Another day in John Key’s neo-liberal nightmare.
We have become a cruel, greedy, uncaring and selfish nation under his wretched leadership.
Uncaring, greedy.
Power companies.
Power prices are an ongoing worry for many people, who hold back heating their homes in a bid to cut down on the power bill, a survey shows.
Figures from a new Consumer NZ survey showed 38 per cent of people said their homes were not as warm as they would like because they were restricting their energy use to keep bills down.
Asked how much they tried to cut their power bill, 16 per cent said not at all, 29 per cent said sometimes, 41 per cent said all the time and 14 per cent of people were neutral.
Those living in a rented home were more likely to turn down the heat, with 43 per cent of renters cutting back on heating because of costs.
That compares with 33 per cent who own their homes and cut heating to save.
Grey Power Auckland president Anne-Marie Coury said a lot of those choosing not to turn the heater on because of high costs were pensioners.
“In Auckland, 51 per cent that are entitled to national Super … have no other income. So if their rates go up … what do they cut back on? Food and electricity.”.
Yesterday afternoon I had to drop something off to an old fella at his council flat, he came to the door dressed in jacket & big wooly hat that covered his ears like he was in Antarctica! I asked if he was alright warm enough etc? He said ‘all good mate, you have a good day’.
Another day in John Key’s neo-liberal nightmare.
We have become a cruel, greedy, uncaring and selfish nation under his wretched leadership.
Uncaring, greedy.
Landlords and real estate companies that manage rentals.
A family who huddle together in one room of their freezing mould-ridden rental to keep warm say they are fed up and scared for their health.
Seth Lougheed, and partner Amy, say their Tokoroa rental is so cold and damp that their three-month-old baby’s lips and hands turn blue.
“We are scared for our baby’s sake, she is getting colds non-stop and I have got letters from my doctor and Plunket nurse because they are worried,” Amy, whose name has been changed for legal reasons, said.electricity.”
Despite paying $240 a week for their three bedroom home the couple say they can only use their tiny lounge, dining and kitchen area because the rest of the house is uninhabitable.
That’s because substantial black mould seeps through the walls and carpet of the bedrooms. The place is also freezing despite a fire going constantly.
The majority of windows and doors also don’t shut properly, the floor under the bath is soft, the wooden deck is rotten, the back garden floods, they had to install their own smoke alarms, the heat pump is out-of-order, and the roof panel above the fire recently collapsed, they claim. The list goes on.
Amy said while they have repeatedly complained to Ray White Real Estate Tokoroa, which manages the property, little has been done to remedy the problems.
“We told the property manager six months ago about the mould and were told just to wipe it off but it’s not getting rid of the spores so it just keeps coming back,” she said.
Despite paying $240 a week for their three bedroom home the couple say they can only use their tiny lounge, dining and kitchen area because the rest of the house is uninhabitable.
We’ve been in this situation too; in fact I suspect a lot of New Zealanders shut down part of their house in winter because they cannot afford to heat it all.
And this is largely due to a building industry that for generations has been overpriced and under-performing. In my opinion about three-quarters of kiwi houses need renovating with a bulldozer.
When we came to NZ we were told winter here is an indoor experience as much as it is an outdoor one. We have had wind coming from the floor as it was not insulated just like the rest of the house; there was no heating source so we had to use a portable gas heater and oil heaters at night; you can imagine the wet windows in the morning and the fight to wipe them. No amount of open windows during the day can prevent the condensation that comes at night. It pushed us to do everything we could to be out of there and into our own house, which we did exactly a year after we moved into it. But we are privileged to be able to do that and it makes me so angry there are no regulations when it comes to rentals. If landlords cannot afford to provide a decent standard of living for their tenants they should not be landlords.
There are two types of rentals; purpose built new apartments and townhouses which are generally ok. It’s not often appreciated but historically something in the order of 10-15% of all new builds are intended as rental investments. Generally these units will be pretty good; the landlord has put in solid money upfront and wants to keep them for decades for their rental income, not their speculative capital gain.
But historically the bulk of rentals are ordinary homes that are in the last 25% of their economic life … and no-one wants them as their ‘dream home’ anymore. These are the problem houses; either an energetic owner will renovate them in the hope that the capital gain will cover the considerable costs OR a landlord will just leave them to slowly depreciate and decay while the rental income makes a modest cash flow.
A lot depends on the location and the long term plans of the landlord. Bear in mind that a decent reno on a run-down older house may well cost > $50k and with a rental income of only $15k pa or less, plus rates, insurance, interest and other costs … if there is no capital gain it absolutely makes no commercial sense to upgrade. You can spend a lot of money doing up a rental, and the income barely changes. The tenant gets all the benefits of warmer house and lower power bills, the landlord gets nothing except maybe an improved occupancy rate.
The core problem here is a lot of mis-aligned market signals.
Bear in mind that a decent reno on a run-down older house may well cost > $50k
My landlord is presently renovating this house and has budgeted $80k to do it. Now that he’s started he’s concerned that he hasn’t budgeted enough.
The place is ~40 years old, it’s not in bad condition but it’s the not the best either. The landlord does, as a matter of fact, live here as well (I rent a room).
The core problem here is a lot of mis-aligned market signals.
Actually, the core problem is that the market doesn’t really work in housing.
Andrew Little has fallen into the same trap as Bennett by referring to the need to increase the number of “beds” for the homeless. How patronising is that? Guess it’s to be expected though, from the party for the workers – meaning those with jobs, that is.
small difference between Paula (Has got her benefits) Bennett and Andrew Little.
The National MP of Do Nothing Paula B. wants to spend more money on existing beds not increase the number of emergency beds available.
Andrew Little wants to increase the Number of emergency beds/housing as there is currently and prolly for a few years coming a need.
Safe your concern for the National Party and their Do Nothing Minister of Fuck UPs.
That’s because substantial black mould seeps through the walls and carpet of the bedrooms.
The majority of windows and doors also don’t shut properly, the floor under the bath is soft, the wooden deck is rotten…
I kinda realised that aspect a couple of years ago when the WOF for rental properties was first mooted. The idea would be to progressively work through them.
“This is a case, Hillary Clinton, that cries out for presentation to a grand jury. Political appointees including Jim Comey and Loretta Lynch should not be making this decision.”
“Now what we have is a country that doesn’t believe in the system anymore. This case should have gone to a grand jury. Ordinary Americans should have heard this case. You’ve got political appointees like Jim Comey, Loretta Lynch, and someone who was beneath Loretta Lynch who is also a political appointee making this decision, reeks of favoritism.”
Judge Pirro then lays the timeline out and very bluntly asks everyone to put the pieces together.
“One day you’ve got Bill Clinton meeting with Loretta Lynch, the next day you’ve got Hillary Clinton meeting with the FBI, and then after that you’ve got Hillary Clinton campaigning with the president after she says ‘I would consider Loretta Lynch as my Attorney General’, folks put the pieces together.”
Donald Trump says it more simply – under his presidency, Loretta Lynch would be out of a job. But Clinton can promise her additional terms in office if she won the presidency.
“It’s a bribe! I mean the Attorney General is sitting there saying ‘you know if I get Hillary off the hook, I’m gonna have four more years, or eight more years, but if she loses I’m out of a job'”
In my opinion, born from principle and common decency, that you support a racist, misogynist, billionaire one percenter invalidates you from giving me shit over just about anything.
To me, your opinion is as valid as nf, kkk rednecks.
I’m underwhelmed. lol
Anyway, I’m under orders from Bill, now.
As you’re untouchable, you’ll be all right to carry on by yourself until the coast clears and the dust settles. lol
When you say “serious political comment” you mean join you on a daily basis in rabbiting on about neolibs, Trump, Putin, RT links, Labour are shit and we’re all going die from the radiation.
It’d take a heavy hammer and a willing head smacker first.
Punching out now, so make sure the cheque is in the post, ta.
Be led like a lamb to the slaughter, if you wish. After all the farmer has fed you without fail every day, how could he be wishing anything bad for you? To question otherwise is to be a “conspiracy theorist.”
I’ve got no time for the FBI but it’s not as simple as: An Obama political appointment so he does was the president wants.
Here’s the wiki short version on James Comey:
James Brien Comey, Jr. (born December 14, 1960) is an American lawyer. He is the seventh and current Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
He was the United States Deputy Attorney General, serving in President George W. Bush’s administration. As Deputy Attorney General, Comey was the second-highest-ranking official in the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) and ran the day-to-day operations of the Department, serving in that office from December 2003 through August 2005. He was U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York prior to becoming Deputy Attorney General.
What an odd piece by Trevett in the Herald about Andrew Little. A complete load of rubbish, cliched writing. And, predictably, it’s been turned into a hatchet job on the Labour leader.
There were two pieces. One headlined ‘The Man who would be King’ which is a story about inflated egos seeking glory but failing.
The other was referenced the Labour housing statements as a ‘Crusade’ which is a futile and divisive part of history still playing out on the world stage.
Both suggested the datedness and futility of Labour policy and the articles themselves only explored the policy and leadership ambitions as it relates to government policy and the leader of the government, not touching on the people for which the policy aim to help. She seeked to consolidate and defend the fragmented and reluctant govt policy and present it as worthwhile but over a longer timeframe.
She really is the stuff floating on the surface of stagnant government thought.
“Andrew Little: Is it not the truth that he has taken no action to stop the sale of our productive land into overseas ownership and that his pledge to ensure that we will not become tenants in our own land is just more hollow words from a hollow man?
Hon Steven Joyce: Angry Andrew.
Rt Hon JOHN KEY: Well, he is angry because he has had to wait a wee while to ask his question. But I stand by my record”
******************************************
“Rt Hon JOHN KEY: The Government’s response in housing has been quite comprehensive”
********************************************
“Andrew Little: Does he agree with Nick Smith that the costs of modern insulation and heating standards are not worth the benefits, given that the benefits are preventing Kiwi kids from getting sick and from dying?
Rt Hon JOHN KEY: I agree with Nick Smith in the context of the statements he would have been making. ”
**********************************************
“Andrew Little: How proud is the Prime Minister of the company he is now keeping when the Panama Papers lump New Zealand in with such auspicious company as Belize, the Seychelles, and Costa Rica in the list of 21 tax havens?
Rt Hon JOHN KEY: I think New Zealand can stand quite proudly on the regime that it runs here”
************************************************
“Rt Hon Winston Peters: How can he stand by his statements yesterday that New Zealand “is not a tax haven” and that we “also have an extensive disclosure regime”, when specialist law firms on trusts for foreigners point out there is no need for disclosure of identity, or trust registration, or for any such trust accounts to be audited?
Starting with the slightly sneering reference to “crusade” in the headline, travelling on down to suggestion by default of a practical and moral equivalence in the parties’ respective positions, and the ever-present fascination with the ‘game’ of it all.
What a John Key botty muncher is Deputy Trev’ ! Fukn unbelievable !
And what of the vox pop they’ve had up on Herald online – what are people saying about Andrew Little ? No context, no analysis, no reporting of numbers or percentages. Just out-of-the-blue, “Ya like him, or no ?
Love it where Fran says it is a pretty crap society that pulls the housing ladder up on the young and less well-off to preserve their unearned wealth. Well said indeed.
Yep the easiest thing is to stop reading the herald. I try just to look about once a month just in case there has been some editorial change to act like a newspaper not a propaganda advertorial for Natz and friends.
As for Little he’s doing the best job he can and has united the caucus and he seems really honest. So a good contrast to Key the liar.
The only thing I am concerned about is that Labour seem to be deciding to have some sort of rah rah housing policy coming out, and that will be falling into the Natz and MSM hands.
In times of bad news, notice Key disappears, off to Fiji, Hawaii or whathaveyou. But Labour feel compelled to be in the spot light at that time so are then appearing whenever there is bad news.
There is no knight in shining armour for housing in Auckland and New Zealand. What ever is done is gonna piss a lot of people off, either the 1 in 4 migrants in Auckland, the 67% homeowners or the renters many of whom did seem to want to vote Labour or Greens last election in spite of seemingly housing policy gains for them.
There is no possible way to look good on housing and please everyone. You are more likely to displease everyone. So the best thing is to leave the Natz alone in the spotlight to face the housing crisis alone. They choreographed the situation and now it is their time to face the music (by themselves).
Don’t make any announcements Labour/Greens! Just sit tight on housing announcements and let the swords fall and MSM talons, on who deserve it. The Natz.
Labour/Greens can fix up housing when they are elected and not let that be the downfall like last election.
Wouldn’t normally link to the horrendous old Daily Telegraph … but … Defeated Labour Rebels admit ‘it’s finished’, as Jeremy Corbyn refuses to Resign as Leader
Corbyn may look like the runty guy who gets sand kicked in his face all the way down the beach, but clearly he has stones of steel. The rebel MP’s bet that the Members would not rise sufficiently to his defence.
They bet wrong.
Corbyn has won the people, and with that, can happily knife all the PLP Rebels as quickly or as slowly as he likes, and install his own in to the shadow Cabinet. A major payback for enduring the crap.
I haven’t always warmed to him personally, but I respect a well-played political defence.
Very happy with the broad direction Corbyn and McDonnell have set out for the Party … but I’m by no means entirely uncritical of aspects of his leadership.
The core problem now is that (unsurprisingly) polls suggest an overwhelming majority of voters (including around half of Labour voters) see the Party as deeply divided and, partly as a consequence, they see Corbyn as a less than capable and competent Leader. “If they can’t run their own Party, how can they run the Country” etc
There’s almost an element of blackmail here … PLP gross disloyalty undermines the leadership team and destroys confidence in Labour as a viable alternative Govt … potentially leading to ever poorer poll ratings and the prospect of Corbyn becoming a lame duck leader.
Owen Jones recently suggested the Corbyn team’s plan was to nurture a Left-leaning successor to take over the leadership a couple of year’s before the 2020 Election (assuming it isn’t earlier). I’d almost be prepared to accept a Corbyn compromise with the PLP by making their favoured candidate -the Soft Left’s Owen Smith – that successor. (the PLP are well aware that the membership will never accept anyone from the Centre or Right of the Party, so have reluctantly opted for Smith).
Except, the Brownites and Blairites play hardball – they’re interested in exerting as much control over Smith as possible (like they tried to do with Miliband – leading to a great deal of policy ambiguity in the lead-up to the 2015 Election) and they clearly want to inflict a historic defeat on the Left of the Party. As Tony Blair once implied – the last thing they want to see is a popular electable Left-leaning Leader.
Blair has been immolated by the Chilcott report, but it’s no time for Corbyn to be cocky.
