Some links to docos you might enjoy CV ….. although you may have seen them before …….. others could enjoy or learn from them …..
When I’m reading an article on the net and a name or operation I know nothing about is mentioned …. I ‘right click’ and search to see where the information leads and how it ties into things … it can end up very informative sometimes. …
Doug Valentine is a investigative journalist who after 4 years of research and interviews with C.I.A agents wrote a book “The Phoenix Program ” which ran during the Vietnam war …. “,…. it’s described as “A shocking exposé of
the covert CIA program of widespread torture, rape, and murder of civilians during America’s war in Vietnam,” …..
In this radio interview Doug Valentine describes his upbringing with a WWII vet father and how he got onto the phoenix program which was unknown to the public and had been a secret for 20 odd years https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkPUqUAhBg8 ……..
A lot of the doco explains specific propaganda and manipulation used to gain support for mass murder ( war )…………… He also gives a review of how he thinks Trump will operate… which is both critical and hopeful … Its a pack of murderers Trump will have to deal with and they certainly will not want to stop their sadistic blood democracy
But of course Vietnam and The Phoenix Program was just a continuation of using the worst psychopathic killers to suppress real democracy , murder political rivals, start wars, starve innocent civilians ….. and misinform us about it the whole time ….
“Operation Gladio” involved the C.I.As predecessor O.S.S and was specifically about the recruitment of Nazis,ultra-fascists and extreme right wingers after WWII was over………….. they were hidden militias/terrorist
The Govt sponsered nazis Killed many many innocent people …. which was then most often blamed on communists/socialist … using the resulting public outrage to kill or persecute them.
Which all leads me to ask ……. why do we …. as in New Zealand ….have a trade embargo against Russia for protecting ethnic russians and others from a proto fascist govt installed after destabilization and a violent coup ????….
“The International Criminal Court prosecutes individuals who have committed genocide and other major war crimes. Over 120 countries support it, but the United States is not one of them ……. ”
It all seems very disrespectful to WWII vets …. democracy u.s.a style ……….supporting Nazis
At least by not having a real air-force we did not become part of the ISIS aerial fighting wing like the Aussies and yanks did ….
Which all leads me to ask ……. why do we …. as in New Zealand ….have a trade embargo against Russia for protecting ethnic russians and others from a proto fascist govt installed after destabilization and a violent coup ????….
It certainly would be highly questionable, if the situation you describe reflected reality rather than fiction.
Thank you reason. The USA utterly destroyed its credibility with its actions in Vietnam, and has never come to terms with how appalling they really are(still).
Cheers garibaldi ………. one of the truly evil deeds done at the end of WWII was when the Brits reinstated the Fascist Nazi collaborators as police and Government in Greece ….. while waging war on the anti Nazi Greek partisan fighters who had liberated their country shortly before the Brits arrived …
….” as the December Battle of Athens had begun – known in Greece as the Dekemvriana – fought not between the British and the Nazis, but the British alongside supporters of the Nazis against the partisans. ” ……
“And thereafter Greece’s descent into catastrophic civil war: a cruel and bloody episode in British as well as Greek history which every Greek knows to their core”
” In France or Italy, if you fought the Nazis, you were respected in society after the war, regardless of ideology; they were heroes. In Greece, you found yourself fighting – or imprisoned and tortured by – the people who had collaborated with the Nazis, on British orders. There has never been a reckoning with that crime,” …. https://libcom.org/history/british-perfidy-greece-story-worth-remembering-ed-vulliamy-helena-smith
Those other Docos I posted up for Puckish were probably a bit long for Puckish …….. Here’s a 6 minute music one which has a simple message for him https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5yYjcxnpCs
thank you reason. It seems that we have to educate some privileged citizens of the US-Anglo empire what their own recent history is. I bet some still think that the Contras were the “popularly supported freedom fighters”
My sister made some purchases in Briscoes yesterday. The salesman produced a plastic bag which she said she didn’t want. We were told they had to either give us a bag or put a ‘sold’ sticker on every item. Grrr!!
Once they’re paid for they belong to you and you can do whatever you like with them, including deciding you don’t want extra stickers. Plus what Ffloyd said.
They’d probably then insist on stickering or bagging them before the transaction was completed. There’s probably something politically creative to do with the bag or stickers at that point 😈
when this happen, accept the bag, go to the next rubbish bin outside of the shop and put any surplus packaging, plastic bags, plastic wrappings etc in said rubbish bin.
If someone from the Mall asks why you do that you simply state that you did not want the plastic bag/packaging/plastic wrapping and thus you leave it behind to let the store deal with the rubbish.
IF/when enough people do that and the shops/mall have ot empty their rubbish containers several times more a day some businesses will stop using any extra packaging.
I do that often at the Supermarket/Paknslave with plastic wrappers around boxes around bottles and the likes. Not gonna schlepp that stuff home.
it will be a company policy. Their bags are branded and while you walk around with your briscoes bag, your pak n slave bags etc etc you are a walking talking advertisement for the company and in many cases you have to pay 10 cents for the privelege.
Kick a fuss with the company and then start leaving all the surpluss packaging behind in the shops and let them deal with the rubbish.
Why would you a. schlepp that stuff home and b. pay for having it removed as rubbish?
When I’m reading an article on the net and a name or operation I know nothing about is mentioned I ‘right click’ and search to see where
the information leads and how it ties into things …
Doug Valentine is a investigative journalist who after 4 years of research and interviews with C.I.A agents wrote a book “The Phoenix Program ” which ran during the Vietnam war …. “,…. it’s described as “A shocking exposé of
the covert CIA program of widespread torture, rape, and murder of civilians during America’s war in Vietnam,” …..
In this radio interview he describes his upbringing with a WWII vet father and how he got onto the phoenix program which was unknown to the public and had been a secret for 20 odd years https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkPUqUAhBg8 ……..
A lot of the doco explains specific propaganda and manipulation used to gain support for mass murder ( war )…………… He also gives a review of how he thinks Trump will operate… which is both critical and hopeful … Its a pack of murderers Trump will have to deal with and they certainly will not want to stop.
But of course Vietnam and The Phoenix Program was just a continuation of using the worst psychopathic killers to suppress real democracy , murder political rivals, start wars, starve innocent civilians ….. and misinform us about it the whole time ….
“Operation Gladio” involved the C.I.As predecessor O.S.S and was specifically about the recruitment of Nazis,ultra-fascists and extreme right wingers after WWII was over………….. they were hidden militias/terrorist
The Govt sponsered nazis Killed many many innocent people …. which was then most often blamed on communists/socialist … using the resulting public outrage to kill or persecute them.
Which all leads me to ask ……. why do we …. as in New Zealand ….have a trade embargo against Russia for protecting ethnic russians and others from a proto fascist govt installed after destabilization and a violent coup ????….
“The International Criminal Court prosecutes individuals who have committed genocide and other major war crimes. Over 120 countries support it, but the United States is not one of them ……. ”
Its mainly our farmers who are paying for NZs support of fascism at the moment .. ….. good to see National party supporters paying for their policy
At least by not having a real air-force we did not become part of the ISIS aerial fighting wing like the Aussies and yanks did ….
Like our building industry where we sell raw materials for peanuts to buy back for a fortune, we can now give our water away to buy back in plastic bottles for $3. Bad for the environment, bad for the economy, but obviously a great profit for those getting the resource consents being dished out like lollies.
Yup, water should only be free if you harvest it off your roof or your own ponds, if you start taking from National parks, lakes, aquifers then you should have to pay per cubic meter for the water to the government and a levy to the local community and ONLY if it will have a minimal environmental effects.
The resource consents should be able to be modified or nulled if there are any negative effects and the consents should only be for 5 – 10 year periods not forever, so that if there is a drought or what have you – the consents can be modified.
It is crazy how the council and government are just giving away our public resources. Wonder who the company is and who they know in government and council?
Not sure where you live BM but many of us on town water seemed to be already charged for water, therefore why should a small group of people be able to take out millions of litres of water for their business from NZer’s without also paying for their useage?
If you want to avoid water charges collect from your roof or ponds for farms. Not some individuals diverting and taking water from everyone for their own benefit and selling if off shore while many locals are forced to pay for it.
Na mate, they are the first step in sorting out wasteful, entitled bludgers who think they can use as much water as they like and not have to pay for it. Bonus effect in allowing reticulation managers to get a handle on location and quantity of losses from their reticulation. So the result of metering is lower costs to most water users, apart from the wasteful entitled bludgers, who get to pay for their usage.
It’s the political clout of the wasteful entitled bludgers that keeps our water supplies un-metered, and uncontrolled.
The councils seem to be giving away the rate payers water that’s what I am objecting to, by giving private companies resource consent to harvest water for nothing.
It’s one of those things about economics that most people simply do not understand: We need to measure how much of a resource we have, how much of it can be used sustainably per year and how much and where is actually being used.
For some strange reason we’ve developed this idea that we can just take it all without worrying about it.
So, yes, every house, farm and business needs to have a water metre. And if we keep a market system then everyone needs to be charged for each unit that they use.
Like water is so scarce on the West Coast that there is not nearly enough to export.
Seriously, get real here. Why wouldn’t you export water from the West Coast? Standardnistas are always going on about the lack of jobs, especially in the regions, but obviously when they are created you are against them. Go figure.
One of the problems many have with this issue Wayne is the resource belongs to all New Zealanders, yet it will be a privately owned venture that is going to directly profit from this.
If we are going to bulk export water it should be done through Government and for the benefit of all New Zealanders.
I think that if you harvest from your own roof for residential use it should be free or if you irrigate stock from your own pond it should be free. What I object to, is that some locals paying a fortune for water, while other councils are giving it away for export (probably to cronies). Where is the fairness in that?
The point is that our present economic system mistakes money for wealth. Exporting resources actually makes us poorer even though a few people will have more money in the bank.
The Chump says he’s saving jobs in the US. A few hundred at a time. By individually bullying companies (into doing things they were going to do anyway, but the Chump and the company both get good press from bullshitting about it). But he’s promised to trash clean energy, which is one of the fastest growing and high value segments of the US economy. Meanwhile China is creating millions of jobs by getting serious about clean energy.
Trump is into good business and good deals. If “clean energy” can demonstrate its place in the US economy, it’ll have a very good run under Trump.
Meanwhile China is creating millions of jobs by getting serious about clean energy.
NB China is still opening up new thermal plants every month.
The Chump says he’s saving jobs in the US. A few hundred at a time. By individually bullying companies
It’s good to see that we finally have a US President who understands how business makes decisions and doesn’t believe in the free market mumbo jumbo of the Clintons and the Obamas.
Mexican press already complaining that Trump has cost Mexico at least 3600 jobs which were due to move from the US to Mexico.
@ Colonial Viper, Are you seriously saying that you believe Trump ( himself in the1% class) will operate outside his own class ideology, and help workers achieve better more stable conditions/pay over other (1% ers) industrialists/corporatists profit motives, and that he doesn’t believe in a totally free market?
What has he ever done in his own business ventures to have you believe those things?
He’s already doing those things. And it’s not just about Mexico – he’s just fired shots at the Toyota Corporation telling them if they do not build their next plant in the USA, they will face a 35% tariff at the border.
BTW you need to realise that the “elites” are not a monolithic block. History shows us that the “elites” often have conflicting or competing agendas. We can see this quite clearly with the deep state attempting to take the Trump Administration down before it even gets in.
Trump has expressed support for so-called right-to-work legislation, which allows workers to avoid paying union dues. Republican leaders in Congress have consistently sought such a change at the national level. Labor unions say such laws are aimed at undermining collective bargaining and workers’ rights.
It’s ok though, because a shithead propagandist says water is dry.
Trump is making the USA more attractive for business. He’ll threaten businesses who want to move jobs out of the USA. But he’ll also give them lower taxes and more compliant workforce conditions if they stay.
It’s a classic business-like carrot and stick approach.
Obama was just letting Detroit jobs walk away to Mexico – destroying US worker unions that way.
That’s the way of it. Trump can deliver some things, but given the political establishment he is up against, he won’t be able to deliver everything by himself.
You’ll have to point out where I said that. Indeed, I said above that elites often have conflicting or competing interests and that can be seen in how the Deep State is attempting to take Trump and his Administration down. (Implicitly suggesting that Trump is indeed part of the elite).
If anything, saying that Trump is part of the 1% is not wholly accurate. He is more correctly thought of as part of the 1% of the 1%.
Trump’s fellow elitists have long known that they cannot control him like they could control Reagan, Bush, Clinton and (they were hoping), Rodham Clinton.
OK, so just to be clear, are you saying that you believe that American workers, American civil rights, and freedom of speech will all improve overall under a Trump Presidency?
Also what historical episode are you alluding to where ‘elites’ ( a word I loath to use for the leeching class) have turned on their own class for the benefit of workers in a long term and substantive way?
OK, so just to be clear, are you saying that you believe that American workers, American civil rights, and freedom of speech will all improve overall under a Trump Presidency?
They’ll deteriorate at an equal or slower rate than under President Obama’s time.
I can almost guarantee that Trump will prosecute FEWER whistleblowers than the record breaking Orwellian Obama.
Recently, two U.S. coal companies, Peabody Energy Corporation and Arch Coal, filed for bankruptcy amid tumbling coal prices. These companies had invested significantly to acquire coal mines and were particularly hurt by low consumption in China.
Indications are that it will be lower from coal fired generation. So that would indicate that it does matter that China is going to add even more gigawatts of renewable power generation.
Krugman on the Chump’s phony jobs policy and how he’s playing the media with his “saving jobs” schtick.
“In other words, it may have sounded as if Mr. Trump was doing something substantive by intervening with Carrier, but he wasn’t. This was fake policy — a show intended to impress the rubes, not to achieve real results.”
Clinton Camper Krugman is just pissed that he didn’t get the White House position Hillary promised him, and has been losing his mind for the last two months over it.
If Krugman was really interested in policies which make a substantial difference to the US jobs market he should not have been dead-set against Gerald Friedmans estimates of the US economys future under Bernie Sanders economic policy.
Friedman was discussing policies which might actually make a dent in the 75,000 odd churn of the jobs market each day in the US.
The main point is, (as Krugman says), that “Friedman is implicitly assuming that the U.S. economy is (and will continue to be for a long time) dramatically below its productive capacity.” which he disputes. But given that Krugman is saying there that the US is actually much closer to full capacity utilization when dealing with Friedman (which means almost all of the 75,000 turnover will find other jobs quickly) why does he also claim some re-shoring is insignificant because many will languish without jobs for many many years, when dealing with Trump. Of course its because Krugman thinks he can have it both ways on this issue.
Also, despite claiming its fake policy, Krugman does nothing to actually show that the policy doesn’t do exactly what it says it does. e.g the headline of Krugmans piece is based on a lie! (most probably by the editor).
Society and civilisation is already collapsing for the bottom one to two billion in the world.
