When putting the link for a particular comment: You get it by clicking and copying the date and time of the comment you want, which you will copy from the URL address at the top (I call it the header line). With that you paste it in your comment so that you place it within a sentence. See below.
Thanks for the help we get with wrangling our computers and getting control of the pesky things so we can produce a finished comment without getting wiped out!
Cool, I didn't know that pasting within a line of text avoided the bug.
the other way for TS links, if you want the link below text, is to once you have copied the URL, click on the Link button just above the Comment text box, and the past the URL into the popup
(if you just paste straight into the text box below text) the bug will revert the URL to the post link not the comment link).
annoying for people like me who like to separate out things by line, but I'm guessing that many here just paste the URL after whatever they've just typed.
Please have a look at weka's post from yesterday about what we can do to progress the ideas of dealing with our problems of climate change etc. It is something we could keep adding to, keep at the front of our minds. It is good to be keyboard warriors, how can we transfer the energy of our minds to our own actions, or if unable to assisting others in action in some ways, perhaps getting information for them, arranging venues – doing support work. Below is the link to take you straight there.
I heard some weeks ago the NZ Council of the Labour Party meet this week-end. I don't know for sure if it is true, but assuming it is:
My pick is, they will be examining the findings of the sexual harassment report against a Labour Party staffer. If so, we can expect those findings to be released in the next few days. Whatever they are, we can also expect Simon Bridges and co. to distort, twist and infer negative connotations that don't exist.
Will Labour forcefully respond and call them out for lying and cheating this time?
Simon is a sideshow in this and a hypocrite. I’d focus on the important stuff such us how to prevent similar things from happening in future and improve things that they can (and must) improve. Simon will still be barking at cars so let him bark and throw him a little bone every now and then to keep him happy.
[Please don’t use capitals for your username, as Weka has already asked you. Please read the replies to your comments, the moderation notes addressed to you, and respond to acknowledge these, as Weka has already asked you to do. Failing to do so will result in you getting blacklisted (AKA banned) – Incognito]
" If so, we can expect those findings to be released in the next few days."
If anything at all is released I would say that it will not be until after Parliament rises for the year. Your best bet would be 5pm on 24 December.
On the other hand you may not see anything at all, at least officially. The PM said that "The third-party review into Labour's processes would be made public on the condition that participants wanted that."
Quite right. A competent Comms team should certainly be able to do that.
A good one would make sure that there was nothing in the report to embarrass them. It would be pretty easy to shut the complainants down. Just threaten them with treatment like one of the girls in the youth camp affair got. The defendant's lawyer came out in Court saying that of course it wasn't a sexual assault. After all the lawyer claimed that "she wanted it".
Or threaten them they will get the treatment that Winston is dishing out to the former President of his Party, and one that the Labour and Green Parties are happily going along with. Tell anyone who won't shut up that you will accuse them of having mental health problems.
Then you can get a total whitewash as anyone who knows it is false will be too cowed to speak up.
Strike me down with a feather, Alwyn shows his bias again with a ridiculous comment attacking Labour and his buddy Winston Peters.
If a case goes to Court, it is a whitewash, obviously.
The defendant’s lawyer is not a member of Labour or Labour’s comms team, but he (I assume it is a “he”) might as well be if you take Alwyn’s silly comment at face value.
The context of alleged lawyer’s claims in Court is missing, of course. Context and nuance is for mugs, obviously.
Alwyn knows that the Labour and Green Parties are happily going along with anything Winston Peters says or does. No link required, of course, because Alwyn knows.
Now, I’m sure that Alwyn can produce a link in which Winston Peters tells anyone who won't shut up that he will accuse them of having mental health problems. Alwyn would only be too happy to oblige, wouldn’t he? I can sense his glee already.
The lawyer was actually a "she". With your enormous skills in using a search engine that you talked about here recently I am sure you could have found that out.
If you were the parent of a teenage girl who was the complainant of a sexual assault, would you tell her that she should go ahead with the complaint and get attacked by the defendant's lawyer in Court or would you suggest that she simply forget the matter and pretend that it never happened? It isn't a question of who employed this particular lawyer. It is the fact that it pretty routinely happens and I am told it is one of the reasons that so few complaints actually get to Court. It simply isn't worth it.
As far as Winston's attacks on his former party President is concerned there is a very easily found link here
All the Labour members on the Committee voted against having them appear before it. The would no doubt have embarrassed Winston. The Green Party, although supposedly wanting to clean up the anonymous and undeclared donations to Political Parties in New Zealand have remained very, very quiet. Surely correcting what appear to be very doubtful activities by New Zealand First should be of interest to them?
Perhaps you can produce some evidence whar the Green Party opposed something that Winston has asked for. Did they push for a Kermadec sanctuary perhaps?
Now for a challenge to you. You claim that Winston is my buddy. Perhaps you can produce a skerrick of evidence for your ridiculous claim. I think he is a disgrace to New Zealand politics and every other party in the house should treat him as a pariah. Unfortunately the only party leaders who have ever done so were Jenny Shipley after she took over from Bolger, and, most notably, John Key prior to the 2008 and 2011 elections.
In 2008 he said he would not work with Winston because he said, as I remember it, "I cannot trust him". In 2011 he said that "If Winston Peters holds the balance of power it will be a Phil Goff-led Labour government,".
Unfortunately he didn'r say the same before the 2014 election Neither did any party say it before the 2017 election. Shame on them.
I presume you will be happy to show me your evidence that Winston is my buddy? I'm sure you don't want to try and perpetuate such a foolish, and fallacious, claim.
The lawyer is irrelevant but what he/she said in Court is not. What happened in Court is not under the control of Labour or the Labour comms team. You created a strawman and I don’t need a search engine to notice that.
Your link does not support your assertions that “the Labour and Green Parties are happily going along with [it]” [my italics]. In fact, it states that it was “closed business” and you have no knowledge of what went on behind closed doors. So, you’re making up shit again. FYI, using my famous search skills I found that there are no members of the Green Party on the Justice Committee https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/sc/scl/justice/tab/mp Never mind, Alwyn.
As to Peters telling people about having mental health problems, he has already mentioned it so this is now an empty threat and not what you alleged @ 3.2.1.1. Are you having problems comprehending your own comment?
Oh, the buddy issue 🙂
We all know how much you love to hate Tsar Winston and the Green Party, for example, and you can’t help yourself telling lies about them due to your negative bias towards them. You have just provided the evidence (again) so it is QED for you, Alwyn. If you want more: you have used that silly juvenile term 35 times here on TS. I’m happy to provide all 35 links but then I’ll have to ban you for life. Your call, Alwyn, I’m more than happy to oblige.
You see, Alwyn, it is perfectly ok to criticise but it is not ok to make up shit to ‘prove’ your point, or rather your opinion, and you’re making a bit of habit of it.
I haven't used it on a single occasion in the last four and a half months. I repeat "I haven't used it on a single occasion in the last four and a half months". Why don't you just accept that I did what I said I would? Why are you the person who brings it up again? Why do you feel the need to use the term if you dislike it so much?
You will also see, if you read this carefully that what I said about Peters is that he might threaten OTHER people with the sort of attack that he has mounted on the former President of his own party. He doesn't have to put it into words. People merely have to worry that he might lash out wildly at them, when they have no way to properly respond.
You will also see that I never even hinted that the lawyer was part of the Labour Party "Comms" team. I merely said that people who might be among those with complaints are going to worry about having this sort of accusation hurled at them. It is why many women will not proceed with complaints about sexual harassment. They are the ones who end up in the firing line and it just isn't worth it.