2020 is one helluva long time to survive in an office where 2/3 of your ‘colleagues’ utterly loathe you and will slit your hamstrings every time you move.
Can Corbyn ‘smile, and murder while I smile’? Not yet.
Politics is, as he is figuring very very late, a whole bunch more than speechifying and apologies.
What evidence do you have that he’s only figuring that out now? He’s very long in the tooth politically. Your suggestion seems utterly bizarre to me. More likely he knew that he was always going to face an enormous amount of adversity, and there was no course of action he could choose that would not result in at least one major stand-off.
I’ll leave that judgement for six months and look back.
But so far Corbyn:
– hasn’t unified the MPs he has to work with
– hasn’t unified the MPs to the Members
– hasn’t made a mark against the Conservatives
– hasn’t won anything
– hasn’t raised any money of note
– hasn’t got a functioning shadow Cabinet
– hasn’t convinced the only mildly leftie paper the Guardian
– was on the wrong side of the Brexit vote and doesn’t have a plan for it
(He definitely has got more ordinary members. But this isn’t an episode of Robin Hood.)
Now, it’s quite possible this set of failures is all part of some astonishing masterplan that you can impute for him. Go for it. To me that list of failures signifies a poor political leader. (There were plenty here who thought Sanders was going to win as well, simply through arm waving and tent revival meetings. They were wrong)
– hasn’t unified the MPs he has to work with
– hasn’t unified the MPs to the Members
He needs to eliminate several dozen of the disloyal MPs from the party, particularly the ones who clearly don’t understand that Blairite careerism isn’t what the Labour Party stands for any more.
Trying to make nice with them would be the same fatal mistake that Cunliffe made.
– hasn’t convinced the only mildly leftie paper the Guardian
Why would he want to do that? The Guardian can’t swing an election for him, and they have been against him from the start.
Ignore The Guardian and make the news on your on terms.
Well, on the results of ignoring them listed above, I would just urge Corbyn a little caution going down that path.
I’d love any Labour leader to be able to ignore any part of the media, MSM or otherwise. Such political romance is fun to imagine, but in reality politicians exist in ugly codependent relationships with them.
Worth remembering that politicians need the media a whole bunch more than the media need politicians.
Corbyn’s constituency don’t listen to the Guardian
Exactly. That is obvious in the fact that they elected him in the first place, let alone the fact that his support has failed to cave on the basis of the paper’s continued slant against him.
In any case, the only way to get a publication on-side when it is systemically inimical to your programme is to give up that programme. It’s the surest path to achieving almost none of your original aims, as the course of Labour and Social Democratic parties over the last few decades has shown.
I’ll leave that judgement for six months and look back.
Another bizarre statement. What, in the next six months, would be likely to indicate whether or not Corbyn had figured out prior to his leadership bid that politics is about “more than speechifying and apologies”?
But so far Corbyn:
– hasn’t unified the MPs he has to work with
This presupposes that he sees unifying Blairites with those more disposed towards following him as being desirable in any way.
– hasn’t unified the MPs to the Members
Presupposes the same thing, as well as assuming that the membership, who have signed up in swathes in the wake of his becoming leader, want a bar of the MPs who trenchantly opposed him – and vice versa.
– hasn’t made a mark against the Conservatives
This really isn’t the timeframe to be reading anything at all into that. It is also exactly that part of politics most heavily dominated by the speechifying side of things, so I don’t see how it could be seen as evidence for what you’re saying.
– hasn’t won anything
And your point is…?
– hasn’t raised any money of note
You could be right about that; do you have a link?
– hasn’t got a functioning shadow Cabinet
See above.
– hasn’t convinced the only mildly leftie paper the Guardian
The Blairites? So?
– was on the wrong side of the Brexit vote and doesn’t have a plan for it
As so often evidenced in your writing, your concept of “right” and “wrong” in politics is defined by electoral success. I think that says more about how you are reading Corbyn here than anything else you’ve written, and chimes well with your willingness to accommodate a third-way position to the point of being indistinguishable from it. Ironically, it suggests an approach to politics that emphasises “speechifying”. Corbyn’s historical record as a Eurosceptic aside, what public actions apart from speeches were you expecting, especially during a campaign whose terms had been largely defined along xenophobic and populist lines well before the referendum was called? Surely he would be better off dealing with his own party, and articulating his plan (whether he already has one or has yet to formulate it) at the earliest when Europe makes its own position known. Given that, how can his actions at this point be seen as evidence of a lack of plan? Perhaps that is the judgment you should be reserving for at least six months.
You’ve provided quite a lot of detail, but no real evidence that Corbyn is mainly about “speechifying”, let alone that he hasn’t worked out that there’s more to politics.
I wish him well, truly, and I hope it works out.
He’s a luv.
Call me in January and we’ll have another go. See if he’s managed to tick a couple of those big problems of his off the list. Maybe then he’s got just the chance of a mote in God’s eye of surviving.
Now hold still, here’s a little illustration for you:
There’s a great line reported yesterday in Salon in the Democrat meeting where Sanders met with all Democrat Senate and Congress leaders, to come to some pre-Conference pact, and he started off his little address to them with:
“The point isn’t to win elections …”
…at which point he was universally booed by them. And he continued:
“The point is to transform America.”
And there is a really good illustration of a resolutely principled person. Who has no place being in political leadership.
The one thing that politics really, really is, is a popularity contest. Not only with your party members, not only with your elected colleagues, but also with all people, and with the media.
You really have to fall in love with democracy, and the particular set of processes that constitute it, if you are going to make it. You have to be so good at it, and you have to be good at it for years on end. That’s why I have a whole bunch more faith that Andrew LIttle and Mr Shorten have a shit-show, and people like Sanders and Corbyn and as we’ve seen many others don’t.
A go at what? I thought you were trying to show how Corbyn was a waffler who did nothing but make speeches. However, now you seem to be advocating the sort of politics that involves winning people over with soundbites and speeches that appeal to their more instinctive side.
You really have to fall in love with democracy, and the particular set of processes that constitute it […]
You’re assuming that democracy is about voting periodically for representatives whose faces you like.
The one thing that politics really, really is, is a popularity contest.
So this, essentially “success=popularity”, is a statement which the paragraph afterwards is trying to substantiate?
if you are going to make it. You have to be so good at it, and you have to be good at it for years on end. That’s why I have a whole bunch more faith that Andrew LIttle and Mr Shorten have a shit-show, and people like Sanders and Corbyn and as we’ve seen many others don’t.
Unfortunately, you beg the question by assuming that “making it” consists in achieving popularity, rather than showing how popularity gets a programme realised. Your entire paradigm is exactly the mixture of truisms (popularity wins a popular vote) and questionable assumptions masquerading as common sense (being in government enables the realisation of the principles you had when you weren’t in government) that typefy the Right in general.
The one thing that politics really, really is, is a popularity contest.
Maybe that’s what politics has become but it shouldn’t be. Politics is about decision-making, based on sound process, and executing these decisions, i.e. “getting on with it”.
The assumption underlying policy debates – their true purpose in a democracy – is to engage in a principled argument in order to reach a discernible truth. It isn’t, as we have seen more and more often, to win a short-term victory at any and all costs.
In a modern progressive pluralistic society with proportional representation in Parliament decision-making ideally and primarily should be based on reaching consensus IMO, through cooperation and consultation, because these decisions affect many if not all members of such society.
Unfortunately, partisan politics rule in New Zealand and there still is a strong FPP mentality that dictates that the ‘winner’ is the one who reaches 51% of the vote; that’s all that’s needed to ‘win’. As a side-line, I do think that neo-liberal ideology (doctrine) plays a major role in this since it encourages competition and individualism and counters moves to unification and this has resulted in an erosion of communities and community spirit and given us a society of confused fearful individuals who feel disengaged from politics and the political process and socially powerless. Rings a bell?
I’d argue that (broad) consensus makes a vote obsolete and that this also avoids the “tyranny of the majority”. A vote might only be really necessary when a stalemate has been reached, only as a last resort. An analogy would be industrial action when talks between negotiating parties have broken down. Alternatively, a vote (or poll) could be taken as a starting point rather for the political process to commence, which is the exact opposite of present practice!
I could go on about how it is impossible to base decisions on popularity alone, without the necessary confidence and trust, and as the sole basis of (political) power and authority.
strewth talk about a negative moaning bitch ad what part of the people love him dont you understand ?The people flocking to join the lp over there arent doing it because theyve been conned by the establishment theyre going there because they perceive a difference in this man and theyre gonna give him a fighting chance unlike you apparently
done.
[lprent: I can’t see any relevance of this to the post. OpenMike and I’d suggest that you might want to explain your ideas to those of us without your enhanced visions. ]
You’re not the only one sick and tired of the shit Adam.
When I’ve got people in the real world – people who know neither CV nor trp – telling me they’re way fucking over reading threads that suddenly morph into something that might have come from the ‘trade-me’ message boards or similar…
There’s an easy solution, Bill. Return the standard to its original purpose, which was, as I recall, to be an intelligent, articulate voice from the movement. This place is still broken.
The recurring message I get from anyone who brings any current state of ‘the standard’ up in conversation (not an entirely uncommon occurrence) is that it’s a far lesser place than it once was principally because of your behaviour trp.
Oh, bollocks. My posts are well read and well commented on. Like it or not, I’m not afraid to call bullshit when I see it, and I’m not going to dicky lick our resident troll. Your mileage may differ. At the moment, we’re drifting into the abyss where right wing conspiracy theories collide with worker hating petit bourgeois snobbery.
Can’t find a reply button on your comment finishing “Is the Standard a serious left wing blog?” Oh what arrogance of you to claim impeccable left-wingism ! Impeccable Labour Partyism is the highest I can put it.
So, wherever this appears let me say this……you seem to have all the fake muscles of an unmitigated bully TRP. And you CV seem never to have recovered from Twyford’s “chinese names” business. Which while your face is brazenly and spittlingly set against it is in some measure significantly true. And now you’re lurching off into fucking Trumpism……call me Mabel and fuck me gently !
You’re both egotistical, control freak pains in the arse and we’re the somewhat bored “scroll down past them” collateral damage to your ‘always gotta be right’ spats. Grow up you fucking children !
I’m sick of it, too. Having said that, even if I find a lot of CV’s writings since the last election frustratingly one-sided, especially considering the difference in that regard to his earlier contributions, they always seem to me to articulate (and generally substantiate) a point that is passionately held with a view to changing the global political discourse in the long term, and not personally directed. I would be hard pressed to say the same for all others.
The relevance of my post was the hopes and aims of the first labour government, and in particular Peter Fraser. Also that in the early days of the labour movement poetry, and other forms of literature were used to convey messages. Sadly almost dead aspect, when we have society full of literalist.
This story just gets worse. This attack on whistle blowers from the Obama administration, feels very much like the Wilson play book is back on the table.
My guess, Clinton will carry on with this type of domestic suppression.
Seems that Chelsea Manning tried to take her own life and her lawyers were not told.
It pisses me off how Snowden and Manning get utterly crucified by the US for doing their nation a major service while Killary Clinton’s deliberate mishandling of secret information leading to it being stolen by foreign hackers gets zero.
Couldn’t agree more CV, I wrote about that in a previous post about Clinton and how “ordinary people” would be tried for treason and wouldn’t see the light of day ever again but Clinton who enabled her mail to be exposed into the wrong hands is hit with a wet bus ticket. A law for one and a law for the great unwashed. She is tarnished now and ever was/will be with the Clinton Foundation so just like Blair her legacy isn’t looking good and shouldn’t ever be either. Trump may be nuts but he is his own man and although certainly not in a good mind frame to be President he doesn’t have the smell of corruption at a government level about him like she does.
Bernie is the only decent candidate for the job of US President, so they’ve made sure he won’t get it. “They” not being Republicans nor Trump, but the Democratic Party.
Jesus I’m getting really worried about the equanimity, indeed the glee, of some commenters here whose Leftie stuff I’ve long respected, to the prospect of Herr Drumpf smashing Clinton in November. Careful what you wish for darlings. Yes Clinton yuk but Jesus…….arch racist and terminal egoist Drumpf ?
Herr Drumpf was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Racist, cruel capitalist, vile daddy gave him 40 mill’ to start off with. Drumpf ain’t no friend of the working people. In the office of Pres’ the fucking ego-freak, trophy wife toting lunatic could cinder the whole fucking lot of us ! By accident or on a bad hair day. Which, looking down from Heaven I would have to guage as very annoying. On account of its avoidability.
I don’t want the world to go up in smoke because of some (I suspect tiddly little cock) ugly like Drumpf.
More broadly … Hillary’s capacity to hold a grudge and exact revenge on political opponents is reputedly even greater than Nixon’s. She’ll be drawing up a blacklist as we speak.
Police reporting only “the good stuff”.
Apparently, at least one senior police officer is under the impression that knowing local police activity is not in the public interest unless it’s a good news story.
This strikes me as being indicative of a fundamental progression towards the “us vs them” policing philosophy that creates a paramilitary police force rather than a community police force. The daily activity blotter is one of those little things that’s essential, if barely noticed, in an open society. Suppressing daily police activities should only occur if the need for confidentiality (e.g. privacy or prejudice of justice concerns) outweighs the public’s right to know.
Local crime is obviously of public interest. We don’t need to know, we have a right to know, and they have an obligation to openly and efficiently report their activity to us, so we can tell if they’re doing their damned job. Stats can be juked, but the local emergency services daily blotter used to give a fair impression of how safe our community was. Removing that because the community might discover the truth that’s inconvenient for the police is an inch away from covering up incompetence and corruption.
your taking the piss pucker …………… banks is a nasty little piece of work ……… he thought clint rickards was a great police office ……….. when the cops were acting like his goons when he was auckland mayor ………..
He like the nats is a dishonest money grubber using all sort of scams.
And never forget the trash racism hoax he and his national party whip mate “Hone carter” tried to pull when banks was a radio talk back host.
Yeah Banks is, always was, a right wee Mother Theresa……
Your final paragraph PR – “…….how could the judge possibly have believed KDC and his wife over John Banks and his wife ?”
You’re a crashing snob PR !
Not to mention your appalling ignorance of the principle of law that the fact finder determines issues according to the evidence adduced in court. If that weren’t the story you might as well call Rachel Glucina “Chief Justice”. Or the ponytail fetishist “Lord Denning”.
It is of course for the honourable judge but I’d wager there are plenty of people who know stuff about law who would question that the judge owes any apology to anyone.
Must say though, it’s refreshing to see a high public office holder prepared to fashion a sense of honour and decency and have it triumph over personal ego. Cf. the scurvy, effete, increasingly brittle liar Key. And Blair. The morals of both of them missing in action always.