The stuck up ignorant intellectual-yet-idiots in first class don’t think anything is wrong with the Titanic, but those in steerage have noticed that the water is up to their knees and rising fast.
Even the wealthy locations around the world are experiencing weird, severe weather events year on year. But don’t worry we’re this close to self driving cars and drone courier deliveries which will of course solve all our problems.. not.
Alex Jones and Max Keiser (mid Dec): the Trump effect, death of the MSM, the rise of alternative media, RT as “fake news”, creating jobs in America, Vladimir Putin
I’m putting this in the reply because you mentioned the magic words “fake news”.
Check out this bizzare story of a dating site (yes really) attacking Assange.
There is a link in the article that goes to another story where Wikileaks threatening to sue CNN (the king of all fake news sites IMHO) for labeling Assange as a pedocrim.
thanks for the link. Mildly amazed it made it to mcclatchy as being newsworthy. US Gov has influence over tonnes of front people and front organisations to do this kind of nonsense with, not to mention offsiders like Soros etc funding NGOs who do similar under direction.
Cantabrians, is this an actual issue? Bubbling under the radar or out there in public? Or do people accept the destruction of public good for private profit as just capitalism NZ style in action?
Pretty good piece by Owen Jones here, maybe some on the left could actually now start expend some of their energy on T May, rather than bagging Corbyn for a change, you know divided we fall and all that….I know many free market liberals despise and fear a real socialist Left Wing voice..but maybe 2017 is time for them to wake up and understand that the neo liberal freemarket project as has been vigorously promoted by various ‘centre left’ western political parties is over, exposed as nothing more than a economic ponzi scheme.
“Theresa May backing Donald Trump over Israel is a disgrace”
Thanks for that, Adrian. It’s worth remembering though, that not all Labour Party MPs are moral reprobates, cowards and chickenhawks like Hilary Benn, Tony Blair and Ed Miliband….
I agree, just wish we could get back to having a real Left Labour in New Zealand, one that we could all really fight for, but no, just the same old centrist bullshit.
Who wants to fight for that…nobody that’s who, the best Labour can hope for in 2017 is people voting for them because they are either sick of National, or don’t feel they have any other choice…but certainly not because they are passionate and inspired about Labour as a vehicle of real and needed economic/political change.
Turn Labour Left.
Sorry to pop the hot air balloon – but in my considered opinion, New Zealand is a corrupt, polluted tax haven.
The tip of the giant New Zealand corruption iceberg has been revealed in the ‘Reasons for the Verdict’ of Justice Sally Fitzgerald dated 9 December 2016.
(International ‘Anti-Corruption Day’ – as it happens!)
CRI-2015-044-001286
[2016] NZHC 2970
THE QUEEN v
STEPHEN JAMES BORLASE
MURRAY JOHN NOONE
225 pages – which I have spent DAYS studying.)
The bribes paid by just ONE corrupt private contractor to just ONE corrupt ‘public official’ totalled $1.2 million over 7 years.
How many thousands of ‘public officials’ and thousands of private contractors are there in New Zealand, perceived’ for so many years to be ‘the least corrupt country in the world’ – (according to the, in my view, the effectively bogus and completely meaningless Transparency International ‘Corruption Perception Index’?)
How is it either proper, or lawful, for ‘public officials’ to simultaneously be ‘private consultants’?
(Which has been proven to be the mechanism for the corrupt payment of bribes in the above-mentioned Judgment.)
How is it proper or lawful to have a policy of ‘collaboration’ and
‘co-operation’ between public officials and private consultants and contractors?
In my view, this policy of ‘collaboration’ and ‘co-operation’ between public officials and private consultants/ contractors has now been proven to breed corruption.
How widespread is this policy of ‘collaboration’ and ‘co-operation’ across local and central government?
Anyone else asking – or checking?
How much of this now proven to be fundamentally flawed, policy of ‘collaboration’ and ‘co-operation’ between public officials and private consultants/contractors has come about because of the, in my view, infestation of public official roles with private sector businesspeople?
And the commercialisation of public services, locally, nationally and internationally?
The NZ National Business Review (NBR) has led the charge and published two in-depth investigative articles revealing corruption in the NZ roading industry.
(16 and 23 December 2016
SPECIAL Investigation – Investigative journalist Karyn Scherer).
As a proven anti-corruption campaigner, who has attended five international
anti-corruption conferences, and ‘blown the whistle’ against corruption and the lack of transparency in the spending of public spending on private consultants and contractors for the last ten years – I now feel absolutely vindicated.
I’m standing as an Independent ‘anti-corruption’ candidate in the upcoming Mt Albert by-Election, and look forward to being able to ask some stinking hard questions about corruption in the House under Parliamentary privilege.
The strongest message, in my view, that can be given to this Government that decent New Zealanders want a STOP to corruption is to vote a proven anti-corruption ‘Public Watchdog’ into Parliament.
THAT will send a message that cannot be ignored – locally, nationally and internationally.
SEIZE THE MOMENT!
Penny Bright.
2017 Independent candidate in the Mt Albert by-election.
Attendee: 2010 Transparency International Conference -Bangkok.
Attendee: 2009, 2013, 2015 Australian Public Sector Anti-Corruption Conferences.
“How is it either proper, or lawful, for ‘public officials’ to simultaneously be ‘private consultants’?”
It often isn’t. The public sector routinely uses Conflict of Interest processes to manage potentially competing interests including private business dealings.
It is impossible to prevent immoral arseholes like the primary convict in this case from lying on official COI forms and to successive managers, as revealed in the judgement notes. Yet they were still caught because colleagues had the moral fibre to pursue matters and the public records and testimony convinced the judge to find guilt. Result.
English Grammar
The NZ Herald must be finding it hard to find reporters that have any idea of writing an article and obviously do not proof read.
Refer Split in Trump’s Team.
I always thought that a person’s name was in capital letters and also the name of a organisation. Apparently the US is us. Have also noticed the “word” if that is what you call gotten is creeping in with some.
From the Financial Times: in the UK inherited wealth reinforces/increases wealth inequalities – according to the report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, an economic research organisation.
Basically, it’s increasingly hard for younger generations to build up their own wealth, if they don’t have wealthy parents. The wealthiest among older generations are likely to leave a sizeable sum to their children.
PM May says she aims to decrease inequalities, but her party’s promise to reduce inheritance taxes will work against this.
The amount of wealth held by elderly households has increased rapidly during the past decade because of rising home ownership and higher house prices. The average wealth of households where all members are aged 80 or older rose from £160,000 in 2002 to £230,000 in 2012, the most recent year for which data are available. Owner-occupied housing made up 70 per cent of this in 2012.
This rise has been accompanied by an increase in the share of elderly households expecting to leave a bequest.
…
But the wealth of elderly households is not equally distributed — the richest half hold 90 per cent of the wealth. “Hence a ‘lucky half’ of younger households look likely to get the vast majority of the inherited wealth,” said the authors of the report.
That “lucky half” are likely to already be well-off in their own right. Among people born in the 1970s, nearly 87 per cent of those in the highest income fifth expect to receive some form of inheritance or have already received one. This compares with 58 per cent of those in the lowest income fifth.
So, the housing bubble is feeding into growing wealth inequalities.
The hysterical anti-Russian lies being whipped up by the bitter and thoroughly discredited leadership of the Democratic Party have been mindlessly repeated in this country, with RNZ National and other major outlets leading every bulletin yesterday (Friday 6 January) with the (completely unsupported) allegations made by the notorious perjurer James Clapper….
One of the targets of the Clintonistas’ wrath has been Glenn Greenwald, the outstanding scholar and journalist who in 2014 was labeled “a loser” by our former prime minister John “Quitter” Key. He writes about it at the end of this typically excellent article….
The Washington Post Is Richly Rewarded for False News
About Russia Threat While Public Is Deceived
by GLENN GREENWALD, The Intercept, January 5 2017
….That Russia is a Grave Menace attacking the U.S. has — for obvious reasons — become a critical narrative for Democrats and other Trump opponents who dominate elite media circles on social media and elsewhere. They reward and herald anyone who bolsters that narrative, while viciously attacking anyone who questions it.
Indeed, in my 10-plus years of writing about politics on an endless number of polarizing issues — including the Snowden reporting — nothing remotely compares to the smear campaign that has been launched as a result of the work I’ve done questioning and challenging claims about Russian hacking and the threat posed by that country generally. This is being engineered not by random, fringe accounts, but by the most prominent Democratic pundits with the largest media followings.
I’ve been transformed, overnight, into an early adherent of alt-right ideology, an avid fan of Breitbart, an enthusiastic Trump supporter, and — needless to say — a Kremlin operative. That’s literally the explicit script they’re now using, often with outright fabrications of what I say (see here for one particularly glaring example).
They, of course, know all of this is false. A primary focus of the last 10 years of my journalism has been a defense of the civil liberties of Muslims. I wrote an entire book on the racism and inequality inherent in the U.S. justice system. My legal career involved numerous representations of victims of racial discrimination. I was one of the first journalists to condemn the misleadingly “neutral” approach to reporting on Trump and to call for more explicit condemnations of his extremism and lies. I was one of the few to defend Jorge Ramos from widespread media attacks when he challenged Trump’s immigration extremism. Along with many others, I tried to warn Democrats that nominating a candidate as unpopular as Hillary Clinton risked a Trump victory. And as someone who is very publicly in a same-sex, inter-racial marriage — with someone just elected to public office as a socialist — I make for a very unlikely alt-right leader, to put that mildly.
The malice of this campaign is exceeded only by its blatant stupidity. Even having to dignify it with a defense is depressing, though once it becomes this widespread, one has little choice.
But this is the climate Democrats have successfully cultivated — where anyone dissenting or even expressing skepticism about their deeply self-serving Russia narrative is the target of coordinated and potent smears; where, as The Nation’s James Carden documented yesterday, skepticism is literally equated with treason. And the converse is equally true: Those who disseminate claims and stories that bolster this narrative — no matter how divorced from reason and evidence they are — receive an array of benefits and rewards.
That the story ends up being completely discredited matters little. The damage is done, and the benefits received. Fake News in the narrow sense of that term is certainly something worth worrying about. But whatever one wants to call this type of behavior from the Post, it is a much greater menace given how far the reach is of the institutions that engage in it.
Good one Morrissey.
There are many on this site falling hook, line and sinker for the ‘Democrat’ propaganda maelstrom. It’s a pity the Democrats still can’t come to terms with the fact they ran a poor campaign with an unsuitable candidate.
None of all this bullshit Presidency of Trump would have happened if the DNC hadn’t had their heads up their arses and had had enough nous to see the need for change.
Their pathetic attempts to blame everyone else but themselves just shows what total disarray their Party is in. Shame on them.
You do get that it’s possible for senior Democrats to be trashing Glenn Greenwald and for Russian intelligence services to have hacked the DNC emails, right? The two are not mutually exclusive.
You don’t seem to understand how this stuff works. The source of the allegations isn’t Clapper, it’s the US intelligence services – which, however much we might not like them, do actually have a job to do and to some extent at least they actually do it. Your thoughts on the credibility of the results are no doubt of importance to you, but there’s no reason they should be important to anyone else. What counts is what US government officials think of it, and so far they’re taking it seriously.
The source of the allegations isn’t Clapper, it’s the US intelligence services
Plenty of bullshit allegations and assertions, zero fucking proof. Bill Binney, Ray McGovern, John Kiriakou, Murray Craig, Julian Assange have all been very clear on this.
On the other side of the equation the “intelligence services” keep releasing pointless shit reports like the recent FBI/DHS one and the declassified version of the ODNI report which don’t say a fucking thing except for providing more evidence-free assertions and conclusions.
As usual, you declare claims you don’t like to be “bullshit” “evidence-free assertions,” while those you do like are accepted at face value as “very clear” self-evident truth. That can be funny in a sit-com character, but is simply irritating in a live human.
1. The reports have no credibility.
2. Members of the US Congress and Senate take them seriously, meaning that…
3. We have a problem. A fucking huge one given that it’s all revolving around cranking up tensions with Russia.
The fight against the privatisation of State housing – for which there was never an electoral mandate.
FYI.
As an Independent candidate in the upcoming Mt Albert by-election, I absolutely support the brave stand by Niki Rauiti as a directly-affected State tenant who is fighting the privatisation of State housing by refusing to be evicted.
I will be coming on the march to help defend Niki and State housing on 17 January 2017, and supporting the proceeding occupation.
Let’s help make this a key Mt Albert by-election issue and put a HUGE spotlight on the housing issue that CANNOT be ignored!
Who’s coming with us?
Who else can help get this message out?
THANKS!
Penny Bright
‘Anti-privatisation / anti-corruption Public Watchdog.
2017 Independent candidate
Mt Albert by-election.
______________________________
Tēnā koutou,
We are writing requesting support for Ioela ‘Niki’ Rauti, a long-term tenant who is being evicted from her home at 14 Taniwha Road, Glen Innes.
Niki is to be evicted so that private houses for the wealthy can be built on former Housing New Zealand land.
Niki intends to resist this eviction but requires support in order to be successful.
We will be holding two marches in support of Niki on the 17 January 2017, starting at 6:00pm.
There will be two starting points, the first will be Glen Innes Library, and the second will be the corner of Line Road and West Tāmaki Drive.
Both marches will meet at Niki’s home at 14 Taniwha.
If either the government or the redevelopment company, the Tāmaki Redevelopment Company, have not by this stage halted the eviction, an occupation of the surrounding land will be set up to act as a barrier of defense for Niki.
Niki is an elderly tenant who is also suffering from illness.
Niki is making a stand for the elderly, sick, disabled and for all tenants facing discrimination and eviction due to housing reform and profit-driven redevelopment.
We believe that the ‘housing crisis’ is not addressed through evictions, selling state housing and gentrifying communities.
This eviction is part of nationwide reforms that have led to eviction, displacement, increased homelessness, and transiency.
This fight for Niki is a fight for all tenants facing eviction and displacement.
We are making a call out for support for Niki to try and keep her home, and to make a stand against the Government’s housing policy.
A few suggestions are listed below:
Joining the March on 17 January 2017 as well as the proceeding occupation.
Public support for Niki on your Facebook, through a press release etc.
Sending out details about the occupation to your email lists.
Donating resources such as tents, full list available on the facebook page.
Sending donations to the Tāmaki Housing Group 38-9014-0147012-00
Most importantly we ask for your presence during Niki’s occupation of her home.
Human beings (en masse) are stupid so perhaps as a species we will indeed cease to exist in the not too distant future. We repeat the same mistakes and patterns time after time.
Consider ….diminishing resources+ resurgent eugenics+ Trump…. and be very afraid.
Cold War rhetoric isnt worth repeating because it’s so transparent. Every American intervention from Greece in 1947 to Syria today features a mythical Russian threat.
One thing has changed since 1947, the speed at which finance can travel the globe has increased dramatically transforming the great game from chess (Atrittion) to Go. Ask any Go master why they make a move, they reply, because it feels right.