You also tell me that there are no Green members on the Committee. I know that. I never claimed there were. I said only that the four Labour members of the committee wouldn't allow them to testify. I also said that the Green Party never commented on this even though it appears to be something they claim to be interested in.
When Nick Smith moved an amendment to the silly bill Andrew Little pushed though under urgency that would have treated the New Zealand First Foundation donations as being donations to New Zealand First the Green Party voted against the amendment. Hardly following a practice that will provide openness and transparency about donations is it?
Meanwhile I will point out that I don't "lie" about the Green Party. I point out occasions when they don't seem to be following the practices they say the would like to see;.I quite happily confess I don't jump into the fray about the occasional good thing they do but there are plenty of people contributing to this site who will do that ad nauseam. I merely try and provide a little balance.
Finally of course are you willing to state that you are completely unable to find anything that supposedly demonstrates that Winston is my buddy? Then you will have removed a slur you have cast on my character.
… slowly withering in the dark and evil contrivance that invented it, realising it is merely a chiffon-esque drapery invented to conceal the soulless abyss that would use any form of human suffering to gain meaningless pretended advantage in an online debate. Sad, shrivelled, and hollow, it eventually rots into the pool of ichor that that had originally given it a perverted facsimile of life.
You really sound unbearably depressed.I think my view of myself is a much happier one than your self portrait of your own existence. You poor chap. How dreadful must be your life with only misery and darkness to look forward to.
Please don't do anything that you cannot reverse. Things will get better. They certainly can't get any worse for you, can they?
Can I suggest you splurge on a good cigar. That is sure, providing you can forget the obscene taxes that are levied in New Zealand, to cheer you up.
A good cigar, a good night's rest and the world will seem a much more cheerful place in the morning.
At least I hope it will be better tomorrow. I am getting sick and tired of the incessant wind and rain we seem to be getting in Wellington. I think I will move to Hawke's Bay
The sketches are part of a report entitled “How America Tortures,” which was put together by Denbeaux and his students at Seton Hall Law. The sketches are a trip through hell; Zubaydah was waterboarded 83 times. He was left in “stress positions” for days at a time, and confined, shackled, in a tiny crate for the same length of time. Americans did this. The American government sanctioned it. And the American people haven’t given enough of a damn about it to hold its monsters accountable.
Mr. Zubaydah, who is not known to have formal art training, drew himself in a hood, shackled in the fetal position and tethered by a chain to a cell bar to constrict his movement. In granting the C.I.A. approval to use a technique similar to this, Jay S. Bybee, a former assistant attorney general, noted in an 18-page memo dated Aug. 1, 2002, that “through observing Zubaydah in captivity, you have noted that he appears to be quite flexible despite his wound.” He also noted in the authorization, addressed to the C.I.A.’s acting general counsel at the time, John A. Rizzo, that the agency asserted that “these positions are not designed to produce the pain associated with contortions or twisting of the body.”
Bybee now has a lifetime appointment as a judge on a federal court of appeals. Rizzo is a fellow at the Hoover Institution.
Jeremy Corbyn made waves recently when he released documents showing the NHS is currently on the table in discussions for a UK/US trade deal. Now the Labour leader has just done it again. He’s revealed details from a confidential government report on Brexit.
The last two Colmar Bruntons suggest National and ACT currently "have the numbers to scrape together a Government". This is, of course, predicated on the idea that NZF will fall below the 5% threshold.
How likely is this ?
The latest Colmar Brunton was conducted at the 25 month mark.
Here I compare current NZF poll ratings with their Colmar Brunton stats (at the same point in the electoral cycle) during their last two times in Govt.
NZF in Colmar Bruntons:
2019
CB at 25 month mark (Dec 2019) = 4.3%
Average over previous 12 months = 4.18%
Range over previous 12 months = 3.3 – 5.0
1998
CB at 25 month mark (Nov 1998) = 2%
Average over previous 12 months = 1.96%
Range over previous 12 months = 1 – 3
Subsequent Election 1999 GE = 4.26% (up 2.26 points on 25 month mark CB / up 2.3 points on previous 12 month average)
2007
CB at 25 month mark (Oct 2007) = 1.9%
Average over previous 12 months = 2.28%
Range over previous 12 months = 1.9 – 2.9
Subsequent Election 2008 GE = 4.07 (up 2.17 points on 25 month mark CB / up 1.79 points on previous 12 month average)
So … the Winnie Brigade are roughly 2 points more popular than they were at the same point during their previous two stints in Govt … & the historic pattern is a 2 point lift for the Party by Election Day.
It's also true, of course, that in both cases (1999 & 2008 GEs) they fell below the 5% threshold. National-aligned doomsayers have focussed on the 4% Party Vote NZF received at both of those Elections … (implying it's some sort of Iron Law of NZ Electoral Politics that the Peters Party will always fall to 4% when in Govt), … whereas I'm inclined to place greater emphasis on the roughly 2 point boost they enjoyed at each of these elections (99 / 08) & to highlight their better performance in recent Polls compared to post-1996 & post-19992005. [correction entered by Moderator]
Also note (given recent events) that NZF received this 2 point boost despite being embroiled in controversy during those previous periods in Govt (including a well-organised media campaign against the Party in 2008).
To be sure, the context differs a little … in its previous two stints in Govt, NZF had opted to join ailing Third Term Administrations … this time, of course, it's a fresh First Termer … & yes you have to be careful about relying too much on historic precedent … but the best reading of the entrails is that NZF will take around 6% of the Party Vote in 2020.
Minor correction: End of third-to-last paragraph should, of course, read: " … to highlight their better performance in recent Polls compared to post-1996 &post-2005". (not 1999).
Do you think that the 1998 Poll numbers from November are really meaningful?
The poll would have been done about 2 months after Jenny Shipley had sacked Winston from the Cabinet and his party had fissioned under him. There were just over half his members who stuck with him and just under half who stayed with the then Government. I would have thought that this would have been the dominant factor in whatever the results of the poll in November were.
However I can't find the other CB results for that year. Was this November one an oddity or did it match any poll taken in say July of 1998? The sacking took place on 14 August 1998. I can't really remember that much about the lead-up to the event and whether it was a surprise to the general public.
If it is a real oddball it renders the calculations rather uncertain. There would only be a sample of one in previous sessions on NZF in power..
Have another look at the 1998 stats I set out in my earlier comment, alwyn.
1998
CB at 25 month mark (Nov 1998) = 2%
Average over previous 12 months = 1.96%
Range over previous 12 months = 1 – 3
So, as you can see, NZF's support in Colmar Bruntons over the previous 12 months (ie the immediate 12 months before Nov 1998) ranged from 1 to 3% … and averaged 1.96% … so their November rating was pretty much bang on the average.
The implosion of the National-NZF Govt made no discernable difference to the Peters Party's ratings.
Sorry. I didn't read it carefully enough. I got very interested in the question of the NZF blow-up and didn't think through your published numbers clearly.
No effect at all, is there. I am surprised. I would have thought it would have had a significant effect.
Out of curiosity are these numbers available on line? I hunted quite hard but couldn't find a record of polls going back to the ones for the period before the 1999 election.
Have you got a reference or have you got a private set of the numbers from an offline source.
The latter … & pretty much like David Farrar I'm inclined to greedily keep them very close to my chest … gives both of us a certain added value, as it were.
.