Or did PR mean, ‘…….How could the judge possibly have believed John Banks and his wife over anybody ?’.We all know how straight up Banksy is and always has been.
……or in the authenticity of the mysterious appearance of two previously obscure American business men and their belated but oh so relevant ‘affidavits’ to save Banksy’s bacon. Old boys gotta stick together.$$$$
I stand to be corrected of course but I recall that the LA affidavit writers, Warner Bros guys weren’t they, never ever appeared in a New Zealand court for cross-examination on their affidavits.
Yet the Court of Appeal read those untested affidavits and said “No, fuck that, acquittal !”
I do know a little bit about appellate proceedings and I remain troubled as to how in the name of God a few untested scraps of paper bearing signatures were ever enough to have the appellate court kill the thing dead rather than take the customary step in instances of new evidence of quashing and ordering a retrial. That’s what happens to all the brown boys (except, mercifully, Teina). Still boggles me !
If in fact these guys did appear and were cross-examined on their affidavits I retract it all and Banks truly is a selfless Mother Theresa. Chartered and licensed by God!
Have a look on youtube at the late Christopher Hitchen’s and Penn and Teller’s opinions on Mother Teresa. Your comparison with our Banksy may be more appropriate than you think.
Michael SchulsonWhen Shane Burcaw flies on an airplane, he brings along a customized gel cushion, a car seat, and about 10 pieces of memory foam. The whole arsenal costs around $1,000, but for Burcaw it’s a necessity. The 27-year-old author and speaker — who, alongside his fiancée, Hannah ...
We are very pleased to publish this submission is from Lucinda Stoan. She is a social justice activist, mother, and educator, based in Washington State in the US. This detailed and comprehensive source-linked overview of trans issues and what is at stake will be useful for many people, especially in ...
New Zealand's Underarm Banker: It bears recalling that the “independence” of the Reserve Bank Governor was for decades held up by neoliberal capitalists as the most compelling justification for passing the Reserve Bank Act. Interesting, is it not, how the ruling class’s support for the Bank’s independence lasted no longer than ...
Rubbish In, Rubbish Out: Put all this together, and it’s difficult to avoid the conclusion that anyone who responds positively to a pollster’s request to “answer a few questions” is just ever-so-slightly weird. Desperately lonely? Some sort of psephological train-spotter? Political party member primed to skew the poll for or against ...
“Free at last, Free at last, Thank God almighty we are free at last.” ― Martin Luther King Jr. A long and bitter court feud between former Conservative Party leader Colin Craig and Jordan Williams has been settled, with an apology and compensation from Williams. On Tuesday, Craig sent out ...
Some people seem to want to close down any critical discussion of the current research into the relationship between water fluoride and child IQ. They appear to argue that claims made by researchers should not be open to critical review and that the claims be accepted without proper consideration ...
The government has been congratulating itself over the passage of the Zero Carbon Act, which sets out long-term emissions targets. Meanwhile, Climate Action Tracker has the shameful reality: those targets are insufficient:While New Zealand is showing leadership by having passed the world’s second-ever Zero Carbon Act in November 2019, under ...
The government introduced a Racing Industry Bill today. As an urban who horse racing as pointless-to-cruel, and gambling as a tax on stupidity and/or hope, this isn't normally a bill which would interest me in the slightest, beyond grumpiness at more government money for a dying industry. But there is ...
Check. Check. One, two, three, four. Is this thing ON? Hello readers, I logged in last night (yeah, it’s been a while) to mark THE END of the landmark legal case, Jordan Williams v Colin Craig, which (gulp) reached The Supreme Court, in which New Zealand’s most-defamed man was suing the politician he ...
Before The Birth: Israel’s most fervent supporters set their clocks ticking in Biblical times. They cite the kingdoms of David and Solomon as proof that, in the words of the Exodus movie’s theme-song: “This land is mine.” The majority of Israel’s backers, however, start their clocks in 1933 – the year Adolf ...
In an unreliable, strange and confusing world, Public Address is proud to present a measure of comfort and stability by annually asking everyone what words or phrases sum up the year that's been – and then giving some of them consumer goods as prizes for being clever or simply lucky.Well, ...
Both my parents are pretty handy – and they seem to have the right tools for most jobs in the garage and they know how to fix practically anything. A similar story could be told about their generation’s experience in the workforce – being a generalist was not unusual and ...
When it was revealed that NZ First had tried to enrich itself from public office via the Provoncial Growth Fund, the Prime Minister assured us that everything was OK as Shane Jones, the Minister responsible for the fund, had recused himself. Except it seems that that recusal came very late ...
Today is a Member's Day, and probably the last one of the year. After the marathon of the End of Life Choice Act, most of the bills up for debate today are uncontentious. First up is the second reading of Chlöe Swarbrick's Election Access Fund Bill. This will be followed ...
The Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee has reported back on the government's odious and tyrannical control orders bill. As expected, the fraudulent select committee process has made no significant changes (partly because they couldn't agree, but mostly because it was a stitch-up from the start, with no intention of ...
Yesterday, the government released its draft Cannabis Legalisation and Control Bill, which will be put to a non-binding referendum at the next election. I'm not a drug policy expert, but Russell Brown is, and he thinks its pretty good. And pretty obviously, it will be a massive improvement on the ...
As you're probably aware, the draft bill outlining the proposed legal cannabis regime to be put to a referendum late next year was published yesterday, and has already attracted a flurry of comment. It's notable that a good deal of the comment is about proposals that aren't actually new.A minimum ...
One of the big problems in New Zealand climate change policy is the government working at cross-purposes with itself. It wants to reduce fossil fuel use, but encourages oil and gas exploration. It wants to reduce transport emissions, but then builds enormous new roads. The problem could be avoided if ...
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.nzAccording to the United Nations, food shortages are a threat ...
Last year, the government announced it was ending offshore oil exploration by no longer issuing new permits. The idea was that the industry would then die off as permits expired. Except almost immediately the government revealed its bad faith, by saying they would extend permits and alter conditions to keep ...
The government introduced the Education and Training Bill to Parliament yesterday. Its a massive bill, which replaces both existing Education Acts, as well as various other bits of legislation (including some which are still proceeding through the House). I'll leave the serious analysis to teachers and people who actually know ...
Amelia SharmanThere’s no one-size-fits-all when it comes to micro-credentials, those bits of bite-sized learning that can help workers stay on top of technological change. What’s a micro-credential? While definitions vary, micro-credentials can be understood as short courses that allow people to learn new skills or have an existing competency recognised. ...
All Smiles Now: Claire Szabo is taking up her presidential role after serving as the CEO of Habitat For Humanity. Which is absolutely perfect! After KiwiBuild was so comprehensively mismanaged by Phil Twyford, the party has not only elected a new president from a thoroughly respectable not-for-profit, but one who ...
While much of the NZ left has transitioned to postmodern and identity politics in relation to transgender ideology, there are some very good articles about that deploy Marxist methodology in relation to this subject. The one below is from the British marxist group Counterfire and appeared on their site here ...
by Daphna Whitmore At Golden Oaks, a luxurious country retreat in the Hudson Valley, pregnant women have the best care money can buy. From the organic food, personalised exercise programmes, private yoga instruction and daily massages Golden Oaks looks like a country lodge for the upper class. Set some time ...
When Labour was running for election in 2017, it felt it needed to demonstrate "fiscal responsibility" and signed itself up to masochistic "budget responsibility rules". It was a fool's errand: the sorts of voters who demand fiscal responsibility are also the sorts of voters who believe that labour can never ...
Writing in Stuff, Joel MacManus looks at what we need to do to meet the Zero Carbon Act's targets. The core of it:1. Convert 85 per cent of vehicles on the road to electric. 2. Eliminate fossil fuels from all industrial heating up to 300 degrees Celsius. 3. Double our ...
Professors Janet Hoek and Richard Edwards, Emeritus Professor Phil Gendall, Jude Ball, Dr Judith McCool, Anaru Waa, Dr Becky FreemanRecent media reports have presented conflicting evidence on youth vaping in NZ. While some NZ school principals report concerns about increasing vaping on school grounds and confiscating vapes, ASH Year ...
“America the Beautiful!”, staunch defender of democracy, freedom and… a whole lot of despotic tyrants that play nice with what is called “the Washington Consensus.” America is indeed capable of immense good, but like any Nation, and most assuredly any aspirant to the mantle of Empire, great, immense evil. All ...
Image credit:The beginner’s guide to blogging I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. If your blog is ...
1080 is used to control pests in NZ. Its use is contested by a noisy few. A new report claims high levels of 1080 in rats washed up on a beach. Flora and Fauna of Aotearoa (F&F) won’t name the laboratory that did their testing. It has sparked a hunt ...
What Kind Of Empire? The thing for Kiwis to decide is what kind of empire they want to belong to. The kind that, while offering its own citizens democratic rights, demands absolute obedience from its “friends”? Or, the kind that, while authoritarian at home, takes a relaxed attitude to the ...
It hasn't been a good week for the Conservatives, pollwise. All major recent polls are showing their lead shrinking.Comparing each pollster's current (between 29/11 and 22/11) and previous most recent poll.Com Res - Conservative lead down 3 points.You Gov - Conservative lead down 1 point.Kantar - Conservative lead down 4 ...
Within quick succession, Countdown maths wizard and twitterer Rachel Riley, alleged comedian David Baddiel and prominent lawyer Andrew Julius have all expressed very similar opinions / ideas:
These #3billboards are going round London today, organised by ex-Labour people, horrified by what their party has become. Their principles haven’t changed, they’re ...
So, there have been a bunch of bad polls out for Labour, and even the Leftie's friend, Survation, have recently given the Conservatives a rip-snorting 11% lead. You Gov's much vaunted MRP poll - which pretty much nailed the result in 2015 - is currently predicting a comfortable majority for ...
The European Parliament has voted overwhelmingly to declare a climate emergency:The European parliament has declared a global “climate and environmental emergency” as it urged all EU countries to commit to net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The vote came as scientists warned that the world may have already crossed ...
Pure Fear: Worse than Heroin, this drug’s addictive power was terrifying. People under its influence didn’t drift off to Elysium. Nor did it persuade inadequate individuals that they could conquer the world. No, this drug – pure crystal methamphetamine, “P” for short – unlocked the gates of Hell itself. It ...
As the rate of measles infection, and of deaths, continues to climb in Samoa, antivaccination activists infectious disease proponents seem intent on doubling down on their claims about vaccination. (Check pretty much any news-media FB post about measles & you’ll see exactly what I mean.) Unfortunately, some of them have ...
Samoa are experiencing a devastating measles epidemic. It is possible that 2-3% of the population will ultimately be infected by the time it is over. Hopefully the mass immunisation campaign currently under way can mitigate some of this, for many it is too late. The first question many people ask ...
Meghan Murphy is a Canadian writer and journalist She runs the Feminist Current website which she founded in 2012. She was a keynote speaker for the Feminism2020 conference in Wellington this month. When Massey University cancelled the original venue booking Feminism2020 was hosted in Parliament by MP David Seymour. Meghan ...
Text and photos by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh Colombia has lived through one week of protests against the economic measures taken by president Duque. What looked like a protest that would fizzle out after its first day on November 21st is still going strong. Part of the reason for the continuance ...
Around a million billion pass through you each second, almost all originating from our sun, but few of them are likely to interact with you enroute. I was reading in a physics magazine earlier in the week about the nature of neutrinos. These are extremely numerous elementary particles, but only ...
By Pallab GhoshThere’s value in covering new research advances, even when the underlying science is unsettled. But there are also risks.The recent announcement that scientists discovered water on the planet K2-18b, 110 light years away, prompted a media swoon. News stories, including a piece written by me, billed ...
I wrote this review a couple of years ago when I was still in the process of getting my head around the politics of transgenderism, and specifically the claim that intersex conditions lend support to the notion that sex is ‘socially constructed’. Since writing this review I have come across ...
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.nzHow much does our use of air travel contribute to the ...
Minor planet/asteroid (2309) Mr. Spock is named not for the character in Star Trek, but for a cat that was itself imperturbable, logical, intelligent and had pointed ears. In a preceding blog post I introduced one of my favourite asteroids, (2472) Bradman, and also mentioned (6581) Sobers amongst a few ...
Today the death toll from measles in Samoa rose to 32. All but four of the dead were less than 5 years old. Absolutely terrible, heartbreaking, news. That statistic alone should be enough to give the lie to the common claim by antivaccination activists plague enthusiasts that “measles is a ...
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh It is late here in Bogotá, almost 11.30pm on Monday the 25th of November as I write this. The day began full of hope with yet more massive marches throughout the country, a mix of the International Day of Non-Violence Against Women and the National Strike. ...
Anti-fluoride activists are rubbing their hands in glee over what they claim is “yet another study” showing fluoride harms the brains of children. But their promotion relies on IQ relationships which the paper’s authors acknowledge disappearing when outliers or other factors are considered. And they completely ignore other relationships ...
The feature below is the conclusion of A History of Economic Thought, whose author was a leading Marxist economist in Russia in the early 20th century, Isaac Ilyich Rubin. The book arose from a course he ran at Moscow University following the Russian Revolution. First published in Russian in 1929, ...
There are many thousands of asteroids with formal names, some humdrum but other more noteworthy (depending on your predilections). One of my favourites, the name of which I was involved in suggesting, is (2472) Bradman, named for the Australian cricketing great. As a minor planet (synonym: asteroid) spotter, I have ...
Tory manifesto: big on austerity, low on promise, non-existent on delivery. The Tories: the party so big on ambition they couldn't be arsed writing a manifesto. MLK: "I have a dream!"BJ: "I'll just have a nap." Labour: Broadband!Tories: Narrow minds! Labour have hope, dreams and ambition. The Tories will save ...
The Ministry of Health has announced that “people under the age of 50 travelling from New Zealand to Samoa, Tonga, Philippines and Fiji” are now on the list of national priorities for MMR vaccination. Given the outbreaks of measles in Samoa, Tonga, Philippines and Fiji, the Ministry of Health is ...
Hong Kong has been protesting for six months for, demanding democracy, human rights, and an end to police violence. Today, they went to the polls in district council elections - a low-level of government with virtually no power, similar to community boards in New Zealand. But while the positions themselves ...
Text and photos by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh On Friday 22nd of November a curfew came into effect and troops were deployed on the streets, here in Bogota. It was the first time since September 1977 that a curfew had been imposed on the city. The decision was a cynical pre-planned ...