So The United States doesn”t like overseas interference in their elections. Get over it you guys. The UK and New Zealand have been getting it for years, it’s called, CrosbyTextor.
Two smart home assistants hold a conversation than never sticks to the point and evades any evidence to support outrageous claims. It also includes allegations of lying, assertions of what was said and subsequent denials, and apparently at least one claim to be a god…
Bolivia proving that Socialism works and is profitable.
“Since 2006, Bolivia has been run by socialists every bit as militant as Venezuela’s. The country has experienced a spectacular run of economic growth and poverty reduction with no hint of the chaos that has plagued Venezuela. While inflation spirals toward the 1000 per cent mark in Venezuela, in Bolivia it runs below 4 per cent a year. Shortages of basic consumption goods – rampant in Caracas – are unheard of in La Paz………..
……. Bolivia was running budget surpluses every year between 2006 and 2014. This allowed it to draw down the public sector’s debt, which fell from 83 per cent of GDP in 2003 to just 26 per cent in 2014, even as Bolivia built up its international reserves dramatically, from US$1.7b in 2005 to US$15.1b at the end of the boom in 2014.
Ok Bolivia is resource rich but compared to Venezuela (and some other countries) The Washington Post is applauding the way Socialism and careful management is working there.
Can we postpone this year’s election? Quite frankly, the political parties don’t seem ready for it, and aren’t about to offer voters the necessary policy choices for the unprecedented times we’re in. We’ve ended up with a campaign focused on scandal, personality and leadership, with a policy void that’s worse ...
It is the last sitting day of Parliament, and the last question time before the House is dissolved. So, are there any questions about the damning findings of the Hit and Run inquiry, and how the government plans to bring the military back under democratic control? Of course not. ...
Property speculator - John KeyThe National Party must be in dire straits to have to rely on John Key to campaign on their behalf. Not only has the former PM been in the news claiming the recently released unemployment figures aren’t accurate, the fool has also been promoting the opening ...
Nothing Too Drastic: Few would dispute that the Left, today, are few in number. Is their failure to make the public aware of and act upon the manifest failures of the present system attributable to their lack of active energy and intelligence? Or, is it simply because the Left’s ideas ...
by Don Franks This talk was given to the Wellington Anti Capitalist Alliance, fifteen years ago. The ultimate weapons of mass destruction so far seen on this planet have been used just twice, 60 years ago this month. August 6 and August 9 1945 witnessed the US atomic bombing ...
After I noticed that my name had been taken yet again in vain by my friendly antagonist Tom Hunter over at No Minister, I went over to see what the fuss was about. Nothing much, but then I discovered a post about the Operation Burnham Inquiry by Psycho Milt. I ...
The COVID-19 Public Health Response Act 2020 was extended today, until December 1st or the tenth sitting day following the resumption of Parliament after the election. It seems like a necessary extension. While we currently have eradicated the virus in New Zealand, it is still banging at the door, and ...
One of the government's key policies - extracted by NZ First as part of its coalition agreement - is the "Provincial Growth Fund": $1 billion a year spent on creating jobs in rural New Zealand. Yesterday the Auditor-General issued a report on the fund, finding that it lacks transparency, and ...
The Warehouse, one of New Zealand's biggest retailers, has decided to stop selling coal. Good. Coal is a dirty, polluting fossil fuel, and the less of it we have out there, the better. Retailers choosing not to sell it sends a clear message that this is not a fuel we ...
The labour market statistics have been released, and they show that unemployment actually dropped last quarter. All told, there are 111,000 unemployed - 15,000 fewer than when the government took office. But before anyone thinks that the pandemic hasn't put people out of work, remember that this is for ...
Judy KavanaghI’m OK with wearing a CovidCard. But are you? There’s no point me doing it alone.The author modelling a (fake) CovidCard. I didn’t know much about the CovidCard proposal until I read Dave’s latest blog post. You would wear the card visibly on your person. It ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzWhy can’t I use the battery from my electric car ...
As many good things come in threes (as the saying goes), we are happy to announce a third partnership between Skeptical Science and other websites. Fakebook.eco in Brazil is joining Klimafakten.de in Germany and Nauka o Klimacie in Poland to leverage translated rebuttal material and to make the information readily available in other ...
This interview on RNZ with Ross Tucker, the scientist who headed a review of transgender athletes playing in women’s rugby, discusses the findings of the review and what it means for women in sports. The review that World Rugby undertook had a broad range of independent experts and included a ...
Siouxsie WilesThe restrictions in place for metropolitan Melbourne now are in some ways stricter than those that were in force during New Zealand’s COVID-19 lockdown. A curfew is in place and most people have to wear masks when they leave their home – neither of which happened in New ...
On Friday the Hit and Run inquiry delivered a devastating report which found that NZDF had systematically misled Ministers over civilian deaths. The report called into question civilian control of the military (and indeed, military control of the military), a fundamental principle of our democracy. So you'd expect our politicians ...
Let's Do This Again: What else can Jacinda do in a political environment so bereft of imagination and courage but seek a continuance? If she trades upon the extraordinary personal qualities that she has, miraculously, carried with her into the office of Prime Minister, then I, for one, will offer ...
How corrupt are the New Zealand Police? This corrupt: On 10 February 2019, Police attended a family harm incident. The suspect attempted to run the attending officers over in a driveway with his car, narrowly missing them, before fleeing the scene. A short pursuit followed, ending when the suspect stopped ...
Parliament's triennial Review of Standing Orders was released today, and it contains a number of welcome, if minor, improvements. The ones that caught my are: A move to encourage "pre-legislative engagement" - the government consulting widely on legislation before it is introduced - by promising easier passage (e.g. with ...
Lauren Vargo, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of WellingtonGlaciers around the world are melting — and for the first time, we can now directly attribute annual ice loss to climate change. We analysed two years in which glaciers in New Zealand melted the most in at least four ...
Caroline Shaw, Anja MizdrakE-bikes are everywhere. Sales are booming and predicted to overtake sales of new cars in a few years. There were three times as many e-bikes and e-scooters imported into NZ in 2019 alone as there are e-cars in the entire country. You can’t go out in ...
New Zealand First is facing a difficult struggle to get re-elected, but Josh Van Veen, who was once a researcher for Winston Peters, argues that there is still a very significant section of cultural conservatives who oppose mass immigration and political correctness and might yet be won back over to ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Karin Kirk Many Americans these days seem unable to avoid controversy on practically any topic, so why not embrace the discord and wade into the especially volatile arena of nuclear energy? Advocates claim it’s the only way to meet global climate goals, ...
Can we trust New Zealand’s military? There must now be serious doubt, given the landmark report released on Friday concluding the investigation into allegations made in the book Hit and Run by Nicky Hager and Jon Stephenson about a 2010 SAS killing raid in Afghanistan. The most recent Colmar Brunton ...
In New Zealand, we've just had the report of the Hit and Run inquiry, which found that a New Zealand led raid had accidentally killed civilians, including a child. meanwhile, around the same time, the British SAS was conducting its own raids in Afghanistan, and theirs were a hell of ...
In addition to establishing a process for setting emissions reductions plans, the Zero Carbon Act established a process for managing the risks of climate change. The first part of this is the preparation of regular risk assessments, looking at the risks to our economy, society, environment, and ecology. The first ...
Over on The spinoff, Amnesty International's Meg de Ronde has a response to Friday's release of the Hit and Run report. And in response to Attorney-General David Parker's claim that the government was being "transparent" by releasing the report, its titled "we shouldn’t have to work this hard to get ...
Story of the Week... Opinion of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Rising Seas Could Menace Millions Beyond Shorelines, Study FindsAs climate change raises sea levels, storm surges and high tides will ...
There's an election next month, so you'd be expecting political parties to be telling us what they stand for and what they'd do if they'd win. But while the Greens have given us a detailed policy platform, and National has talked about roads and austerity, Labour, currently leading the polls ...
"Who's youse accusin' of innference?" Without the timely intervention of a team of top American political consultants and campaign experts, Boris Yeltsin would never have won his second term as President of the Russian Federation. The Russians waited 20 years to return the favour.WHEN IT COMES to the disinformation game, ...
As polling day in the American presidential election draws closer, things are looking bad for Donald Trump. The polls show that he is tracking well behind his Democrat rival. Most people assume that the President will be striving might and main to avoid what looks increasingly likely to be a ...
Our health professionals do an amazing job. Image credit: Wikipedia – Cardiac surgery. Finally, I have got back to these rankings. A long period in hospital and computer problems meant the June 2020 rankings were abandoned. Now, with a new personal defibrillator implanted in my chest and a new hard ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, July 26 through Sat, Aug 1, 2020Editor's ChoiceThe four types of climate denier, and why you should ignore them allThe shill, the grifter, the egomaniac and the ideological ...
Over the last few days, reports have emerged of people travelling from New Zealand and testing positive for Covid-19 upon arrival at their destination. First in South Korea and now in Australia. What might these positive tests mean?They’re false-positives As Toby Morris and I have explained before, there are ...
Former National Minister - Wayne MappYou could tell that the Hit and Run book by investigative journalists Nicky Hager and Jon Stephenson was right on the money by the way former National Party Minister of Defence, Wayne Mapp, reacted to its now largely vindicated claims.Even though the recent inquiry into ...
So, the Hit and Run inquiry has reported back, and found some appalling shit at NZDF and NZSIS. And while they quibble a few of the details - the name of a dead child - they basicly uphold Hager and Stephenson's version of events. The SAS went to those villages. ...
We are failing to think though the interdependencies in an economy. We miss economist Bryan Philpott (1921-2000). I miss him personally – we used to have such great discussions – but this column is about how the nation misses his economic experience and wisdom. We tend to ...
Michelle Boag - LeakerThe Heron report (PDF) was released yesterday, and it was a bit disappointing to say the least. It correctly found that former National Party president Michelle Boag and National Party MP Hamish Walker were politically motivated in leaking peoples private medical information, but didn’t look further into ...
Adam Smith, Massey UniversityA recent global assessment of shark populations at 371 coral reefs in 58 countries found no sharks at almost 20% of reefs and alarmingly low numbers at many others. The study, which involved over 100 scientists under the Global FinPrint project, gave New Zealand a good ...
On different trajectories and from different ends of the political spectrum, last night’s One News/Colmar Brunton poll has the Green Party and ACT converging around the five percent mark. And, as odd as it may sound, they head into the election campaign with a lot in common.Putting the Greens and ...
Janet Stephenson, University of OtagoA proposed multibillion-dollar project to build a pumped hydro storage plant could make New Zealand’s electricity grid 100% renewable, but expensive new infrastructure may not be the best way to achieve this. New Zealand’s electricity generation is already around 80% renewable, with just over half ...
Truth In Advertising: Labour, it would seem, is the party that knows nothing about running the economy right up until the moment that it does. HOW DID LABOUR acquire its reputation for being a poor economic manager? As with most things political and historical, it’s a long story.In the beginning, the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Government rulemakers looking to decide how much money to spend to avoid adding more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere need a good estimate of what a warming climate will cost in social damages, for example through more extreme weather events. That point makes ...
Fact Check: New Zealand’s own relationship with China might, however, be salvageable if our own Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade was willing to equip its minister, Winston Peters, with a few facts. Legislating for the protection of national security – the very action our Foreign Minister is decrying – ...
I hope we can all agree that charging only certain returning expats for isolation costs is the right call. Instead of a blanket fee, which may have resulted in a small number of Kiwis deciding not to return home because of financial reasons, the Government has chosen to implement a ...
Back at the beginning of this government, the Greens made a foolish decision to support the Electoral Integrity Act - demanded by Winston Peters to keep his own backbench in line as part of his coalition deal with Labour - as an act of good faith within the coalition. It ...
SATURDAY AUGUST 1Artefact (Prime, 7.30pm). The series presented by Dame Anne Salmond screened on Māori Television, but is totally worth revisiting if you saw it the first time. Dame Anne tells the stories of taonga that highlight the history of Aotearoa. Further reading: this 2013 interview with Dame Anne by the lovely ...
Have unions and the Government sold workers short with their attempt at fixing the so-called “Hobbit Law”? Unionist Ian Powell argues that the union movement has been outmanoeuvered, and the Government has agreed to a new piece of anti-worker legislation that retains the principles of the previous National Government’s hated ...
Most of the claims made by anti-fluoride propagandists are simply wrong. Image source:Fluoridation and the ‘sciency’ facts of critics Anti-fluoride propagandists continually cite studies from areas of endemic fluorosis in their arguments against ...
An article in the EETimes suggests that advances in autonomous vehicles are not moving as quickly as expected because those working on them have confused complicated problems with complex ones. Engineering can only take you so far in complex worlds. Complicated systems tend to have fairly predictable inputs, processes and outputs. Complex systems (like ...
Last week, after Judith Collins announced that National would be cruel and vicious to kiwis caught overseas by the pandemic, and rob them at the border if they returned home, Labour looked like it was falling all over itself to cry "me too". But now, it looks like kindness has ...
If entry into New Zealand from abroad is safe, it should be allowed. People arriving from places that are Covid-free, or no more risky than New Zealand, and who get here on flights that do not intersect with risky places, should return to normal travel arrangements. Currently, the Cook ...
Liz SlootenScientists from the University of Otago, working with colleagues from around the world, have found that New Zealand right whales are doing much better than right whales in other parts of the world. The research was published as the feature article in the journal Marine Ecology Progress ...
Back in 2019, the government asked for a comprehensive, independent review of the Resource Management Act and associated legislation. That review has now reported back and recommended a complete repeal and re-enactment. Despite the headlines, this is not a "scrapping" - we're still going to have a resource management law, ...
By Associate Professor Mik Black, Department of Biochemistry, University of OtagoThe increased availability of complex biological data sets means that analysis and computation are becoming critically important skills for New Zealand’s future scientists. Because of this, we need to be doing everything we can to help our students develop ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzIs humanity doomed? If in 2030 we have not reduced ...
Britain's spy agencies are supposedly overseen by various watchdogs, including the investigatory powers tribunal. But it turns out that MI6 at least has contempt for those watchdogs, and attempted to interfere with the operations of the tribunal by concealing evidence from its judges: MI6 has been accused of “inappropriate interference” ...
Daphna Whitmore So far this year over 7.4 million people have died from preventable communicable diseases. There were 4.3 million children who died under the age of five. Nearly one million people have died of HIV/AIDS in the past six months. A similar number of people have died from malaria ...
Four weeks ago I wrote about the last time a sizable asteroid hit our planet – the ‘Tunguska Event’ of 1908, when an object about 50 metres across exploded above the Siberian taiga – but smaller cosmic rocks shoot close by Earth fairly frequently. In the past 42 hours ...
Last month, China imposed a new "national security law" on Hong Kong. The law imposes a penalty of life imprisonment for secession, subversion, and "colluding with foreign forces" - which basicly means peacefully advocating for democracy or independence. It has been used to crush peaceful protests and interpreted by the ...
