few years ago, a company lowballed a contract to dispose of toxic waste from the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter. So, they dumped it in a disused paper mill in Mataura, then went into liquidation - effectively dumping the problem on local councils. The waste is dangerous - it releases ...
Unhappy with the demonisation of Iran in Western media, I was fortunate to have the Australian Institute of International Affairs invite me to write an alternative analysis for their on-line journal Australian Outlook. I did, and they serialised it into two parts. The essays are short, so I did not ...
Over on The Good Society, Max Rashbrooke suggests that its time to start directly taxing wealth:A wealth tax would be levied on net wealth – that is, the value of people’s assets once their debts have been subtracted. Such a tax would be highly redistributive. Levied at 1% on wealth ...
The quarterly labour market statistics have been released, and unemployment has dropped to 4%. There are now 111,000 unemployed - 15,000 fewer than when Labour took office. Its not the performance we had under Clark (when unemployment was ~3.3%), but its still a reasonable improvement over prevailing conditions under National. ...
Prof Michael Baker, Prof Nick Wilson, Louise Delany, Prof Richard Edwards, Prof Philippa Howden-ChapmanThe current national measles epidemic in New Zealand is amongst the largest we have experienced in the last 40 years. It can be linked to the problems created by long-term erosion and fragmentation of national public health ...
I’m about to start teaching science communication to tertiary students, which is equally hilarious and terrifying to me. (Hi to my students who have Googled me and found this post.) I loved English at high school, but we spent most of our time reading The Outsiders, discussing the differences between metaphors and ...
Space-X has started launching its Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit with a plan to use some tens of thousands of these to deliver 5G wifi to the whole globe. Chains of these satellites can be seen in the evening or before-dawn skies, through the sunlight they scatter. Here I provide ...
New Zealand was the first country to decriminalise prostitution and it was promoted as a progressive move. Yet survivors of the sex trade say that pimps and johns are emboldened operating within the law, and that the women are treated more like a piece of property to be used and ...
An obscene 12 percent pay jump for already overpaid CEOs last year reveals a willful ignorance from much of corporate New Zealand to the on-going harm inequality is causing the very society they live in, said Peter Malcolm, spokesperson for the income equality project Closing the Gap. In its annual ...
One thing I remember about the interview I did with Rex Halliday for Planet magazine in 1992 was a couple of times being on the verge of tears.Rex was reflecting on the community effort that went into the second Hero party at the old Princes Wharf building – and the ...
Something you don't see: Malawi's constitutional court has annulled fraudulent elections and ordered new ones:Judges in Malawi have annulled last year’s elections and called for a new ballot within 150 days. In a landmark judgment that experts hailed as a step forward for democracy, the country’s constitutional court found that ...
Our Scibloggers have been providing updates on the ongoing coronavirus outbreak. This page will be updated as more posts are published. 3 February 2020 Coronavirus ‘infodemic’ The WHO has called the coronavirus outbreak an ‘infodemic’, with information spreading rapidly – and sometimes incorrectly – online. Sarah-Jane O’ConnorLately, in Science 2 ...
Darroch Ball, Spokesperson for Law and Order New Zealand First welcomes the deployment of an Eagle Police helicopter in Christchurch in what is a step towards fulfilling its long-standing goal to increase the use of police helicopters for the front line, particularly in addressing the scourge of fleeing drivers. Christchurch leads ...
It may have been the first sitting week of 2020, but our Government is already in full-swing - managing a strong economy, investing in infrastructure, and working to break the cycle of homelessness. Read below for all that, and more... ...
In a heated debate in Parliament, National's Deputy Leader Paula Bennett claimed that “nearly 1600 patched gang members have been added” since the Coalition Government took power. To illustrate her point, she altered a chart used by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to show her government’s progress in housing to instead ...
Speech by the Rt Hon Winston Peters at Parliament’s Opening 2020 "We all need insurance" This year New Zealanders are going to have a clear choice to make That choice is between: Optimism versus pessimism; More progress versus back to the future; Investment versus divestment; Unity versus division. New Zealand ...
Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones has slammed the Board of Auckland Airport following the airport's runway closing twice within two weeks due to maintenance. Around 2,000 passengers were affected by last week’s runway closures, according to 1NEWS. Another maintenance closure on January 24 saw two international flights and three domestic flights ...
Jenny Marcroft, Spokesperson for Broadcasting New Zealand First supports the commissioning of a business case to assess the viability of a new public media entity. “A strong media environment is critical for a healthy democracy. New Zealand First is a strong supporter of a diverse, independent media,” New Zealand First broadcasting spokesperson ...
Pounamou and technology industries in the West Coast region are set to receive more than $2 million in Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) funding. This was announced by the Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau during Waitangi Day commemorations in Hokitika. He said $800,000 would be given to Development West ...
Clayton Mitchell MP, New Zealand First spokesperson for Labour and Industrial Relations Unemployment and wage growth numbers released by Stats NZ today demonstrate a labour market in good shape with unemployment falling to 4.0%, the underutilisation rate falling to an 11 year low, and wage growth at a 10-year high ...
Hon. Ron Mark, New Zealand First Spokesperson for Defence New Zealand First Spokesperson for Defence Ron Mark, welcomes the official opening of Te Rau Aroha, a new museum at Waitangi Treaty Grounds as part of our Coalition Agreement. “It is a great honour to be part of an effective Government ...
Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, Deputy Prime MinisterGood morning,Let us start with important acknowledgements.First, this special day, in remembrance of the 28th Maori Battalion, is also to honour all those men and women who have risked their lives in the service of our country.Second, special guest Robert ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters says New Zealand will look to build on its relationship with the United Kingdom and recommit to the European Union, after the country officially left the continental union recently. The Minister said New Zealand already cooperates closely with Britain on defence and security issues and has ...
Today, our Government announced the biggest infrastructure investment in a generation.We’re investing $12 billion to upgrade and build rail, roads, schools and hospitals across the country – modernising our infrastructure, preparing for climate change and helping to future-proof our economy.Find out everything you need to know about the ...
Today the Government is making progress on a fairer and more secure rental market for renters and landlords with the introduction of the Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill in Parliament. “This Bill includes a series of reforms to improve the wellbeing of the 609,700 households that live in rented homes, and ...
A Government programme to wipe out pea weevil has achieved a world first, with Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor today announcing the successful eradication of the noxious pest from Wairarapa. This means the nearly four-year ban on pea plants and pea straw was lifted today. Commercial and home gardeners can again grow ...
Southland residents hit by flooding caused by heavy rainfall can now access help finding temporary accommodation with the Government activating the Temporary Accommodation Service, Minister of Civil Defence Peeni Henare announced today. “The Temporary Accommodation Service (TAS) has been activated by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment to help ...
“Is that it?” That’s Finance Minister Grant Robertson’s response to Simon Bridges’ much-hyped economic speech today. “Simon Bridges just gave the most over-hyped and under-delivered speech that I can remember during my time in politics,” Grant Robertson said. “It’s not surprising. Simon Bridges literally said on the radio this morning ...
A trial deployment of the Police Eagle helicopter in Christchurch will test whether the aircraft would make a significant difference to crime prevention and community safety. “The Bell 429 helicopter will be based in Christchurch for five weeks, from 17 February to 20 March,” said Police Minister Stuart Nash. “The ...
The Government has kept up the pace of its work to promote New Zealand’s trade interests and diversify our export markets, with visits to Fiji and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) by Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker. Building momentum to bring the PACER Plus trade and development agreement ...
The Coalition Government’s investment in a strong border and disrupting transnational organised crime produced record results for stopping drugs in 2019, says Minister of Customs Jenny Salesa. The illegal drugs were seized at the New Zealand border by Customs, and overseas by Customs’ international border partners before the drugs could ...
Transport Minister Phil Twyford today kicked off construction of a separated cycleway alongside Tamaki Drive. A two-way separated cycleway will be built along the northern side of Tamaki Drive, between the Quay Street Cycleway extension and Ngapipi Road. There will be a separate walking path alongside. Phil Twyford said giving ...
Owner-occupiers of unit and apartments living in earthquake-prone buildings will have certainty about the financial support they’ll be eligible for with the release of criteria for an upcoming assistance scheme, Minister for Building and Construction Jenny Salesa says. The Residential Earthquake-Prone Building Financial Assistance Scheme will help unit owners facing ...
Temporary restrictions on travel from China will remain in place as a precautionary measure to protect against the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus. The restrictions which prevent foreign nationals travelling from, or transiting through, mainland China from entering New Zealand have been extended for a further 8 days. This position ...
Employment Minister Willie Jackson announced today that Tairāwhiti rangatahi will benefit from an investment made by the Government’s He Poutama Rangatahi (HPR) scheme. The funding will go to the Tautua Village, Kauneke programme and the Matapuna Supported Employment Programme which will fund 120 rangatahi over two years. “Both programmes work ...
All parents and caregivers need to ensure that their children go to school unless they are sick, Associate Education Minister Tracey Martin said today. “The school attendance results for 2019 show, across the board, a drop in the number of students going to school regularly,” the Minister says. “Apart from ...