Meanwhile, while the government is planning to restore voting rights to prisoners, National is promising to turn our prisons into US-style slave-labour camps:The Opposition is proposing compulsory education, training or employment for prisoners who are serving sentences of two years or more. [...] On Sunday, National Party Leader Simon Bridges ...
Excerpts from Being and Being Bought, by Kajsa Ekis Ekman Spinifex Press, 2013. Ekman, a Swedish journalist and critic, brings together a Marxist and feminist analysis of prostitution and surrogacy in this groundbreaking book. This is the second part of a synopsis and brief commentary of the book by Daphna ...
Dalmeet Singh ChawlaIn 2008, psychologists proposed that when humans are shown an unfamiliar face, they judge it on two main dimensions: trustworthiness and physical strength. These form the basis of first impressions, which may help people make important social decisions, from who to vote for to how long a ...
Claas Kirchhelle, University of Oxford; Adam Roberts, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, and Andrew Singer, Centre for Ecology & HydrologyAntibiotics are among the most important medicines known to humankind, but we are running out of this crucial resource. Decisive action is needed if we are to retain access to ...
Things That Make You Go - Hmmmm: “All right. Let me come at this another way. I’m guessing that what you’ve got in that box contains names, dates, bank account numbers – all the details you need to put Winston Peters and Jacinda Ardern squarely in the cross-hairs. So, the first ...
Coasters Turn Out In Droves: It’s precisely the widening gulf between those with actual experience of things like guns, chainsaws and drilling machines, and those who regulate their use, that accounts for the angry crowd at Greymouth’s Messenger Park on Sunday, 17 November 2019. In the rarefied atmosphere where decisions ...
There are perennial arguments about the circumstances of the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963, and in particular whether more than one shooter is required by the evidence (such as the Zapruder film). Those who know little about physics frequently claim that the sharp backwards motion of JFK’s head as ...
Apparently, some people enjoy washing their cars. Each to his or her own, I suppose. I mean, some people like duck shooting, some people follow Coronation Street, and some people’s idea of a good day out is to sit on a grass bank at Seddon Park and watch cricket all ...
Last week we learned that New Zealand First had apparently tried to enrich itself from public office, with a dodgy forestry company linked to a number of NZ First figures sticking its hand out repeatedly for government money. Today in Question Time Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones had his ...
Finally, governments seem slowly to be beginning to act on climate change. But its not enough. While they're publicly signing up to targets, they're planning to destroy the world by continuing fossil fuel extraction:The world’s nations are on track to produce more than twice as much coal, oil and gas ...
Stuff has begun interviewing NZ First's secret donors, and it turns out that its as bad as we expected. They start with racing industry figure Garry Chittick, who is predictably grumpy about NZ First's coalition choices. Meanwhile, I'm looking at the list of pork NZ First has effectively given its ...
Stag At Bay: Twelve years ago, Winston Peters was still robust enough to come back from the political crucifixion which his political and media enemies had prepared for him. In his seventies now, the chances of a second resurrection are slim. We should, therefore, prepare for the last gasp of ...
Satellites pass over NZ all the time (literally). Here I focus on the 187 Planet Labs ‘Dove’ Earth-imaging satellites, and I show that one can determine in advance where they will be, enabling scientists on the ground to correlate their environmental and other data collection with opportunities to get imaging ...
Mark Patterson, Spokesperson for Primary Industries New Zealand First spokesperson for Primary Industries, Mark Patterson, has called for awareness to be raised and more stringent biosecurity checks to be put in place for African Swine Fever (ASF), a widespread virus that is uncontrolled in most of Asia and a serious ...
Jenny Marcroft MP, Spokesperson for Human Rights A critical step has been taken to end gender based violence against women and girls in Parliament this evening. New Zealand First Spokesperson for Human Rights Jenny Marcroft MP has welcomed the passing of the first reading of the Crimes (Definition of Female ...
New Zealand First MP Shane Jones says it's time to recognise market forces haven't led to the expected reduction in Māori smoking rates and try a new approach. The Party had recently invoked the agree to disagree clause in their Coalition Agreement with the Labour Party, and will not support ...
Live from the Whanganui Opera House, on the final day of the 2019 Labour Party Conference, Jacinda Ardern announced the largest investment in school property in 25 years. ...
The Coalition Government will be banning foreign donations to political parties and candidates, ahead of next year’s general elections. Legislation will be introduced to Parliament and passed under urgency – emphasising the need for such restrictions to safeguard our democracy. The bill introduces a new requirement that party secretaries and ...
Associate Transport Minister Shane Jones opened Taipā's $19 million bridge recently, improving transport infrastructure in the Northland region. The two-lane bridge is 107m long with a 2.5m-wide shared walking and cycling path, and will reduce the congestion that the old one-lane bridge was notorious for. The project had also included ...
The Overseas Investment Office have rejected the application of Mercury Agriculture LP, which is 92 per cent controlled by Canadian interests, to purchase more than 2000 hectares of South Canterbury and Otago land. Mercury wanted to buy 2000ha at Rangitata, 1494ha near Ashburton, 816ha near Cromwell and 212ha near Temuka. ...
This weekend was Labour's 103rd Party Conference! We welcomed over 500 of our Labour whānau in red to Whanganui, where we reflected on the last two years in Government, and looked ahead to 2020 and beyond. We know the long-term challenges facing New Zealand won't be tackled overnight, but we're making ...
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced that the Provincial Growth Fund will invest $9.6 million to seal the final unsealed section of State Highway 43 from Stratford to Taumarunui. The Minister said sealing the 12-kilometre gravel section of the highway – also called the “Forgotten World Highway” - through ...
Former Finance Minister and former chair of the Tax Working Group, Sir Michael Cullen, has voiced his support for New Zealand First’s decision to oppose the planned increase in tobacco excise tax. In an interview with The Weekend Collective, he said that increasing the price was no longer effective in ...
Māori are natural storytellers. On the marae we use stories to tell our history, to teach the next generation life lessons and to let people know, in our most creative of ways, who we are and where we have come from. ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, New Zealand First Leader New Zealand First has invoked the ‘Agree to Disagree’ provisions of the Coalition Agreement because it cannot support the announced 11.46 percent increase in the tobacco excise from 1 January 2020. “Studies show that the automatic tobacco excise increases are having less effect ...
Taupō-based company Geo40 has made a breakthrough in extracting near battery-grade lithium from geothermal fluid which its says could be a gamechanger. Its chief executive John Worth said the earth mineral was highly prized, with battery-grade lithium selling for US$10,000 (NZ$15,600) a tonne. Geo40 was founded in 2010 to find ...
Crown research institute AgResearch Ltd, as part of its Future Footprint plan, had intended to relocate top scientists and support staff — particularly those focused on sheep genetics and genomics — from Invermay to Lincoln. However, those plans seem to have been shelved at the request of the Coalition Government. ...
Ten engineering firms in Southland are receiving a total of $2.13 million in Provincial Growth Fund funding to lift productivity and create new jobs. Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced in Invercargill that the 10 engineering and manufacturing firms would receive funding to assist them with buying equipment that ...
The number of new residents to New Zealand is the lowest it has been in nearly two decades and it has earned the ire of the immigration industry. The industry alleges that 'Trump-style extreme vetting' is being put in place aimed at keeping a lid on immigration numbers. June Ranson, ...
The Royal New Zealand Air Force is one step closer to modernising its fleet after the United States State Department recently approved the sale of five new C-130J Hercules aircraft to New Zealand. Arms manufacturer Lockheed Martin, in Fort Worth, Texas, will provide the aircraft, but as a "foreign military ...
Forestry Minister Shane Jones wants to create a log barging facility at Hicks Bay and turn the area into a Special Economic Zone. The move would be part of protecting New Zealand's forests from being depleted by India and China, he said. It follows his announcement last week to strengthen ...
New Zealand First supports the changes recommended by the Winter Grazing Taskforce to improve animal welfare outcomes through the winter months, and the establishment of a pan-sector action group to implement them. New Zealand First Primary Industries Spokesperson Mark Patterson says the report highlights areas of concern about the animal ...
Former prime ministers Helen Clark and Sir John Key, formerly from the Labour and National parties respectively, have joined forces in support of New Zealand First’s plan to relocate Auckland's port to Whangārei. While Ms Clark and Sir John spent their political careers on opposite sides of the political divide, ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is in Japan for the Foreign Ministers' meeting of the G20 grouping of countries as one of nine "invited" countries. He has used the opportunity to cast a spotlight on the plight of Pacific countries, calling out countries which still offered subsidies or Government assistance to ...
It's been a great week of progress: we've celebrated Children's Day, we've made communities safer with 1800 new police, and we've seen almost 90% of eligible schools take up Government funding to scrap school donations - taking pressure off the families of more than 416,000 students. ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister of Forestry The Government will further strengthen New Zealand’s wood processing sector as part of our focus on ‘value over volume’ in our forestry industry, Forestry Minister Shane Jones says. Minister Jones will today meet with forestry representatives in Northland to signal new measures to help the ...
New Zealand First are celebrating the announcement of an investment of $3.5 million into five new trapping devices. These are a range of bait and trap devices, all designed to be left unattended for long periods of time. NZ First conservation spokesperson Jenny Marcroft says that this latest development will ...
Jenny Marcroft, Spokesperson for Conservation New Zealand First is proud to announce the Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) has allocated $3.5 million to develop innovative predator control approaches which will reduce the need for repeated 1080 use. $19.5 million of PGF funding was announced for Predator Free 2050 Limited in February ...
Darroch Ball, Spokesperson for Police New Zealand First is proud to have delivered on a key Coalition Agreement commitment to adding 1800 new frontline police, with the graduation of Recruit Wing 332 in Porirua today. Law and Order Spokesperson Darroch Ball says increasing police numbers and boosting their resources was one ...
Clayton Mitchell, Spokesperson for Consumer Affairs The ‘wheel clamping’ Bill that will cap clamper fees to $100 passed its third readinginParliament today. New Zealand First welcomes The Land Transport (Wheel Clamping) Amendment Bill to combat predatory wheel clamping behaviour in what is currently a largely unregulated business. Cowboy clampers are: gouging ...
Jenny Marcroft, Spokesperson for Health New Zealand First welcomes the passage of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission Bill through its first reading in Parliament. “Today’s progress takes serious action on the mental health and addiction crisis the country is facing,” says New Zealand First Health Spokesperson Jenny Marcroft. “The re-establishment ...
Mark Patterson, Spokesperson for Primary Industries Today the Government announced the delivery of the promise to protect New Zealand interests by applying a new National Interest Test to the sales of our most sensitive and high risk assets to overseas buyers. This further strengthening of the Overseas Investment Act will ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has announced further support as the Government of Samoa responds to a serious measles outbreak. “New Zealand will deploy a further 18 vaccination nurses, bringing the total to 30 working in Samoa over the next ...
The Coalition Government is delivering on its promise to protect New Zealanders’ interests by applying a new national interest test to the sales of our most sensitive and high-risk assets to overseas buyers. Under current Overseas Investment Act (OIA) rules, assets such as ports and airports, telecommunications infrastructure, electricity and ...
Rt Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First Allegations raised this morning by Stuff Limited / Fairfax concern a party matter but I am confident that New Zealand First has operated within electoral laws, now and for the last 27 years. Declarable donations were declared to the Electoral Commission. Our ...
The chairman of the Upper North Island Supply Chain Strategy (UNISCS) working group, Wayne Brown, has hit back at critics of his group’s recommendations to relocate the Ports of Auckland cargo operations to Whangarei’s deepwater port of Northport. The working group's recommendation to close Auckland waterfront to all but cruise ...
Health Minister Dr David Clark says new appointments to DHBs represent a significant changing of the guard, with 13 new chairs including four Māori chairs. Today 76 appointments have been announced to complement elected board members, as well as eight elected members appointed as either chair or deputy chair. Four ...
Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Fletcher Tabuteau, is travelling to Germany, Poland, Austria, and Spain next week to bolster New Zealand’s political and trade relationships in Europe. While in Spain, Mr Tabuteau will represent New Zealand at the 14th Asia-Europe (ASEM) Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Madrid. “New Zealand strongly supports ...
“I’ve spoken to Minister Faafoi, who has apologised for his poor handling of this issue,” Jacinda Ardern said. “I have confidence in Kris as a hardworking and effective Minister, but this should have been dealt with in a much clearer manner, and I’ve made my views on that very clear ...
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters met with Tongan Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pohiva Tu'i'onetoa in Wellington today. The pair signed a Statement of Partnership setting out joint priorities for cooperation out to 2023. “We welcomed Prime Minister Tu'i'onetoa on his first visit to New Zealand as Prime Minister. Tonga ...
The Minister of Police Stuart Nash says his sympathies are with the family of a man who died after being shot by Police in Kurow. “Initial reports are that Police were called by a family member to help the man who was threatening to harm himself,” Mr Nash says. “However ...
Healthier waterways, better productivity and farmer wellbeing are front and centre in a new project involving more than 1000 Southland farmers and growers. Minister of Agriculture Damien O’Connor today announced that the Thriving Southland Change and Innovation Project is the first region-wide extension programme supported by the $229 million Sustainable ...
Work to look after nature and restore freshwater quality in Te Hoiere/Pelorus River catchment is getting a significant boost, thanks to new Government funding support Minister for Conservation Eugenie Sage announced in Canvastown today. “Every New Zealander should be able to swim in their local river without getting sick, and ...
Eight Queen’s Counsel have been appointed under a process that includes the new criterion of a commitment to improving access to justice, Attorney-General David Parker announced today. “The new criterion was included this year. It emphasises that excellence and leadership in the profession can be seen through a wider, community ...
Onslow College in Wellington will get 20 new classrooms for more than 400 students, Education Minister Chris Hipkins announced today. The much-needed investment will relieve growth pressure the school has been experiencing for some time. Seven existing classrooms which have deteriorated over time will also be replaced, bringing the total ...
More than 250 young New Zealanders will add international experience to their education, thanks to the latest Prime Minister’s Scholarships for Asia (PMSA) and Latin America (PMSLA), Education Minister Chris Hipkins announced today. This round of scholarships supports 252 recent graduates or current students to undertake study, research or internships ...
Consumers will benefit from a more competitive, transparent retail fuel market as a result of changes the Government will be making in response to the findings of the Commerce Commission’s study of the fuel sector. “We accept the Commission’s findings and, as the Prime Minister has said, we’re ready to ...
Five new cancer medicines have now been funded this year, meaning thousands of people have more treatment options PHARMAC has today announced that it has approved two new medicines for funding – fulvestrant for breast cancer and olaparib for ovarian cancer. This follows earlier decisions on advanced lung cancer treatment alectinib, ...