Powerful Connection: Neoliberalism is the antithesis of everything that has traditionally been associated with the feminine aspects of human nature. Kindness and compassion, nurturance and inclusiveness: such qualities have no place in the neoliberal order. When Jacinda proclaimed her determination to practice the “politics of kindness”, she was, wittingly or ...
The bad news: Jacinda Ardern still wants to bill exiled kiwis for returning home. The good news: it would require a law change, which the Greens won't back, so she'll need to go grovelling to National. The other good news: she's running out of time to do it. This ...
. . For the mainstream media, today (22 July) was even a better day than yesterday. More Sex. More Politics. More Sex AND Politics. Yesterday, the msm dealt with Andrew Falloon. The obscure backbench MP had been found to have sent pornographic images to at least four women. The woman’s ...
If you want to understand what is happening in this year’s election campaign, it’s worth looking to the past for guidance. Colin James delves into recent contests and finds some interesting parallels. July 28 is 53 days before the 2020 election. Just 53 days before the 2017 election ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters Wildfires burned much less acreage in the U.S. than average during the first half of the year, but with hot and dry conditions expected over much of the nation in the coming months, fire activity is likely to ramp up. ...
Today a full bench of the High Court is hearing Andrew Borrowdale's challenge to the legality of the COVID-19 lockdown. That lockdown ended two months ago, so the point seems moot - but it was never about ending it. Instead, as Andrew Geddis points out, its about a key principle ...
So far, this has been a relatively policy-free election campaign. The government has been trying to keep a low profile, on the basis that anything they say will only piss someone off, so better to say as little as possible. When its not knifing its leader, National has promised roads, ...
I hardly ever comment on polls, because horse-race politics is superficial and boring and most changes are statistically meaningless and so unworthy of attention (let alone the excitement they provoke amongst mathematically illiterate political journalists desperate to fill airtime). But we've now had two polls in a row showing Labour ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on its inquiry into the operation of the COVID-19 Public Health Response Act 2020. As you'd expect, they find that the law was "necessary and appropriate", but would like to see a permanent replacement providing for health emergency powers as the Health ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... John Cook in the News... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Review... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week... Story of the Week... Major new climate study rules out less severe global warming scenariosAn analysis finds the most ...
It hasn’t taken long for the advent of Judith Collins as National party leader to change the tone of the political debate. After several days of headlines and airwaves dominated by reports of a National MP sending pornographic images to young women, the National leader had had enough of that ...
On 1 August, we marked the anniversary of Jacinda Ardern becoming the Leader of the Labour Party. On that day in 2017, Leader Andrew Little nominated Jacinda Ardern to succeed him and lead the party to victory.Now, three years on, we look back at some of the key moments ...
With the June 2020 quarter showing underemployment increasing, the Green Party is calling for a Guaranteed Minimum Income and an increase to the abatement threshold to ensure everyone has a dignified income. ...
We went hard and we went early in our health response to COVID-19, and we did everything we could to cushion the economic impact too. In fact, we can fill every letter of the alphabet with the steps we took to fight COVID-19 and ensure we were in a position ...
Investing in our people, backing businesses, and upgrading infrastructure and housing throughout the country - it's been another week of progress for New Zealanders as we deliver our plan to recover and rebuild. ...
July was another busy month, packed with key investments aimed at progressing our economic recovery as we rebuild New Zealand. We extended support for businesses, helped create jobs through local infrastructure projects, and kept working to clean up our waterways so Kiwis can access safe clean water. Check out the ...
The Green Party is calling for the Defence Force Chiefs in place between 2010-2017 to front up and explain how dishonesty, process and policy failures within the Defence Force led to ‘a series of incorrect statements in briefings to ministers and public releases’ regarding alleged breaches of international torture prevention ...
Thanks to our strong health response, New Zealand’s economy is more open than many other countries. But as COVID continues to surge around the world, the economic consequences of the virus will continue to be a challenge, which is why we have a detailed plan to help New Zealand bounce ...
Thanks to our strong health response, New Zealand’s economy is more open than many other countries. But as COVID continues to surge around the world, the economic consequences of the virus will continue to be a challenge, which is why we have a detailed plan to help New Zealand bounce ...
The Green Party are ensuring that New Zealanders who were overseas when COVID-19 hit will not be charged for the cost of isolation or quarantine if they return home to live. ...
It's been another week of creating jobs, supporting local businesses, and investing in infrastructure up and down the country - all of which are helping to keep our economy moving post-COVID-19. ...
Law changes to end tenure review and provide for better management of Crown pastoral lands in the South Island high country were considered by Parliament today with the first reading of the Crown Pastoral Land Reform Bill says Minister for Land Information, Eugenie Sage. ...
The Green Party have secured legislative amendments in a bill expected to pass third reading this week, to ensure better rules for school teachers and staff, so they can de-escalate children with diverse needs and cognitive differences, such as autism, rather than using unnecessary and often traumatising force. ...
New Zealand needs to be more aggressive in pursuing economic opportunities and resist the short-term thinking affecting some of its major industry, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters says.Mr Peters told Wellington Chamber of Commerce members this morning that the planned closure of the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter will have ...
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters has ridiculed the National Party "circus", with the politician saying it was in "chaos" after the resignation of another MP.Rangitata MP Andrew Falloon announced on Monday he would retire from politics after he allegedly sent inappropriate pornographic images to a young woman. Following a ...
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters today outlined what he saw as the requirements to re-open New Zealand's borders for tourists and travellers. If New Zealand was dealing solely with an Australian state such as Tasmania, we wouldn't need a vaccine, said Mr Peters, but these moves were complicated by the ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters appears to have prompted last-minute alterations to proposed legislation for commercial landlords and their tenants. Mr Peters told reporters on Wednesday said that he was making sure the proposed bill was in step with what the parties had actually agreed to. He said he ...
Associate Minister for State Owned Enterprise and New Zealand First List MP Shane Jones attended the groundbreaking ceremony for the new NZ Post "super depot" in Wellington. The state-owned postal service, which got $280 million from the Coalition Government last month, is expanding its operations to handle surging parcel volumes. ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First CHECK AGAINST DELIVERYIntroduction Good afternoon. Welcome to you all here today and party supporters watching from around the country. We appreciate your hard work keeping New Zealand First strong; thank you for keeping the faith. Sixty-three days out from Election Day, ...
The diversity of conservation boards around Aotearoa is increasing with 47 appointments to 14 of the 15 conservation boards across New Zealand announced today by the Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage. ...
The Green Party is honoured to be remembering former co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons today at a public memorial service in the heart of Wellington at the Cathedral of St. Paul’s. Following her passing in March, this celebration of her life brings together her friends, family and colleagues to honour her life ...
Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage has announced a $2.5 million boost for South Westland to help a regional alliance of local businesses and government agencies provide nature based jobs. ...
Investing in infrastructure is one major way we can create jobs, stimulate the economy, and keep New Zealand moving post COVID-19. That's why this week we rolled out a massive number of infrastructure announcements - in Tairāwhiti, Wairarapa, Otago, Southland and more! ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters says the National Party’s Auckland Transport announcement today is a breath-taking plan on the never never. While it is promising to see that National all of a sudden has rediscovered railways in Auckland, including trains ...
New Zealand and Australia reaffirmed today the need for the closest possible collaboration as they tackle a global environment shaped by COVID-19, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters said. “In these challenging times, our close collaboration with Australia is more vital than ever,” said Mr Peters. Mr Peters and his Australian ...
A new Department of Conservation (DOC) action plan tackles the impacts of climate change on New Zealand’s biodiversity and DOC managed infrastructure including tracks, huts and cultural heritage. Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage says extreme weather events around the country have really brought home our vulnerability to changing weather patterns. ...
A heavily scaled back international Antarctic season will commence this week, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters and Research, Science and Innovation Minister Megan Woods have confirmed. “Antarctica is the only continent that is COVID-19 free,” Mr Peters said. “Throughout the global pandemic, essential operations and long-term science have continued at ...
The Government is providing up to $30 million to help fund the NZ Campus of Innovation and Sport in Upper Hutt - an investment that will create 244 jobs. “The sports hub is designed to be a world-leading shared service for a range of sports, offering the level of facilities ...
Transport Minister Phil Twyford announced today transport projects currently in construction will continue at pace due to extra Government support for transport projects to mitigate the impact of COVID-19. To keep the $16.9 billion 2018-21 National Land Transport Programme going the Government has allocated funding from the COVID Response and ...
$50 million for further rural broadband digital connectivity has been allocated from the $3 billion infrastructure fund in the COVID Response and Recovery Fund has been announced by Shane Jones, Minister for Infrastructure and Kris Faafoi, Minister for Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media. The investment will go to boosting broadband ...
The Minister for Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media has congratulated the Ultra-fast Broadband (UFB) programme on its major milestone of connecting more than 1 million New Zealand households and businesses to UFB. “This milestone has been 10 years in the making and demonstrates the popularity of the UFB network. “Uptake ...
Landmark legislation passed today puts New Zealand on track to saving thousands of lives and having a smokefree generation sooner rather than later, Associate Health Minister, Jenny Salesa says. The Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Vaping) Amendment Bill regulates vaping products and heated tobacco devices. “There has long been concern ...
A discriminatory law that has been a symbol of frustration for many people needing and providing care and support, has been scrapped by the Government. “Part 4A of the New Zealand Public Health and Disability Amendment Bill (No 2) was introduced under urgency in 2013 by a National Government,” Associate ...
Kiwi motorists are set to reap the benefits of a more competitive fuel market following the passing of the Fuel Industry Bill tonight, Energy and Resources Minister Megan Woods says. “This Act is where the rubber meets the road in terms of our response to the recommendations made in the ...
The Government has delivered on its promise to New Zealanders to modernise tenancy laws with the passing of the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill 2020 today, says Associate Minister of Housing (Public Housing), Kris Faafoi. “The Residential Tenancies Act 1986 was out-dated and the reforms in the RTA modernise our ...
New rules to protect and restore New Zealand’s freshwater passed into law today. Environment Minister David Parker and Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor welcomed the gazetting of the new national direction on freshwater management. “These regulations deliver on the Government’s commitment to stop further degradation, show material improvements within five years and ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has announced the appointment of Jeremy Clarke-Watson as New Zealand’s new Consul-General in Los Angeles. “New Zealand and the United States share a close and dynamic partnership, based on a long history of shared values and democratic traditions,” Mr Peters said. “Mr Clarke-Watson is a ...
Victims of family violence can end a tenancy with two days’ notice Landlords can terminate tenancies with 14 days’ notice if tenants assault them Timeframe brought forward for limiting rent increases to once every 12 months Extension of time Tenancy Tribunal can hear cases via phone/video conference Reform of New ...
Two employment schemes – one new and one expanded – going live today will help tens of thousands of people continue training on the job and support thousands more into work, the Government has announced. Apprenticeship Boost, a subsidy of up to $12,000 per annum for first year apprentices and ...
The Government is funding a significant infrastructure package at Omokoroa which will create 150 new jobs and help transform the Western Bay of Plenty peninsula, Urban Development Minister Phil Twyford announced today. Phil Twyford says the Government is investing $14 million towards the $28 million roading and water package. This ...
The Bill allowing the Government to recover some costs for managed isolation and quarantine passed its third reading today, with charges coming into force as soon as regulations are finalised. Putting regulations into force is the next step. “The COVID-19 Public Health Response Amendment Bill and its supporting regulations will ...
Today’s unemployment data shows the Government’s plan to protect jobs and cushion the blow for businesses and households against the economic impact of COVID-19 was the right decision, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. Stats NZ said today that New Zealand’s unemployment rate in the June quarter – which includes the ...
A new role of New Zealand Reading Ambassador for children and young people is being established, Prime Minister and Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Jacinda Ardern and Minister for Internal Affairs and for Children, Tracey Martin announced today. The Reading Ambassador, announced at a Celebration of Reading event at ...
Community Law Centres will receive a funding boost to meet the increased need for free legal services due to COVID-19, Justice Minister Andrew Little said. The $3.5m funding is for the next three financial years and is additional to the almost $8 million for Community Law Centres announced in Budget ...
New Zealand has joined Canada and Chile in a new trade initiative aimed at increasing women’s participation in global trade. Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker, together with Canada’s Minister for Small Business, Export Promotion and International Trade Mary Ng, Chile’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrés Allamand, and Chile’s Vice ...
Building owners around New Zealand have benefited from the latest round of Heritage EQUIP funding with grants totalling $2,230,166. “The Heritage EQUIP grants for seismic strengthening assist private building owners to get the professional advice they need to go ahead with their projects or support them to carry out the ...
• New paediatric facilities, including a Special Baby Care Unit • Up to 50 extra inpatient beds • New lab facilities Northland babies and their whānau will soon have access to improved hospital care when they need it with Health Minister Chris Hipkins today confirming new paediatric facilities and more ...
People walking and cycling between Featherston and Greytown, or along Wellington’s Eastern Bays will soon have a safe shared path, as part of a $220 million shovel-ready cycleways package announced by Associate Transport Minister Julie Anne Genter. “During lockdown we saw many more families and kids out on their bikes, ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters today extended New Zealand’s condolences following the death of Vanuatu’s High Commissioner to New Zealand, Johnson Naviti, who passed away yesterday afternoon in Wellington. “Our thoughts are with the High Commissioner’s family and colleagues during this difficult time. This is a terrible loss both to ...
The Government has today set out the regional allocations of the $761 million Three Waters stimulus and reform funding for councils announced by Prime Minister Hon Jacinda Ardern this month. "I want to thank Councils around the country for engaging with the Central Local Government Steering Group who have been ...
Students with high and complex learning needs, as well as their teachers and parents, will benefit from a substantial increase to Ongoing Resourcing Scheme (ORS) funding, Associate Education Minister Martin announced today. “Nearly $160 million will go towards helping these students by lifting their base support over the next four ...
Funding for innovative projects to connect Kiwis with affordable, safe and wholesome food, reduce food waste, and help our food producers recover from COVID-19 has been announced today by Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor. “COVID-19 has seen an increasing number of families facing unprecedented financial pressure. Foodbanks and community food service ...
Eight shovel-ready projects within Kāinga Ora large-scale developments, and the Unitec residential development in Auckland have been given the go-ahead, Minister for Housing Dr Megan Woods announced today. Megan Woods says these significant infrastructure upgrades will ensure that the provision of homes in Auckland can continue apace. “The funding announced ...
The Government is funding a new separated walking and cycleway path along Napier’s Chambers and Ellison streets to provide safer access for local students and residents across Marine Parade and State Highway 51, Transport Minister Phil Twyford and Police Minister Stuart Nash announced today. Funding of $2.7 million has been ...
More than 13,000 people have been employed so far thanks to the Coalition Government’s Provincial Growth Fund, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has today announced. The number of jobs created by Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) investments has outstripped the 10,000 jobs target that the Government and Provincial Development Unit ...