A Deed of Settlement agreeing redress for historical Treaty claims has been signed by the Crown and Moriori at Kōpinga Marae on Rēkohu (Chatham Islands) today, Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Andrew Little has announced. Moriori have a tradition of peace that extends back over 600 years. This settlement ...
Transport Minister Phil Twyford today with Māori King Tuheitia Pōtatau Te Wherowhero VII officially opened the country’s newest road, the $384 million Huntly section of the Waikato Expressway. The 15km four-lane highway with side and central safety barriers takes State Highway 1 east of Huntly town, across lowlands and streams ...
The rapid uptake of life-saving new hepatitis C medicine Maviret since it was funded by PHARMAC a year ago means the elimination of the deadly disease from this country is a realistic goal, Health Minister David Clark says. Hepatitis C is a blood-borne virus which attacks the liver, proving fatal ...
Kaupapa Māori will underpin the Government’s new plan to deal with homelessness announced by the Prime Minister in Auckland this morning. “Māori are massively overrepresented among people experiencing homelessness, so, to achieve different outcomes for Māori, we have to do things very differently,” says the Minister of Māori Development ...
1000 new transitional housing places delivered by end of year to reduce demand for emergency motel accommodation. Introduce 25% of income payment, after 7 days, for those in emergency motel accommodation to bring in line with other forms of accommodation support. Over $70m extra to programmes that prevents those at ...
Clear requirements for ensuring customers are treated fairly by banks, insurers and other financial service providers are included in new financial conduct legislation that passed its first reading today. “The recent reviews, by the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) and Reserve Bank of New Zealand, into the conduct of banks and ...
Applications are now open for the fifth round of the Regional Culture and Heritage Fund Associate Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Grant Robertson announced today. “I am delighted to open this year’s fund which has some $7 million available to support performing arts venues, galleries, museums and whare ...
The Minister of Māori Development, Hon Nanaia Mahuta today congratulated Associate Professor Amokura Kawharu on her appointment as the next President of the Law Commission. “Amokura Kawharu will be a standout in her new role, leading in an innovative and forward looking approach to the law reform process. She will ...
Auckland University legal academic Amokura Kawharu has been appointed as the next President of the Law Commission, Justice Minister Andrew Little announced today. Associate Professor Kawharu will take up her new appointment on 11 May 2020. “I would like to congratulate Associate Professor Kawharu on her appointment,” Andrew ...
A programme for employers to help them engage effectively with younger employees was launched today by Minister of Employment, Willie Jackson. The Youth Ready Employer Programme contains a range of on-line templates that employers can easily access to help with employing and retaining young people in their businesses. The programme ...
Budget 2020 will be delivered on Thursday 14 May, Finance Minister Grant Robertson announced today. “This year’s Budget will continue the Coalition Government’s focus on tackling the long-term challenges facing New Zealand while also preparing the economy for the future. “Those challenges and opportunities cannot be resolved in one budget, ...
I move, That this House place on record its appreciation and thanks for the devoted and distinguished service to New Zealand by the late Rt Hon Michael Kenneth Moore, member of the Order of New Zealand, a member of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, an Honorary Member of the ...
Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor has today classified the drought conditions in Northland as an adverse event for the primary sector, unlocking $80,000 in Government support. “This is recognition that the extreme and prolonged nature of this dry spell is taking its toll on our farmers and growers and additional support ...
The Minister of Police says an operation to smash a trans national drug smuggling ring today will make a significant impact on the methamphetamine trade fuelling harm in our communities. Police have announced 10 arrests and the seizure of up to five million dollars’ worth of illicit drugs after an ...
The Government’s books are in a strong position to withstand global headwinds, with the accounts in surplus and expenses close to forecast, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. The Treasury today released the Crown accounts for the six months to December. The operating balance before gains and losses (OBEGAL) was above ...
Race courses can improve safety with this year’s second round of funding from the Racing Safety Development Fund. Minister for Racing Winston Peters has announced the second funding round of 2019/20 is open with $347,875 available for distribution. “The racing industry is integral to the economic and social fabric of ...
The Government is committing $300,000 to fund research to update behavioural information to make sure HIV and STI prevention services are targeted appropriately in New Zealand. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Finance Minister Grant Robertson made the announcement at today’s Big Gay Out in Auckland. “There is much talk about ...
The Minister of Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media has announced work will begin on a business case to assess the viability of forming a new public media entity. “The Government must ensure New Zealanders have a strong independent public media service for decades to come, which means ensuring public ...
Minister of Civil Defence Hon Peeni Henare announced today that the Government will contribute $100,000 to the Southland regional Mayoral Relief Fund, to support communities impacted by the recent flooding in Southland. Mr Henare says this week’s flooding has caused significant disruption to communities in the lower South Island. ...
Heritage buildings throughout New Zealand will benefit from the $1.1 million in Heritage EQUIP funding grants announced today. “These grants for seismic strengthening projects help private building owners get the advice they need to start building work or to get the work completed,” Grant Robertson says. “Timaru’s Grosvenor Hotel has ...
A new survey has found New Zealand’s game development sector has grown beyond expectations and is on track to becoming a billion dollar industry in 2025, Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford says. “New Zealand’s interactive media sector grew by 42 per cent in last financial year to $203.4 million, according ...
Te Tii, the lower marae at Waitangi, is among more than 70 marae now connected to broadband internet thanks to the Provincial Growth Fund’s marae connectivity scheme, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones said today. In February 2019, the Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) allocated $21 million to connect rural towns ...
The West Coast has had a funding injection of over $1.2 million from the Provincial Growth Fund, Under Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau announced at Waitangi Day commemorations in Hokitika today. The PGF projects announced are: $800,000 to Development West Coast for a Grey District Regional Digital Hub ...
Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor has declared an adverse event for the Southland and Otago regions, unlocking Government support for farmers and growers. “Widespread flooding has resulted in severe disruption, with many people evacuated from their homes and many farms being affected by flood waters. It’s putting pressure on our farmers, ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced a funeral service for former Labour Prime Minister the Rt Hon Mike Moore, ONZ, AO. A public service will be held on Friday 14 February at 2pm at Dilworth School senior campus, 2 Erin Street, Epsom, Auckland. “The service will be a celebration of ...
Today’s news of low unemployment, rising wages and record numbers of Maori in work shows the economy is in good shape and that the Government is delivering better outcomes across New Zealand. “The Coalition Government has overseen a strong economy. Our investments in infrastructure, our focus on lifting wages of ...
Opening of Waitangi Museum Te Rau Aroha 9.30am, 5 February 2020 [CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY] Good morning, Let us start with important acknowledgements. First, this special day, in remembrance of the 28th Maori Battalion, is also to honour all those men and women who have risked their lives in the service ...
The government has agreed to help crayfish exporters to minimise the impact of trade disruptions caused by the coronavirus outbreak in China. Between 150 and 180 tonnes of live rock lobster are currently held in New Zealand in pots and tanks, at sea and on land, after export orders were ...
Simon Bridges says National would cut taxes and invest much more than Labour in infrastructure, and with less waste. But he's holding back the detail, and got a key figure wrong. ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Creative accounting around the ETS explored, Ardern goes to ground on Peters, and ACT criticised for keeping donation from extremist.Often when reporting on technical and thorny pieces of legislation, it helps to have a specialist reporter looking into it. Stuff’s Charlie Mitchell ...
Planners and hazard experts talk to Newsroom’s Eloise Gibson about how climate change will impact Auckland, and how good planning can help the city adapt. ...
No matter how you measure it, science remains systematically biased against women – and ethnically diverse women even more so, writes Dr Hinemoa Elder.Women and girls in science, this is a public health announcement. You are entering unfriendly territory.Kia mataara, be vigilant. Keep your wits about you.There is irrefutable data ...
When it signed onto the Paris Climate Agreement, New Zealand pledged to increase its net greenhouse gas emissions by 10% across the 25 years to 2030. The latest government report shows with current policy settings it is on track to increase them by more than 20%. The challenge is acute ...
How are the children and grandchildren of Asian immigrants treading the line between immersion in a kiwi culture, and holding on to family traditions? ...
The $11 million tourism package announced after today’s Cabinet is a positive response. Auckland Business Chamber head Michael Barnett said possibly more important in the Prime Minister’s announcement was that further support was possible, as ...
By Joenner Paulo L. Enriquez and Ma. Alena O. Castillo in Manila Thomasian Jesuit priests Fr Albert Alejo and Fr Flaviano Villanueva have posted P10,000 (NZ$310) bail each after a judge issued a warrant of arrest in connection with their sedition case. “Nag-piyansa na kami Fr Flavie at sumama ...
Labour and NZ First are delaying a painful call on either lifting or cutting the annual residency visa limit, while the Greens want the limits removed completely. ...
Tame Impala’s new album The Slow Rush dropped over the weekend to universal acclaim. Jordan Hamel talked to the band’s frontman, Kevin Parker, about the five year gap between albums, and where the band fits into riock music in 2020.Kevin Parker’s musical baby Tame Impala steadily rose to indie prominence in the ...