Took quite some time to track all the data down more than a decade ago …right back to the first National Research Bureau Polls of late 1969 (& a few very early NZ Gallup polls from the first half of the 60s) … so might as well get a wee reward for all the effort, I guess.
Then again, I do like to think I have a few democratic instincts as well … so eventually might look at making them widely available by setting all the poll numbers out on my blog right back to 69 (for Herald-NRB) & 74 (for TVNZ-Heylen / Colmar Brunton).
Incidentally, I gave a very brief overview of NZ's early polling history in a comment on Chris Trotter's Bowalley Road here:
Thank you. I tried very hard to find that data but getting back past the 2002 election was beyond my skills. At least it wasn't just my inability to manipulate Google that meant it wasn't showing up.
From the 2002 election you can find the polls on Wikipedia of course.
My God though. Getting all that ephemeral data right back to '69 is truly impressive. Ah, those were the days. National never, at least so I was told a long time afterward by one of their very senior MPs, never expected to win that one. One of their Ministers built a new house before the election so that he would have somewhere to move to after he had to leave his Ministerial residence. Then they won and he could stay on in the house he was supplied with.
I won't waste your time asking for the Poll numbers that might have convinced them they were going to lose though.
Thank you for the information. I don't feel bad about not finding it myself now.
Sad to disagree Stephen. I was involved with the IHC Sheltered Workshops years ago. Those Intellectually Handicapped people rolled up each day with enthusiasm and socialised with like minded folk. They were paid at less than half the lowest average pay but the daily relationships were a delight. The interactions were worth far more than the pay.
It was a very sad day when a Government ruling meant that the Workshops were closed down.
And the people no longer had anything to look forward to. Days empty and lonely.
That is interesting to hear ianmac. I had heard that the sheltered workshops had been enjoyed and that they could earn their own money and have a job they could manage made them proud and content.
But the preachy women and some men who decide everything from a point of view that is totally middle class, materialistic with a bit of spirituality thrown in and most of all, are pedantic, pompous and righteous. Their opinion oif what is right rules the day, and the opinions of those affected by their decisions are irrelevant; 'those' people don't understand the range of possibilities available to give them fairness and equity. This may not be what you think but it is observable very often and is something that often occurs in 'consultations'.
were incomes additional to a benefit? Seem to recall the change had something to do with minimum wage regs…if that was the case you would expect some better law could be drafted
They needed to be on a benefit for their security of care, and their working pay should have had an option to be at a rate that was less than minimum pay. This was the welfare system being undone, and everyone being treated the same – equality rather than equity. The fact is ignored, that some relationships don't fit the SWelfs narrow formula, ie a parent being officially paid by the mentally handicapped child, as she works caring for him, therefore he is officially her employer!
The problem has also been of the state setting minimum rates for things that should be able to be decided on an informal basis with an appeal process if felt too low. Also affects babysitting which used to be done by students for pocket money.
"The IHC applauded. It too had been ideologically captured. Over opposition from many of its bewildered members, the IHC seized the opportunity to shut down 76 workshops and "business units".
Part of the problem was that the IHC itself had changed radically. From an organisation run largely by parents and volunteers, it had evolved into a government-funded Wellington bureaucracy led by disability-sector careerists."
I was very peripherally involved. A friend had a son who was employed there and the closure of them meant he was now basically at home all day driving his mother crazy. I had no direct involvement with the workshops though and can only go on what they said, then, about them.
I remember a very moving interview published at the time with the mother of another person who worked there and who was now unemployed. She said that he was paid about a dollar an hour and that was all his work was really worth. She got a benefit that provided for his actual living costs but the money he received was really his pocket money but was something he was very proud of.
Why the IHC was so keen on getting rid of them was beyond her and why the then Government went along with the idea made no sense. I have seen comments that it was caused by the IHC administration being taken over by careerist civil servants in Wellington. I have no idea if that was true.
There was quite a bit of abusing the low wages going on in some of those workshops in order to keep the wages low. I had family working in some of them and standing up against this.
Some examples – a women with an intellectual disability employed by the IHC to do receptionist work for 12 years. Carried out the role as well as any other receptionist paid well below rate at a few dollars a day. Did everything from phones/reception/typing.
Each year there was supposed to be a productivity assessment that worked out the appropriate below rate pay rate for each person. A family member in this instance assessed the rate for each person based on the number of widgets at the correct quality they produced. This lift in wages for many workers was deemed by management to be too expensive (after all they had just bought all the managers new cars and were going on a trip to China) and so they buried her assessment and got an unqualified person to assess them at unsurprisingly the same rate as it had been previously. The labour inspector responsible for signing off on this previously worked for the trust involved.
The IHC has a strong resistance in it's ranks at all levels to any client in it's care earning more than the limits prescribed by WINZ for benefit purposes. It's not that the IHC gets any less money it's that the mix changes – the benefit portion which the IHC gets reduces and the DHB portion increases. The client gets to keep all extra earnings so it is in their interests to earn more. Part of another family member's jobs was finding good quality work for people with disabilities. The IHC did not like the extra paperwork that comes with earning over the exemption and so she used to get told off for having people earn more.
This is an organisation that used to keep clients money in their own coffers til they were forced to set up individual trust accounts, that took peoples disability allowance to supply finding employment services they often never supplied (friend of ours fought very hard to stop this for her intellectually disabled sister), who often colluded with poly-techs to run profit making employment courses for clients to put them somewhere for the day, that is "Idea Services" to reduce stigma most of the time but IHC when it comes to fund-raising, that for many years paid a pittance to staff working all night and so on.
I would argue that the careerist civil servants had been colluding with the IHC administration for many, many years to keep paying disabled people low wages, to profit off their work and training and to support the IHC to keep people institutionalised for as long as possible.
In reality much of the institutionlisation was a loss of freedom for the disabled.
Robert Martin gives a good insight into life before and after.
"he said that he was paid about a dollar an hour and that was all his work was really worth."
Parents are part of the problem – so many undervalue their own children and have such low expectations. Particularly the generation that institutionalised the majority of the disabled – out of sight out of mind.
Compounded by the reforms of the public service to replace effectiveness (e.g. giving people with disabilities a decent paid job because overall it is good for society) versus efficiency (it's only about productivity).
The joys of being able to walk into a government department if you had Downs syndrome for instance and be able to see someone like you in the workplace need to be welcomed back. Sheltered workshops should stay in the historical institutional past.
I read that and the immediate thought that came to mind is he must drop some seriously floaty ones. Maybe he should stop snacking on the polystyrene boxes his favourite meals come in.
Polystyrene? Is that what gives him that peculiar hair colour? However he does seem to have a very full head of hair for a man of his age so it might seem worth it to him.
Combover yes, but definitely not professional. Apparently it's all his own work. No professional has ever admitted to having anything to do with it (that I know of, anyway). Be honest, do you think anyone with any kind of self-esteem whatsoever would ever confess to an abomination like that?
I know his words actually have no meaning whatsoever beyond hinting at whatever spiny bug up his ass is wriggling at that particular moment, but the nerdy pedant in me can't help pointing out that environmentally friendly bulbs actually de-emphasise orange and red.
That's because LEDs have proportionately very little output in red and orange compared to daylight and especially compared to incandescents (including halogens). Check out these spectra for the comparison.
I dunno. Seems to me things people don't have immediate direct control over need to be treated with respect. But actual voluntary direct choices are fair game.