Scientists and innovative fishing operators from Stewart Island and Fiordland to Nelson, Marlborough and Wellington have been honoured in the first ever Seafood Sustainability Awards. Fisheries Minister Stuart Nash has congratulated the winners of the inaugural Seafood Sustainability Awards held at Parliament. “The awards night honours six winners, from a wide ...
The Government is providing an investment totalling more than $100 million for regions to protect against and mitigate the effects of climate change, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones have announced. Six regions will receive funding from the $3 billion allocated to infrastructure projects from the ...
Three major local projects at Te Kuiti and Otorohanga have been given the money to get moving after the impact of Covid 19, says the Minister of Māori Development Hon Nanaia Mahuta. The projects range from a Sports Centre for Te Kuiti, a redevelopment of the Otorohanga Kiwi House and ...
The Coalition Government has extended three New Zealand Defence Force deployments to the Middle East and Africa by two years, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Ron Mark announced today. “These deployments promote peace in the Middle East and Africa by protecting civilians and countering the spread of ...
The release of the National Climate Change Risk Assessment shows that the progress this Government has made to solve the climate crisis is essential to creating cleaner and safer communities across New Zealand. “Because of this report, we can see clearer than ever that the action our Government is taking ...
The second round of the Community Resilience Fund is now open for applications for sport and recreation organisations experiencing financial hardship between 1 July and 30 September 2020. “The fund opens today for five weeks – closing on September 6. The amount awarded will be decided on a case-by-case basis ...
Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage today declared Rakitū Island, off the coast of Aotea/Great Barrier Island, predator free. “I’m delighted to announce that with rats now gone, Rakitū is officially predator free. This is a major milestone because Rakitū is the last DOC administered island in the Hauraki Gulf Marine ...
The Provincial Growth Fund is investing $8.75 million to restore significant historic sites at Ōhaeawai in the Far North, upgrade marae and fund fencing and riparian planting. Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones made the announcements following a service at the historic St Michael’s Anglican Church at Ōhaeawai today. Just ...
The Chatham Islands will receive close to $40 million for projects that will improve its infrastructure, add to its attraction as a visitor destination, and create jobs through a planned aquaculture venture, Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones has announced. “The COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on the islands, first ...
The joint campaign to push the Government to commit to safer staffing levels in aged care continues around the country with two North Island actions. E tū members and delegates will be holding two photo opportunities in Gisborne on Thursday to ...
6 August 2020: We have written to the chief executives of public organisations with 30 June balance dates about the extended reporting time frames for 2020. Kia ora koutou katoa As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, the amount of work that will be ...
On the Rag meets two women advocating for the legalisation of cannabis to hear why they’re voting yes in this year’s referendum.The prevailing image of weed users in the media might be Seth Rogen and men who look like Seth Rogen ripping epic bong hits in front of a Bob ...
The Motor Trade Association says the Government has failed independent service station operators and missed the opportunity to create to truly competitive fuel market. “Sadly for New Zealand motorists, the Bill passed last night is not going to make ...
Evening Report Live: This week in A View from Afar with Paul G. Buchanan and Selwyn Manning, we examine the Beirut explosion and what is going on behind the headlines. We also debate how leaders around the world are using authoritarianism as a mask to cover their weak handling of ...
Though the COVID-19 pandemic has been the death knell of New Zealand immigration as we know it, it also presents a much-needed opportunity for improvement. What might the new immigration system look like? Aaron Martin , principal lawyer at New Zealand ...
When they weren’t distributing money to an array of projects and programmes that met with their approval, our ministers were busy braying about the new laws they have promoted to improve – we hope – our wellbeing. Megan Woods was chuffed about two news laws passed into law on her ...
Over lockdown, mental health hotlines saw a massive spike in calls and texts from distressed New Zealanders. Their numbers still haven’t returned to normal, and growing research suggests demand won’t be going away anytime soon. In April and May, Lifeline experienced a 25% increase in calls and texts from people in ...
The Smokefree Environments (Vaping) Amendment Bill passed into law last night will help keep people smoking cigarettes, and caves into big tobacco interests, says the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union . Union spokesman Jordan Williams says, “The vaping ...
Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk A medical authority has warned that the spike in covid-19 cases in Papua New Guinea is to be expected and could reach thousands between September and December, reports The National today. Professor Glen Mola had predicted early last month, when the number of cases of infection ...
The government’s new freshwater laws, signed off this week, have the potential to create significant unnecessary costs for ratepayers, farmers and entire communities, Federated Farmers says. "We all want good water quality, that’s why farmers ...
Roughly 11,000 people lost their jobs from Covid-19, and 10,000 of them were women. But as Leonie Morris from Auckland’s Womens Centre writes, this shows the need to address industrial patriarchy and create opportunities for women where they’re needed most.Just as predicted, Covid-19 has affected unemployment and under-employment rates for ...
The Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner says the government needs to do more to ensure women aren't left behind after employment figures showed they were disproportionately affected. ...
Political heavyweights took the immediate headlines, but Auckland's economic summit was broad and deep with business and community leaders predicting the return of good things from some time between late 2021 and 2024. Tim Murphy reports The call that 'we need to have a conversation' about almost anything in public ...
Disabled people and their families have been returned the right to complain to the Human Rights Commission or seek redress through the Courts about discriminatory family funding policies they may face. Disability Rights Commissioner Paula Tesoriero said ...
Pacific Media Watch Newsdesk The Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom (AJF) has called on the Malaysian government to desist its current investigation of Al Jazeera English as the current methods of investigation are an attack on free, independent journalism. If the Malaysian government takes issue with Al Jazeera’s work – or ...
Whānau and families will sleep better at night knowing their homes can’t be taken away from them without good reason thanks to the new residential tenancies law, says the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG). "Worry about keeping a roof over their ...
The Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Vaping) Amendment Bill introduces a range of regulations that will be phased in over the next two years. ...
The Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill is now law. Mark Todd, long-time landlord and founder of Ockham Residential, welcomes the new legislation – and says hysterical critics need to get a grip.Hell hath no fury like the landlord lobby trying to thwart some fairly innocuous legislation that’ll help tenants feel a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Huaiyu Yuan, Senior Research Fellow, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Macquarie University Far beneath the city of Dongshen in northern China, we have discovered what may be the 2 billion-year-old birthmarks of Earth’s first supercontinent. An ancient dipping structure in the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Liam Smith, Director, BehaviourWorks, Monash Sustainable Development Institute, Monash University With new rules restricting Victorians’ activities and movements to try and stem the second wave of coronavirus cases comes the question of whether people will actually stick to them. There are at ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elin Charles-Edwards, Senior Lecturer in Population Geography, The University of Queensland In the early stages of COVID-19, much of the focus of demographers – who study populations – has understandably been on mortality and morbidity. But as the pandemic rolls on, attention ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Claire Breen, Professor of Law, University of Waikato With COVID-19 vaccine developers reporting promising results, it is probable we will one day face a major public health question: can the government compel New Zealanders to be vaccinated? Just as inevitably, some people ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Erin Smith, Associate Professor in Disaster and Emergency Response, School of Medical and Health Sciences, Edith Cowan University Melburnians have now been wearing mandatory face coverings in public for two weeks. Yet Premier Daniel Andrews yesterday announced another grim milestone in Victoria’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Russell McGregor, Adjunct Professor of History, James Cook University Under the first coronavirus lockdowns, birdwatching increased tenfold in Australia, with much of it done in and near the watchers’ own backyards. And as Melbourne settles into stage 4 restrictions, we’ll likely see ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Garcia, Lecturer in Student Learning and Communication Development, University of Sydney University life comes with its share of challenges. One of these is writing longer assignments that require higher information, communication and critical thinking skills than what you might have been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Theodore Connell-Variy, Lecturer, School of Property, RMIT University We’ve heard a lot about what the present crisis will do to homeprices, less about what it will do to commercial property prices. Commercial properties include office buildings, shopping centres, hotels and warehouses. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dawn LaValle Norman, Research Fellow, Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry, Australian Catholic University Phil: What would you do if you were stuck in one place, and every day was exactly the same, and nothing that you did mattered? Stage ...
Welcome to Election Live for August 6, bringing you the latest on election 2020 and other breaking news. For key dates in the election season click here. For all you need to know about the cannabis referendum click here. For the assisted dying referendum click here. Policy launching soon. Get in touch ...
Brooke van Velden – newly-minted Deputy Leader of the Act Party – spoke at a community event last Monday night in Epsom, Auckland, which was attended by several Euthanasia-Free NZ supporters. Unfortunately Ms van Velden’s presentation was heavy ...
“Labour’s plan is to win the election at all costs by politicising the border and keeping New Zealanders in a state of fear,” says ACT Leader David Seymour. “It’s putting politics above people by locking the border and wrecking the economy ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Many stories told by latest unemployment figures, Bloomfield says return of community transmission almost inevitable, and major tenancy reform package passes.First of all, it’s pretty clear that the top-line unemployment figure going down is a misleading picture of the state ...
Annaleese Jochems and Paul Little review new fiction by New Zealand authors David Coventry and Carl NixonAnnaleese Jochems on Dance Prone: David Coventry’s second novel Dance Prone is the story of a post-hardcore band touring through the American Southwest – a roadie novel. Initially its chief pleasures are similar ...
New Zealand needs to review its handling of Covid-19 'to do better next time' as global diseases are going to keep coming, warns Helen Clark. Former Prime Minister Helen Clark wants a full review into New Zealand's preparedness and handling of the Covid-19 pandemic - and is calling for the next government ...
It's time to lay extreme partisanship aside and for parties to prove their ingredients are worthy - not just that their packaging makes us feel good, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell Extreme partisanship has always perplexed me. I’m not judging but perhaps, as an opinion writer, I’ve come to hold my own opinions ...
On the campaign trail, Judith Collins is fully embracing every 'you're only about roads' barb people throw at her National Party leader Judith Collins couldn't have picked a more on-brand venue. The building was blue. The audience was blue. And the parking was free. Collins continued her roll-out of tunnelling announcements ...
Kiwi Winter Olympian and mountain explorer, Janina Kuzma, has become a film-maker, shining a light on gutsy female freeskiers. Sometime about now, Janina Kuzma would have been skiing down the shrinking faces of the world’s last tropical glaciers in Papua, Indonesia. The two-time Winter Olympian should have been filming the third movie in ...
The Health Minister expresses confidence in a troubled board that continues to be rocked by resignations. David Williams reports Chris Hipkins is putting a brave face on ructions at the Canterbury District Health Board, despite another senior resignation yesterday and divisions within the board itself becoming painfully obvious. The Health ...
How do we discourage politicians from gambling with our futures? Nicholas Agar looks at the 'Hail Mary' tactic, arguing politicians must own their misjudged forecasts Recent polls suggest this could be a very one-sided general election. It is useful to be forewarned about some of the tricks available to aspiring ...
On the 75th anniversary of the bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we must redouble efforts to rid the world of nuclear weapons once and for all, write Vincent Ochilet of the ICRC and Niamh Lawless of the New Zealand Red Cross.Today marks the 75th anniversary of the use of atomic ...
There are no incumbents in the south Auckland seat of Takanini, for this is a completely new electorate. Justin Latif goes to meet some of the voters, and the fascinating bunch desperate for their support. The name of New Zealand’s newest electorate can be traced back to a prominent Te Ākitai ...
The prime minister is no free-market ideologue or social traditionalist, but there is a conservative streak to her leadership, and that delights committed conservative Liam Hehir. Jacinda Ardern has advised us not to expect a whole lot of big promises from Labour this year. The announcement was undoubtedly frustrating for ...
How does a 4 percent unemployment figure gel with estimates that soon there will be whole neighbourhoods of people in South Auckland without work? A shock drop in official unemployment numbers caps off the "weirdest quarter" in New Zealand's economic history. "Beware" and "unbelievable" were the first words Kiwibank's chief economist Jarrod ...
Internal Revenue officials are moving ahead with plans to consult on and, eventually, adopt recommendations from the Tax Working Group on environmental taxes. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Scott Morrison will unveil on Thursday a cyber security package to give greater protection to critical Australian infrastructure and bolster the powers of the Australian Federal Police to pursue criminal networks on the dark web. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra A rumour that Victoria’s high profile chief health officer Brett Sutton was quitting caused a flurry in state government circles on Wednesday afternoon. Sutton has been one of the medical hardliners during the pandemic, at ...
Parliament has just passed a new law that will leave renters with a sense of relief. But many landlords aren’t too pleased. What’s all this then?The Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill passed under urgency this evening. It amends existing law around renting to increase rights for tenants. According to associate housing minister ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Noble, Education Policy Fellow, Mitchell Institute, Victoria University From tomorrow (Thursday, August 6) only children of permitted workers will be able to attend childcare in Melbourne, which is under stage 4 restrictions. Parents and providers have been waiting to understand what ...
Gone By Lunchtime’s Toby Manhire, Annabelle Lee-Mather and Ben Thomas denounce new poll results that very slightly contradict their opinions.The height of the summit for the National Party? A poll came out last week with Labour at 53%, and that was considered good news for Judith Collins and the Strong ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Melatos, Associate Professor of Economics, University of Sydney Virgin Australia’s plan to sack about 3,000 of its 9,000 staff, axe its budget brand Tigerair, streamline its fleet to only Boeing 737s and suspend long-haul international flying indefinitely should come as no ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Benjamin Reilly, Professor, University of Western Australia In international affairs, words are bullets, according to an old diplomatic saying. If so, Australia in recent years has begun firing new ammunition. In his address to the Aspen Security Forum today, Prime Minister Scott ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Aisling Rayne, PhD candidate, University of Canterbury Whakapapa [genealogy] binds tākata whenua [people of the land] to the mountains, rivers, coasts and other landscapes, linking the health of the people with that of the environment. Like humans, species have whakapapa that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gabriel da Silva, Senior Lecturer in Chemical Engineering, University of Melbourne The Lebanese capital Beirut was rocked on Tuesday evening local time by an explosion that has killed at least 78 people and injured thousands more. The country’s prime minister Hassan Diab ...
The MacDiarmid Institute DiscoveryCamp gives Māori and Pasefika high school students a taste of life as a scientist. Teuila Fuatai finds the experience often leads to much more. Eden Skipper loves eeling. “It is a family tradition,” he says proudly. The 22-year-old of Ngāi Tahu descent grew up on the east ...
Te Tari Taiwhenua, Department of Internal Affairs, has announced Allot Limited as the new service provider for the Digital Child Exploitation Filter (DCEF) from 1 August 2020. The filter operates as a service provided to most New Zealand Internet ...
In the wake of National’s leadership woes, The Spinoff sat down with the party’s most popular face in recent history to talk Covid-19, Judith Collins – and why he thinks our border should be more ‘flexible’.John Key is confident about our country’s future.In part, that’s because he tunes in each ...