Dr Bryce Edwards.NZ First is facing the boot at this year’s election, especially as it’s now embroiled in an unfolding donations scandal, which comes on top of low poll ratings. But what effect will the scandal have on NZ First’s government coalition colleagues? And is Labour and the Greens’ ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Jones, Climate Scientist, Australian Bureau of Meteorology After the intensely dry conditions of 2019, January and February have brought much-needed rain. Dams in many cities and towns were replenished and some farmers may be able to grow a crop for the ...
New Zealand’s trusted service for ageing well, Age Concern New Zealand, is receiving a New Year boost after inking an agreement with Perpetual Guardian to have the nation’s largest and most dominant trustee services company as the platinum sponsor of Age ...
The boundaries of free speech were at issue in two recent court cases, one in Britain, the other in New Zealand. In the British case, a judge ruled that the police response to an ex-officer’s tweets (allegedly transphobic) was a “disproportionate interference” with his right to freedom of expression. The ...
The Tauranga-based power company Trustpower has cut its earnings expectations by as much as 14 percent because of lower power prices and pressure on margins. ...
It’s not worth putting much credence in Simon Bridges’s complaints about the current Government’s piling on hikes in petrol taxes until he commits to reversing them, says the Taxpayers’ Union . Spokesman Louis Houlbrooke said, “It’s not ...
Researchers say councils need to be doing much more to ensure homes and buildings aren't wiped out when a mega-tsunami eventually strikes the east coast of the North Island. ...
Water utilities right across the country face major challenges to upgrade and maintain their underground three waters network. Water New Zealand’s Technical Manager, Noel Roberts says Wellington’s waste water woes are not unique to the capital city. ...
With more than a thousand locations in 250 cities worldwide, UK company Stasher is allowing travellers to store their luggage while offering local businesses a way to earn extra cash. Having recently launched in New Zealand, co-founder and CEO Jacob Wedderburn-Day explains how the business works. How did Stasher start and ...
National's deputy leader Paula Bennett says if Winston Peters had any involvement in covert photographs of journalists meeting a source, he is not fit to be deputy prime minister. ...
ALRANZ Abortion Rights Aotearoa is co-sponsoring a National Day of Action – Our Bodies, Our Choices, with Fem Force, Victoria University Feminists Organisation, NCW, and HELP. “Now is the time for people who care about women and pregnant people ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s contentPolitical donations Danyl Mclauchlan (Spinoff): The donations mess reveals a vacuum in our political system. Who will fill it? ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Robinson, Lecturer, Department of Occupational Therapy, Monash University When people think about Australian Rules Football injuries, they tend to think about head injuries and the long-term effects of concussion. Or they might think of the potentially lengthy recoveries after hamstring, shoulder ...
Simon Bridges reckons those on the average wage shouldn’t be hit by a 33-cents-in-the-dollar tax. And they’re not. Not even close. Alex Braae explains. It takes an incredible political talent to announce that you disagree with a policy setting, and have that critique be so powerful that it retroactively becomes government ...
Sam Brooks heads along to Meatstock 2020, and finds himself questioning the symbiotic relationship between meat-eating and machismo.As I entered Auckland’s ASB Showgrounds for the first day of Meatstock 2020, a girl was exiting. Trucker cap on, eyes hidden behind aviators, manicured fingers wrapped around a can, itself wrapped in ...
Today’s launch of the Ngati Porou treaty settlement documentary is significant for the iwi and for all New Zealanders as we further our understanding of the journey to Te Tiriti o Waitangi settlements, Bernadette Cavanagh CE Manatū Taonga Ministry ...
Why don’t Western democratic governments typically regulate the porn industry, internet service providers (ISPs) or other internet services who make pornographic content accessible to children? And how is a change in the idea of what it means ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is calling on the Ministry of Health to demand back the $319,000 of taxpayers spent on a flawed study suggesting a weekly lotto ticket is as harmful as an amputated leg and that occasional gambling is comparable to having a heart ...
Across the prime minister’s Monday morning broadcast interviews, there was one overwhelming theme: the behaviour of NZ First and Winston Peters, who happens also to be the deputy prime minister.With turmoil engulfing government coalition partner NZ First and deputy PM Winston Peters, the logical next person to ask for a ...
By Michael Norris in Wellington After a week-long controversy, New Zealand’s public broadcaster Radio New Zealand (RNZ) has withdrawn a proposal to axe its classical music station RNZ Concert. But despite the sudden backtrack, RNZ Concert isn’t safe yet. Whatever the final outcome of RNZ’s rethink, it is clear ...
“The Government’s current dispute with councils regarding the Urban Development Bill is the result of Phil Twyford’s failure to cut red tape on a broader basis,” says New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke. “In Opposition, ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says the New Zealand First Foundation - which faces investigation from the SFO - has nothing to do with her or Winston Peters' role in her Cabinet. ...
The Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has been speaking with her Australian counterpart about options to evacuate New Zealanders stuck on a cruise ship, quarantined in Japan. ...
Government seeks power to seize reins over electricity industry; and property investors to blame for NZ's high house prices, not lack of supply, researcher says. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bénédicte Cenki-Tok, Associate professor at Montpellier University, EU H2020 MSCA visiting researcher, University of Sydney As the world shifts away from fossil fuels, we will need to produce enormous numbers of wind turbines, solar panels, electric vehicles and batteries. Demand for the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Chris Salisbury, Research Associate, School of Political Science & International Studies, The University of Queensland With cries of “Quexit!” still echoing faintly in our ears, Queenslanders head towards a state election in October. For many, interest lies in whether federal Labor’s poor ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Susanne Becken, Professor of Sustainable Tourism and Director, Griffith Institute for Tourism, Griffith University If you’re a traveller who cares about reducing your carbon footprint, are some airlines better to fly with than others? Several of the world’s major airlines have announced ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Pi-Shen Seet, Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Edith Cowan University Every year, the Australian Taxation Office releases a report that includes the highest earning occupations in Australia. These are mostly in the medical, legal and financial sectors. This information is commonly used ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hal Pawson, Professor of Housing Research and Policy, and Associate Director, City Futures Research Centre, UNSW Despite two years of housing market cooling in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia stayed near the top of the global unaffordability league in 2019. And with prices ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Diane Kraal, Senior Lecturer, Business Law and Taxation Dept, Monash Business School, Monash University So worried is the government about the meagre income it is getting from gas during the middle of Australia’s biggest gas export boom that it asked an independent ...
NZ's effective policy of tempting guest workers here with the chance of permanent residency and then quietly withdrawing that chance has become a damaging economic addiction that is mean and fraudulent, Bernard Hickey argues. ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Bridges gives signal of tax cuts, police under pressure over family violence problem, and condemnation rains down over Peters scandal.Expect plenty of news today about National’s economic manifesto to take into the next election. From Simon Bridges’ appearance on Q+A yesterday (welcome back ...
A "surreptitious" conspiracy to introduce special NZ gold kiwifruit plants into China could cost a Chinese-born local grower $15m for breaches of intellectual property laws. ...
Maia Wilson is being tipped as the next Maria Folau in the Silver Ferns shooting circle, but she wants to stamp her own unique footprint on netball history. ...
Dental decay is NZ's most common chronic disease, yet it is not covered by the health system. Cat McLennan explains why we should introduce free dental care for adults. ...
Winston Peters was once the one who could plausibly rail against the self-interest of the establishment. Today that seems laughable, So where are the real critics offering reform, asks Danyl Mclauchlan. Politics is messy. It’s chaotic; most things happen for complex combinations of reasons and these are not always obvious, ...
The conversation around how we prepare for coronavirus here needs to be guided by a sense of our common humanity, write Ruth Cunningham, Charlotte Paul, Andrew Moore, Ayesha Verrall of the University of Otago’s Department of Public Health.Borders have been closed, arrivals from Wuhan are in quarantine, and New Zealanders ...
Pretty much everything has a breaking point. The only questions are where, when and how. Might it be coming soon with climate change policy? This week there was disarray in the Australian Liberal and National party coalition over the costs of climate change policy. This was one of the issues ...
Ex-tropical cyclone Uesi is due to reach the west of the South Island this afternoon, bringing further pain to flood-hit Southland. Here’s what you need to know.Ex-tropical, you say. What on earth does that mean? A tropical cyclone, which is a low-pressure system that forms over warm waters in the tropics, ...
The Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand has confirmed anti-poverty campaigner Ricardo Menendez March as their candidate for Maungakiekie in this general election. Ricardo Menendez March has been working as the Coordinator for Auckland Action Against Poverty, ...
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today, a bunch of us have a hoon on Burger King’s new chip butty.The United Kingdom’s contributions to world cuisine, like its contributions to the world in general (Morris dancing, Piers Morgan, colonialism etc), are ...
Emily Writes reviews the now infamous orgasm episode of the even more infamous Netflix show The Goop Lab.It was four days after the fourth person asked me to review the orgasm episode of Netflix’s The Goop Lab that I finally sat down to watch it.I don’t like Gwyneth Paltrow but ...