So a choice to go for a dayglo hue of fake-bronze spraytan is a legit target of mockery, but the moobs are prob'ly best left alone. (the image looks suspiciously like a fake to me, tho)
Similarly chubby legs and baldness should be off-limits. Hair implants are tricky because they were a long-ago decision that's not readily reversible and may be a different choice today.
The lack of a fucking haircut is definitely fair game if that matters to anyone. Although he'd probably lose half his support if he did go and get it tidied up, it's a big part of his maverick outsider aura.
Y'know, we really should be appreciative of the way he's expanded our vocabularies. Until he used the word, I never knew a bunch of fastfood chain budget range burgers left to go cold and congealed then stacked in a big pile was actually called a hamberder.
Anderton and Cullen gave the voting public the better option of forming our own bank – Kiwibank – as an option that consumers could freely take up.
However with about 4% of market share, it's just barely achieving its nationalistic vision. It is perfectly within the power of the government to tilt the procurement table and get Kiwibank to do all of its banking. That move alone would quadruple its power.
Orr has given our banking system greater safety, for which he should be applauded.
But so far I don't detect any political appetite from anyone to re-nationalise anything or indeed make any move of a structural nature that Cullen and Anderton did.
Kiwibank. Doing what their customers want. Well that seems to be what they claim.
Meanwhile they are, in just a couple of months going to completely get rid of cheques.
"After 30 September 2019 Kiwibank won’t issue cheque or deposit books.
After 28 February 2020 cheque deposits will not be accepted into a Kiwibank customer account; other banks may stop accepting Kiwibank cheques.
After 28 February 2020 Kiwibank will stop providing bank cheques."
I know one or two , typically elderly, people who still use cheques. The don't want to have to do Internet banking. Well tough luck if you have been with Kiwibank, supposedly the pensioners friend.
Tell me again why we have the bank? If you want a New Zealand owned bank why don't you go the the popular, and well regarded by their customers, TSB or The Co-Operative Bank.
Consumer found them to have far higher satisfaction ratings than Kiwibank or any of the majors. In 2019 Co-Op got 87%, TSB 83% and Kiwibank 66%. The big ones were lower. TSB were top in 2017 and 2018.
Incidentally the big four will have higher Capital ratios than the minnows. On the basis of Orr's arguments the big ones will be safer that than the smaller ones.
Bill Clinton was impeached on the 19th of December, 1998.
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Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich called out House Democrats for trying to impeach President Donald Trump “on the eve of Christmas” during an interview with Fox News, Friday.
[…]
“And really, on the eve of Christmas it is really sad to see the dishonesty and the partisanship that the House Democrats are displaying,” he concluded.
“If they took sexual harassment as seriously as they take petty theft, we wouldn’t be having this conversation,” says UNITE industrial officer Duncan Allen of the raft of harassment complaints he has helped lodge.
UNITE has had complaints from employees at other companies – but nothing like Restaurant Brands, which Allen says appears to have a deep-rooted issue with its company culture.
“Far more energy (is) put into protecting the alleged harasser than there is about investigating properly and fixing things.”
He believes there’s a pattern of employees leaving their jobs because laying a complaint is made too difficult, with the company demanding specific evidence – including exact dates and times – before they will agree to look into allegations.
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Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency Waka KotahiThe fact that a ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Gavin Jacobson talks to Thomas Piketty 10 years on from Capital in the 21st CenturyThe SalvoLocal scoop: Green MP’s business being investigated over migrant exploitation claims StuffSteve KilgallonLocal deep-dive: The commercial contractors making money from School ...
It’s a home - but Kāinga Ora tenants accused of “abusing the privilege” may lose it. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government announced a crackdown on Kāinga Ora tenants who were unruly and/or behind on their rent, with Housing Minister Chris Bishop saying a place in a state ...
This is a guest post by Connor Sharp of Surface Light Rail Light rail in Auckland: A way forward sooner than you think With the coup de grâce of Auckland Light Rail (ALR) earlier this year, and the shift of the government’s priorities to roads, roads, and more roads, it ...
Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
David Farrar writes – We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how labour went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promiseThe result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
“I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
.“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
“It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet – is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
Bob Edlin writes – And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ HeraldThomas CoughlanSimeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
TL;DR:Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
"The Government is moving quickly to realise an additional $46 million in tariff savings in the EU market this season for Kiwi exporters,” Minister for Trade and Agriculture, Todd McClay says. Parliament is set, this week, to complete the final legislative processes required to bring the New Zealand – European ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
Pacific Media Watch Earthwise hosts Lois and Martin Griffiths. Earthwise presenters Lois and Martin Griffiths on Plains FM 96.9 community radio talk to Dr David Robie, a New Zealand author, independent journalist and media educator with a passion for the Asia-Pacific region. David talks about the struggle to raise awareness ...
Pacific Media Watch Ismail al-Ghoul, an Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent who was held for 12 hours at Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital, says Israeli forces rounded up Palestinian journalists at the facility and made them kneel on the ground for hours, while naked and blindfolded. “The occupation forces handcuffed and blindfolded us ...
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What can and can’t be purchased by disabled people or their carers has been slashed in an effort by the Ministry of Disabled People Whaikaha to save money. The purchasing guidelines, a set of rules that sets out what can be purchased using the various streams of Government disability funding, ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Tod Wright and Hien Nguyen, Fiscal incidence in New Zealand: The effects of taxes and benefits on household incomes in tax year 2018/19 . Analyses of the distributional impact of taxation and government ...
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The band has asked their record label to issue a cease and desist to stop the NZ First leader using their 1997 hit to support his ‘misguided political views’. “I get knocked down, but I get up again,” blared through the speakers on Sunday as Winston Peters took the stage ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Hughes, Lecturer, Research School of Management, Australian National University After months of debate and intrigue, the AFL’s 19th and newest team, the Tasmania Devils, finally launched its jumper, logo and colours in Devonport this week. The Devils will wear green, ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT University Narelle Portanier/Binge “If you don’t know who your mob are, you don’t know who you are,” Detective Andrea “Andie” Whitford (played by Leah Purcell) is told early into the new crime ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Joe Biden and Donald Trump have both secured their parties’ nominations for the November 5 United States general election by winning a ...
Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
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Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Tuesday 19 March appeared first on Newsroom. ...
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Have a look at Fireblades posts (2) at the end of yesterday's Daily Review (6 December).
Identifies the hypocrisy of Opposition. Wish I knew how to copy them and paste.
This should take you to one of Fireblade's on Daily Review for Friday 6.12 – https://thestandard.org.nz/daily-review-06-12-2019/#comment-1671358 – and then above it is the other. Good stuff with images.
When putting the link for a particular comment: You get it by clicking and copying the date and time of the comment you want, which you will copy from the URL address at the top (I call it the header line). With that you paste it in your comment so that you place it within a sentence. See below.
It may need to have a word in front and at end and a full stop and space to ensure it appears in full – https://thestandard.org.nz/daily-review-06-12-2019/#comment-1671358 FYI.
Thanks for the help we get with wrangling our computers and getting control of the pesky things so we can produce a finished comment without getting wiped out!
Cool, I didn't know that pasting within a line of text avoided the bug.
the other way for TS links, if you want the link below text, is to once you have copied the URL, click on the Link button just above the Comment text box, and the past the URL into the popup
(if you just paste straight into the text box below text) the bug will revert the URL to the post link not the comment link).
True. System must only auto-embed the link (as a clickable block rather than text) if it is the only thing in a paragraph.
annoying for people like me who like to separate out things by line, but I'm guessing that many here just paste the URL after whatever they've just typed.