The new National Policy Statement and National Environmental Standard for Freshwater, gazetted by the Government today, is a significant step forward in reducing pollution in our rural and urban waterways caused by intensive farming and through regional ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David McCooey, Professor of Writing and Literature, Deakin University In our series Art for Trying Times, authors nominate a work they turn to for solace or perspective during this pandemic. One day in 1984, a friend and I went to have lunch ...
Data released by Stats NZ today shows the impact of Covid-19 on New Zealand jobs during the June quarter was disproportionately felt by women. Mary Jo Vergara from KiwiEconomics breaks down what it all means.Women have historically fared well in times of war and crisis. During the Second World War, ...
The Sir Julius Vogel Awards last Thursday were meant to be a celebration of some of our best genre writers. It didn’t turn out that way, as Casey Lucas, one of the winners, explains. This is the story of how the nominees and recipients of the 2020 Sir Julius Vogel ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Craig Jeffrey, Director and CEO of the Australia India Institute; Professor of Development Geography, University of Melbourne In recent days, the Indian government approved a new education policy — the first for 34 years. The policy comes after an expert group produced ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julian Elliott, Executive Director, National COVID-19 Clinical Evidence Taskforce, and Associate Professor, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University With cases of COVID-19 on the rise, many Australians are asking: what happens if I test positive? With no known cure ...
Open Mike 07/01/2017 
Can we postpone this year’s election? Quite frankly, the political parties don’t seem ready for it, and aren’t about to offer voters the necessary policy choices for the unprecedented times we’re in. We’ve ended up with a campaign focused on scandal, personality and leadership, with a policy void that’s worse ...18 mins ago
It is the last sitting day of Parliament, and the last question time before the House is dissolved. So, are there any questions about the damning findings of the Hit and Run inquiry, and how the government plans to bring the military back under democratic control? Of course not. ...57 mins ago
1 hour ago
2 hours ago
by Don Franks This talk was given to the Wellington Anti Capitalist Alliance, fifteen years ago. The ultimate weapons of mass destruction so far seen on this planet have been used just twice, 60 years ago this month. August 6 and August 9 1945 witnessed the US atomic bombing ...7 hours ago
After I noticed that my name had been taken yet again in vain by my friendly antagonist Tom Hunter over at No Minister, I went over to see what the fuss was about. Nothing much, but then I discovered a post about the Operation Burnham Inquiry by Psycho Milt. I ...21 hours ago
Judy Kavanagh I’m OK with wearing a CovidCard. But are you? There’s no point me doing it alone.
As many good things come in threes (as the saying goes), we are happy to announce a third partnership between Skeptical Science and other websites. Fakebook.eco in Brazil is joining Klimafakten.de in Germany and Nauka o Klimacie in Poland to leverage translated rebuttal material and to make the information readily available in other ...2 days ago
As polling day in the American presidential election draws closer, things are looking bad for Donald Trump. The polls show that he is tracking well behind his Democrat rival. Most people assume that the President will be striving might and main to avoid what looks increasingly likely to be a ...3 days ago
Our health professionals do an amazing job. Image credit: Wikipedia – Cardiac surgery. Finally, I have got back to these rankings. A long period in hospital and computer problems meant the June 2020 rankings were abandoned. Now, with a new personal defibrillator implanted in my chest and a new hard ...4 days ago
We are failing to think though the interdependencies in an economy. We miss economist Bryan Philpott (1921-2000). I miss him personally – we used to have such great discussions – but this column is about how the nation misses his economic experience and wisdom. We tend to ...6 days ago
TUESDAY AUGUST 4Grand Designs UK (Three, 7.30pm). ...1 week ago
Most of the claims made by anti-fluoride propagandists are simply wrong. Image source: Fluoridation and the ‘sciency’ facts of critics Anti-fluoride propagandists continually cite studies from areas of endemic fluorosis in their arguments against ... 1 week ago
. . For the mainstream media, today (22 July) was even a better day than yesterday. More Sex. More Politics. More Sex AND Politics. Yesterday, the msm dealt with Andrew Falloon. The obscure backbench MP had been found to have sent pornographic images to at least four women. The woman’s ...1 week ago
On 1 August, we marked the anniversary of Jacinda Ardern becoming the Leader of the Labour Party. On that day in 2017, Leader Andrew Little nominated Jacinda Ardern to succeed him and lead the party to victory. Now, three years on, we look back at some of the key moments ...3 hours ago
The Green Party is celebrating the passing of the Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill, calling it a win for people who rent. ...17 hours ago
New Zealand needs to be more aggressive in pursuing economic opportunities and resist the short-term thinking affecting some of its major industry, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters says. Mr Peters told Wellington Chamber of Commerce members this morning that the planned closure of the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter will have ...2 weeks ago
New Zealand and Australia reaffirmed today the need for the closest possible collaboration as they tackle a global environment shaped by COVID-19, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters said. “In these challenging times, our close collaboration with Australia is more vital than ever,” said Mr Peters. Mr Peters and his Australian ...12 mins ago
The joint campaign to push the Government to commit to safer staffing levels in aged care continues around the country with two North Island actions. E tū members and delegates will be holding two photo opportunities in Gisborne on Thursday to ...27 mins ago
On the Rag meets two women advocating for the legalisation of cannabis to hear why they’re voting yes in this year’s referendum.The prevailing image of weed users in the media might be Seth Rogen and men who look like Seth Rogen ripping epic bong hits in front of a Bob ...1 hour ago
Evening Report Live: This week in A View from Afar with Paul G. Buchanan and Selwyn Manning, we examine the Beirut explosion and what is going on behind the headlines. We also debate how leaders around the world are using authoritarianism as a mask to cover their weak handling of ...1 hour ago
When they weren’t distributing money to an array of projects and programmes that met with their approval, our ministers were busy braying about the new laws they have promoted to improve – we hope – our wellbeing. Megan Woods was chuffed about two news laws passed into law on her ...1 hour ago
A couple fear a privacy breach at Immigration New Zealand show safeguards on personal information are not adequate. ...1 hour ago
Political heavyweights took the immediate headlines, but Auckland's economic summit was broad and deep with business and community leaders predicting the return of good things from some time between late 2021 and 2024. Tim Murphy reports The call that 'we need to have a conversation' about almost anything in public ...2 hours ago
Annaleese Jochems and Paul Little review new fiction by New Zealand authors David Coventry and Carl Nixon Annaleese Jochems on Dance Prone: David Coventry’s second novel Dance Prone is the story of a post-hardcore band touring through the American Southwest – a roadie novel. Initially its chief pleasures are similar ...6 hours ago
New Zealand needs to review its handling of Covid-19 'to do better next time' as global diseases are going to keep coming, warns Helen Clark. Former Prime Minister Helen Clark wants a full review into New Zealand's preparedness and handling of the Covid-19 pandemic - and is calling for the next government ...7 hours ago
Stringent guidelines for goods with potential military uses in countries like China are on the way. ...7 hours ago
It's time to lay extreme partisanship aside and for parties to prove their ingredients are worthy - not just that their packaging makes us feel good, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell Extreme partisanship has always perplexed me. I’m not judging but perhaps, as an opinion writer, I’ve come to hold my own opinions ...8 hours ago
On the campaign trail, Judith Collins is fully embracing every 'you're only about roads' barb people throw at her National Party leader Judith Collins couldn't have picked a more on-brand venue. The building was blue. The audience was blue. And the parking was free. Collins continued her roll-out of tunnelling announcements ...8 hours ago
Kiwi Winter Olympian and mountain explorer, Janina Kuzma, has become a film-maker, shining a light on gutsy female freeskiers. Sometime about now, Janina Kuzma would have been skiing down the shrinking faces of the world’s last tropical glaciers in Papua, Indonesia. The two-time Winter Olympian should have been filming the third movie in ...8 hours ago
The Health Minister expresses confidence in a troubled board that continues to be rocked by resignations. David Williams reports Chris Hipkins is putting a brave face on ructions at the Canterbury District Health Board, despite another senior resignation yesterday and divisions within the board itself becoming painfully obvious. The Health ...8 hours ago
How do we discourage politicians from gambling with our futures? Nicholas Agar looks at the 'Hail Mary' tactic, arguing politicians must own their misjudged forecasts Recent polls suggest this could be a very one-sided general election. It is useful to be forewarned about some of the tricks available to aspiring ...8 hours ago
The truth about the unemployment statistics, plus a fishing firm closes a Tauranga plant costing 65 jobs ...8 hours ago
How does a 4 percent unemployment figure gel with estimates that soon there will be whole neighbourhoods of people in South Auckland without work? A shock drop in official unemployment numbers caps off the "weirdest quarter" in New Zealand's economic history. "Beware" and "unbelievable" were the first words Kiwibank's chief economist Jarrod ...8 hours ago
Internal Revenue officials are moving ahead with plans to consult on and, eventually, adopt recommendations from the Tax Working Group on environmental taxes. ...8 hours ago
New Zealand First and the Greens are facing the reality of the 'support partner' curse ...22 hours ago
with some capabilities to ensure increased NZ self sufficiency in a deglobalising world.
[I”ve asked you to stay out of commenting on my posts, please don’t do it again – weka]
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Colonial Viper
Don’t know what that’s about CV and don’t want to know but I agree with your comment.
It is a practical and necessary path to follow.
Cheers GWS.
Some links to docos you might enjoy CV ….. although you may have seen them before …….. others could enjoy or learn from them …..
When I’m reading an article on the net and a name or operation I know nothing about is mentioned …. I ‘right click’ and search to see where the information leads and how it ties into things … it can end up very informative sometimes. …
It was while watching a doco about Kissinger and his huge crimes against humanity https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLMf-E9VRxc
http://www.globalresearch.ca/reliving-agent-orange-rethinking-the-cost-of-vietnam-war/5566106 …. that lead
me to Douglas Valentine …. http://www.douglasvalentine.com/bio.htm
Doug Valentine is a investigative journalist who after 4 years of research and interviews with C.I.A agents wrote a book “The Phoenix Program ” which ran during the Vietnam war …. “,…. it’s described as “A shocking exposé of
the covert CIA program of widespread torture, rape, and murder of civilians during America’s war in Vietnam,” …..
In this radio interview Doug Valentine describes his upbringing with a WWII vet father and how he got onto the phoenix program which was unknown to the public and had been a secret for 20 odd years https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkPUqUAhBg8 ……..
A lot of the doco explains specific propaganda and manipulation used to gain support for mass murder ( war )…………… He also gives a review of how he thinks Trump will operate… which is both critical and hopeful … Its a pack of murderers Trump will have to deal with and they certainly will not want to stop their sadistic blood democracy
But of course Vietnam and The Phoenix Program was just a continuation of using the worst psychopathic killers to suppress real democracy , murder political rivals, start wars, starve innocent civilians ….. and misinform us about it the whole time ….
“Operation Gladio” involved the C.I.As predecessor O.S.S and was specifically about the recruitment of Nazis,ultra-fascists and extreme right wingers after WWII was over………….. they were hidden militias/terrorist
Put in place to fight, kill and suppress democratic movements or governments …calling them socialists/communists …. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trGfQREzScY …
The Govt sponsered nazis Killed many many innocent people …. which was then most often blamed on communists/socialist … using the resulting public outrage to kill or persecute them.
Which all leads me to ask ……. why do we …. as in New Zealand ….have a trade embargo against Russia for protecting ethnic russians and others from a proto fascist govt installed after destabilization and a violent coup ????….
http://nsnbc.me/2014/05/10/odessa-massacre-detail-investigation/
These nazi fascist scum are what the russians lost over 20 million citizens fighting against in WWII ………
Its mainly our farmers who are paying for NZs support of fascism at the moment .. ….. good to see National party supporters paying for their fascist support policy http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2016/11/united-states-votes-anti-nazi-un-resolution/
“The International Criminal Court prosecutes individuals who have committed genocide and other major war crimes. Over 120 countries support it, but the United States is not one of them ……. ”
It all seems very disrespectful to WWII vets …. democracy u.s.a style ……….supporting Nazis
At least by not having a real air-force we did not become part of the ISIS aerial fighting wing like the Aussies and yanks did ….
Which all leads me to ask ……. why do we …. as in New Zealand ….have a trade embargo against Russia for protecting ethnic russians and others from a proto fascist govt installed after destabilization and a violent coup ????….
It certainly would be highly questionable, if the situation you describe reflected reality rather than fiction.
Thank you reason. The USA utterly destroyed its credibility with its actions in Vietnam, and has never come to terms with how appalling they really are(still).
Cheers garibaldi ………. one of the truly evil deeds done at the end of WWII was when the Brits reinstated the Fascist Nazi collaborators as police and Government in Greece ….. while waging war on the anti Nazi Greek partisan fighters who had liberated their country shortly before the Brits arrived …
….” as the December Battle of Athens had begun – known in Greece as the Dekemvriana – fought not between the British and the Nazis, but the British alongside supporters of the Nazis against the partisans. ” ……
“And thereafter Greece’s descent into catastrophic civil war: a cruel and bloody episode in British as well as Greek history which every Greek knows to their core”
” In France or Italy, if you fought the Nazis, you were respected in society after the war, regardless of ideology; they were heroes. In Greece, you found yourself fighting – or imprisoned and tortured by – the people who had collaborated with the Nazis, on British orders. There has never been a reckoning with that crime,” …. https://libcom.org/history/british-perfidy-greece-story-worth-remembering-ed-vulliamy-helena-smith
True Heroes and decent people were killed and slaughtered and its quite bloody tragic ………. “Greek politician, physician, track and field athlete, pacifist……. ” …….. http://2013.100daysproject.co.nz/project/day/80/2013/118
Those other Docos I posted up for Puckish were probably a bit long for Puckish …….. Here’s a 6 minute music one which has a simple message for him https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5yYjcxnpCs
He might learn a new language …………..:)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_casualties_in_World_War_II
thank you reason. It seems that we have to educate some privileged citizens of the US-Anglo empire what their own recent history is. I bet some still think that the Contras were the “popularly supported freedom fighters”
My sister made some purchases in Briscoes yesterday. The salesman produced a plastic bag which she said she didn’t want. We were told they had to either give us a bag or put a ‘sold’ sticker on every item. Grrr!!
I would have thought that a till receipt gives you all the proof of purchase you need.
Exactly – and when every other company is ( or says it is) trying to cut back on plastic waste, what does this Australian company think it’s up to?
Once they’re paid for they belong to you and you can do whatever you like with them, including deciding you don’t want extra stickers. Plus what Ffloyd said.
They’d probably then insist on stickering or bagging them before the transaction was completed. There’s probably something politically creative to do with the bag or stickers at that point 😈
Indeed that was what happened.
Hi weka, I would cynically suggest, insisting on a bag is no more than an advertising initiative.
when this happen, accept the bag, go to the next rubbish bin outside of the shop and put any surplus packaging, plastic bags, plastic wrappings etc in said rubbish bin.