The Minister of Local Government, Hon Nanaia Mahuta says the Government will consider making changes to local electoral legislation before the 2022 elections to fix the problems that have arisen where elections are settled by a coin toss. The Minister says the recount process in the Murupara- Galatea ward at ...
New Zealand will sign up to new international maritime regulations to reduce ship emissions and lift air quality around ports and harbours, Associate Transport Minister Julie Anne Genter announced today. Subject to completion of the Parliamentary treaty examination process, New Zealand will sign up to Annex VI of MARPOL, an ...
New legislation to transform our urban areas and create sustainable, inclusive and thriving communities will tomorrow be introduced to Parliament, Urban Development Minister Phil Twyford said. “The Urban Development Bill gives Kāinga Ora-Homes and Communities the tools it needs to partner with councils, communities, mana whenua and private developers to ...
Today’s launch of He taonga te Tamaiti: Every child a taonga: The Early Learning Action Plan 2019-2029 provides the foundation for long-lasting changes to early learning, Education Minister Chris Hipkins says. “Early learning will be one of the Government’s top education priorities going into 2020,” Chris Hipkins said. ...
Major decisions made by the Government will now be considered under a climate change lens, Minister for Climate Change James Shaw announced today. “Cabinet routinely considers the effects of its decisions on human rights, the Treaty of Waitangi, rural communities, the disability community, and gender – now climate change will ...
Education Minister Chris Hipkins today announced the appointment of Māori education specialist Dr Wayne Ngata and Business NZ head Kirk Hope to the Board of the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC). Dr Alastair MacCormick has been reappointed for another term. “Wayne Ngata, Kirk Hope and Alastair MacCormick bring a great deal ...
The next phase of the Pike River Re-entry project is underway, Minister Responsible for Pike River Re-entry Andrew Little says. “Fresh air will be pumped into the Pike River Mine drift this week, following acceptance of the plan for re-entry beyond the 170m barrier by New Zealand’s independent health and ...
New Zealand consumers will have greater certainty about their insurance cover when they need to make claims as a result of proposed government changes. “Insurance is vitally important in supporting consumers and businesses to be financially resilient when unexpected events happen,” Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs Kris Faafoi said. ...
The Crown is providing an opportunity for the hapu of Ngāpuhi to rebuild its framework from the ground up for collective negotiations to deal with its historical Treaty claims, Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Andrew Little and Minister for Māori Development Nanaia Mahuta announced today. The Crown is also ...
A Bill enabling referendums to be held with the 2020 General Election has passed its third reading. Justice Minister Andrew Little says the Act is important for upholding the integrity of New Zealand’s electoral process. “The Government has committed to holding a referendum on legalising recreational cannabis at the next ...
The first release of public information on the two referendums to be held at next year’s General Election was made today with an informative new Government website going live. Additionally, the draft Cannabis Legalisation and Control Bill has been released, showing the strict controls on cannabis that will apply if ...
The Government is taking action to protect New Zealand from foreign interference in our elections by banning foreign donations to political parties and candidates, Justice Minister Andrew Little announced today. Legislation will be introduced to Parliament this afternoon and passed under urgency. “There’s no need for anyone other than New ...
Governments and tech companies are holding a two-day workshop, hosted by YouTube/Google in Wellington, to test the Christchurch Call Shared Crisis Response Protocol. The workshop aims to refine and strengthen the response in the event of a terrorist attack with online implications. Companies, governments, civil society experts and NGOs will ...
The new independent Cancer Control Agency has formally opened today, delivering on the Government’s plan to improve cancer care in New Zealand. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Minister of Health David Clark marked the occasion by announcing the membership of the Advisory Council that will be supporting ...
Small businesses who deal with government departments are set to be paid faster and have improved cash flow as a result, under a new strategy released today. The Government is backing recommendations from the Small Business Council (SBC) and has agreed to implement three initiatives immediately to support business and ...
The Education and Training Bill 2019, introduced in Parliament today, proposes the biggest education changes in decades and is an important step towards improving success for all our learners, Education Minister Chris Hipkins said. “The Bill’s rewrite of education legislation is long overdue. Indeed one Education Act, parts of which ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio will travel to Bali to represent New Zealand at the 12th Bali Democracy Forum that will be held on the 5-6 December. “The Forum is a valuable opportunity for Asia-Pacific countries to share experiences and best practice in building home-grown democracy and fostering ...
A package of new and expanded technology and other tools will encourage responsible camping and help communities and local councils better manage freedom camping this summer, Tourism Minister Kelvin Davis announced today. “Our Government has been investing to improve the freedom camping experience for everyone because we want to support ...
The government is laying the groundwork to understanding our genes – work that can help us tackle some of our biggest health challenges, like heart disease and diabetes, says Research, Science and Innovation Minister Megan Woods. $4.7 million has been invested in the Genomics Aotearoa Rakeiora programme. The programme will ...
Nearly every state schools will receive a capital injection next year valued at $693 per student to bring forward urgent school property improvements, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Education Minister Chris Hipkins announced today. The one-off cash injection is the first project to be announced from the Government’s infrastructure package ...
The Government has decided to bring forward major investments in New Zealand’s infrastructure to future proof the economy. “Cabinet has agreed to a significant boost to infrastructure investment. I have directed the Treasury to help bring together a package of projects that can be brought into the Government’s short and ...
It is a great pleasure to be with you today in Whanganui. Like the Prime Minister I grew up with the TV clip of Selwyn Toogood booming “What do you say Whanganui, the money or the bag?” to an unsuspecting ‘It’s in the Bag’ audience. For those under the age ...
New Zealand’s newest Great Walk, the Paparoa Track, was officially opened in Blackball today by the Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage alongside the family members of the Pike 29 and Ngāti Waewae. Local mayors and MP for the West Coast Hon Damien O’Connor were also in attendance. “Paparoa National Park ...
Minister of Defence Ron Mark turned the first sod of earth on the infrastructure works for the new P-8A Poseidon fleet at RNZAF Base Ohakea today. “The Coalition Government’s investment in Ohakea will ensure the Royal New Zealand Air Force can manage, maintain and task the new fleet efficiently ahead ...
Civil Defence Minister Hon Peeni Henare today announced the establishment of the new National Emergency Management Agency from 1 December 2019. The National Emergency Management Agency will replace the Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management. It will be an autonomous departmental agency, hosted by the Department of the Prime ...
New Zealand tertiary students with top grades and a passion for space will once again be offered the opportunity to work with the world’s best and brightest at NASA, Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford announced today. Recipients of the New Zealand Space Scholarship are nominated by the Ministry of Business, ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced further support to Samoa in the wake of an ongoing measles outbreak in the country. Additional medical supplies and personnel, including a third rotation of New Zealand’s emergency medical assistance team (NZMAT), further nurse vaccinators, intensive care (ICU) specialists and Samoan-speaking medical professionals, will ...
Health Minister Dr David Clark says new data showing a sharp drop in the number of people who can’t afford to visit their GP is a sign of real progress. One year after the Government made it cheaper for about 600,000 Kiwis to visit their doctor, results of the New ...
Hell’s bells it’s Gone By Lunchtime, with Annabelle Lee, Ben Thomas and Toby Manhire shooting the breeze on Kris Faafoi, Jason Kerrison, Winston Peters, NZ First donations, a cannabis referendum, and the year to come.Just when you thought politics was tucking under the duvet for Christmas, along comes the guy ...
Tis the season for hangovers, so we convinced some of New Zealand’s most experienced consumers of food and/or drink (OK, Spinoff staff and a bunch of chefs/hospo people) to share their tried-and-true culinary remedies.A hangover is a very individual thing. For some, it manifests as a splitting headache and extreme ...
Before Britain’s Got Talent: Champions hits our screens tonight, let’s take a fond look back at some of the show’s weirdest and most wonderful acts.Place your hands on your Golden Buzzer, because Britain’s Got Talent: The Champions kicks off this weekend. Champions is BGT bigger and better than it’s been before, ...
Following the raging success of the 2018 non-goat ethical Christmas gift guide, here for you today – responsibly wrapped in reusable gift wrap – is the 2019 list of ethical, sustainable, socially conscious, or charitable gift ideas to satisfy all kinds of family members and budgets.Budget Category: ‘Can we pay ...
Lime brought e-scooters to Auckland and changed the way we travel in less than a year. Now, the council is replacing it and Wave with three new contenders. Josie Adams goes to the Lime warehouse to say goodbye to the original scooters.In a warehouse in Eden Terrace, almost a thousand ...
Analysis - The government's first crack at cannabis legislation runs into trouble, a foreign donations bill is rammed through Parliament and a select committee refuses to listen to former NZ First officeholders. ...
Dr Ben Jansen is Oceania's leading prescriber of cannabis medicines, and a co-founder of the Hemp Foundation.org.nz “I’d like to thank the Labour Party and Chris Woodney. Thanks to his policy remit at Labours national conference, and Labours full support, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hannah Soong, Senior Lecturer in Teacher Education Practice, School of Education, University of South Australia Australian 15 year olds were around three and a half years behind their counterparts in China in maths, according to the OECD’s latest results for education systems ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dimitri Perrin, Senior Lecturer, Queensland University of Technology More than a year ago, the world was shocked by Chinese biophysicist He Jiankui’s attempt to use CRISPR technology to modify human embryos and make them resistant to HIV, which led to the birth ...
Cabinet minister Kris Faafoi has apologised to the Prime Minister for his messages to Jason Kerrison regarding an immigration case, but will not lose his job. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julian Meyrick, Professor of Creative Arts, Flinders University The decision to merge the Department of Communications and the Arts with Transport, Infrastructure and Regional development (dropping the “Arts” entirely) ends a year in which Australian politics has been deeply confused over its ...
A historic referendum on independence has been completed in Bougainville. Johnny Blades of RNZ was there. People in the autonomous Papua New Guinea region of Bougainville have voted in an historic independence referendum. The long-anticipated referendum is the ultimate provision of 2001’s Bougainville Peace Agreement, which followed a brutal, protracted ...
Dairy farmers had some Xmas cheer this week, as dairy giant Fonterra told them the forecast payout would be the fourth-highest-ever, at the mid-point of its farmgate milk price range. The $7.30kg/ms means the cash payout for the season will reach $11.2bn, a rise of about $400m from the earlier forecast. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Caitlin Syme, PhD in Vertebrate Palaeontology, The University of Queensland When you find dinosaur skeletons, how can you tell how old the dinosaur was? Like, if the skeleton is from a child dinosaur or an adult dinosaur? – Henry, aged 8. ...
The Council of Licenced Firearms Owners (COLFO) has had to clarify the law with Police and receive their reassurance that while the amnesty for ammunition was not extended to 20 December, Police will act as if it has been. ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 We Are Here: An Atlas of Aotearoa by Chris McDowall & Tim Denee (Massey University Press, $70)Superlative ...
This week a petition with more than 15,000 signatures was presented at parliament to Nicola Willis, MP and opposition spokesperson for Early Childhood Education. Also attending were Green MP Chlöe Swarbrick and Hon Nikki Kaye. ...
It’s that time of year again when, for the third year running, a new A Christmas Prince movie is released. Sam Brooks was in front of a TV screen for the latest instalment’s debut on Netflix last night, and here catalogues the many stupid, wild, and wildly stupid things he ...
One of the most highly rated members of Jacinda Ardern’s Cabinet is under pressure over assurances given in relation to an immigration case. How bad could it get, asks Toby Manhire.There has never been a New Zealand prime minister more engaged with contemporary homegrown music than Jacinda Ardern. She’s forever ...
Kris Faafoi, Minister of Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media; Minister ofCommerce and Consumer Affairs;Minister of Government Digital Services; Associate Minister forHousing; MP for Mana.The latest allegations of a corruption scandal involving a Cabinet minister suggests this government is far too loose when it comes to providing access to power ...
The National Party cannot credibly critique the Government’s hikes to fuel tax while it refuses to commit to reversing these hikes, says the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union. Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says, “Simon Bridges has lambasted ...
Newspaper staff were among those to express dismay and fury during the frenzy of denunciations that followed publication of an ill-considered cartoon about Samoa and the measles epidemic. The Spinoffrecorded their reactions under the heading ODT cartoonist infuriates his colleagues with Sāmoa measles epidemic ‘joke’. It also reproduced the ...
New Zealand Police Association condemns comments made by People Against Prisons Aotearoa following the fatal police shooting of an armed man who had made threats of suicide. ...
A new poem by Harry Ricketts. The Writing Life You want to write.You want to be published.You want to be read. You want to be a cult figure.You want to be reviewed.You want to write. You want to win prizes.You want to be anthologised.You want to be read. You want to be taught in schools ...
As Christmas is near, it’s time to set the record straight on some of the most commonly misunderstood aspects of employment law that apply to the festive season. ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Kris Faafoi immigration case Fiona Connor and Tova O’Brien (Newshub): ‘I’m on it bro’: Messages show Kris Faafoi offering help to ...
The Minister of Local Government Nanaia Mahuta has announced changes to prevent Māori wards being voted down by referendums are off the table, saying she believes such a change is not possible within the coalition. ...
It’s officially the festive season, and what does that mean? An office Secret Santa with a budget of $20 and you’ve picked your boss. Instead of settling for a bottle of average wine and a ribbon, follow our essential guide on what to get those unique workmates.At last year’s Secret ...
The shooting of a suicidal man in Southland shows that police armament is dangerous, says criminal justice group People Against Prisons Aotearoa. The shooting comes just over a month into the controversial trial of heavily armed police teams in 3 regions ...
The Prime Minister should deal urgently with reports Cabinet Minister Kris Faafoi offered to help a friend over an immigration case, National Party leader Simon Bridges says. ...
The families of top former All Blacks are likely to donate their loved ones’ brains to research so the effect of head impacts in sport can be studied. ...
