If anyone ran into the database outage earlier this morning ~0600-0630, that was me.
Was using the illuminated keyboard in the dark upgrading the database to a later version and changing some parameters on it.It MAY get rid of the double posts on the comments.
On pages 428-429 of Jared Diamond’s book ‘The World Until Yesterday‘ he notes the following:
“Around the year 1700 sugar intake was only about 4 pounds per year per person in England and the U.S. (then still a colony), but it is over 150 pounds per year per person today. One-quarter of the modern U.S. population eats over 200 pounds of sugar per year. A study of U.S. eighth-graders showed that 40% of their diet consisted of sugar and sugar-yielding carbohydrates.”
Also, in relation to your 100% sugar breakfast cereal comment he describes the temptations for his children in a trip to his supermarket:
“Among breakfast foods, my kids were tempted by the choice between Apple Cinnamon Cheerios and Fruit Loops, respectively 85% and 89% carbohydrate according to their manufacturers, with about half of that carbohydrate in the form of sugar. … Snack choices included Fruit Bears (92% carbohydrate, no protein) …“
It is unclear whether the strikes were related to the added security alert in the country after U.S. officials intercepted a message from al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri to operatives in Yemen telling them to “do something.
Hold on a minute… – This link has many links to re-used so called AQ leaders
It strikes (no pun intended!) me as curious that, faced with international condemnation, the American NSA spooks conveniently raise a “major” scare about Al Queda. Embassies are closed, a worldwide warning goes out.
Meanwhile, in NZ our PM raises the issue of home grown malcontents being trained by Al Queda just at the time that his GCSB legislation comes under increasing criticism.
After making massive complaints that Snowden had given “the terrorists” important clues about the capabilities and activities of the spy listening agencies, the US has just spent the last 3 days trumpeting as loudly as possible through the media that they’ve overheard something, that chatter is up, that al-zawahiri has been heard giving orders for attacks etc.
Random thought for the morning … maybe NSA et al have something on Key causing him to bluster with all the urgency and bullying and complete disregard for our rights ? Is it really just for his ego and his next job ?
“”The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it’s profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way, and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theatre.”
But then again that only happened three times in the entire history of highrise buildings. All on one day, in the same city, in the same neighborhood. Funny that!
1800+ all vetted and registered Architects and Engineers. Also 17,535 citizen signers. Here is another site compiling High profile American Patriots who want a new and independent investigation into what happened on 9/11.
Tepco admit they cannot stop radioactive contaminated water flowing into the pacific. Surely time for the Japanese government to step in and the rest of the World as well to help them?
There’s nothing to be done. No amount of money can resolve this situation in an acceptable time frame. A hard lesson to learn about how nature and physics always trumps financials on the last roll of the dice.
Take your pick plus the good old ‘reliable source’ which could be one of the voices in his head.
Oz just had over 50 parties registered for the 7/9 poll date, twice last elections so folk are over the ‘centre’ as it’s just not working for the non 1%’ers.
Just last week Banks was declaring that we hated China
because china were amongst the world of foreign non-residents
that were going to be stopped from buying investment properties.
This week China may have real concern that we might actually
hate them, sending them allegedly tainted baby formula, pretty
stiff. Banks using the race card.
The bitter fruits of inequality are being sampled by that home of the 1% the neoliberal paradise of the U$. Our own Yankey wants to continue down the same road destroying the commongood which glue keeps societies together. 🙁
“11 Examples Of The Escalating Crime And Violence That Are Plaguing Communities Across America”
“Even though communities all over America now feel under siege by the growing wave of crime and violence that we have been witnessing, the truth is that this is only just the beginning. When the next major economic downturn strikes things are going to get much worse.
The seeds that we have been planting for decades are now springing to life, and America is about to reap a very bitter harvest.”
I figure that if we hadn’t sold Telecom the Commerce Commission’s suggested wholesale price that Chorus gets to charge ISPs is what we’d actually be paying for a private phone line. The only thing removed is the middleman’s (the ISPs) ability to make a profit for providing nothing.