Open Mike 06/10/2013 
(Oops slept in) Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step right up to the mike…
So the Serious Fraud Office has another secret $100,050 National Party donation before the Courts in a major scandal that looks set to quash any chances Simon Bridges had of winning the 2020 election.Yesterday, Newsroom reported:The Serious Fraud Office prosecution of four people over donations to the National Party involves ...3 hours ago
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Review... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Iceberg twice the size of Washington, D.C., breaks off Pine Island glacier in Antarctica Story Highlights: The Pine Island ...15 hours ago
Prof Philippa Howden-Chapman Housing policy is building up to be the key election issue again. In this blog I reflect on the importance of the role of the New Zealand Government in improving access to affordable housing. I look at what the Government has been doing to increase quality public housing ...16 hours ago
Writing on The Spinoff, Danyl Mclauchlan argues that we have a vacuum in our political system, in that there is no longer an anti-establishment party anymore:I think there’s a vacuum in our political system. There are obvious problems with the status quo but no real critics offering reform. It’s a ...17 hours ago
I am among the most pro-free speech people I know. I don’t doubt there are others more strident than me, but I’m certainly up there. And my support for freedom of expression isn’t limited to opposition to government-imposed restrictions. It extends to a belief that employers should have limited powers ...1 day ago
Sprung! Former NZ First president, Lester Gray, chats with RNZ's Guyon Espiner in the carpark of a Tauranga shopping centre. (Photo supplied anonymously to NZ First and The BFD.)IT’S CLEAR THAT an important aspect of Jacinda Ardern’s political success is her willingness to seek – and take – advice. This ...3 days ago
by Philip Ferguson Last month B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, reported: “In 2019, Israeli security forces killed 133 Palestinians, including 28 minors. Of the casualties, 104 were killed in the Gaza Strip, 26 in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and three within ...6 days ago
...1 week ago
Jonathan Freedland of the Guardian has penned a column which chastises the left wing of the Labour party for daring to retain principles and ideals, qualities - it seems - that should be jettisoned in pursuit of power.Never mind that Freedland was an ardent Remainer, that is to say, one ...1 week ago
We are confronted with the spectre of Simon Bridges making clear he cannot, will not, trust Winston Peters – the oft-cited “King Maker” in New Zealand politics. Supporters are lauding it as a master stroke, naturally, because in their eyes, it prevents him being the tail that wags the dog. ...2 weeks ago
Inaccuracies are very common in scientific paper abstracts. Image credit: Science in the Abstract: Don’t Judge a Study by its Cover I have come to accept anti-fluoride campaigners will never stop cherry-picking research and findings ... 2 weeks ago
“The scene is set, the players met…”. And what players they are in this farce of an Election coming up in the United States this year. There is a multi-faceted anger in the broader situation the world finds itself in, in which the false promises of so-called “moderates” find themselves ...2 weeks ago
Unhappy with the demonisation of Iran in Western media, I was fortunate to have the Australian Institute of International Affairs invite me to write an alternative analysis for their on-line journal Australian Outlook. I did, and they serialised it into two parts. The essays are short, so I did not ...2 weeks ago
New Zealand was the first country to decriminalise prostitution and it was promoted as a progressive move. Yet survivors of the sex trade say that pimps and johns are emboldened operating within the law, and that the women are treated more like a piece of property to be used and ...2 weeks ago
Darroch Ball, Spokesperson for Law and Order New Zealand First welcomes the deployment of an Eagle Police helicopter in Christchurch in what is a step towards fulfilling its long-standing goal to increase the use of police helicopters for the front line, particularly in addressing the scourge of fleeing drivers. Christchurch leads ...18 hours ago
It may have been the first sitting week of 2020, but our Government is already in full-swing - managing a strong economy, investing in infrastructure, and working to break the cycle of homelessness. Read below for all that, and more... ...4 days ago
Today the Government is making progress on a fairer and more secure rental market for renters and landlords with the introduction of the Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill in Parliament. “This Bill includes a series of reforms to improve the wellbeing of the 609,700 households that live in rented homes, and ...15 hours ago
Simon Bridges says National would cut taxes and invest much more than Labour in infrastructure, and with less waste. But he's holding back the detail, and got a key figure wrong. ...43 mins ago
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Creative accounting around the ETS explored, Ardern goes to ground on Peters, and ACT criticised for keeping donation from extremist.Often when reporting on technical and thorny pieces of legislation, it helps to have a specialist reporter looking into it. Stuff’s Charlie Mitchell ...1 hour ago
An intimate extract from New Zealand's biggest-selling book of non-fiction, The Casketeers, by funeral directors Francis and Kaiora Tipene. ...2 hours ago
An urban forest that's grown undisturbed for almost a century is up for sale and only one of the 46 native trees on the site has legal protection. ...3 hours ago
Planners and hazard experts talk to Newsroom’s Eloise Gibson about how climate change will impact Auckland, and how good planning can help the city adapt. ...3 hours ago
The University of Auckland is about to open in Manukau for up to 140 students in the university's first, standalone presence in the south. ...3 hours ago
Closing in on her fourth shot at an elusive Olympic medal, rower Emma Twigg says she's stronger than ever ...3 hours ago
How are the children and grandchildren of Asian immigrants treading the line between immersion in a kiwi culture, and holding on to family traditions? ...3 hours ago
Grant Robertson is challenging Simon Bridges to say which services a National government would scrap, in order to deliver tax cuts. ...12 hours ago
The $11 million tourism package announced after today’s Cabinet is a positive response. Auckland Business Chamber head Michael Barnett said possibly more important in the Prime Minister’s announcement was that further support was possible, as ...12 hours ago
By Joenner Paulo L. Enriquez and Ma. Alena O. Castillo in Manila Thomasian Jesuit priests Fr Albert Alejo and Fr Flaviano Villanueva have posted P10,000 (NZ$310) bail each after a judge issued a warrant of arrest in connection with their sedition case. “Nag-piyansa na kami Fr Flavie at sumama ...13 hours ago
Labour and NZ First are delaying a painful call on either lifting or cutting the annual residency visa limit, while the Greens want the limits removed completely. ...13 hours ago
Seaweed harvested or farmed off the coast of Stewart Island by a Kiwi company could prove the key to decreasing methane emissions from livestock. ...14 hours ago
The SFO prosecution of four people over donations to the National Party involves not one but two $100,000 donations - in June 2017 and June 2018. ...14 hours ago
RNZ's ploy was the equivalent of strapping Concert FM to a car’s front bumper and gunning the engine, and it seems to have worked. ...16 hours ago
The boundaries of free speech were at issue in two recent court cases, one in Britain, the other in New Zealand. In the British case, a judge ruled that the police response to an ex-officer’s tweets (allegedly transphobic) was a “disproportionate interference” with his right to freedom of expression. The ...16 hours ago
Airbnb is putting forward its own blueprint to regulate holiday rentals in New Zealand. ...17 hours ago
The Tauranga-based power company Trustpower has cut its earnings expectations by as much as 14 percent because of lower power prices and pressure on margins. ...17 hours ago
Researchers say councils need to be doing much more to ensure homes and buildings aren't wiped out when a mega-tsunami eventually strikes the east coast of the North Island. ...17 hours ago
The National Party will campaign on a tax cut package, but the leader Simon Bridges is not yet revealing any of the details. ...19 hours ago
A new tenant has been found to occupy the top two floors of what will be New Zealand's tallest commercial building. ...22 hours ago
The Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has been speaking with her Australian counterpart about options to evacuate New Zealanders stuck on a cruise ship, quarantined in Japan. ...24 hours ago
National leader Simon Bridges will today outline the party's economic goals and who will benefit most from the party's proposed tax cuts. ...24 hours ago
Government seeks power to seize reins over electricity industry; and property investors to blame for NZ's high house prices, not lack of supply, researcher says. ...24 hours ago
NZ's effective policy of tempting guest workers here with the chance of permanent residency and then quietly withdrawing that chance has become a damaging economic addiction that is mean and fraudulent, Bernard Hickey argues. ...1 day ago
A "surreptitious" conspiracy to introduce special NZ gold kiwifruit plants into China could cost a Chinese-born local grower $15m for breaches of intellectual property laws. ...1 day ago
Mary Macpherson looks at the way photographer MItchell Bright has documented the post-earthquake rebuild of Selwyn in Canterbury. ...1 day ago
A Conservation Department manager decided it wouldn’t submit on a water consent next to a scientific reserve ...1 day ago
Maia Wilson is being tipped as the next Maria Folau in the Silver Ferns shooting circle, but she wants to stamp her own unique footprint on netball history. ...1 day ago
Dental decay is NZ's most common chronic disease, yet it is not covered by the health system. Cat McLennan explains why we should introduce free dental care for adults. ...1 day ago
Efforts by the Chinese government to contain the coronavirus have an unlikely casualty: our tourist visa processing systems ...1 day ago
New Zealand has a massive e-waste problem, pushed along by rampant consumerism. ...1 day ago
Pretty much everything has a breaking point. The only questions are where, when and how. Might it be coming soon with climate change policy? This week there was disarray in the Australian Liberal and National party coalition over the costs of climate change policy. This was one of the issues ...1 day ago
“The Green Party launches clean energy proposals”
Good on Gareth Hughes.
The fight against climate change will be the defining struggle of this age.
It is great to see that the Green Party is talking about practical actions that, (hopefully) will turn us away from fossil fuels, to renewable energy use.
Distributed small scale electricity generation will be part of the mix.