A woman who went on a Tinder date with the man who murdered Grace Millane tells her story, and issues a warning to other women to trust their instincts when something doesn’t feel right.First published on Newshub.co.nzI went on a date with Grace Millane’s killer while her body lay in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gottfried Lechner, Associate Professor and Director of the Institute for Telecommunications Research, University of South Australia, University of South Australia Satellites are becoming increasingly important in our lives, as they help us meet a demand for more data, exchanged at higher speeds. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Terry Goldsworthy, Associate Professor in Criminology, Bond University According to the latest figures, homicides in Australia are at historic lows and compare well against international trends. So what do the trends tell us and why is the homicide rate in Australia declining? ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy O’Rourke, Senior Lecturer, School of Architecture, The University of Queensland Welcome to the next article in our Designing Hospitals series, where we explore how architecture and design shape our hospitals and medical centres. Today, we look at what Indigenous people tell ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Holden, Professor of Economics, UNSW The latest Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) results are bad news for Australian students, parents, employers and policymakers. Pretty much everyone. Australian 15-year-olds are now below the OECD average in mathematics, and our results in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Danielle Clode, Senior Research Fellow in Creative Writing, Flinders University It is only mid-November but we have to walk early to avoid the heat. A northerly wind picks up clouds of dust and pollen, sending dirty billows across the paddocks. The long ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Changes coming to fuel market, anti-vaxxer arrested in Samoa, and banks told to hold more capital.New recommendations to increase competition in the fuel market have been made by the Commerce Commission, reports the NZ Herald. Their conclusion is that it isn’t competitive ...
This week's biggest-selling New Zealand books, as recorded by the Nielsen BookScan New Zealand bestseller list and described by ReadingRoom literary editor Steve Braunias. ...
An alliance of top researchers is trying to keep New Zealand ahead of complex health challenges from overuse of antibiotics, threats to freshwater quality and emerging infectious diseases. ...
The birthplace of the Labour Party is once again at the forefront of a new movement, this time harnessing the power of the collective to step away from coal towards a low carbon future.Blackball is a small place with a huge history. This week the town, 29 kilometres from Greymouth, ...
Life expectancy is increasing all the time, and now actuaries and retirement experts say young people need far more information on what they’ll need to do with their money if they live to 100. Don’t worry, we’re here to help. The message from the Retirement Income Interest Group of the New ...
German politician Joschka Fischer has had a remarkable career. From street violence and helping to set up the Green party, he matured into the foreign minister and vice-chancellor of a united Germany, serving until 2005. His understanding of power politics led him to support the use of force in the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Scott Morrison said it with a straight face, and repetition for emphasis. “I’m very pleased, very pleased, with the performance of all of my ministers,” he declared on Thursday. This ringing if unconvincing universal endorsement ...
PARENTS AROUND THE WORLD PLEA FOR URGENT CLIMATE ACTION 222 parents groups from 27 countries have released a heartfelt joint plea calling on negotiators at this year’s UN climate summit – COP25 – in Madrid to push for ambitious and urgent ...
Government proposals to overhaul insurance contract laws should make the whole process of taking out insurance easier and simpler to understand for consumers, says Financial Advice New Zealand. ...
Despite New Zealand First lobbying hard at the Cabinet table, the Finance Minister says the case to move Auckland's port operations north has not yet been made. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jane Tomnay, Assoc. Professor / Director of Centre for Excellence in Rural Sexual Health, University of Melbourne Around one in six Australian women have had an abortion by their mid-30s. These women come from all age groups and demographics: some are mothers ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Roslyn Petelin, Course coordinator, The University of Queensland Reports this week about the demise of the Apostrophe Protection Society may have been greatly exaggerated. The Apostrophe Protection Society was set up in 2001 in the UK by retired journalist John Richards with ...
Today the Court of Appeal released their decision to allow Helen Milner (The Black Widow) to have the last remaining body samples of the husband she murdered, in an attempt to prove her innocence by trying to see if he had an underlying heart condition. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Pearse, Lecturer, Department of Political Economy, University of Sydney Federal Labor this week commemorated a dubious anniversary – a decade of climate policy failure. And it pointed the finger of blame squarely at the Greens. Labor claimed that had the Greens ...
The recent statement by Simon Tyler on behalf of the National Provident Fund and the Government Superannuation Fund, that environmental and social goals must be balanced with financial risk and reward, displays conceptual confusion about the role of ethical ...
A bill designed to deal with terrorists returning from overseas has hit its latest speed bump as human rights groups raise concerns that it could be used to stifle press freedom. ...
Open mike 07/07/2016 
Open mike is your post.
Michael Schulson When Shane Burcaw flies on an airplane, he brings along a customized gel cushion, a car seat, and about 10 pieces of memory foam. The whole arsenal costs around $1,000, but for Burcaw it’s a necessity. The 27-year-old author and speaker — who, alongside his fiancée, Hannah ...1 hour ago
We are very pleased to publish this submission is from Lucinda Stoan. She is a social justice activist, mother, and educator, based in Washington State in the US. This detailed and comprehensive source-linked overview of trans issues and what is at stake will be useful for many people, especially in ...18 hours ago
Newshub last night reported that Broadcasting Minister Kris Faafoi had apparently promised to help out a mate with an immigration issue. While its normal for people to approach MPs for assistance in this area, when you're a Minister, the rules are different: as the Cabinet Manual says, Ministers must "at ...22 hours ago
New Zealand's Underarm Banker: It bears recalling that the “independence” of the Reserve Bank Governor was for decades held up by neoliberal capitalists as the most compelling justification for passing the Reserve Bank Act. Interesting, is it not, how the ruling class’s support for the Bank’s independence lasted no longer than ...1 day ago
“Free at last, Free at last, Thank God almighty we are free at last.” ― Martin Luther King Jr. A long and bitter court feud between former Conservative Party leader Colin Craig and Jordan Williams has been settled, with an apology and compensation from Williams. On Tuesday, Craig sent out ...2 days ago
Some people seem to want to close down any critical discussion of the current research into the relationship between water fluoride and child IQ. They appear to argue that claims made by researchers should not be open to critical review and that the claims be accepted without proper consideration ...2 days ago
In an unreliable, strange and confusing world, Public Address is proud to present a measure of comfort and stability by annually asking everyone what words or phrases sum up the year that's been – and then giving some of them consumer goods as prizes for being clever or simply lucky.Well, ...2 days ago
While much of the NZ left has transitioned to postmodern and identity politics in relation to transgender ideology, there are some very good articles about that deploy Marxist methodology in relation to this subject. The one below is from the British marxist group Counterfire and appeared on their site here ...4 days ago
“America the Beautiful!”, staunch defender of democracy, freedom and… a whole lot of despotic tyrants that play nice with what is called “the Washington Consensus.” America is indeed capable of immense good, but like any Nation, and most assuredly any aspirant to the mantle of Empire, great, immense evil. All ...6 days ago
Image credit: The beginner’s guide to blogging I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. If your blog is ... 6 days ago
It hasn't been a good week for the Conservatives, pollwise. All major recent polls are showing their lead shrinking.Comparing each pollster's current (between 29/11 and 22/11) and previous most recent poll.Com Res - Conservative lead down 3 points.You Gov - Conservative lead down 1 point.Kantar - Conservative lead down 4 ...1 week ago
Mark Patterson, Spokesperson for Primary Industries New Zealand First spokesperson for Primary Industries, Mark Patterson, has called for awareness to be raised and more stringent biosecurity checks to be put in place for African Swine Fever (ASF), a widespread virus that is uncontrolled in most of Asia and a serious ...2 days ago
Live from the Whanganui Opera House, on the final day of the 2019 Labour Party Conference, Jacinda Ardern announced the largest investment in school property in 25 years. ...4 days ago
Health Minister Dr David Clark says new appointments to DHBs represent a significant changing of the guard, with 13 new chairs including four Māori chairs. Today 76 appointments have been announced to complement elected board members, as well as eight elected members appointed as either chair or deputy chair. Four ...4 hours ago
Hell’s bells it’s Gone By Lunchtime, with Annabelle Lee, Ben Thomas and Toby Manhire shooting the breeze on Kris Faafoi, Jason Kerrison, Winston Peters, NZ First donations, a cannabis referendum, and the year to come.Just when you thought politics was tucking under the duvet for Christmas, along comes the guy ...2 hours ago
"The neighbour takes my hand and walks me over the concrete to my parent’s back door": a look inside Hell by Alisha Tyson. ...4 hours ago
Analysis - The government's first crack at cannabis legislation runs into trouble, a foreign donations bill is rammed through Parliament and a select committee refuses to listen to former NZ First officeholders. ...15 hours ago
Dr Ben Jansen is Oceania's leading prescriber of cannabis medicines, and a co-founder of the Hemp Foundation.org.nz “I’d like to thank the Labour Party and Chris Woodney. Thanks to his policy remit at Labours national conference, and Labours full support, ...16 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hannah Soong, Senior Lecturer in Teacher Education Practice, School of Education, University of South Australia Australian 15 year olds were around three and a half years behind their counterparts in China in maths, according to the OECD’s latest results for education systems ...17 hours ago
Dairy farmers had some Xmas cheer this week, as dairy giant Fonterra told them the forecast payout would be the fourth-highest-ever, at the mid-point of its farmgate milk price range. The $7.30kg/ms means the cash payout for the season will reach $11.2bn, a rise of about $400m from the earlier forecast. ...18 hours ago
The Government is investing up to $9 million in a project that it says will help Southland farmers use their land more sustainably. ...22 hours ago
Donation legislation, the infinite monkey theory and the angriest man in NZ politics. Not to mention Paula Bennett's black-market oregano. ...22 hours ago
Newspaper staff were among those to express dismay and fury during the frenzy of denunciations that followed publication of an ill-considered cartoon about Samoa and the measles epidemic. The Spinoff recorded their reactions under the heading ODT cartoonist infuriates his colleagues with Sāmoa measles epidemic ‘joke’. It also reproduced the ...23 hours ago
You do not have to sacrifice short term returns in order to invest sustainably. ...1 day ago
Winston Peters says the NZ First foundation is similar to the National Party’s foundation. Here’s how it isn’t. ...1 day ago
The families of top former All Blacks are likely to donate their loved ones’ brains to research so the effect of head impacts in sport can be studied. ...1 day ago
The Finance Minister Grant Robertson won’t be drawn on how much new capital requirements for banks will hit consumers. ...1 day ago
Yet again, NZ schools have received a 'fail' when it comes to bullying but there could be an evidence-based solution. ...1 day ago
This week's biggest-selling New Zealand books, as recorded by the Nielsen BookScan New Zealand bestseller list and described by ReadingRoom literary editor Steve Braunias. ...1 day ago
An alliance of top researchers is trying to keep New Zealand ahead of complex health challenges from overuse of antibiotics, threats to freshwater quality and emerging infectious diseases. ...1 day ago
Sky Sport News presenter Kate King previews a massive weekend for Kiwi sportswomen ...1 day ago
A handy guide to all you need to know about impeachment. ...1 day ago
NZ is seeing an increasing number of retail 'events' imported from overseas - how long before our spending is exhausted? ...1 day ago
German politician Joschka Fischer has had a remarkable career. From street violence and helping to set up the Green party, he matured into the foreign minister and vice-chancellor of a united Germany, serving until 2005. His understanding of power politics led him to support the use of force in the ...1 day ago
Despite New Zealand First lobbying hard at the Cabinet table, the Finance Minister says the case to move Auckland's port operations north has not yet been made. ...2 days ago
The year has provided tests for the PM's party, government, and the country as a whole - but she is confident 2020 will bring success. ...2 days ago
ACC is failing to live by the climate principles it proclaims. ...2 days ago
A bill designed to deal with terrorists returning from overseas has hit its latest speed bump as human rights groups raise concerns that it could be used to stifle press freedom. ...2 days ago
Another day in John Key’s neo-liberal nightmare.
We have become a cruel, greedy, uncaring and selfish nation under his wretched leadership.
Uncaring, greedy.
Power companies.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11669927
Yesterday afternoon I had to drop something off to an old fella at his council flat, he came to the door dressed in jacket & big wooly hat that covered his ears like he was in Antarctica! I asked if he was alright warm enough etc? He said ‘all good mate, you have a good day’.
Another day in John Key’s neo-liberal nightmare.
We have become a cruel, greedy, uncaring and selfish nation under his wretched leadership.
Uncaring, greedy.
Landlords and real estate companies that manage rentals.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/81823651/family-trapped-in-mould-horror-house
Not good enough all round.
Despite paying $240 a week for their three bedroom home the couple say they can only use their tiny lounge, dining and kitchen area because the rest of the house is uninhabitable.
We’ve been in this situation too; in fact I suspect a lot of New Zealanders shut down part of their house in winter because they cannot afford to heat it all.
And this is largely due to a building industry that for generations has been overpriced and under-performing. In my opinion about three-quarters of kiwi houses need renovating with a bulldozer.
Spot on.
After the floods in South Dunedin a bunch of residents did just that, just shut off the damaged part of the house & lived in 1/2 rooms.
When we came to NZ we were told winter here is an indoor experience as much as it is an outdoor one. We have had wind coming from the floor as it was not insulated just like the rest of the house; there was no heating source so we had to use a portable gas heater and oil heaters at night; you can imagine the wet windows in the morning and the fight to wipe them. No amount of open windows during the day can prevent the condensation that comes at night. It pushed us to do everything we could to be out of there and into our own house, which we did exactly a year after we moved into it. But we are privileged to be able to do that and it makes me so angry there are no regulations when it comes to rentals. If landlords cannot afford to provide a decent standard of living for their tenants they should not be landlords.
There are two types of rentals; purpose built new apartments and townhouses which are generally ok. It’s not often appreciated but historically something in the order of 10-15% of all new builds are intended as rental investments. Generally these units will be pretty good; the landlord has put in solid money upfront and wants to keep them for decades for their rental income, not their speculative capital gain.
But historically the bulk of rentals are ordinary homes that are in the last 25% of their economic life … and no-one wants them as their ‘dream home’ anymore. These are the problem houses; either an energetic owner will renovate them in the hope that the capital gain will cover the considerable costs OR a landlord will just leave them to slowly depreciate and decay while the rental income makes a modest cash flow.
A lot depends on the location and the long term plans of the landlord. Bear in mind that a decent reno on a run-down older house may well cost > $50k and with a rental income of only $15k pa or less, plus rates, insurance, interest and other costs … if there is no capital gain it absolutely makes no commercial sense to upgrade. You can spend a lot of money doing up a rental, and the income barely changes. The tenant gets all the benefits of warmer house and lower power bills, the landlord gets nothing except maybe an improved occupancy rate.
The core problem here is a lot of mis-aligned market signals.
That’s a good analysis from a front line landlord POV, thanks RL.
My landlord is presently renovating this house and has budgeted $80k to do it. Now that he’s started he’s concerned that he hasn’t budgeted enough.
The place is ~40 years old, it’s not in bad condition but it’s the not the best either. The landlord does, as a matter of fact, live here as well (I rent a room).
Actually, the core problem is that the market doesn’t really work in housing.