If someone from the Mall asks why you do that you simply state that you did not want the plastic bag/packaging/plastic wrapping and thus you leave it behind to let the store deal with the rubbish.
IF/when enough people do that and the shops/mall have ot empty their rubbish containers several times more a day some businesses will stop using any extra packaging.
I do that often at the Supermarket/Paknslave with plastic wrappers around boxes around bottles and the likes. Not gonna schlepp that stuff home.
Not a bad idea, but if this is a company policy I think I need to kick up a public fuss as well
it will be a company policy. Their bags are branded and while you walk around with your briscoes bag, your pak n slave bags etc etc you are a walking talking advertisement for the company and in many cases you have to pay 10 cents for the privelege.
Kick a fuss with the company and then start leaving all the surpluss packaging behind in the shops and let them deal with the rubbish.
Why would you a. schlepp that stuff home and b. pay for having it removed as rubbish?
Thank you Polly.
Predatory health professionals should be put in prison IMHO. Instead the system continues protects them.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=11694042
When I’m reading an article on the net and a name or operation I know nothing about is mentioned I ‘right click’ and search to see where
the information leads and how it ties into things …
It was while watching a doco about Kissinger and his huge crimes against humanity https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLMf-E9VRxc
http://www.globalresearch.ca/reliving-agent-orange-rethinking-the-cost-of-vietnam-war/5566106 …. that lead
me to Douglas Valentine …. http://www.douglasvalentine.com/bio.htm
Doug Valentine is a investigative journalist who after 4 years of research and interviews with C.I.A agents wrote a book “The Phoenix Program ” which ran during the Vietnam war …. “,…. it’s described as “A shocking exposé of
the covert CIA program of widespread torture, rape, and murder of civilians during America’s war in Vietnam,” …..
In this radio interview he describes his upbringing with a WWII vet father and how he got onto the phoenix program which was unknown to the public and had been a secret for 20 odd years https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkPUqUAhBg8 ……..
A lot of the doco explains specific propaganda and manipulation used to gain support for mass murder ( war )…………… He also gives a review of how he thinks Trump will operate… which is both critical and hopeful … Its a pack of murderers Trump will have to deal with and they certainly will not want to stop.
But of course Vietnam and The Phoenix Program was just a continuation of using the worst psychopathic killers to suppress real democracy , murder political rivals, start wars, starve innocent civilians ….. and misinform us about it the whole time ….
“Operation Gladio” involved the C.I.As predecessor O.S.S and was specifically about the recruitment of Nazis,ultra-fascists and extreme right wingers after WWII was over………….. they were hidden militias/terrorist
Put in place to fight, kill and suppress democratic movements or governments …calling them socialists/communists …. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trGfQREzScY …
The Govt sponsered nazis Killed many many innocent people …. which was then most often blamed on communists/socialist … using the resulting public outrage to kill or persecute them.
Which all leads me to ask ……. why do we …. as in New Zealand ….have a trade embargo against Russia for protecting ethnic russians and others from a proto fascist govt installed after destabilization and a violent coup ????….
http://nsnbc.me/2014/05/10/odessa-massacre-detail-investigation/
These nazi fascist scum are what the russians lost over 20 million citizens fighting against in WWII ………
Yet here we are ……http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2016/11/united-states-votes-anti-nazi-un-resolution/
“The International Criminal Court prosecutes individuals who have committed genocide and other major war crimes. Over 120 countries support it, but the United States is not one of them ……. ”
Its mainly our farmers who are paying for NZs support of fascism at the moment .. ….. good to see National party supporters paying for their policy
At least by not having a real air-force we did not become part of the ISIS aerial fighting wing like the Aussies and yanks did ….
A wealthy Nigerian Prince has died and left his entire £12 million fortune to his cat.
He was quoted as saying, “I’ve tried to give it away on numerous occasions over the years but no one ever responded to my e-mails”
Haha Macro.
From national park to overseas: Plan to export billions of litres of West Coast water
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/88099749/from-national-park-to-overseas-plan-to-export-billions-of-litres-of-west-coast-water
– Great to see that we just give our natural resources away to anyone who puts in a resource consent. sarc.
It comes in two flavours: norovirus and campylobacter.
Wot? They’ve dropped giardia from the lineup?
Silly billies, the buggy water is saved for Kiwis.
Like our building industry where we sell raw materials for peanuts to buy back for a fortune, we can now give our water away to buy back in plastic bottles for $3. Bad for the environment, bad for the economy, but obviously a great profit for those getting the resource consents being dished out like lollies.
Some political party should revoke all these fucking water exporting rights. Labour, get on to it
Yup, water should only be free if you harvest it off your roof or your own ponds, if you start taking from National parks, lakes, aquifers then you should have to pay per cubic meter for the water to the government and a levy to the local community and ONLY if it will have a minimal environmental effects.
The resource consents should be able to be modified or nulled if there are any negative effects and the consents should only be for 5 – 10 year periods not forever, so that if there is a drought or what have you – the consents can be modified.
It is crazy how the council and government are just giving away our public resources. Wonder who the company is and who they know in government and council?
So, water meters for all residential properties.?
Not really too excited about that one.
Not sure where you live BM but many of us on town water seemed to be already charged for water, therefore why should a small group of people be able to take out millions of litres of water for their business from NZer’s without also paying for their useage?
If you want to avoid water charges collect from your roof or ponds for farms. Not some individuals diverting and taking water from everyone for their own benefit and selling if off shore while many locals are forced to pay for it.
Water meters are the first step in privatisation.
I don’t want our water supply sold off to a multinational, I’d prefer the city and rate payers stay in control of the water supply.
Wow, BM. That’s very socialist of you.
That seems to be a major disconnect from what’s actually happening.
The private companies are getting hold of our water and are exporting it with minimal controls and they’re not paying for it either.
Na mate, they are the first step in sorting out wasteful, entitled bludgers who think they can use as much water as they like and not have to pay for it. Bonus effect in allowing reticulation managers to get a handle on location and quantity of losses from their reticulation. So the result of metering is lower costs to most water users, apart from the wasteful entitled bludgers, who get to pay for their usage.
It’s the political clout of the wasteful entitled bludgers that keeps our water supplies un-metered, and uncontrolled.
+111
The councils seem to be giving away the rate payers water that’s what I am objecting to, by giving private companies resource consent to harvest water for nothing.
Traitor to the right!
Auckland has had them for at least 40 years.
It’s one of those things about economics that most people simply do not understand: We need to measure how much of a resource we have, how much of it can be used sustainably per year and how much and where is actually being used.
For some strange reason we’ve developed this idea that we can just take it all without worrying about it.
So, yes, every house, farm and business needs to have a water metre. And if we keep a market system then everyone needs to be charged for each unit that they use.
Strongly agree.
CV,
Like water is so scarce on the West Coast that there is not nearly enough to export.
Seriously, get real here. Why wouldn’t you export water from the West Coast? Standardnistas are always going on about the lack of jobs, especially in the regions, but obviously when they are created you are against them. Go figure.
Go and ask Damian O’Connor what he thinks.
That’s not a good argument for tax evasion, Wayne!
One of the problems many have with this issue Wayne is the resource belongs to all New Zealanders, yet it will be a privately owned venture that is going to directly profit from this.
If we are going to bulk export water it should be done through Government and for the benefit of all New Zealanders.
Yes, correct.
Why do you RWNJs always think that resources are unlimited?
How to make a country poor: Export all its resources for money
I think that if you harvest from your own roof for residential use it should be free or if you irrigate stock from your own pond it should be free. What I object to, is that some locals paying a fortune for water, while other councils are giving it away for export (probably to cronies). Where is the fairness in that?
The point is that our present economic system mistakes money for wealth. Exporting resources actually makes us poorer even though a few people will have more money in the bank.
The Chump says he’s saving jobs in the US. A few hundred at a time. By individually bullying companies (into doing things they were going to do anyway, but the Chump and the company both get good press from bullshitting about it). But he’s promised to trash clean energy, which is one of the fastest growing and high value segments of the US economy. Meanwhile China is creating millions of jobs by getting serious about clean energy.
https://thinkprogress.org/trump-to-abandon-millions-of-high-wage-jobs-to-china-3554a04796b1#.qyh3a1owu
Trump is into good business and good deals. If “clean energy” can demonstrate its place in the US economy, it’ll have a very good run under Trump.
NB China is still opening up new thermal plants every month.
It’s good to see that we finally have a US President who understands how business makes decisions and doesn’t believe in the free market mumbo jumbo of the Clintons and the Obamas.
Mexican press already complaining that Trump has cost Mexico at least 3600 jobs which were due to move from the US to Mexico.
@ Colonial Viper, Are you seriously saying that you believe Trump ( himself in the1% class) will operate outside his own class ideology, and help workers achieve better more stable conditions/pay over other (1% ers) industrialists/corporatists profit motives, and that he doesn’t believe in a totally free market?
What has he ever done in his own business ventures to have you believe those things?
He’s already doing those things. And it’s not just about Mexico – he’s just fired shots at the Toyota Corporation telling them if they do not build their next plant in the USA, they will face a 35% tariff at the border.
BTW you need to realise that the “elites” are not a monolithic block. History shows us that the “elites” often have conflicting or competing agendas. We can see this quite clearly with the deep state attempting to take the Trump Administration down before it even gets in.
Meanwhile, on Earth:
It’s ok though, because a shithead propagandist says water is dry.
Trump is making the USA more attractive for business. He’ll threaten businesses who want to move jobs out of the USA. But he’ll also give them lower taxes and more compliant workforce conditions if they stay.
It’s a classic business-like carrot and stick approach.
Obama was just letting Detroit jobs walk away to Mexico – destroying US worker unions that way.
“…more compliant workforce conditions…”
TRANSLATION: Few if any workers’ rights, no overtime pay, little or no safety regulations, instant dismissal at the whim of the boss….
That’s the way of it. Trump can deliver some things, but given the political establishment he is up against, he won’t be able to deliver everything by himself.
” … less tax for the worker, more money in workers’ pockets, more spending power …”
You’re welcome.
“…dead at the bottom of a mineshaft…”
You’re welcome.
Why do you not think that Trump is an elite?
You’ll have to point out where I said that. Indeed, I said above that elites often have conflicting or competing interests and that can be seen in how the Deep State is attempting to take Trump and his Administration down. (Implicitly suggesting that Trump is indeed part of the elite).
If anything, saying that Trump is part of the 1% is not wholly accurate. He is more correctly thought of as part of the 1% of the 1%.
Trump’s fellow elitists have long known that they cannot control him like they could control Reagan, Bush, Clinton and (they were hoping), Rodham Clinton.
BINGO – you got it, millsy.
OK, so just to be clear, are you saying that you believe that American workers, American civil rights, and freedom of speech will all improve overall under a Trump Presidency?
Also what historical episode are you alluding to where ‘elites’ ( a word I loath to use for the leeching class) have turned on their own class for the benefit of workers in a long term and substantive way?
They’ll deteriorate at an equal or slower rate than under President Obama’s time.
I can almost guarantee that Trump will prosecute FEWER whistleblowers than the record breaking Orwellian Obama.
@Adrian: Yes, CV really is that special kind of stupid.
China Bans New Coal-fired Power Plants
from the link
No worries…
The Chump will reopen the US mines and bring back heaps of jobs!
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/20/world/americas/alienated-and-angry-coal-miners-see-donald-trump-as-their-only-choice.html?_r=0
Oh Wait! That’s from the NY Times – purveyors of Fake News!
Oh Wait! No matter what Trump says – Mining jobs are not returning to W Virginia
CV response in … 1, 2, 3,….
A temporary ban/slow down on new thermal units due to overcapacity and falling profitability, not due to environmental concerns
http://www.powermag.com/despite-policy-shifts-china-faces-huge-coal-fired-overcapacity/
And yet they’re also pushing massive investment in renewable energy.
Let’s get down to brass tacks, Draco. Is China’s CO2 emissions in 2017 going to be higher or lower than in 2015 and 2016?
Because if it’s higher then it doesn’t matter a rat’s arse if China adds a million square kilometres of solar panels.
Indications are that it will be lower from coal fired generation. So that would indicate that it does matter that China is going to add even more gigawatts of renewable power generation.
Krugman on the Chump’s phony jobs policy and how he’s playing the media with his “saving jobs” schtick.
“In other words, it may have sounded as if Mr. Trump was doing something substantive by intervening with Carrier, but he wasn’t. This was fake policy — a show intended to impress the rubes, not to achieve real results.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/06/opinion/the-age-of-fake-policy.html?ref=opinion&_r=0
Clinton Camper Krugman is just pissed that he didn’t get the White House position Hillary promised him, and has been losing his mind for the last two months over it.
A bit like you and the Labour Party, eh.
Explain? The Labour Party has no money to pay people with. It relies on free work done for it at no cost to keep functioning.
lol now you’re parroting Pauline Hanson, but without the courtesy of a “please”.
Perhaps you can explain then? Please?
Only if you clearly explain your obsession with pizza parlours. Maybe you should “self investigate”.
If Krugman was really interested in policies which make a substantial difference to the US jobs market he should not have been dead-set against Gerald Friedmans estimates of the US economys future under Bernie Sanders economic policy.
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/02/26/romer-and-romer-on-friedman/
Friedman was discussing policies which might actually make a dent in the 75,000 odd churn of the jobs market each day in the US.
The main point is, (as Krugman says), that “Friedman is implicitly assuming that the U.S. economy is (and will continue to be for a long time) dramatically below its productive capacity.” which he disputes. But given that Krugman is saying there that the US is actually much closer to full capacity utilization when dealing with Friedman (which means almost all of the 75,000 turnover will find other jobs quickly) why does he also claim some re-shoring is insignificant because many will languish without jobs for many many years, when dealing with Trump. Of course its because Krugman thinks he can have it both ways on this issue.
Also, despite claiming its fake policy, Krugman does nothing to actually show that the policy doesn’t do exactly what it says it does. e.g the headline of Krugmans piece is based on a lie! (most probably by the editor).
Indeed. Krugman is Killarys handbag, like Podesta, aka one job, all they had to do was say yes.
Heh. More Chump job creation. Nervous companies hire more PR people for rapid response to 3am tweets.
http://www.salon.com/2017/01/06/donald-trumps-early-morning-tweetstorms-are-creating-jobs-for-nervous-pr-people/
Interesting science prediction. There will be a red nova sometime around 2022 from a binary star finally collapsing into itself.
http://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/1/6/14184094/scientists-predict-stars-colliding
Joke science prediction: society will collapse within 10 years! It’s real! It’s based on actual math and social science and stuff!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/peter-turchin-cliodynamics-society-collapse_us_586f1e22e4b02b5f85882988?section=us_science
(Sorry if this excites the “We’re doomed Dooooomed I tells ya” crowd)
Society and civilisation is already collapsing for the bottom one to two billion in the world.
The stuck up ignorant intellectual-yet-idiots in first class don’t think anything is wrong with the Titanic, but those in steerage have noticed that the water is up to their knees and rising fast.