But Gareth has gone even further, attacking the big fossil fuel suppliers at their source, and the government, who are conspiring with Solid Energy and the banks, to keep us hooked on fossil fuels for the foreseeable future, with a huge taxpayer subsidy for our country’s biggest coal company.
With these above statements Gareth and the Greens are well on the way to setting up climate change as a major defining election issue for the Greens, sharply differentiating themselves from both Labour and National, who both as well as having broad agreement on other issues of climate change, both support the bailout of Solid Energy, reinforceng and gauranteeing our iron bound addiction to fossil fuels at a time when we should be taking every opportunity to loosen its grip.
Jenny – you were proven yesterday to be a liar regarding Labour’s position and yet you still repeat the same hyperbole ad nauseum today?
One rule I work with is “Never trust an extremist” because they are never honest. Ever. No matter how “correct” the facts behind your argument may be (such as climate change being a real man made thing that’s going to impact over the next 100 years) you are completely misrepresenting the political situation in NZ in order to meet your other preconceptions.
OK Zorr. Giving you the benefit of the doubt.What in your opinion is the Labour Party position on the multimillion dollar bailout of Solid Energy?
Does Labour support the Bailout?
Does Labour oppose the Bailout?
IMO Labour will likely support Solid Energy’s continued existence, and retention as a full SOE. Not only are there many NZ jobs at stake, but also extensive technical and engineering knowledge plus a vital strategic energy source for the nation.
What’s your proposed alternative Jenny?
I am glad you asked CV. Thank you.
I have been trying to popularise for some, time now the scandal that is Rauauru Ma Raki.
1033 permanent jobs “blown away” in the renewable sector. What is remarkable about this project is that it is but a short commute from Huntly where many coal miners are losing their jobs.
“Heartbreak for Huntly East miners”
All that is needed to restart this project and give all these laid off workers good jobs according to Wind Energy CEO Eric Pyle is the “right policy settings”, which I imagine would cost little in comparison to the current huge $100 million plus, (and more to come), bail out of Solid Energy.
The Nacts may cry crocodile tears about jobs being lost. But we know they don’t care for working people. The Bailout of Solid Energy is a blatant a case of Corporate Welfare as you can get. Nothing else. As Gareth Hughes says the government should “cut their losses”. What we should be asking CV is why we are covering the losses of the foreign owned Aussie banks?
None of these jobs exist. They were future “potential jobs”. You are proposing getting rid of higher paid jobs for jobs which do not exist yet, would take several years to reach a full payroll of staff, and likely pay much less than mining jobs.
Who knows. Probably so they don’t take possession of the company and firesale it.
Bottom line is that your religious crusade is all about you Jenny, and very little else.
Jenny, why don’t you go to the effort of reading their press releases. Or even to just ask them? Find the shadow minister..
Whining here about something that you can almost certainly just look up simply makes you look lazy
lprent – in my mind it is not laziness on her part but rather an admission that she is what I stated she is, an extremist. She is looking for evidence that supports her own initial conclusions and ignoring anything else that may *potentially* undermine that.
Jenny – I don’t really know what Labour’s position on the matter of Solid Energy is and, at the moment, I only really have the extra energy to continue being pissed off at National. I come to The Standard because the level of intelligent coverage here outstrips all other available sources but I keep seeing your screeds of outraged bullshit popping up everywhere and it rankles.
It’s difficult to argue with you on the “climate change is bad and we should be doing something about it” because I agree, climate change *is* bad and we *should* do something about it. When it comes to communicate about that *something* though you manage to go jump in to the deep end and shout a giant “fuck you” to anyone who isn’t willing to dive right in next to you. By doing so you alienate anyone who doesn’t share your personal belief and this is no way to build broad support for your position.
Hence why I felt the need this morning to call you on your extremist bullshit.
In my opinion, feel free to continue to post your extremist rhetoric here. It reminds me why I chose to escape association with similar people and why I will continue to.
I’d agree. But really she could be an extremist that looked things up rather her current habit of simply making things up. It has gotten to the point that whenever I read her comments then I treat it exactly like I would for some poor troll coming from Whaleoil or No Minister… I assume it is wrong or quoted completely out of context.
Her habit of usually not leaving links to those she is accusing reinforces that. It implies that she hasn’t used search either on this site or on google to actually find out anything about what she is talking about. As importantly it makes it harder for people to find out if she is sprouting crap or not.
Basically she acts like a modern-day Joseph Goebbels who in Nazi Germany had the role of making inflammatory and inaccurate memes as minister of propaganda. He also had the role of destroying the ability of people to check the veracity of those memes by destroying books that contradicted those memes published as books, pamphlets, speeches, etc…
There are some quite strong extremists (in my view) on this site. But you have to give them credibility because they usually leave links and reasoned argument. They also respond to people disagreeing with them rather than Jenny’s current passion for flying into boring rants and lying about what they said…
I like Gareth, and I vote Green, but he is a bit off about what this deal does. the banks won’t be too happy about this at all.
The shares they are getting do not pay dividends, and can only be sold back to the crown at the price they paid for them, when and if the crown ever wants to buy them.
Basically SE has had a lot of debt to the banks written off, 350M has been paid off by the crown, and the rest of the debt will be recovered if and when the crown buys back those shares.
The alternative is winding the company up. That doesn’t mean the mines close. It means a receiver tries to get as much value as possible out of SE’s assets, (that would be the mines and licenses to mine), as they can in order to pay back as much of the debt as they can.
In other words, the mines would be sold.
Yes, great to see the moves by the Green Party on Solar Power, what such Regulation and Legislation will allow anyone with a mind to to become a power supplier the legal framework which will allow them to do so and presumably be able to sell the power generated at much the same rates as the present Electricity Cartel does,
From what the Green Party are saying it seems likely that those wishing to install solar power arrays will be able to, instead of having to also install very expensive battery systems, feed the power they generate straight into the retail system making such a system far more streamlined than what has presently been achieved,
In a Green future i can well see a large industry being built up around household solar arrays where the home-owner could add solar panels to their own system as they have spare funds to do so and where eventually households doing so would be supplying much of the countries daytime electricity needs,
It doesn’t take much to imagine the average workers solar paneling generating power by day into the grid while they are busy at work and thus creating enough credit for those doing so to have basically the free use of electricity while they are at home via the credits earned,
What is needed is work on a standardized design of such solar power systems with work being put into the efficacy of producing the whole systems here in New Zealand, which along with the installation and maintanence of will create clean green sustainable employment…
Solar thermal is still the best use of sun power at this stage. I do hope that more focus is placed on that technology before long.
Yeah you may have a point, but, just for arguments sake, say an investment in Solar Thermal of a billion dollars generates X amount of power, this is owned either by Government or private companies, (with the threat of privatization if Government owned), and such electricity is then sold to the consumer at a profit,
Consider then IF the same billion dollars spent on household solar generation arrays on the roof of average homes produced the same X of power which is then sold by the householder via a binding agreement at a fair set price to the retailer, given that there is room on the average houses roof for one hell of an array of solar paneling it would not be inconceivable that the average house could generate and sell enough electricity during the day to make a households electricity usage all up basically free,
i am tho fascinated by the thought of having some very big magnifying glasses able to track around with the sun being able to direct beans of light to ‘a boiler’, thus creating steam and thus creating usable energy in a number of forms…
Lolz, BeaMs of light, only i know about the magic ‘beans of light’ and i aint telling you all…
I reckon household solar thermal needs to be considered. For most house holds a power saving of 25%-40% would be very realistic.
Ah here i was thinking you was thinking on large scale solar thermal, your thinking of solar heating of the hot water needs of a house only???…
I wouldn’t preclude larger scale thermal plants, but I think that distributed installations for households, motels, hotels, schools, hospitals etc. would be (and in fact are) very workable.
For a typical household, a power bill saving of $50-$60 month would be quite significant.
Solar energy is so mainstream now..
http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/store/thurrock/solar_panels
Passive solar heating of houses is also possible reducing the need for heaters in winter.
And as expected very little costing information or any indication of how that energy is to be generated.
Hydro, sun, wind; the costs are very well understood as these are all established energy technologies in commercial use in NZ.
Yesterday I praised Gareth Hughes and the Green Party for coming out and and strongly condemning the bailout of Solid Energy.
I asked why, almost a week later, there had been no post on The Standard by any author about the criminal and immoral Bailout of Solid Energy. karol kindly took the time to reply saying that, they were working on it.
I also asked yesterday why Labour had not commented on the bail out.
Qot pointed out to me something that I had missed, that Clayton Cosgrove for the Labour Party had actually come out in support of the bailout. With a cryptic comment that “the deal announced on Tuesday was too little too late.”
So I can understand why the mysterious Standard poster is haveing trouble trying to finish their agonised philosophical wrestling over their “draft Solid Energy post”, before most likely, finally deciding to leave it in the too hard basket.
[lprent: good thing that karol saw it before me. I’d have simply banned you for a week for trying to tell us how we should be running the site. ]
Am I the only reader wondering how much carbon burning martyrs contribute to the atmosphere?
I dunno. But if you could harness energy from Jenny’s switching back and forth about who is selling out the planet, the problem could well be solved.