+1
Andrew Little has fallen into the same trap as Bennett by referring to the need to increase the number of “beds” for the homeless. How patronising is that? Guess it’s to be expected though, from the party for the workers – meaning those with jobs, that is.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/81851560/labour-leader-andrew-little-unveils-60m-plan-to-boost-emergency-housing
small difference between Paula (Has got her benefits) Bennett and Andrew Little.
The National MP of Do Nothing Paula B. wants to spend more money on existing beds not increase the number of emergency beds available.
Andrew Little wants to increase the Number of emergency beds/housing as there is currently and prolly for a few years coming a need.
Safe your concern for the National Party and their Do Nothing Minister of Fuck UPs.
Okay then.
Ok, that place actually needs to be condemned.
quote from someone at AKL Council when i called to have a property that i rented checked and condemned.
“If we were to condemn all AKl houses that are below standard and even more like slum buildings we would loose over 50% of all Houses in AKL.”
so you see there is a problem.
I kinda realised that aspect a couple of years ago when the WOF for rental properties was first mooted. The idea would be to progressively work through them.
Obama political appointees to the FBI and Justice Department clear the way for Hillary Clinton to run
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-07-06/folks-put-pieces-together-judge-jeanine-rages-over-comeyclinton-debacle
Donald Trump says it more simply – under his presidency, Loretta Lynch would be out of a job. But Clinton can promise her additional terms in office if she won the presidency.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-07-06/trump-says-clinton-trying-bribe-loretta-lynch
No one cares, bro.
Nailed it. lol
Neither of you care about political interference in due legal process. Thanks for clearing that up.
In my opinion, born from principle and common decency, that you support a racist, misogynist, billionaire one percenter invalidates you from giving me shit over just about anything.
To me, your opinion is as valid as nf, kkk rednecks.
I’m underwhelmed. lol
Straw man me all you like, but Trump will be far better for NZ than neocon infected Killary Clinton.
If only because Trump will be far less likely to start a shooting war with China or Russia in the Pacific, and he will shitcan both the TPPA and TTIP.
I don’t mind how you try to wish it all away 🙂
Anyway, I’m under orders from Bill, now.
As you’re untouchable, you’ll be all right to carry on by yourself until the coast clears and the dust settles. lol
not untouchable.
just not obsessively touchable when it derails a post 🙂
Either way, just be aware you’re goading someone who thinks he’s channeling messages from the “intrinsic intelligence of the universe”…
Heh
Just make a serious political comment instead of astroturfing. That’s all it takes.
When you say “serious political comment” you mean join you on a daily basis in rabbiting on about neolibs, Trump, Putin, RT links, Labour are shit and we’re all going die from the radiation.
It’d take a heavy hammer and a willing head smacker first.
Punching out now, so make sure the cheque is in the post, ta.
Zero hedge really has it in for Clinton
You wouldn’t be a member of the Clinton fan club if you consider the implications of the Obama White House smoothing away felony charges for her.
Zero Hedge never met a conspiracy theory they didn’t mind repeating. Or inventing.
Be led like a lamb to the slaughter, if you wish. After all the farmer has fed you without fail every day, how could he be wishing anything bad for you? To question otherwise is to be a “conspiracy theorist.”
Boy who cried wolf, etc.
I’ve got no time for the FBI but it’s not as simple as: An Obama political appointment so he does was the president wants.
Here’s the wiki short version on James Comey:
James Brien Comey, Jr. (born December 14, 1960) is an American lawyer. He is the seventh and current Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
He was the United States Deputy Attorney General, serving in President George W. Bush’s administration. As Deputy Attorney General, Comey was the second-highest-ranking official in the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) and ran the day-to-day operations of the Department, serving in that office from December 2003 through August 2005. He was U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York prior to becoming Deputy Attorney General.
An interesting article in The Age (and presumably SMH) asking how was it that, in spite of the polls throughout the campaign calling it pretty much 50-50, the Gallery in Canberra allowed themselves to get suckered in by the Turnbull government’s spin and were all confidently predicting a reasonably comfortable majority for the Coalition.
http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2016-opinion/election-2016-the-uncomfortable-truth-is-the-media-got-it-wrong-how-did-we-do-it-20160705-gpzatm.html
What an odd piece by Trevett in the Herald about Andrew Little. A complete load of rubbish, cliched writing. And, predictably, it’s been turned into a hatchet job on the Labour leader.
she has got to earn a living somehow?
this may have something to do with it.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11670146
There were two pieces. One headlined ‘The Man who would be King’ which is a story about inflated egos seeking glory but failing.
The other was referenced the Labour housing statements as a ‘Crusade’ which is a futile and divisive part of history still playing out on the world stage.
Both suggested the datedness and futility of Labour policy and the articles themselves only explored the policy and leadership ambitions as it relates to government policy and the leader of the government, not touching on the people for which the policy aim to help. She seeked to consolidate and defend the fragmented and reluctant govt policy and present it as worthwhile but over a longer timeframe.
She really is the stuff floating on the surface of stagnant government thought.
The Herald currently has the Trevitt article with the headline “He’s not ready to be Prime Minister”, wankers.
He is not. You should be applauding the fact that the Herald has produced an accurate headline.
I can just picture you applauding like a seal, arf! arf!
Technically speaking, no one is ready to be PM until after they’ve been PM for awhile. It really is the experience that counts.
John Key, even after 7 years in the job, still isn’t ready to be PM.
IMO this is framing it the wrong way and asking a misleading question.
The question should be whether he’s capable to take the responsibility and fulfil his duty if/when he has to step up.
Similarly and simultaneously, the same question should be asked about the team he’s leading now and the coalition he might be leading.
I’d say that Andrew Little and his team are as capable, if not more, as John Key and his band of MPs.
“Andrew Little: Is it not the truth that he has taken no action to stop the sale of our productive land into overseas ownership and that his pledge to ensure that we will not become tenants in our own land is just more hollow words from a hollow man?
Hon Steven Joyce: Angry Andrew.
Rt Hon JOHN KEY: Well, he is angry because he has had to wait a wee while to ask his question. But I stand by my record”
******************************************
“Rt Hon JOHN KEY: The Government’s response in housing has been quite comprehensive”
********************************************
“Andrew Little: Does he agree with Nick Smith that the costs of modern insulation and heating standards are not worth the benefits, given that the benefits are preventing Kiwi kids from getting sick and from dying?
Rt Hon JOHN KEY: I agree with Nick Smith in the context of the statements he would have been making. ”
**********************************************
“Andrew Little: How proud is the Prime Minister of the company he is now keeping when the Panama Papers lump New Zealand in with such auspicious company as Belize, the Seychelles, and Costa Rica in the list of 21 tax havens?
Rt Hon JOHN KEY: I think New Zealand can stand quite proudly on the regime that it runs here”
************************************************
“Rt Hon Winston Peters: How can he stand by his statements yesterday that New Zealand “is not a tax haven” and that we “also have an extensive disclosure regime”, when specialist law firms on trusts for foreigners point out there is no need for disclosure of identity, or trust registration, or for any such trust accounts to be audited?
Rt Hon JOHN KEY: Because I am right”
*****************************************************
“Rt Hon JOHN KEY: I cannot confirm whether the Bahamas is a tax haven or not—I simply do not know.”
*******************************************************
and we’ll finish with a inside joke between two tax haven supporters
“David Seymour: In what century did the wine-box inquiry take place?
Rt Hon JOHN KEY: One so far back I can hardly remember it.”
haha ………. get it? ………… almost like jail house humor
They are worried about how sensible and honest ,yes honest, Little is sounding. It confuses them.
How’s this for rubbish writing from Deputy Trev’ of the Herald ?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11669873
Starting with the slightly sneering reference to “crusade” in the headline, travelling on down to suggestion by default of a practical and moral equivalence in the parties’ respective positions, and the ever-present fascination with the ‘game’ of it all.
What a John Key botty muncher is Deputy Trev’ ! Fukn unbelievable !
And what of the vox pop they’ve had up on Herald online – what are people saying about Andrew Little ? No context, no analysis, no reporting of numbers or percentages. Just out-of-the-blue, “Ya like him, or no ?
mind this might be only to counter this from Fran Sullivan?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11669161
Love it where Fran says it is a pretty crap society that pulls the housing ladder up on the young and less well-off to preserve their unearned wealth. Well said indeed.
Yep. She always seeks to minimise government mistakes, and opposition advances.
She must have a massive property portfolio.
Yep the easiest thing is to stop reading the herald. I try just to look about once a month just in case there has been some editorial change to act like a newspaper not a propaganda advertorial for Natz and friends.
As for Little he’s doing the best job he can and has united the caucus and he seems really honest. So a good contrast to Key the liar.
The only thing I am concerned about is that Labour seem to be deciding to have some sort of rah rah housing policy coming out, and that will be falling into the Natz and MSM hands.
In times of bad news, notice Key disappears, off to Fiji, Hawaii or whathaveyou. But Labour feel compelled to be in the spot light at that time so are then appearing whenever there is bad news.
There is no knight in shining armour for housing in Auckland and New Zealand. What ever is done is gonna piss a lot of people off, either the 1 in 4 migrants in Auckland, the 67% homeowners or the renters many of whom did seem to want to vote Labour or Greens last election in spite of seemingly housing policy gains for them.
There is no possible way to look good on housing and please everyone. You are more likely to displease everyone. So the best thing is to leave the Natz alone in the spotlight to face the housing crisis alone. They choreographed the situation and now it is their time to face the music (by themselves).
Don’t make any announcements Labour/Greens! Just sit tight on housing announcements and let the swords fall and MSM talons, on who deserve it. The Natz.
Labour/Greens can fix up housing when they are elected and not let that be the downfall like last election.
Wouldn’t normally link to the horrendous old Daily Telegraph … but … Defeated Labour Rebels admit ‘it’s finished’, as Jeremy Corbyn refuses to Resign as Leader
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/06/defeated-labour-rebels-admit-its-finished-as-jeremy-corbyn-refus/
Meanwhile, over at the New Statesman … A surge in Labour Membership has further bolstered Corbyn’s leadership … http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/staggers/2016/07/labour-membership-hit-600000
And why Corbyn’s allies are confident … http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2016/07/jeremy-corbyn-s-allies-believe-they-ll-win-again-because-their-opponents-haven-t
Corbyn may look like the runty guy who gets sand kicked in his face all the way down the beach, but clearly he has stones of steel. The rebel MP’s bet that the Members would not rise sufficiently to his defence.
They bet wrong.
Corbyn has won the people, and with that, can happily knife all the PLP Rebels as quickly or as slowly as he likes, and install his own in to the shadow Cabinet. A major payback for enduring the crap.
I haven’t always warmed to him personally, but I respect a well-played political defence.
Very happy with the broad direction Corbyn and McDonnell have set out for the Party … but I’m by no means entirely uncritical of aspects of his leadership.
The core problem now is that (unsurprisingly) polls suggest an overwhelming majority of voters (including around half of Labour voters) see the Party as deeply divided and, partly as a consequence, they see Corbyn as a less than capable and competent Leader. “If they can’t run their own Party, how can they run the Country” etc
There’s almost an element of blackmail here … PLP gross disloyalty undermines the leadership team and destroys confidence in Labour as a viable alternative Govt … potentially leading to ever poorer poll ratings and the prospect of Corbyn becoming a lame duck leader.
Owen Jones recently suggested the Corbyn team’s plan was to nurture a Left-leaning successor to take over the leadership a couple of year’s before the 2020 Election (assuming it isn’t earlier). I’d almost be prepared to accept a Corbyn compromise with the PLP by making their favoured candidate -the Soft Left’s Owen Smith – that successor. (the PLP are well aware that the membership will never accept anyone from the Centre or Right of the Party, so have reluctantly opted for Smith).
Except, the Brownites and Blairites play hardball – they’re interested in exerting as much control over Smith as possible (like they tried to do with Miliband – leading to a great deal of policy ambiguity in the lead-up to the 2015 Election) and they clearly want to inflict a historic defeat on the Left of the Party. As Tony Blair once implied – the last thing they want to see is a popular electable Left-leaning Leader.
Blair has been immolated by the Chilcott report, but it’s no time for Corbyn to be cocky.
2020 is one helluva long time to survive in an office where 2/3 of your ‘colleagues’ utterly loathe you and will slit your hamstrings every time you move.
Can Corbyn ‘smile, and murder while I smile’? Not yet.
Politics is, as he is figuring very very late, a whole bunch more than speechifying and apologies.
What evidence do you have that he’s only figuring that out now? He’s very long in the tooth politically. Your suggestion seems utterly bizarre to me. More likely he knew that he was always going to face an enormous amount of adversity, and there was no course of action he could choose that would not result in at least one major stand-off.
I’ll leave that judgement for six months and look back.
But so far Corbyn:
– hasn’t unified the MPs he has to work with
– hasn’t unified the MPs to the Members
– hasn’t made a mark against the Conservatives
– hasn’t won anything
– hasn’t raised any money of note
– hasn’t got a functioning shadow Cabinet
– hasn’t convinced the only mildly leftie paper the Guardian
– was on the wrong side of the Brexit vote and doesn’t have a plan for it
(He definitely has got more ordinary members. But this isn’t an episode of Robin Hood.)
Now, it’s quite possible this set of failures is all part of some astonishing masterplan that you can impute for him. Go for it. To me that list of failures signifies a poor political leader. (There were plenty here who thought Sanders was going to win as well, simply through arm waving and tent revival meetings. They were wrong)
I’m just going to wait and see.
He needs to eliminate several dozen of the disloyal MPs from the party, particularly the ones who clearly don’t understand that Blairite careerism isn’t what the Labour Party stands for any more.
Trying to make nice with them would be the same fatal mistake that Cunliffe made.
Why would he want to do that? The Guardian can’t swing an election for him, and they have been against him from the start.
Ignore The Guardian and make the news on your on terms.
Definitely needs to eliminate a whole swathe of MPs. Hope he has the stones and the tactical acumen for it.
The problem with ignoring The Guardian, or any news channel, is that they don’t ignore you. You never, ever get to “make news on your own terms.”
Corbyn’s constituency don’t listen to the Guardian, Ad. So why should he bother pretending that either the Guardian, or its readership, are important.
Well, on the results of ignoring them listed above, I would just urge Corbyn a little caution going down that path.
I’d love any Labour leader to be able to ignore any part of the media, MSM or otherwise. Such political romance is fun to imagine, but in reality politicians exist in ugly codependent relationships with them.
Worth remembering that politicians need the media a whole bunch more than the media need politicians.
Another bizarre statement. What, in the next six months, would be likely to indicate whether or not Corbyn had figured out prior to his leadership bid that politics is about “more than speechifying and apologies”?