From today’s Herald-online, rents in some areas of Auckland have spiked over winter by as much as $60 a week,
Most of that spike admittedly is in the higher end of the market, 5-$600 a week rentals, but while the spike has yet to translate into the lower end of the rental market 3-$400 a week rentals you can bet that this is only a matter of time,
How the hell do the low waged working families survive paying such rents, i suppose that if mum and dad are working then 2 wages will keep them out of the food bank, just,
According to the Herald there is a growing trend of families doubling up in rental properties so as to afford the rent, this they are apparently doing on ‘the sly’ to avoid the attention of Landlords who object to 2 families paying the one rent,
Hello Labour Party, the flagship housing policy is looking more and more like a sinking ship, what is needed in Auckland and Christchurch is 10,000 new State houses in each city directly targeted at low waged working families,
At the point of writing this there might be support up into the 70%s for barring non-residents from speculating in the New Zealand housing market and there might be some smudge of support for Labour’s grand plan of shoe-horning the children of the middle class into home ownership,
But none of it, such support if it exists has so far turned up in the political polls for Labour, and i doubt whether it will,
Meanwhile, back in the jungle while Labour fiddle the low waged working families, the traditional base of previous Labour Governments are left with nothing, tortured on the device of the free market rack-rented by the Landlords while Labour Housing spokespeople have only ”we will have to look at the numbers” and ”we will release our state House policy close to the election” as cold comfort in an ever uglier rental market…
From RadioNZ National a piece of news better labelled new-speak, how to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat when announcing employment figures,
The claim is that there are now an extra 46,000 people in the workforce than six months ago, led of course by more workers required in the Christchurch rebuild,
Unemployment tho has risen in the past 3 months from 6.2% to 6.4% and there are now 153,000 registered unemployed,
i personally fail to see how this is good news for anyone let alone the Government as described on RadioNZ National such figures simply show that this Government’s only good news is that it has profited politically form the disaster of the Christchurch earthquakes and despite it’s attacks on beneficiaries nothing has been gained…
For???, i am citing RadioNZ and the info comes from their website, of course if we use the figures of those told to look for work by WINZ, Bennett and this ugly little Government adding another 100,000 to the figure just about gets you there…
This could be something to do with the fact that i am a computer illiterate and unless there’s a obvious www link i wouldn’t have a clue about how it’s all done,
Then again it might be because i am a lazy little sod,or a combination of both…
I saw this on 3 news on monday and could not believe my eyes, at the end of this video – what’s the dog doing at the plant running around machines? So much for safe food practices.
I feel concern about the effect that overload has on the public.
I believe this is one of the tactics of the ‘disaster capitalist’ approach.
If you pile a whole lot of dodgy leglislation/problems at the public all at once; people get overloaded and a lot of dodgy laws and approaches will get passed due to this overwhelm.
The concept is the same as the game ‘bullrush’. A large amount of people running toward a line; one person trying to catch them. Some will always get through
I would like to see the many problemS New Zealand has faced since this government has been in power to be explained to the NZ public in a simple and clear way; the reason mostly all of the problems are occurring is aligned with concerns expressed very early on after Mr Key took the reins (if you can call it that) regarding the lacksidaisical and hands off style of ‘managing’ that Mr Key and his lapdogs are pursuing.
This would be more digestible, accurate and provide a practical positive way forward for people rather than this barrage of disasters we are being fed nearly every week for years now that simply leads to overwhelm.
It is not all gloom. Some good indicators in the consumer trends survey. Nearly half of the population planning an overseas holiday this year. That suggests that there is a lot of spare money about for many people – not just the top 1%.
Rationing only occurs amongst those in unfortunate positions in NZ and the Western world. Rationing for those in comfort is considered sacrilege. Its all about equality, you see.
And what a good example our Minister of Tourism sets. Where was his last holiday? Singapore. (Although scouting out old haunts looking to line up a directorship sinecure or two for next year as a reward from one’s capitalist masters might not count as most people’s idea of a holiday.)
To enrich the 1% the Government must have enough support from the voting public to enable it to stay in office long enough to pass the legislation and regulation which provides that 1%’s continual enrichment,
The present Slippery lead National Government has accomplished this by use of the ‘tax switch’ where the top 50% of earners in the economy gained the greatest benefit from the tax switch and the bottom 50% of earners in the economy gained the least on a sliding scale from the middle to the bottom,
So for the top 50% of earners it’s all good news and for those from the mid point of the earnings ladder it’s all bad news which gets worse the further away from that mid point in earnings any particular person finds themselves,
Unemployment in the last quarter moved up from 6.2% to 6.4%, which is simply bad news and highlights the failure of this Government to ensure a balanced economy…
“where the top 50% of earners in the economy gained the greatest benefit from the tax switch and the bottom 50% of earners in the economy gained the least on a sliding scale from the middle to the bottom”
The bottom 50% of houselholds don’t pay any net tax.
You are missing the important point that the tax system is highly progressive, especialy after taking account of transfers. But it is even highly progressive before transfers.
BEFORE TRANSFERS
In 2013 taxpayers earning less than $30,000 paid 12 % of all tax
Taxpayers earning > $30,000 pay 88% of all tax
The top 2% pay 21% of all tax, up from 19% the previous year.
If you look at households and the effect of net transfers the picture is very stark.
The lowest-income 43 percent of households currently receive more in income support than they pay in income tax.
The 1.3 million households with incomes under $110,000 a year collectively pay no net tax—that is, their total income support payments match their combined income tax.