Almost certainly less than 15kg of carbon released, depending on how it is done. Sadly, I’ve just seen a notice that the man who self immolated in the US National Mall in Washington DC has died. Another milestone in the match of the plutocrats.
Jenny totally untrue.
The solid energy post is a post that I am working on but I need to understand the intricacies of the recent announcements and get these right before I finish it.
You should also understand that the Standard bloggers are a disparate diffuse group of people who have things like jobs and lives. Posts and contributions are a totally voluntary thing. For me I am also in the middle of a local body election campaign so posts will be made
And your original comment was that Labour has stayed silent on the issue and as shown by QoT you are totally incorrect.
But you must admit mj that there is some confusion around where Labour sit on this issue, as evidenced by Zorr at at 9:33 am.
Hopefully you will be able to clear this up for us.
[lprent: Get off your lazy bigoted and obviously stupid arse and look it up. FFS it isn’t hard – read the press releases, they stream in the Feeds every day.
If you *ever* use this type of line again on either Labour, the Greens or even National without doing some research yourself.
To encourage you in this endeavour, I will take a page out of your book and assume you are guilty unless it is clear in the first paragraph that you have searched. And I will impose a 12 week ban if you do not show evidence of having looked for what you are asking for from political parties before accusing them. Everyone is welcome to point out what she missed… ]
You must admit that you jump straight to conclusions, making declarative statements as fact, when they are not.
The question tho Jenny, is upon seeing the lack of Post’s by the Standards authors why did you not put in a ‘Guest Post’ if you were so concerned,
Yesterday’s little effort from you seemed to contain an attack upon the author’s for not having posted on your particular concern of the moment…
Your failure to just automatically make shit up and leap to extreme conclusions just shows you don’t really care about climate change 😉
So Jenny, the Labour Party did comment on the Solid Energy bailout, instead of posting even more bullshit here, an ”i was wrong with my assertion yesterday” would have been sufficient,
Perhaps you are a masochist and feel that when you do, after what seems huge effort on your part, get a spanking, you spend your time in purgatory nurturing along your view of having been ‘the victim’…
Posted yesterday… ” *Yes I did miss this. But that is not the same as being a “fucking liar” ”
I think Jenny is passionate about her cause and far less rude, abrasive, insulting and retarded as some commenters are in stating their positions.
I don’t see what she posts as a problem. Like anything (or anyone’s opinions) it can be ignored or dismissed without rancour or resorting to obscenities that make point scoring a hollow gesture.
I think you’re being incredibly charitable towards Jenny. She has had opportunity after opportunity to check her shit.
When she hated the Greens, it was daily postings on how “the Greens have been silent!!!!” and when she had multiple blog posts and press releases pointed out to her, her defence was “oh, well it’s not on the front page of their website”.
Now she hates Labour, so it’s daily postings on how “Labour have been silent!!!!!” and when multiple media statements are again pointed out to her, her defence is “well that’s not clear enough for me.”
The only reasonable conclusion for anyone to draw after this amount of time and a complete refusal to back up her statements is that Jenny is – and I’m so not ashamed to “resort to obscenties” – a fucking liar.
Amen to that. She said this:-
That was an outright lie and made me kind of annoyed, especially as it was part of the kind of rethorical accusorial waffle that seems to be all that she can maintain these days.
Sure I compared her to Gilchrist because the previous comment from Murray Olsen responding to one from Pascal’s bookie was about cops and police spies acting like her in movements. But my comment was hardly comparing her to Rob Gilchrist because I think that she is mostly just a bit of a extremist nutter. Unfortunately Rob never acted like that or he’d have never have had as much penetration into a variety of movements as he did.
My disagreement with Pascal’s bookie was that you had to always be wary of any extremist credulous fools who couldn’t credibly explain how they get from their ideological position to actually being able to implement some of it. You don’t need to use the “cop” to think that people acting that way are dangerous to the movement and to those around them.
This was rather signalled by my first paragraph quoting Murray
Basically like you, I just call people I consider to be misguided, unthinking, fools, idiots or liars just that with some reasons why. This allows others to make up their own minds.
Hell with QoT, I’ve even be known to do milder forms of it to her (and her to me – but of course i was *right* 😉 ). But I just disagree and I’m usually quite willing to explain why. It usually provokes some interesting discussion and much of the time falls into “agree to disagree”.
But Jenny these days mostly just accuses people who disagree with her of being some kind of traitor as she asks rhetorical questions and in my case lies about what I have previously said. Not a behaviour that I’m particularly tolerant on. And it is a pity that she doesn’t seem to have enough perspective to understand that people disagreeing with her is a good thing. It is when they don’t bother then she has lost her argument and audience.
Peace Out!
I tend to take accusations of being police or government agents personally and seriously. I was accused of being an SIS agent back in the 80s, before I understood the dynamic of much of the left and that this has been a historical tactic of the 3rd International since at least 1926. It has been suggested here, by travellerev, that I could be a government agent, basically on the grounds that I was an admin of a Facebook page aimed against John Key and banned people who couldn’t get past the WTC, the Illuminati, and cut and pastes from Alex Jones sites. There is basically no reasonable defence against it, which is why I am so careful and make sure I have a hell of a lot of evidence before I would even raise such an issue.
For the record, Jenny has never rung any of my bells in this area. She comes across as more of an unreasoning fundamentalist who, even if she does have something worthwhile to say, says it in such a manner that she loses any potential audience pretty quickly.
By the standards of many here, I am undoubtedly an extreme Marxist, but I do my best to address people somewhere near the level they can identify with. My being right on any particular issue is actually not that important to me. Any latent ability I have to help people think outside their comfort zones is far more important. By the nature of this blog, we are potential leaders, not followers. We have a duty to check supposedly factual material when we post it, and I feel I have a duty to treat fellow contributors with respect until they prove to my satisfaction that they deserve otherwise. We also have a duty to challenge what we consider misinformation and diversion. I think Jenny and Penny Worth both act to divert issues, mainly via the style they use.
As always, I never claim infallibility in my politics, and not even always in my Physics, but I like to think that I can defend my positions without personal attacks. However, I am not above retaliating with a dose of passion when something is directed against me personality.
As far as the mechanics of this blog is concerned, they are not decided by me. If I object too strongly, I can always leave. Free speech to me on this blog means you don’t charge me to post, as long as I stay within the guidelines. If I ever set up my own blog, I would probably take a similar approach to my contributors, even though I doubt I’d have to take my socks off to count them.
PS The closest to my views are expressed by Red Rattler, although we use quite different styles of expression.
“I think you’re being incredibly charitable towards Jenny.”
Perhaps, but in truth, no more so than to most others.
Doesn’t mean I don’t see or feel your pain where other posters are concerned. Interestingly, just this week I’ve been guilted for not remembering commentators are real people and this isn’t just a blog, but a serious blog for the big boys and girls.
I should harden the fu*k up and just get on with it 😆
Yep.
either love and let fly or Live and Let Die 😎
“I think Jenny is passionate about her cause and far less rude, abrasive, insulting and retarded as some commenters are in stating their positions.”
True, but most commenters are less rude than shes is. And it’s not rudeness, abrasiveness etc that is the problem with Jenny. It’s her tr0lling. Tr0lling isn’t even the right word, because I don’t think she does it intentionally. She just garners herself alot of negative attention because of how she posts and how she consequently behaves..
“I don’t see what she posts as a problem. Like anything (or anyone’s opinions) it can be ignored or dismissed without rancour or resorting to obscenities that make point scoring a hollow gesture.”
It’s true that I can ignore her. But why should I have to ignore the huge number of other people that stop commenting on other things in order to respond to her ‘inaccuracies’ and flamming? It’s the long threads of blah fucking blah that annoy me.
I was going to ignore my own post as the ultimate example of practice what I preach, but I couldn’t do it.
At least I only write short posts and piss off a handful at a time. 🙂
The Allen
You are exemplary and a shining example to us all. I write long posts sometimes but not always on the same subject. 😉
“You are exemplary and a shining example to us all”
:halo: 😆
A Voodoo Transistor
The Fuzz
read an online article; some chap from a reputable kiwi band is being swamped with orders for his hand-crafted fuzz boxes and effect pedals.
A lot of heat. Not much light.
Can we discuss the substantive issues now?
Is National’s bail out of Solid Energy Corporate Welfare, which only really benefits the foreign owned Aussie banks?
Is Gareth Hughes right in saying that the government should “cut their losses”
Is the Solid Energy bailout a breach of the letter and intent of the Majuro Declaration to which we are a signatory?
Would wind power projects like Rauauru Ma Raki employ as many, or more workers than the coal industry?
Is James Hansen correct when he says, “If we can’t stop coal it is all over for climate”?
Does the Labour Party support, or oppose the bailout of Solid Energy?
The voting public need to know
The stakes couldn’t be higher
The figures are chilling
A report commissioned by the Climate Vulnerable Forum, a partnership of 20 developing countries threatened by climate change was released to the media in September 2012. The report concluded that:
More than 100 million people will die…
The causes of this mega-death were listed as:
Millions of human beings will be sentenced to miserable lives and early deaths by our actions and inaction. Today.
We have to get it right.