Even the wealthy locations around the world are experiencing weird, severe weather events year on year. But don’t worry we’re this close to self driving cars and drone courier deliveries which will of course solve all our problems.. not.
Alex Jones and Max Keiser (mid Dec): the Trump effect, death of the MSM, the rise of alternative media, RT as “fake news”, creating jobs in America, Vladimir Putin
I’m putting this in the reply because you mentioned the magic words “fake news”.
Check out this bizzare story of a dating site (yes really) attacking Assange.
There is a link in the article that goes to another story where Wikileaks threatening to sue CNN (the king of all fake news sites IMHO) for labeling Assange as a pedocrim.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/election/article110904727.html
thanks for the link. Mildly amazed it made it to mcclatchy as being newsworthy. US Gov has influence over tonnes of front people and front organisations to do this kind of nonsense with, not to mention offsiders like Soros etc funding NGOs who do similar under direction.
I don’t think AI is quite ready to go Terminator on us. Bizarrely hilarious.
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2017/01/thousands-of-people-are-watching-two-google-homes-argue-with-each-other-on-twitch/
Cantabrians, is this an actual issue? Bubbling under the radar or out there in public? Or do people accept the destruction of public good for private profit as just capitalism NZ style in action?
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2017/01/the-selwyn-river-s-unbelievable-decline.html
Pretty good piece by Owen Jones here, maybe some on the left could actually now start expend some of their energy on T May, rather than bagging Corbyn for a change, you know divided we fall and all that….I know many free market liberals despise and fear a real socialist Left Wing voice..but maybe 2017 is time for them to wake up and understand that the neo liberal freemarket project as has been vigorously promoted by various ‘centre left’ western political parties is over, exposed as nothing more than a economic ponzi scheme.
“Theresa May backing Donald Trump over Israel is a disgrace”
Thanks for that, Adrian. It’s worth remembering though, that not all Labour Party MPs are moral reprobates, cowards and chickenhawks like Hilary Benn, Tony Blair and Ed Miliband….
I agree, just wish we could get back to having a real Left Labour in New Zealand, one that we could all really fight for, but no, just the same old centrist bullshit.
Who wants to fight for that…nobody that’s who, the best Labour can hope for in 2017 is people voting for them because they are either sick of National, or don’t feel they have any other choice…but certainly not because they are passionate and inspired about Labour as a vehicle of real and needed economic/political change.
Turn Labour Left.
Who wants our ‘clean, green’ New Zealand back?
Sorry to pop the hot air balloon – but in my considered opinion, New Zealand is a corrupt, polluted tax haven.
The tip of the giant New Zealand corruption iceberg has been revealed in the ‘Reasons for the Verdict’ of Justice Sally Fitzgerald dated 9 December 2016.
(International ‘Anti-Corruption Day’ – as it happens!)
CRI-2015-044-001286
[2016] NZHC 2970
THE QUEEN v
STEPHEN JAMES BORLASE
MURRAY JOHN NOONE
225 pages – which I have spent DAYS studying.)
The bribes paid by just ONE corrupt private contractor to just ONE corrupt ‘public official’ totalled $1.2 million over 7 years.
How many thousands of ‘public officials’ and thousands of private contractors are there in New Zealand, perceived’ for so many years to be ‘the least corrupt country in the world’ – (according to the, in my view, the effectively bogus and completely meaningless Transparency International ‘Corruption Perception Index’?)
How is it either proper, or lawful, for ‘public officials’ to simultaneously be ‘private consultants’?
(Which has been proven to be the mechanism for the corrupt payment of bribes in the above-mentioned Judgment.)
How is it proper or lawful to have a policy of ‘collaboration’ and
‘co-operation’ between public officials and private consultants and contractors?
In my view, this policy of ‘collaboration’ and ‘co-operation’ between public officials and private consultants/ contractors has now been proven to breed corruption.
How widespread is this policy of ‘collaboration’ and ‘co-operation’ across local and central government?
Anyone else asking – or checking?
How much of this now proven to be fundamentally flawed, policy of ‘collaboration’ and ‘co-operation’ between public officials and private consultants/contractors has come about because of the, in my view, infestation of public official roles with private sector businesspeople?
And the commercialisation of public services, locally, nationally and internationally?
The NZ National Business Review (NBR) has led the charge and published two in-depth investigative articles revealing corruption in the NZ roading industry.
(16 and 23 December 2016
SPECIAL Investigation – Investigative journalist Karyn Scherer).
As a proven anti-corruption campaigner, who has attended five international
anti-corruption conferences, and ‘blown the whistle’ against corruption and the lack of transparency in the spending of public spending on private consultants and contractors for the last ten years – I now feel absolutely vindicated.
I’m standing as an Independent ‘anti-corruption’ candidate in the upcoming Mt Albert by-Election, and look forward to being able to ask some stinking hard questions about corruption in the House under Parliamentary privilege.
The strongest message, in my view, that can be given to this Government that decent New Zealanders want a STOP to corruption is to vote a proven anti-corruption ‘Public Watchdog’ into Parliament.
THAT will send a message that cannot be ignored – locally, nationally and internationally.
SEIZE THE MOMENT!
Penny Bright.
2017 Independent candidate in the Mt Albert by-election.
Attendee: 2010 Transparency International Conference -Bangkok.
Attendee: 2009, 2013, 2015 Australian Public Sector Anti-Corruption Conferences.
Attendee: 2014 G20 Anti-Corruption Conference.
I’m sure that is just the tip of the Iceberg, Penny.
Indeed it is …..
“How is it either proper, or lawful, for ‘public officials’ to simultaneously be ‘private consultants’?”
It often isn’t. The public sector routinely uses Conflict of Interest processes to manage potentially competing interests including private business dealings.
It is impossible to prevent immoral arseholes like the primary convict in this case from lying on official COI forms and to successive managers, as revealed in the judgement notes. Yet they were still caught because colleagues had the moral fibre to pursue matters and the public records and testimony convinced the judge to find guilt. Result.
English Grammar
The NZ Herald must be finding it hard to find reporters that have any idea of writing an article and obviously do not proof read.
Refer Split in Trump’s Team.
I always thought that a person’s name was in capital letters and also the name of a organisation. Apparently the US is us. Have also noticed the “word” if that is what you call gotten is creeping in with some.
From the Financial Times: in the UK inherited wealth reinforces/increases wealth inequalities – according to the report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, an economic research organisation.
Basically, it’s increasingly hard for younger generations to build up their own wealth, if they don’t have wealthy parents. The wealthiest among older generations are likely to leave a sizeable sum to their children.
PM May says she aims to decrease inequalities, but her party’s promise to reduce inheritance taxes will work against this.
So, the housing bubble is feeding into growing wealth inequalities.
The hysterical anti-Russian lies being whipped up by the bitter and thoroughly discredited leadership of the Democratic Party have been mindlessly repeated in this country, with RNZ National and other major outlets leading every bulletin yesterday (Friday 6 January) with the (completely unsupported) allegations made by the notorious perjurer James Clapper….
One of the targets of the Clintonistas’ wrath has been Glenn Greenwald, the outstanding scholar and journalist who in 2014 was labeled “a loser” by our former prime minister John “Quitter” Key. He writes about it at the end of this typically excellent article….
The Washington Post Is Richly Rewarded for False News
About Russia Threat While Public Is Deceived
by GLENN GREENWALD, The Intercept, January 5 2017
Read more….
https://theintercept.com/2017/01/04/washpost-is-richly-rewarded-for-false-news-about-russia-threat-while-public-is-deceived/
Good one Morrissey.
There are many on this site falling hook, line and sinker for the ‘Democrat’ propaganda maelstrom. It’s a pity the Democrats still can’t come to terms with the fact they ran a poor campaign with an unsuitable candidate.
None of all this bullshit Presidency of Trump would have happened if the DNC hadn’t had their heads up their arses and had had enough nous to see the need for change.
Their pathetic attempts to blame everyone else but themselves just shows what total disarray their Party is in. Shame on them.
+1 garibaldi
@Morrissey +1
You do get that it’s possible for senior Democrats to be trashing Glenn Greenwald and for Russian intelligence services to have hacked the DNC emails, right? The two are not mutually exclusive.
Sure I do, Milt. There’s just the slight problem of credibility, however, when the source of these allegations is the world’s most notorious perjurer.
You don’t seem to understand how this stuff works. The source of the allegations isn’t Clapper, it’s the US intelligence services – which, however much we might not like them, do actually have a job to do and to some extent at least they actually do it. Your thoughts on the credibility of the results are no doubt of importance to you, but there’s no reason they should be important to anyone else. What counts is what US government officials think of it, and so far they’re taking it seriously.
Plenty of bullshit allegations and assertions, zero fucking proof. Bill Binney, Ray McGovern, John Kiriakou, Murray Craig, Julian Assange have all been very clear on this.
On the other side of the equation the “intelligence services” keep releasing pointless shit reports like the recent FBI/DHS one and the declassified version of the ODNI report which don’t say a fucking thing except for providing more evidence-free assertions and conclusions.
As usual, you declare claims you don’t like to be “bullshit” “evidence-free assertions,” while those you do like are accepted at face value as “very clear” self-evident truth. That can be funny in a sit-com character, but is simply irritating in a live human.
1. The reports have no credibility.
2. Members of the US Congress and Senate take them seriously, meaning that…
3. We have a problem. A fucking huge one given that it’s all revolving around cranking up tensions with Russia.
STOP Niki’ eviction!
The fight against the privatisation of State housing – for which there was never an electoral mandate.
FYI.
As an Independent candidate in the upcoming Mt Albert by-election, I absolutely support the brave stand by Niki Rauiti as a directly-affected State tenant who is fighting the privatisation of State housing by refusing to be evicted.
I will be coming on the march to help defend Niki and State housing on 17 January 2017, and supporting the proceeding occupation.
Let’s help make this a key Mt Albert by-election issue and put a HUGE spotlight on the housing issue that CANNOT be ignored!
Who’s coming with us?
Who else can help get this message out?
THANKS!
Penny Bright
‘Anti-privatisation / anti-corruption Public Watchdog.
2017 Independent candidate
Mt Albert by-election.
______________________________
Tēnā koutou,
We are writing requesting support for Ioela ‘Niki’ Rauti, a long-term tenant who is being evicted from her home at 14 Taniwha Road, Glen Innes.
Niki is to be evicted so that private houses for the wealthy can be built on former Housing New Zealand land.
Niki intends to resist this eviction but requires support in order to be successful.
We will be holding two marches in support of Niki on the 17 January 2017, starting at 6:00pm.
There will be two starting points, the first will be Glen Innes Library, and the second will be the corner of Line Road and West Tāmaki Drive.
Both marches will meet at Niki’s home at 14 Taniwha.
If either the government or the redevelopment company, the Tāmaki Redevelopment Company, have not by this stage halted the eviction, an occupation of the surrounding land will be set up to act as a barrier of defense for Niki.
Niki is an elderly tenant who is also suffering from illness.
Niki is making a stand for the elderly, sick, disabled and for all tenants facing discrimination and eviction due to housing reform and profit-driven redevelopment.
We believe that the ‘housing crisis’ is not addressed through evictions, selling state housing and gentrifying communities.
This eviction is part of nationwide reforms that have led to eviction, displacement, increased homelessness, and transiency.
This fight for Niki is a fight for all tenants facing eviction and displacement.
We are making a call out for support for Niki to try and keep her home, and to make a stand against the Government’s housing policy.
A few suggestions are listed below:
Joining the March on 17 January 2017 as well as the proceeding occupation.
Public support for Niki on your Facebook, through a press release etc.
Sending out details about the occupation to your email lists.
Donating resources such as tents, full list available on the facebook page.
Sending donations to the Tāmaki Housing Group 38-9014-0147012-00
Most importantly we ask for your presence during Niki’s occupation of her home.
Ngā mihi nui,
Niki & the Tāmaki Housing Group
Email: nikieviction@gmail.com
Twitter: defend_Niki
Instagram: tamaki_housing
Facebook page: facebook.com/THISHOMEISOCCUPIED
Human beings (en masse) are stupid so perhaps as a species we will indeed cease to exist in the not too distant future. We repeat the same mistakes and patterns time after time.
Consider ….diminishing resources+ resurgent eugenics+ Trump…. and be very afraid.
Just to add a bit of optimism and cheer, a return to wondering about mushroom clouds.
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/01/william-perry-nuclear-weapons-proliferation-214604
His hypothesise is incorrect because the Soviet Union doesn’t exist anymore.
Nukes aren’t a first strick option because your soldiers will assassinate you.
That’s a hopeful scenario. Alternatively, you might have surrounded yourself with hawks who have never played the game of nuclear brinkmanship before.
Because it’s not about “Soviets vs Yanks”, it’s about power blocs with nukes and expansionist territorial demands.
Cold War rhetoric isnt worth repeating because it’s so transparent. Every American intervention from Greece in 1947 to Syria today features a mythical Russian threat.
One thing has changed since 1947, the speed at which finance can travel the globe has increased dramatically transforming the great game from chess (Atrittion) to Go. Ask any Go master why they make a move, they reply, because it feels right.
That’s nice.
Does the world burn if they lose?
Wrong game. You’re still playing checkers. Try and upgrade yourself to Connect Four before trying again.
And you can go fish, you fascist troll.
Donald Trump, greatest American president since Reagan, says 20th Jan will be a great show!
Indeed it will, Mr Trump. Indeed it will.
So The United States doesn”t like overseas interference in their elections. Get over it you guys. The UK and New Zealand have been getting it for years, it’s called, CrosbyTextor.
Some of the arguments on TheStandard have been had before.
Two smart home assistants hold a conversation than never sticks to the point and evades any evidence to support outrageous claims. It also includes allegations of lying, assertions of what was said and subsequent denials, and apparently at least one claim to be a god…
It got nasty while I was watching. One of them took offence at a “knock, knock” lead-in and tried Avada kedavra on the other…
Bolivia proving that Socialism works and is profitable.
“Since 2006, Bolivia has been run by socialists every bit as militant as Venezuela’s. The country has experienced a spectacular run of economic growth and poverty reduction with no hint of the chaos that has plagued Venezuela. While inflation spirals toward the 1000 per cent mark in Venezuela, in Bolivia it runs below 4 per cent a year. Shortages of basic consumption goods – rampant in Caracas – are unheard of in La Paz………..
……. Bolivia was running budget surpluses every year between 2006 and 2014. This allowed it to draw down the public sector’s debt, which fell from 83 per cent of GDP in 2003 to just 26 per cent in 2014, even as Bolivia built up its international reserves dramatically, from US$1.7b in 2005 to US$15.1b at the end of the boom in 2014.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11778233
Ok Bolivia is resource rich but compared to Venezuela (and some other countries) The Washington Post is applauding the way Socialism and careful management is working there.
The poster known as Gosman will hate this.