Please have a look at weka's post from yesterday about what we can do to progress the ideas of dealing with our problems of climate change etc. It is something we could keep adding to, keep at the front of our minds. It is good to be keyboard warriors, how can we transfer the energy of our minds to our own actions, or if unable to assisting others in action in some ways, perhaps getting information for them, arranging venues – doing support work. Below is the link to take you straight there.
https://thestandard.org.nz/the-risk-of-climate-tipping-points-is-upon-us/
Thx
I heard some weeks ago the NZ Council of the Labour Party meet this week-end. I don't know for sure if it is true, but assuming it is:
My pick is, they will be examining the findings of the sexual harassment report against a Labour Party staffer. If so, we can expect those findings to be released in the next few days. Whatever they are, we can also expect Simon Bridges and co. to distort, twist and infer negative connotations that don't exist.
Will Labour forcefully respond and call them out for lying and cheating this time?
Simon is a sideshow in this and a hypocrite. I’d focus on the important stuff such us how to prevent similar things from happening in future and improve things that they can (and must) improve. Simon will still be barking at cars so let him bark and throw him a little bone every now and then to keep him happy.
I agree incognito
[Please don’t use capitals for your username, as Weka has already asked you. Please read the replies to your comments, the moderation notes addressed to you, and respond to acknowledge these, as Weka has already asked you to do. Failing to do so will result in you getting blacklisted (AKA banned) – Incognito]
See my Moderation note @ 2:07 PM.
" If so, we can expect those findings to be released in the next few days."
If anything at all is released I would say that it will not be until after Parliament rises for the year. Your best bet would be 5pm on 24 December.
On the other hand you may not see anything at all, at least officially. The PM said that "The third-party review into Labour's processes would be made public on the condition that participants wanted that."
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12268112
I'm sure that they can find at least one of the participants who will object.
If that party's comms team are doing their job, yes. No point in offering up a free hit.
Quite right. A competent Comms team should certainly be able to do that.
A good one would make sure that there was nothing in the report to embarrass them. It would be pretty easy to shut the complainants down. Just threaten them with treatment like one of the girls in the youth camp affair got. The defendant's lawyer came out in Court saying that of course it wasn't a sexual assault. After all the lawyer claimed that "she wanted it".
Or threaten them they will get the treatment that Winston is dishing out to the former President of his Party, and one that the Labour and Green Parties are happily going along with. Tell anyone who won't shut up that you will accuse them of having mental health problems.
Then you can get a total whitewash as anyone who knows it is false will be too cowed to speak up.
Fortunately they can be competent without being arseholes.
Strike me down with a feather, Alwyn shows his bias again with a ridiculous comment attacking Labour and his buddy Winston Peters.
If a case goes to Court, it is a whitewash, obviously.
The defendant’s lawyer is not a member of Labour or Labour’s comms team, but he (I assume it is a “he”) might as well be if you take Alwyn’s silly comment at face value.
The context of alleged lawyer’s claims in Court is missing, of course. Context and nuance is for mugs, obviously.
Alwyn knows that the Labour and Green Parties are happily going along with anything Winston Peters says or does. No link required, of course, because Alwyn knows.
Now, I’m sure that Alwyn can produce a link in which Winston Peters tells anyone who won't shut up that he will accuse them of having mental health problems. Alwyn would only be too happy to oblige, wouldn’t he? I can sense his glee already.
The lawyer was actually a "she". With your enormous skills in using a search engine that you talked about here recently I am sure you could have found that out.
If you were the parent of a teenage girl who was the complainant of a sexual assault, would you tell her that she should go ahead with the complaint and get attacked by the defendant's lawyer in Court or would you suggest that she simply forget the matter and pretend that it never happened? It isn't a question of who employed this particular lawyer. It is the fact that it pretty routinely happens and I am told it is one of the reasons that so few complaints actually get to Court. It simply isn't worth it.
As far as Winston's attacks on his former party President is concerned there is a very easily found link here
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12291423
All the Labour members on the Committee voted against having them appear before it. The would no doubt have embarrassed Winston. The Green Party, although supposedly wanting to clean up the anonymous and undeclared donations to Political Parties in New Zealand have remained very, very quiet. Surely correcting what appear to be very doubtful activities by New Zealand First should be of interest to them?
Perhaps you can produce some evidence whar the Green Party opposed something that Winston has asked for. Did they push for a Kermadec sanctuary perhaps?
Now for a challenge to you. You claim that Winston is my buddy. Perhaps you can produce a skerrick of evidence for your ridiculous claim. I think he is a disgrace to New Zealand politics and every other party in the house should treat him as a pariah. Unfortunately the only party leaders who have ever done so were Jenny Shipley after she took over from Bolger, and, most notably, John Key prior to the 2008 and 2011 elections.
In 2008 he said he would not work with Winston because he said, as I remember it, "I cannot trust him". In 2011 he said that "If Winston Peters holds the balance of power it will be a Phil Goff-led Labour government,".
Unfortunately he didn'r say the same before the 2014 election Neither did any party say it before the 2017 election. Shame on them.
I presume you will be happy to show me your evidence that Winston is my buddy? I'm sure you don't want to try and perpetuate such a foolish, and fallacious, claim.
Very well said Alwyn, the most open and transparent government we have ever had !~ //
The lawyer is irrelevant but what he/she said in Court is not. What happened in Court is not under the control of Labour or the Labour comms team. You created a strawman and I don’t need a search engine to notice that.
Your link does not support your assertions that “the Labour and Green Parties are happily going along with [it]” [my italics]. In fact, it states that it was “closed business” and you have no knowledge of what went on behind closed doors. So, you’re making up shit again. FYI, using my famous search skills I found that there are no members of the Green Party on the Justice Committee https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/sc/scl/justice/tab/mp Never mind, Alwyn.
As to Peters telling people about having mental health problems, he has already mentioned it so this is now an empty threat and not what you alleged @ 3.2.1.1. Are you having problems comprehending your own comment?
Oh, the buddy issue 🙂
We all know how much you love to hate Tsar Winston and the Green Party, for example, and you can’t help yourself telling lies about them due to your negative bias towards them. You have just provided the evidence (again) so it is QED for you, Alwyn. If you want more: you have used that silly juvenile term 35 times here on TS. I’m happy to provide all 35 links but then I’ll have to ban you for life. Your call, Alwyn, I’m more than happy to oblige.
You see, Alwyn, it is perfectly ok to criticise but it is not ok to make up shit to ‘prove’ your point, or rather your opinion, and you’re making a bit of habit of it.
I presume you count of 35 refers to T*** Peters.
You told me you didn't like it and asked if I would stop. At 1.32pm on 22 July I said "OK Just for you I'll do it.".
Here it is, just in case you can't find it.
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-21-07-2019/#comment-1639279
I haven't used it on a single occasion in the last four and a half months. I repeat "I haven't used it on a single occasion in the last four and a half months". Why don't you just accept that I did what I said I would? Why are you the person who brings it up again? Why do you feel the need to use the term if you dislike it so much?
You will also see, if you read this carefully that what I said about Peters is that he might threaten OTHER people with the sort of attack that he has mounted on the former President of his own party. He doesn't have to put it into words. People merely have to worry that he might lash out wildly at them, when they have no way to properly respond.
You will also see that I never even hinted that the lawyer was part of the Labour Party "Comms" team. I merely said that people who might be among those with complaints are going to worry about having this sort of accusation hurled at them. It is why many women will not proceed with complaints about sexual harassment. They are the ones who end up in the firing line and it just isn't worth it.