Hopefully mickysavage will be able to clarify some of these issues in his post on the Bailout, when it comes out.
Hopefully you can respect the fact that you’ve been banned.
Your link says nothing of the sort. Go and read it again carefully.
You’re right. I misread it, and I apologise.
pity though
edit – whoops, I spake too soon 🙂
Well, I’m glad others have responded to Jenny today, because I’m in no mood for her constant attacks – made worse by being based on unreliable info/judgments.
As one included in the authors attacked for not posting on her chosen issue, I am more than pissed off. Very tired tonight after a day’s work and a particularly busy and stressful week. And I suspect that’s the same for many TS authors.
Jenny only needs to look to see how few new posts there have been in the last couple of days – on any topic. Under this government there are many crucial issues that need highlighting. Most of us post mostly on issues we know most about. Science and the economy are not my strengths – unless it’s about how they are represented in the MSM. It takes a fair amount of research for me to comment on such things.
Also, the strength of this site is in the discussions. Jenny doesn’t really seem to come here to engage in discussion. She mostly spends her time here in attack mode. She most often sounds to me like she’s on a soap box: haranguing people and talking down to us, and not taking much notice of any responses to her attacks.
Then when she breaks some basic TS rules (like not telling authors what to write) and gets banned for it, she starts complaining that her views on climate change are being censored. No matter how many times the reason for the bans are explained, and the evidence presented, she just seems to choose not to understand.
Why should I bother to read any more of Jenny’s comments?
It is really hard to know what Lynn is trying to do here.
Is Lynn trying to give me more notoriety than I have already, so that more people read me, is he secretly trying to help me, I am really not sure.
I think you are exceptionally patient Karol. I’m sorry you have to put up with this shit. Despite what I said above to the Al1en, it’s ulitmately not so onerous for me to ignore Jenny or get over what she is doing because my input here is fairly uncommitted. But if I had been putting in the effort you have and had that degree of committment, I’d be spitting tacks by now.
Jenny is a very nice girls name…all the Jennys I have ever known have been nice , sweet, charming girls….
From wiki:
Jennifer is a feminine given name, a Cornish form of Gwenhwyfar[1] adopted into English during the 20th century.
It may mean “white fairy” (from Proto-Celtic *Uindo-seibrā “white phantom”). Despite the name’s similarity to the Old English words jenefer, genefer and jinifer, all of which were variants of Juniper used to describe the juniper tree,[2] there is no evidence that it comes from these.
Other meanings of Jenny:
An amazing, beautiful, caring, creative girl. She is the epitome of a goddess, and anyone would kill to have her. She can do anything she sets her mind to, and she’s wonderful.
A girl who acts like a true sister. She may not be blood line relatives, but she will care for you no matter what, even when hated she will love you. She tends to fall for the wrong type, but in the end she will never give up on someone she loves. She’s socially active but naughty at times.
Wow Chooky that Cornish name is really something. But I’ve gone off Jenny after Jenny Shipley. While the name has sweet connotations too often the owner doesn’t.
All that Cornish talk, now I fancy an oggie.
Greywarbler & the Allen…..smirk….well parents choose lovely names for their baby girls ….but they dont always turn out as expected…they could grow up to be a troll(ess) or a horrible old witch with nasty duplicitous designs and spells.
….yes Jenny Shipley is a Jenny I hadn’t thought of….you are very realistic greywarbler …adds a whole new complexion to the name Jenny….
…Now Gwenhwyfar is a very romantic name …maybe a better name to write songs about or have sweet dreams upon……not too many Gwenhwyfars around (down under) to spoil the illusion….
Hi Chooky I had a look at name meanings. My Mum was Gwendolyn and great greats came from Cornwall so I guess that was a connection with the name. I noticed that Gwenhwyfar is the Cornish, Welsh, Celtic? form of Guinevere. Gwen means white, holy, blessed and there are St Gwens.
There is a rich source of names in the Celtic directory. Maybe people could look there for a more personal name than following pop stars or adopting country’s names, Hello New Zealand how are you today – Austria, Australia to Zambia? A bit weird.
@greywarbler….I love Welsh names and the sound of the language …not that I understand it…Gwendolyn is a great name!
The Allen
I had to check on your irrelevant remark about an oggie so went to the Urban Dictionary for total irrelevance. You do learn something every day – sometimes two things!
Mmmm Cornish pasties, and i liked that idea of savoury one end and sweet the other. How practical – a two course meal in one.
Thanks, weka. Well, it’s also that there are authors here that post very knowledgeably about things like climate change (and economic issues) but Jenny still goes on about authors ignoring the topic. And it seems completely unrealistic to expect those kind of posts to be prepared every few days…. or even every week. But, anyway, as I comments before, we had a couple of very good ones on climate change last weekend.
To many issues, too much destructive NAct actions, so much needing to be done to take a positive new direction, so little time to post on all of them.
“To many issues, too much destructive NAct actions, so much needing to be done to take a positive new direction, so little time to post on all of them.”
It’s also the case that climate change is a global issue. There are hundreds of excellent websites from around the world dealing with climate change, the science behind it, etc. There aren’t nearly so many websites on the internet dealing with general NZ politics. Why should this site focus solely or mainly on climate change, when there are plenty of other sites that do it already?
matthew hooten is getting his arse kicked all over the Q & A studio..by rod oram..on the topic of the living-wage..
..i am trying to write a review..but can’t stop laughing..
..it is a must-watch..
.and a fracturing of a long-pushed rightwing myth to justify paying workers shit-wages..
..bloody brilliant..!
..philip ure..
I did love the bit where Rod Oram Said “Matthew, listen for a moment, because you are not very good at that”
And didn’t he add something to the effect “yes Matthew we all know you’re running a campaign against the living wage”. I think Susan Wood did a wee squeal at that one.
Hooton was trying on his old trick… taking control of the conversation and interrupting and talking over the top of his rival. Rod Oram wasn’t having it. Love to see him up against Hooton on the Monday morning RNZ political slot. Unfortunately he’s not a political commentator by profession which is a pity.
Oram is always a good listen to, i missed Q@A but always have a good listen to rod when He is on RadioNZ,
He tends to give a far fuller answer to any question of economics being discussed, usually giving the right-wing view an airing as well while pointing out why He thinks that is wrong and offering the alternatives…
It’ll be there on demand, or You tube, Bad12.
Heres the link here
http://tvnz.co.nz/q-and-a-news/panel-living-wage-video-5600782
Thanks Curtis. And others who raised the Q&A item. The Right claim huge job losses if Living Wage was begun. (Would it follow that if the Min Wage was dropped to say $5 an hour there would be wholesale increase in Employment?)
If Firms paid a Living Wage then maybe there would be an exodus from those firms paying Min Wage and those firms would have to compete by lifting wages up from the Min to match the Living wage to hang on to their staff.
No but there would be a wholesale increase in poverty and the fortunes of the parasites would increase.
Shame that Hooton wasn’t picked up on two claims he made – that NZ has the highest min wage in $ terms and the fourth highest min wage to average wage ratio in the OECD.
I’ll assume those claims are true. And so the question that needs answering is, is there any merit in having the highest min wage in absolute and comparative terms if you also have disproportionately large numbers of people only earning the min wage and employers receiving tax payers money to ‘take the edge off’ widespread and systemic poverty?
Yeah, nah.
It appears at least one of those claims isn’t true.
Big surprise. Hooten’s a professional liar.
Well, yeah – it doesn’t surprise me that he was lying. But even his lies (accepted as accurate) could have been turned against him.
Anyways….
what’s that tactic where they come up with bullshit with such frequency that taking the time to correct anything simply gets one swamped with more bullshit, but trying to keep up simply leaves them to say “but you agreed earlier” and their bullshit unchallenged?
Ah – the Gish Gallop sounds like it.
Sounds like hootles tries to do that when he’s on air.
“Gish Gallop”. That sounds about right for Mr Hooten.
And for that matter the famous Campbell interview with John Key. Breathless Key Gallop to run over the top of any tricky questions and a dig or two at the honesty/integrity of John Campbell. If the cap fits…..
Country Minimum wage Annual Standard Hourly Percent of
(US$)[2] workweek (US$) GDP per
Australia A$16.37 per hour 33355 38 16.88 0.471
Luxembourg €1,921.03 per month 29611 40 14.24 0.253
Monaco €1,593.67 per month 25744 39 12.69 15.8%[106]
France €1,430.22 per month 22003 35 12.09 0.534
Belgium €1,501.82 per month 23104 38 11.69 0.503
San Marino €8.96 per hour 22400 37.5 11.49 0.389
New Zealand NZ$13.75 per hour 23252 40 11.18 0.555
Ireland €1,461.85 per month 22490 39 11.09 0.428
Netherlands €1,477.80 per month 22735 40 10.93 0.461
United Kingdom £6.31 per hour 19896 38.2 10.02 0.472
Canada C$9.95 to C$11.00 per hour 22766 44[40] 9.95 0.415
Sorry Phillip, have to disagree with you on this one. Rod did make some good points which any sensible, fair minded person would have to agree with but Hooton just carried on as if nothing had happened and always got the last word in – people tend to remember the last word. He just kept repeating his lines and there is no answer to that if you don’t have a killer blow up your sleeve so to speak. Hooton also ignored what the Australian CTU president had to say with regards to the minimum wage etc.