This presupposes that he sees unifying Blairites with those more disposed towards following him as being desirable in any way.
Presupposes the same thing, as well as assuming that the membership, who have signed up in swathes in the wake of his becoming leader, want a bar of the MPs who trenchantly opposed him – and vice versa.
This really isn’t the timeframe to be reading anything at all into that. It is also exactly that part of politics most heavily dominated by the speechifying side of things, so I don’t see how it could be seen as evidence for what you’re saying.
And your point is…?
You could be right about that; do you have a link?
See above.
The Blairites? So?
As so often evidenced in your writing, your concept of “right” and “wrong” in politics is defined by electoral success. I think that says more about how you are reading Corbyn here than anything else you’ve written, and chimes well with your willingness to accommodate a third-way position to the point of being indistinguishable from it. Ironically, it suggests an approach to politics that emphasises “speechifying”. Corbyn’s historical record as a Eurosceptic aside, what public actions apart from speeches were you expecting, especially during a campaign whose terms had been largely defined along xenophobic and populist lines well before the referendum was called? Surely he would be better off dealing with his own party, and articulating his plan (whether he already has one or has yet to formulate it) at the earliest when Europe makes its own position known. Given that, how can his actions at this point be seen as evidence of a lack of plan? Perhaps that is the judgment you should be reserving for at least six months.
You’ve provided quite a lot of detail, but no real evidence that Corbyn is mainly about “speechifying”, let alone that he hasn’t worked out that there’s more to politics.
I wish him well, truly, and I hope it works out.
He’s a luv.
Call me in January and we’ll have another go. See if he’s managed to tick a couple of those big problems of his off the list. Maybe then he’s got just the chance of a mote in God’s eye of surviving.
Now hold still, here’s a little illustration for you:
There’s a great line reported yesterday in Salon in the Democrat meeting where Sanders met with all Democrat Senate and Congress leaders, to come to some pre-Conference pact, and he started off his little address to them with:
“The point isn’t to win elections …”
…at which point he was universally booed by them. And he continued:
“The point is to transform America.”
And there is a really good illustration of a resolutely principled person. Who has no place being in political leadership.
The one thing that politics really, really is, is a popularity contest. Not only with your party members, not only with your elected colleagues, but also with all people, and with the media.
You really have to fall in love with democracy, and the particular set of processes that constitute it, if you are going to make it. You have to be so good at it, and you have to be good at it for years on end. That’s why I have a whole bunch more faith that Andrew LIttle and Mr Shorten have a shit-show, and people like Sanders and Corbyn and as we’ve seen many others don’t.
See you in January on this.
A go at what? I thought you were trying to show how Corbyn was a waffler who did nothing but make speeches. However, now you seem to be advocating the sort of politics that involves winning people over with soundbites and speeches that appeal to their more instinctive side.
You’re assuming that democracy is about voting periodically for representatives whose faces you like.
So this, essentially “success=popularity”, is a statement which the paragraph afterwards is trying to substantiate?
Unfortunately, you beg the question by assuming that “making it” consists in achieving popularity, rather than showing how popularity gets a programme realised. Your entire paradigm is exactly the mixture of truisms (popularity wins a popular vote) and questionable assumptions masquerading as common sense (being in government enables the realisation of the principles you had when you weren’t in government) that typefy the Right in general.
@ Ad 7 July 2016 at 8:17 pm:
Maybe that’s what politics has become but it shouldn’t be. Politics is about decision-making, based on sound process, and executing these decisions, i.e. “getting on with it”.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11664653
In a modern progressive pluralistic society with proportional representation in Parliament decision-making ideally and primarily should be based on reaching consensus IMO, through cooperation and consultation, because these decisions affect many if not all members of such society.
Unfortunately, partisan politics rule in New Zealand and there still is a strong FPP mentality that dictates that the ‘winner’ is the one who reaches 51% of the vote; that’s all that’s needed to ‘win’. As a side-line, I do think that neo-liberal ideology (doctrine) plays a major role in this since it encourages competition and individualism and counters moves to unification and this has resulted in an erosion of communities and community spirit and given us a society of confused fearful individuals who feel disengaged from politics and the political process and socially powerless. Rings a bell?
I’d argue that (broad) consensus makes a vote obsolete and that this also avoids the “tyranny of the majority”. A vote might only be really necessary when a stalemate has been reached, only as a last resort. An analogy would be industrial action when talks between negotiating parties have broken down. Alternatively, a vote (or poll) could be taken as a starting point rather for the political process to commence, which is the exact opposite of present practice!
I could go on about how it is impossible to base decisions on popularity alone, without the necessary confidence and trust, and as the sole basis of (political) power and authority.
strewth talk about a negative moaning bitch ad what part of the people love him dont you understand ?The people flocking to join the lp over there arent doing it because theyve been conned by the establishment theyre going there because they perceive a difference in this man and theyre gonna give him a fighting chance unlike you apparently
And tommorow comes the song,
the song was sung,
cough, cough, splutter
done.
[lprent: I can’t see any relevance of this to the post. OpenMike and I’d suggest that you might want to explain your ideas to those of us without your enhanced visions. ]
Labour can’t even bring itself to sing the Red Flag any more
I’ll bet you never knew the words. Or, more importantly, understood their meaning.
Practicing your telepathy again, TRP? The socialist meaning of the song is exactly why NZ Labour ditched it.
Telepathy or dodgy snake oil homoeopathy?
Only one has any credibility.
Can you read my mind as to which one?
lol
[The baiting and flaming ends now. You got away with it last night – you’re not doing it again. Speak to the post or don’t comment at all] – Bill
Sure, what ever you say, ref.
You’re so full of shit, your chin’s stained brown.
Boy I’m getting sick of this “hate in” between te reo putake and Colonial Viper.
Agree to disagree already.
So Colonial Viper is a late comer to the realisation that labour is, what it is.
Here is another take on them
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2016/07/07/exclusive-the-nz-labour-party-can-no-longer-avoid-the-elephant-in-the-room/
You’re not the only one sick and tired of the shit Adam.
When I’ve got people in the real world – people who know neither CV nor trp – telling me they’re way fucking over reading threads that suddenly morph into something that might have come from the ‘trade-me’ message boards or similar…
There’s an easy solution, Bill. Return the standard to its original purpose, which was, as I recall, to be an intelligent, articulate voice from the movement. This place is still broken.
The recurring message I get from anyone who brings any current state of ‘the standard’ up in conversation (not an entirely uncommon occurrence) is that it’s a far lesser place than it once was principally because of your behaviour trp.
Oh, bollocks. My posts are well read and well commented on. Like it or not, I’m not afraid to call bullshit when I see it, and I’m not going to dicky lick our resident troll. Your mileage may differ. At the moment, we’re drifting into the abyss where right wing conspiracy theories collide with worker hating petit bourgeois snobbery.
Is the Standard a serious left wing blog?
I think your plan to get the standard the way you want it is flawed. It isn’t working and won’t work imo.
Can’t find a reply button on your comment finishing “Is the Standard a serious left wing blog?” Oh what arrogance of you to claim impeccable left-wingism ! Impeccable Labour Partyism is the highest I can put it.
So, wherever this appears let me say this……you seem to have all the fake muscles of an unmitigated bully TRP. And you CV seem never to have recovered from Twyford’s “chinese names” business. Which while your face is brazenly and spittlingly set against it is in some measure significantly true. And now you’re lurching off into fucking Trumpism……call me Mabel and fuck me gently !
You’re both egotistical, control freak pains in the arse and we’re the somewhat bored “scroll down past them” collateral damage to your ‘always gotta be right’ spats. Grow up you fucking children !
Fuck I wish I’d said that north – apart from the twyford stuff ☺- Good stuff mate.
Good to hear lads. The dude abides.
I’m sick of it, too. Having said that, even if I find a lot of CV’s writings since the last election frustratingly one-sided, especially considering the difference in that regard to his earlier contributions, they always seem to me to articulate (and generally substantiate) a point that is passionately held with a view to changing the global political discourse in the long term, and not personally directed. I would be hard pressed to say the same for all others.
The relevance of my post was the hopes and aims of the first labour government, and in particular Peter Fraser. Also that in the early days of the labour movement poetry, and other forms of literature were used to convey messages. Sadly almost dead aspect, when we have society full of literalist.
Here is a book on Peter Fraser if you have the time, http://www.michaelbassett.co.nz/book_tomorrow.htm
well worth the read.
This story just gets worse. This attack on whistle blowers from the Obama administration, feels very much like the Wilson play book is back on the table.
My guess, Clinton will carry on with this type of domestic suppression.
Seems that Chelsea Manning tried to take her own life and her lawyers were not told.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/chelsea-manning-rushed-to-hospital-after-trying-to-take-life-a7122971.html
It pisses me off how Snowden and Manning get utterly crucified by the US for doing their nation a major service while Killary Clinton’s deliberate mishandling of secret information leading to it being stolen by foreign hackers gets zero.
Couldn’t agree more CV, I wrote about that in a previous post about Clinton and how “ordinary people” would be tried for treason and wouldn’t see the light of day ever again but Clinton who enabled her mail to be exposed into the wrong hands is hit with a wet bus ticket. A law for one and a law for the great unwashed. She is tarnished now and ever was/will be with the Clinton Foundation so just like Blair her legacy isn’t looking good and shouldn’t ever be either. Trump may be nuts but he is his own man and although certainly not in a good mind frame to be President he doesn’t have the smell of corruption at a government level about him like she does.
Bernie is the only decent candidate for the job of US President, so they’ve made sure he won’t get it. “They” not being Republicans nor Trump, but the Democratic Party.
Jesus I’m getting really worried about the equanimity, indeed the glee, of some commenters here whose Leftie stuff I’ve long respected, to the prospect of Herr Drumpf smashing Clinton in November. Careful what you wish for darlings. Yes Clinton yuk but Jesus…….arch racist and terminal egoist Drumpf ?
Herr Drumpf was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Racist, cruel capitalist, vile daddy gave him 40 mill’ to start off with. Drumpf ain’t no friend of the working people. In the office of Pres’ the fucking ego-freak, trophy wife toting lunatic could cinder the whole fucking lot of us ! By accident or on a bad hair day. Which, looking down from Heaven I would have to guage as very annoying. On account of its avoidability.
I don’t want the world to go up in smoke because of some (I suspect tiddly little cock) ugly like Drumpf.
More broadly … Hillary’s capacity to hold a grudge and exact revenge on political opponents is reputedly even greater than Nixon’s. She’ll be drawing up a blacklist as we speak.
Can someone please help bring me up to speed with Union etiquette?
So the National Union of Public Employees have agreed a deal with Aviation Security, but E tū and the Public Service Association haven’t and are going to strike. http://www.newshub.co.nz/business/the-offer-airport-security-staff-rejected-2016070612#axzz4Dgx2gZly
So do the National Union of Public Employees now have to join the picket-line with their Union comrades? Or do the now get called Scabs and abused when they turn up to work, like this: http://www.newshub.co.nz/nznews/wharfies-abusive-demanding–port-2012031213#axzz4Dgx2gZly
well POA say all sorts of things – so an article that is based solely on the claims of POA in that particular dispute isnt that robust
Police reporting only “the good stuff”.
Apparently, at least one senior police officer is under the impression that knowing local police activity is not in the public interest unless it’s a good news story.
This strikes me as being indicative of a fundamental progression towards the “us vs them” policing philosophy that creates a paramilitary police force rather than a community police force. The daily activity blotter is one of those little things that’s essential, if barely noticed, in an open society. Suppressing daily police activities should only occur if the need for confidentiality (e.g. privacy or prejudice of justice concerns) outweighs the public’s right to know.
Local crime is obviously of public interest. We don’t need to know, we have a right to know, and they have an obligation to openly and efficiently report their activity to us, so we can tell if they’re doing their damned job. Stats can be juked, but the local emergency services daily blotter used to give a fair impression of how safe our community was. Removing that because the community might discover the truth that’s inconvenient for the police is an inch away from covering up incompetence and corruption.
Bad call by this police officer.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/81847922/former-mp-john-banks-returns-to-high-court-after-conviction-quashed
Shameful it ever went that far, how could the judge possibly have believed KDC and his wife over John Banks and his wife
Banks is still a crook. No amount of wasted court time will change that.
your taking the piss pucker …………… banks is a nasty little piece of work ……… he thought clint rickards was a great police office ……….. when the cops were acting like his goons when he was auckland mayor ………..
He like the nats is a dishonest money grubber using all sort of scams.
And never forget the trash racism hoax he and his national party whip mate “Hone carter” tried to pull when banks was a radio talk back host.
Banks is trash ………….. just like you puck.
Yeah Banks is, always was, a right wee Mother Theresa……
Your final paragraph PR – “…….how could the judge possibly have believed KDC and his wife over John Banks and his wife ?”
You’re a crashing snob PR !
Not to mention your appalling ignorance of the principle of law that the fact finder determines issues according to the evidence adduced in court. If that weren’t the story you might as well call Rachel Glucina “Chief Justice”. Or the ponytail fetishist “Lord Denning”.
It is of course for the honourable judge but I’d wager there are plenty of people who know stuff about law who would question that the judge owes any apology to anyone.
Must say though, it’s refreshing to see a high public office holder prepared to fashion a sense of honour and decency and have it triumph over personal ego. Cf. the scurvy, effete, increasingly brittle liar Key. And Blair. The morals of both of them missing in action always.
Or did PR mean, ‘…….How could the judge possibly have believed John Banks and his wife over anybody ?’.We all know how straight up Banksy is and always has been.
……or in the authenticity of the mysterious appearance of two previously obscure American business men and their belated but oh so relevant ‘affidavits’ to save Banksy’s bacon. Old boys gotta stick together.$$$$
I stand to be corrected of course but I recall that the LA affidavit writers, Warner Bros guys weren’t they, never ever appeared in a New Zealand court for cross-examination on their affidavits.
Yet the Court of Appeal read those untested affidavits and said “No, fuck that, acquittal !”
I do know a little bit about appellate proceedings and I remain troubled as to how in the name of God a few untested scraps of paper bearing signatures were ever enough to have the appellate court kill the thing dead rather than take the customary step in instances of new evidence of quashing and ordering a retrial. That’s what happens to all the brown boys (except, mercifully, Teina). Still boggles me !
If in fact these guys did appear and were cross-examined on their affidavits I retract it all and Banks truly is a selfless Mother Theresa. Chartered and licensed by God!
Have a look on youtube at the late Christopher Hitchen’s and Penn and Teller’s opinions on Mother Teresa. Your comparison with our Banksy may be more appropriate than you think.