You also tell me that there are no Green members on the Committee. I know that. I never claimed there were. I said only that the four Labour members of the committee wouldn't allow them to testify. I also said that the Green Party never commented on this even though it appears to be something they claim to be interested in.
When Nick Smith moved an amendment to the silly bill Andrew Little pushed though under urgency that would have treated the New Zealand First Foundation donations as being donations to New Zealand First the Green Party voted against the amendment. Hardly following a practice that will provide openness and transparency about donations is it?
Meanwhile I will point out that I don't "lie" about the Green Party. I point out occasions when they don't seem to be following the practices they say the would like to see;.I quite happily confess I don't jump into the fray about the occasional good thing they do but there are plenty of people contributing to this site who will do that ad nauseam. I merely try and provide a little balance.
Finally of course are you willing to state that you are completely unable to find anything that supposedly demonstrates that Winston is my buddy? Then you will have removed a slur you have cast on my character.
I really thought that incognito might have responded to this.
Even if only to admit that his complaints about references to T*** Peters were rather off course.
Oh well. I suppose it is just another example that hope springs eternal in the alwyn breast, and that it then remains unrequited.
… slowly withering in the dark and evil contrivance that invented it, realising it is merely a chiffon-esque drapery invented to conceal the soulless abyss that would use any form of human suffering to gain meaningless pretended advantage in an online debate. Sad, shrivelled, and hollow, it eventually rots into the pool of ichor that that had originally given it a perverted facsimile of life.
@flockie.
You really sound unbearably depressed.I think my view of myself is a much happier one than your self portrait of your own existence. You poor chap. How dreadful must be your life with only misery and darkness to look forward to.
Please don't do anything that you cannot reverse. Things will get better. They certainly can't get any worse for you, can they?
All of that to receive an "I know you are but what am I" response?
I don't mind you being an unregenerate lying tory mouthpiece, it's the fact that you're a cut-rate one I can't abide.
Can I suggest you splurge on a good cigar. That is sure, providing you can forget the obscene taxes that are levied in New Zealand, to cheer you up.
A good cigar, a good night's rest and the world will seem a much more cheerful place in the morning.
At least I hope it will be better tomorrow. I am getting sick and tired of the incessant wind and rain we seem to be getting in Wellington. I think I will move to Hawke's Bay
Thanks grey /open-mike-07-12-2019/#comment-1671388 it works.
That's my Chrissie present to you – and it works! Probably more useful than others I am giving. But I'll give you A Marvellous Toy too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLYefZkOMB0
Thanks. Takes me back a way!
'Murica.
https://twitter.com/CharlesPPierce/status/1202963986515410944
The sketches are part of a report entitled “How America Tortures,” which was put together by Denbeaux and his students at Seton Hall Law. The sketches are a trip through hell; Zubaydah was waterboarded 83 times. He was left in “stress positions” for days at a time, and confined, shackled, in a tiny crate for the same length of time. Americans did this. The American government sanctioned it. And the American people haven’t given enough of a damn about it to hold its monsters accountable.
Bybee now has a lifetime appointment as a judge on a federal court of appeals. Rizzo is a fellow at the Hoover Institution.
Monsters.
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a30148805/cia-torture-program-abu-zubaydah-sketches/
A change to the U.K and its parliamentary rules mooted by Jeremy Corbyn.
https://www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2019/12/05/jeremy-corbyn-makes-a-stunning-proposal-that-could-fix-british-politics-for-good/
And this uncovering of Tory intentions:
https://www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2019/12/06/jeremy-corbyns-brexit-bombshell-blows-tories-entire-election-strategy-to-pieces/
How will the bbc bury it?
With a cone of silence.
Go after the messenger AKA attack is the best form of defence: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-50699168
General election 2019: Source of UK-US trade document leak must be found – PM
If Donald Trump has any lead left in his orange pencil, Muhammad would be a popular name for his new baby boy.
Muhammad makes the list of top 10 baby names in the US for the first time.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/12/muhammad-breaks-top-10-popular-baby-names-2019-191206064945493.html
Not the boy's teddy bear though.
The last two Colmar Bruntons suggest National and ACT currently "have the numbers to scrape together a Government". This is, of course, predicated on the idea that NZF will fall below the 5% threshold.
How likely is this ?
The latest Colmar Brunton was conducted at the 25 month mark.
Here I compare current NZF poll ratings with their Colmar Brunton stats (at the same point in the electoral cycle) during their last two times in Govt.
NZF in Colmar Bruntons:
2019
CB at 25 month mark (Dec 2019) = 4.3%
Average over previous 12 months = 4.18%
Range over previous 12 months = 3.3 – 5.0
1998
CB at 25 month mark (Nov 1998) = 2%
Average over previous 12 months = 1.96%
Range over previous 12 months = 1 – 3
Subsequent Election 1999 GE = 4.26% (up 2.26 points on 25 month mark CB / up 2.3 points on previous 12 month average)
2007
CB at 25 month mark (Oct 2007) = 1.9%
Average over previous 12 months = 2.28%
Range over previous 12 months = 1.9 – 2.9
Subsequent Election 2008 GE = 4.07 (up 2.17 points on 25 month mark CB / up 1.79 points on previous 12 month average)
So … the Winnie Brigade are roughly 2 points more popular than they were at the same point during their previous two stints in Govt … & the historic pattern is a 2 point lift for the Party by Election Day.
It's also true, of course, that in both cases (1999 & 2008 GEs) they fell below the 5% threshold. National-aligned doomsayers have focussed on the 4% Party Vote NZF received at both of those Elections … (implying it's some sort of Iron Law of NZ Electoral Politics that the Peters Party will always fall to 4% when in Govt), … whereas I'm inclined to place greater emphasis on the roughly 2 point boost they enjoyed at each of these elections (99 / 08) & to highlight their better performance in recent Polls compared to post-1996 & post-
19992005. [correction entered by Moderator]Also note (given recent events) that NZF received this 2 point boost despite being embroiled in controversy during those previous periods in Govt (including a well-organised media campaign against the Party in 2008).
To be sure, the context differs a little … in its previous two stints in Govt, NZF had opted to join ailing Third Term Administrations … this time, of course, it's a fresh First Termer … & yes you have to be careful about relying too much on historic precedent … but the best reading of the entrails is that NZF will take around 6% of the Party Vote in 2020.
Minor correction: End of third-to-last paragraph should, of course, read: " … to highlight their better performance in recent Polls compared to post-1996 & post-2005". (not 1999).
Ok now?
Cheers.
Do you think that the 1998 Poll numbers from November are really meaningful?
The poll would have been done about 2 months after Jenny Shipley had sacked Winston from the Cabinet and his party had fissioned under him. There were just over half his members who stuck with him and just under half who stayed with the then Government. I would have thought that this would have been the dominant factor in whatever the results of the poll in November were.
However I can't find the other CB results for that year. Was this November one an oddity or did it match any poll taken in say July of 1998? The sacking took place on 14 August 1998. I can't really remember that much about the lead-up to the event and whether it was a surprise to the general public.
If it is a real oddball it renders the calculations rather uncertain. There would only be a sample of one in previous sessions on NZF in power..
Did you read the last paragraph or maybe even just the last sentence?
It was the right thing to include the 1998 data, for the sake of completeness, if nothing else.
Have another look at the 1998 stats I set out in my earlier comment, alwyn.