The top 10 percent of households contribute over 70 percent of income tax, net of transfers.
David FarrarThe National Ltd™ PR department has compiled this table that show the interaction betwen transfers and the tax system by household income
Better than spending their time deleting John Key’s emails concering his misuse of the powers of office for personal reasons by instigating a grievous breach of privacy to help soothe the severe butthurt he experienced after having a cuppa with noted criminal John Banks.
Arguing about percentage tax paid by a strata of earners is a deeply dishonest way of presenting a case as you are using two different denominators.
For “percentage tax paid” you are talking about a percentage of an amount of money (tax). For “top x% of taxpayers” you are talking about a percentage of people. One cannot fairly compare the two percentages as they are based on different things (an amount of money vs a number people).
The fair way of doing this comparison is of course to look at the “percentage tax paid” versus “percentage income earned”. If one does this comparison, it is immediately obvious that higher earners receive a large proportion of total income and therefore it is unsurprising that they also pay a large proportion of total tax*. Of course, the proportions are not exactly equal, because we have a progressive tax system and therefore the higher earners do pay a slightly larger proportion of tax than their proportion of income.
However, such data are not used by individuals such as yourself, because if you do it becomes immediately obvious to most people that the higher earners are getting more than their ‘fair share’ of the cake, and therefore the response of most people would probably be “tax them more!”
Even further compounding the dishonesty is that right wingers prefer to only quote income tax proportions.
Like Srylands, above.
GST and other taxes are strongly regressive as people on lower incomes tend to spend all they earn. Not to mention the more than half of New Zealand’s 300 or so wealthiest individuals who have a declared taxable income of less than 70k. (The source for that is the IRD).
The result is that wealthier people actually pay a considerably lower proportion of the total tax than their proportion of the national income. And even less, compared to their proportion of the national wealth.
Shcrilands the top income earners would not exist if not for the rest who spend all their money in their business’s !
Crosby Textered wool pulling Romney anyone!
Further, the survey you cite is a doubly self-selected survey. It only covers the 60k-odd people who decided to join “Nine Rewards” and even then only 500-odd people of this community who decided to complete the survey.
In other words, your statement that “nearly half of the population planning an overseas holiday this year” really means “nearly half of the population of people who joined Nine Rewards who could be bothered responding to the survey said that they were planning an overseas holiday”.
Hope they follow it up to see how many of those overseas holidays actually happen. I doubt half the population will have said holiday, maybe a lotto win dream influenced their answer, after all I’m planning to date a supermodel this year.
550 people in a minor rewards programme is not a sound basis for extrapolating a national economic position on anything. Srylands, do you honestly, in your heart of hearts believe that half of our country are planning an overseas trip in the next year? You probably think carnival games are legit.
🙄
Oooooh . . . Winston Peters has just said that John Key, via Wayne Eagelson, was “kept in the loop” about the police accessing Winston’s phone records as part of the investigation into Bradley Ambrose. This follows on from a question Winston put to Key asking if Key had ever used “any agency of the state” to monitor the phone records of a citizen in circumstances which did not involve national security. John Key decline the answer the question without first “taking advice”.
I wondered what Peters was getting at with his question (twice) to Key – and Key was extremely uncomfortable and playing avoidance tactics in his reponses.
Peters claim in the first speech of the General Debate left me gobsmacked – cannot believe he would make the claim without good evidence. Did you note Peters checking his watch? Was it “will this make the 3pm news?”
As Peters said, at the time of the Ambrose teaparty, Peters was a “private citizen” – not a politician.
There might be a time-limit on statements made in the General debate, Lolz did you notice the Speaker try and get Slippery off the hook, and then think better of barring Winston from asking the question the second time…
I am wondering if Winston has already done an the official information inquiry to the Police and has he got a whole pile of paper back with the Prime Ministers Chief of Staff Wayne Eaggleson’s fingerprints all over it…
Thanks for the links, V. Good to see the Press Gallery are paying attention.
And now for a quick reminder of John Key’s views on Winston and NZ First:
Banks: Do you think Winston will be back this time?
Key: [dismissive laugh] No, not at all no chance.
Banks: [mumble]
Key: [amused] Yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s , but no, no, not a show. He, look, he’s at 2.5 I think on the TV3 poll, we have him about 2.5, 3. Look, he polled 4 last time, he’ll poll 3 this time, a lot of his constituents have all died. He won’t poll, I don’t think he’ll poll much above 3 this time.
The police accessed the phone records of the leader of a political party/MP as part of an investigation into the (bullshit) teapot tapes saga? Frak me. Totally unjustifiable.