I noticed also there was no mention of the latest Roy Morgan poll, and a dig at Cunliffe for the gaffe about the young property investor finding it harder to buy his ‘first home’.
Though. Hooton’s continued talking made him look pretty shallow and waffley along side Oram. I don’t know how the majority of viewers would see it though.
Saw it as you did Karol. Interesting how virtually overnight a seeming asset can turn into a liability. Thank you Matthew thank you RNZ.
Hopefully the same effect will settle in for that emerging world leader global mover and shaker “Nooo Zeeerllind Praamm Ministirrr Jaaahn Keee”.
To ALL sick, disabled and with incapacity for work – on WINZ benefits: Download and read the PDF submission to be found via this link, and READ IT, please!
Please DO take NOTE of this, which I tried to point out the other night, but it appears to have not been noticed by most, it is EXTREMELY important:
This affects ALL sick and disabled on BENEFITS: THERE are major changes happening, yet again, and it is highly worrying stuff!!!
http://www.nzma.org.nz/sites/all/files/sub-WorkAbilityAssessments-Providers.pdf
MSD’s Principal Health Advisor Dr Bratt and his team seem to be preparing new ways of outsourcing Work Capability Assessments, to be done by selected professionals!
This smells too much like the “stench” that has been attached to the involvement of Atos Healthcare as the private assessor for the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) in the UK.
I have not heard or read anything about MSD’s plans in this direction yet, but it sounds extremely worrying, hence the serious concerns also, the New Zealand Medical Association (NZMA) expresses.
Something is being prepared to involve people to make assessments for WINZ, who are not even proper medical experts.
I will try to keep you posted, but this is a must read, and must be taken very seriously!
Hi Xtasy
IMHO This government fairly obviously intends to duplicate at least partly, the fascist treatment of beneficiaries in the U$K. A cruel and heartless attitude which has no justification for NZ, It is not the Kiwi way, but this government is led by a neoliberal puppet called Key and his opportunist collaborator Bennett.
johnm – I agree, but the brainwashing, distraction and whole bureaucratic agenda is so “perfected” now, Goebbles could not have done a better job, they are getting away with it, while most are scared into submission, lulled into misinformation and indifference, or simply lied to to a degree, they do not dare to question anything anymore.
We have fascism at work here, right now in NZ, but most do not realise it, as they think, hey this cannot be fascism, as that is much worse. Those will wake up too late to what is going on, and too many woke up too late in the 1930s and 1940s in Germany too!
Quite a sobering interview with West Ham United’s chairman David Gold ahead of the game against Spurs tomorrow. http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/oct/05/west-ham-david-gold-fans-tottenham-hotspur
Spurs have significant historic links with the jewish community and the Hammers were a bastion against fascism in the thirties, supporters of the club having shielded East End jews against the Black Shirts and succesfully opposed them in the battle of Cable Street.
The last time the clubs met a moronic minority of WHU fans disgraced the club and its traditions by using anti-Semitic chants and hissing to mimic gas chambers. Hopefully there won’t be a repeat tomorrow.
And yet the Yid Army, have been threatened with possible arrest by the police, should they decide to continue using that particular expression!
Never underestimate the gutter level of football as an entity, and its support base!
The “game” was finished long ago, the day that FIFA/UEFA corrupted itself, which it is still doing on a daily basis, re Brazil/Qatar!
Watching “football men” like Platini rent their souls to the establishment, is all that is necessary to know about Big
BusinessSport!The average football fan clings to the entertainment factor, despite the fact their continued funding, ensures the death of their, beautiful game!
No argument from me, muz (tho I do think Spurs’ fan’s use of Yid is problematic). Ian Holloway is the Voice of Reason: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Utb-coxjkK8
Well said Muzza, I could write a book on my experiences as a kid in the fifties how we were treated and looked after by the “adults” mainly dockers when we went to watch Millwall play at New Cross. Visited the pie & eel shop first for a bit of lunch, then got the underground to New Cross. A great afternoon for an east end kid that did not cost much. Millwall was always in the third division,but what the fuck we went there for the football(soccer)
Don’t watch hardly any sport these days, fucking sick of hearing team “A” with this sponsored shirt going to “take out” team “B” with that sponsored shirt playing on this sponsored ground. brought to you by such & such product on the fucking minute /half minute. Sport is now a load of fucking crap.
Hope you are right but WHU seem to have a core of knuckle dragging diehards determined to have fun ‘cmon guvnor ….you awwright then my son …..just havin a larf’ like when they play millwall.
lets hope millwalls current issues put them in a good mood and they behave.
Fingers crossed, TC. The Hammers have a proud history of anti-racism (even their hooligan crew, the ICF, were multi-racial) and the club were rightly mortified at last year’s events. However, there has been significant growth in the influence of neo-nazis in the East End, which may be reflected in the stands. Not much that can be done about it, but life bans would be a start.
There is also a polarising debate about whether Spur’s fans positive embracing of the ‘Y’ word is encouraging negative use among fans of other clubs: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/17/david-cameron-yid-really-is-race-hate-word
Yes and the financial and football gap developed recently between the 2 isn’t helping with Joe Lewis’s billions backing Spurs onto the champions league so he can allegedly cash out the asset.
Whereas the more frugal streetwise Gold/Sullivan saw a club in need of their backing at West Ham after cashing up at Birmingham City and rescued it from an Icelandic meltdown.
The growing divide between the haves and have nots feeds all sorts of discontent.
Well who would be surprised? It’s bit like Charter Schools beings set up with teachers who are not teachers by profession. It’s all part of a culture/mindset that looks down on those considered inferior stock (unemployed people and sickness beneficiaries head the list) and who they deem to be only worthy of second class assistance.
It’s also part of a campaign to employ ‘yes men/women’ who they know will come up with the answers the government are wanting enforced. And on that note:
I saw recently that John Key looks like he is about to do another ‘Ian Fletcher’ only this time it’s the SIS. A new position of SIS deputy C.E.O has been created. The successful applicant will be spending most of his/her time attached to the PM’s office, and will be liasing with the SIS etc. on matters raised by the PM. Watch this space. Another mate about to be appointed to an highly sensitive position?
In Slippery the PM’s language i would consider that ”being attached to the PM’s Office and liasing with the SIS etc on matters raised by the PM” to mean ”people He wants the SIS to open a file on”….
Here’s the link: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11134454
This link does not state that the ‘spy master’ is based in the PM’s office, but I thought I read something, somewhere… along those lines.
Maybe Key’s got a Cousins, Aunts, Brothers, Sisters, Best Mate’s, number mysteriously on his phone, And it was, just an Accident that he bumped into him in town the other day..
Its quite clever from the nats, the more cronies they appoint, and stuff they break up, merge, realign, refocus etc makes a new govts job a shed load tougher with installed obstacles and broken structures.
That is why such **appointees** must be sacked…..
NEF (New Economics Foundation) in the UK release their latest (62 page) report: Distant Neighbours – Poverty and Inequality in Islington.
Might be good for a Sunday read, especially if you need something to counteract today’s opinion columns in the Herald.
I just had a good idea for better and more satisfying education for youngsters. Spend time on helping them with the basics plus teach them a variety of things. And then make the goal to help them find what they like doing and give them the chance to do more of it. And use that as a carrot and reward to get them through their basic learning in a capable manner. To use a current expression, the child then ‘owns’ his or her education.
There was an interview on radionz today on a place called the Corelli school which encourages children with artistic interests and will take them from an early age, and they also do educational subjects to Cambridge level. Parents said it was working out well for children who had been too shy, hadn’t the chance to flourish at school.
Now that would be a good educational experiment. And one that would be done principally to suit the children’s interests. Unlike what I heard educational scientists discuss this week about Christchurch. Apparently money saving and efficiency was not the basis for many of the school closures and amalgamations there, it was a desire to experiment with new processes. The ground zero effect after the earthquakes was to be the genesis of a new approach to education with of course the object of ‘better educational performance’ or such.
The fact that the children actually needed security, continuity, accessibility without lengthy travel and so on, didn’t come into the thinking of these highly educated, highly paid educational policy queens. From their royal height they pushed around the children of the poor so they could watch to see which maze they progressed through best.
There are no doubt some kings in the mix, but it seems to me post-women’s lib has enabled a great bunch of university trained middle class girls to become professional women with little interest or empathy with wider society beyond their own sculpted lives and suburbs.
Ok for those of you who were querying about it, I have fixed a timeout on the cookies that was showing up in W3 Total Cache. It was setting the timeout on cookies to 7200 seconds (about 2 hours). I have changed that to 1512000 seconds (~30 days).
This should prevent you from having re-enter your cookie values more often than that.
And drat it was on my side after all.
An honest sysop 🙂
🙂
Much appreciated Lynn, cheers.
cheers LP it’s been a right pain, thanks for sorting it.
I find the standard on android pretty unworkable now, no ‘reply’ or ‘edit’….PC/iPad sweet as.
While we’re on the subject of the user experience can I get the desktop/mobile theme switch at the top please
Get a mac or an iPhone 😀