So, as you can see, NZF's support in Colmar Bruntons over the previous 12 months (ie the immediate 12 months before Nov 1998) ranged from 1 to 3% … and averaged 1.96% … so their November rating was pretty much bang on the average.
The implosion of the National-NZF Govt made no discernable difference to the Peters Party's ratings.
Sorry. I didn't read it carefully enough. I got very interested in the question of the NZF blow-up and didn't think through your published numbers clearly.
No probs.
For the record:
NZF's CB average in the 8 polls immediately before Winnie's sacking = 1.95%
NZF's CB average in the 3 polls immediately after Winnie's sacking = 2.00%
(= 11 Polls over the year up to & including the Nov 1998 25 month CB)
No effect at all, is there. I am surprised. I would have thought it would have had a significant effect.
Out of curiosity are these numbers available on line? I hunted quite hard but couldn't find a record of polls going back to the ones for the period before the 1999 election.
Have you got a reference or have you got a private set of the numbers from an offline source.
The latter … & pretty much like David Farrar I'm inclined to greedily keep them very close to my chest … gives both of us a certain added value, as it were.
.
Took quite some time to track all the data down more than a decade ago …right back to the first National Research Bureau Polls of late 1969 (& a few very early NZ Gallup polls from the first half of the 60s) … so might as well get a wee reward for all the effort, I guess.
Then again, I do like to think I have a few democratic instincts as well … so eventually might look at making them widely available by setting all the poll numbers out on my blog right back to 69 (for Herald-NRB) & 74 (for TVNZ-Heylen / Colmar Brunton).
Incidentally, I gave a very brief overview of NZ's early polling history in a comment on Chris Trotter's Bowalley Road here:
http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/2019/12/driving-us-up-poll.html?showComment=1575636685912#c5315993626022830853
Thank you. I tried very hard to find that data but getting back past the 2002 election was beyond my skills. At least it wasn't just my inability to manipulate Google that meant it wasn't showing up.
From the 2002 election you can find the polls on Wikipedia of course.
My God though. Getting all that ephemeral data right back to '69 is truly impressive. Ah, those were the days. National never, at least so I was told a long time afterward by one of their very senior MPs, never expected to win that one. One of their Ministers built a new house before the election so that he would have somewhere to move to after he had to leave his Ministerial residence. Then they won and he could stay on in the house he was supplied with.
I won't waste your time asking for the Poll numbers that might have convinced them they were going to lose though.
Thank you for the information. I don't feel bad about not finding it myself now.
The Nasty Party.
https://twitter.com/GSpellchecker/status/1202905814874370048
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/dec/06/tory-candidate-sally-ann-hart-defends-low-pay-people-learning-disabilities
Sad to disagree Stephen. I was involved with the IHC Sheltered Workshops years ago. Those Intellectually Handicapped people rolled up each day with enthusiasm and socialised with like minded folk. They were paid at less than half the lowest average pay but the daily relationships were a delight. The interactions were worth far more than the pay.
It was a very sad day when a Government ruling meant that the Workshops were closed down.
And the people no longer had anything to look forward to. Days empty and lonely.
So not a bad idea to reopen Workshops eh?
That is interesting to hear ianmac. I had heard that the sheltered workshops had been enjoyed and that they could earn their own money and have a job they could manage made them proud and content.
But the preachy women and some men who decide everything from a point of view that is totally middle class, materialistic with a bit of spirituality thrown in and most of all, are pedantic, pompous and righteous. Their opinion oif what is right rules the day, and the opinions of those affected by their decisions are irrelevant; 'those' people don't understand the range of possibilities available to give them fairness and equity. This may not be what you think but it is observable very often and is something that often occurs in 'consultations'.
were incomes additional to a benefit? Seem to recall the change had something to do with minimum wage regs…if that was the case you would expect some better law could be drafted
They needed to be on a benefit for their security of care, and their working pay should have had an option to be at a rate that was less than minimum pay. This was the welfare system being undone, and everyone being treated the same – equality rather than equity. The fact is ignored, that some relationships don't fit the SWelfs narrow formula, ie a parent being officially paid by the mentally handicapped child, as she works caring for him, therefore he is officially her employer!
The problem has also been of the state setting minimum rates for things that should be able to be decided on an informal basis with an appeal process if felt too low. Also affects babysitting which used to be done by students for pocket money.
hmmmm..
"The IHC applauded. It too had been ideologically captured. Over opposition from many of its bewildered members, the IHC seized the opportunity to shut down 76 workshops and "business units".
Part of the problem was that the IHC itself had changed radically. From an organisation run largely by parents and volunteers, it had evolved into a government-funded Wellington bureaucracy led by disability-sector careerists."
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/79045618/closing-sheltered-workshops-did-more-harm-than-good-for-intellectually-disabled
I was very peripherally involved. A friend had a son who was employed there and the closure of them meant he was now basically at home all day driving his mother crazy. I had no direct involvement with the workshops though and can only go on what they said, then, about them.
I remember a very moving interview published at the time with the mother of another person who worked there and who was now unemployed. She said that he was paid about a dollar an hour and that was all his work was really worth. She got a benefit that provided for his actual living costs but the money he received was really his pocket money but was something he was very proud of.
Why the IHC was so keen on getting rid of them was beyond her and why the then Government went along with the idea made no sense. I have seen comments that it was caused by the IHC administration being taken over by careerist civil servants in Wellington. I have no idea if that was true.
There was quite a bit of abusing the low wages going on in some of those workshops in order to keep the wages low. I had family working in some of them and standing up against this.
Some examples – a women with an intellectual disability employed by the IHC to do receptionist work for 12 years. Carried out the role as well as any other receptionist paid well below rate at a few dollars a day. Did everything from phones/reception/typing.
Each year there was supposed to be a productivity assessment that worked out the appropriate below rate pay rate for each person. A family member in this instance assessed the rate for each person based on the number of widgets at the correct quality they produced. This lift in wages for many workers was deemed by management to be too expensive (after all they had just bought all the managers new cars and were going on a trip to China) and so they buried her assessment and got an unqualified person to assess them at unsurprisingly the same rate as it had been previously. The labour inspector responsible for signing off on this previously worked for the trust involved.
The IHC has a strong resistance in it's ranks at all levels to any client in it's care earning more than the limits prescribed by WINZ for benefit purposes. It's not that the IHC gets any less money it's that the mix changes – the benefit portion which the IHC gets reduces and the DHB portion increases. The client gets to keep all extra earnings so it is in their interests to earn more. Part of another family member's jobs was finding good quality work for people with disabilities. The IHC did not like the extra paperwork that comes with earning over the exemption and so she used to get told off for having people earn more.
This is an organisation that used to keep clients money in their own coffers til they were forced to set up individual trust accounts, that took peoples disability allowance to supply finding employment services they often never supplied (friend of ours fought very hard to stop this for her intellectually disabled sister), who often colluded with poly-techs to run profit making employment courses for clients to put them somewhere for the day, that is "Idea Services" to reduce stigma most of the time but IHC when it comes to fund-raising, that for many years paid a pittance to staff working all night and so on.
I would argue that the careerist civil servants had been colluding with the IHC administration for many, many years to keep paying disabled people low wages, to profit off their work and training and to support the IHC to keep people institutionalised for as long as possible.
In reality much of the institutionlisation was a loss of freedom for the disabled.
Robert Martin gives a good insight into life before and after.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Martin_(disability_rights_activist)
https://books.google.co.nz/books/about/Becoming_a_Person.html?id=zjXYoAEACAAJ&redir_esc=y#:~:targetText=Becoming%20a%20Person%20is%20the,suffered%20neglect%2C%20abuse%20and%20violence.
"he said that he was paid about a dollar an hour and that was all his work was really worth."
Parents are part of the problem – so many undervalue their own children and have such low expectations. Particularly the generation that institutionalised the majority of the disabled – out of sight out of mind.
Compounded by the reforms of the public service to replace effectiveness (e.g. giving people with disabilities a decent paid job because overall it is good for society) versus efficiency (it's only about productivity).
The joys of being able to walk into a government department if you had Downs syndrome for instance and be able to see someone like you in the workplace need to be welcomed back. Sheltered workshops should stay in the historical institutional past.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/dec/06/trump-says-people-flush-the-toilet-10-times-and-seeks-solution
I bet the regulations won't apply to him.
I read that and the immediate thought that came to mind is he must drop some seriously floaty ones. Maybe he should stop snacking on the polystyrene boxes his favourite meals come in.
Polystyrene? Is that what gives him that peculiar hair colour? However he does seem to have a very full head of hair for a man of his age so it might seem worth it to him.
Ummm… implantation and daily professional comb overs alwyn. Add a dash of odourless hairspray and Bob's your uncle.
Combover yes, but definitely not professional. Apparently it's all his own work. No professional has ever admitted to having anything to do with it (that I know of, anyway). Be honest, do you think anyone with any kind of self-esteem whatsoever would ever confess to an abomination like that?
https://www.quora.com/How-does-Donald-Trump-style-his-hair
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/photos/2015/09/an-illustrated-history-of-donald-trumps-hair
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2775589/trump-hair-finasteride-ivanka-michael-wolff-twitter/
bronx orange is the go to
https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1203048075759095808
https://boingboing.net/2019/12/05/buy-the-cheap-orange-foundatio.html
I know his words actually have no meaning whatsoever beyond hinting at whatever spiny bug up his ass is wriggling at that particular moment, but the nerdy pedant in me can't help pointing out that environmentally friendly bulbs actually de-emphasise orange and red.
That's because LEDs have proportionately very little output in red and orange compared to daylight and especially compared to incandescents (including halogens). Check out these spectra for the comparison.
https://www.twitter.com/defeat_gop/status/919220204881809408
Workers like that who just body-shame their clients and pst the image across the world should be fired immediately.
The supposedly woke left can now turn to discussing:
– Warren's chubby legs
– Biden's hair implants
– Booker's baldness, and
– The critical failure of Sanders to get a fucking haircut once a year.
Shame on you all. #MeToo my ass.
I dunno. Seems to me things people don't have immediate direct control over need to be treated with respect. But actual voluntary direct choices are fair game.
So a choice to go for a dayglo hue of fake-bronze spraytan is a legit target of mockery, but the moobs are prob'ly best left alone. (the image looks suspiciously like a fake to me, tho)
Similarly chubby legs and baldness should be off-limits. Hair implants are tricky because they were a long-ago decision that's not readily reversible and may be a different choice today.
The lack of a fucking haircut is definitely fair game if that matters to anyone. Although he'd probably lose half his support if he did go and get it tidied up, it's a big part of his maverick outsider aura.
But wait, there's more.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3918284/Spray-tans-porn-pageant-queens-Oval-Office-dodgy-military-regalia-glimpse-life-like-inside-Trump-White-House.html
..serious cables after all those hamberders and fries ..
Y'know, we really should be appreciative of the way he's expanded our vocabularies. Until he used the word, I never knew a bunch of fastfood chain budget range burgers left to go cold and congealed then stacked in a big pile was actually called a hamberder.
..it comes down, it's called rain..
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1203055422388736000
Chris Trotter has raised some interesting points and political mqneouvres open to us in NZ if we choose to accept them.
https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/2019/12/adrian-orr-reserve-banks-revolutionary.html
Anderton and Cullen gave the voting public the better option of forming our own bank – Kiwibank – as an option that consumers could freely take up.
However with about 4% of market share, it's just barely achieving its nationalistic vision. It is perfectly within the power of the government to tilt the procurement table and get Kiwibank to do all of its banking. That move alone would quadruple its power.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/business/115992087/18yearold-kiwibank-still-has-only-4-per-cent-of-the-market-whats-happened
Orr has given our banking system greater safety, for which he should be applauded.
But so far I don't detect any political appetite from anyone to re-nationalise anything or indeed make any move of a structural nature that Cullen and Anderton did.
Kiwibank. Doing what their customers want. Well that seems to be what they claim.
Meanwhile they are, in just a couple of months going to completely get rid of cheques.
"After 30 September 2019 Kiwibank won’t issue cheque or deposit books.
After 28 February 2020 cheque deposits will not be accepted into a Kiwibank customer account; other banks may stop accepting Kiwibank cheques.
After 28 February 2020 Kiwibank will stop providing bank cheques."
I know one or two , typically elderly, people who still use cheques. The don't want to have to do Internet banking. Well tough luck if you have been with Kiwibank, supposedly the pensioners friend.
https://www.kiwibank.co.nz/about-us/news-and-updates/media-releases/2019-05-16-kiwibank-go-cheque-free-from-2020/
They are also closing branches. Johnsonville, one of the largest Wellington suburbs is just losing their Branch. Only six weeks to go.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/117917873/johnsonville-kiwibank-to-close-in-january-steady-decline-of-customers-cited
Tell me again why we have the bank? If you want a New Zealand owned bank why don't you go the the popular, and well regarded by their customers, TSB or The Co-Operative Bank.
Consumer found them to have far higher satisfaction ratings than Kiwibank or any of the majors. In 2019 Co-Op got 87%, TSB 83% and Kiwibank 66%. The big ones were lower. TSB were top in 2017 and 2018.
Incidentally the big four will have higher Capital ratios than the minnows. On the basis of Orr's arguments the big ones will be safer that than the smaller ones.
Bill Clinton was impeached on the 19th of December, 1998.
/
Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich called out House Democrats for trying to impeach President Donald Trump “on the eve of Christmas” during an interview with Fox News, Friday.
[…]
“And really, on the eve of Christmas it is really sad to see the dishonesty and the partisanship that the House Democrats are displaying,” he concluded.
https://www.mediaite.com/politics/newt-gingrich-slams-democrats-for-impeaching-trump-on-eve-of-christmas/
Andrew Johnson – the other impeached one – only held on to his job by a single vote.
https://time.com/5552679/impeached-presidents/
https://twitter.com/eve_rebecca/status/1203073439520710658
The Listening Post is doing an episode about conservative media interference in the UK election.
Live stream link below, finishes at 10pm, will post link to episode tomorrow It's a goodie.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjIjKNcr_fk
This could be a teenager near you. Restaurant Brands is large enough to affect every region in NZ
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/117973819/pizza-hut-kfc-workers-break-silence-on-rape-threats-and-harassment
“If they took sexual harassment as seriously as they take petty theft, we wouldn’t be having this conversation,” says UNITE industrial officer Duncan Allen of the raft of harassment complaints he has helped lodge.
UNITE has had complaints from employees at other companies – but nothing like Restaurant Brands, which Allen says appears to have a deep-rooted issue with its company culture.
“Far more energy (is) put into protecting the alleged harasser than there is about investigating properly and fixing things.”
He believes there’s a pattern of employees leaving their jobs because laying a complaint is made too difficult, with the company demanding specific evidence – including exact dates and times – before they will agree to look into allegations.