Oooops, Slippery the Prime Minister having to a certain extent slipped out of the net closing around Him over the Dunne/Vance email/phone scandal by blaming the civil servant Andrew Kibblewhite for supposedly keeping Him in the dark over such dirty dealings is hauled back into the mud by Winston Peters,
Winston, who just yesterday i said seemed to be past His best just resurrected the scandal around the ‘Chimps tea party’ the meeting in the cafe between Slippery the Prime Minister and the then ACT candidate for Epsom John Banks,
Winston in the House today got to ask Slippery the Prime Minister IF he had any knowledge of any arm of the State, excluding the SIS, GCSB, had attempted to gain access to anyone’s phone information,
The answer of course was He didn’t know, it now appears that the Police with the full knowledge of Eaggleson, the Prime Ministers Chief of Staff while investigating the taping of the ‘chimps tea party’ had tried to get Winston Peters cell phone records,
There will be more to come on this, the Prime Minister still has to give Peters the answer to the question asked today and i assume will be called upon to provide any correspondence between the Police and Slippery’s Chief of Staff Eaggleson,
Now that will make interesting reading…(shall i leave this comment here,Blip while i was typing has already noted Winston’s lifting of Slippery’s toupee)…
Don’t know if anyone else has shared this: the Guardian has created a political slogan generator especially for the Australian election. Some of them aren’t bad…
If it was another country (other than NZ) he would have reached his demise.
Come on GCSB, spy on me. But not on Tuesday. I go to knot lying classes. Never know when you need the appropriate knot.
The legislation which will ban gang patches from government buildings is being debated in the House,
My view is it has an entirely erroneous focus and a more positive piece of legislation would be the requirement that all Gang members wear suits in public, they would then be indistinguishable in word, actions and intent from the members of the present National Government…
Poor old Srylands……….too stupid to see that his ridiculous throwaway “PORIRUA 4 EVER” is the very response the author of this virtually unenforceable anti-gang legislation seeks to draw out. Work the hatred baby, work the hatred…….
Srylands being played for a dummy by his idols. Hahaha !
Come to think of it, and apropos Bad12’s mention of suits, I would have thought that the author of the bill Todd McClay might have every personal reason to include in the “danger profile” underlying the bill, those men in suits who are close to home and whom he and we all know, steal.
The Minister being able to dictate that specific colours alone can be deemed representative of gang affiliation is a little worrying when you consider the rampaging anti-democratic hubris of the current administration. The potential for abuse of this aspect of the new law should be of serious concern.
To legally restrict someone’s access to Government land for simply wearing a particular colour with no proof of gang affiliation or criminal wrongdoing sounds like a very simple way to stifle protest activities in New Zealand during an election year.
This might have been covered above – no time to check – Richard Prosser NZF of Muslims fame in the House about 5.30 today I think – mock Churchillian voice booming – detached fixed demeanour of the tinpot dictator – eyes never off his notes – a ritual of bile and hatred re gangs.
“We’ll wipe them out !”
Wouldn’t it be good if we lived in a society where we own our social questions rather than simply ranting for $145,000 a year plus allowances – and feeling very elevated and righteous for it.
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This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
April has been a quiet month at A Phuulish Fellow. I have had an exceptionally good reading month, and a decently productive writing month – for original fiction, anyway – but not much has caught my eye that suggested a blog article. It has been vaguely frustrating, to be honest. ...
A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 21, 2024 thru Sat, April 27, 2024. Story of the week Anthropogenic climate change may be the ultimate shaggy dog story— but with a twist, because here ...
Hi,I spent about a year on Webworm reporting on an abusive megachurch called Arise, and it made me want to stab my eyes out with a fork.I don’t regret that reporting in 2022 and 2023 — I am proud of it — but it made me angry.Over three main stories ...
The new Victoria University Vice-Chancellor decided to have a forum at the university about free speech and academic freedom as it is obviously a topical issue, and the Government is looking at legislating some carrots or sticks for universities to uphold their obligations under the Education and Training Act. They ...
Do you remember when Melania Trump got caught out using a speech that sounded awfully like one Michelle Obama had given? Uncannily so.Well it turns out that Abraham Lincoln is to Winston Peters as Michelle was to Melania. With the ANZAC speech Uncle Winston gave at Gallipoli having much in ...
She was born 25 years ago today in North Shore hospital. Her eyes were closed tightly shut, her mouth was silently moving. The whole theatre was all quiet intensity as they marked her a 2 on the APGAR test. A one-minute eternity later, she was an 8. The universe was ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is Antarctica gaining land ice? ...
Images of US students (and others) protesting and setting up tent cities on US university campuses have been broadcast world wide and clearly demonstrate the growing rifts in US society caused by US policy toward Israel and Israel’s prosecution of … Continue reading → ...
Barrie Saunders writes – Dear Paul As the new Minister of Media and Communications, you will be inundated with heaps of free advice and special pleading, all in the national interest of course. For what it’s worth here is my assessment: Traditional broadcasting free to air content through ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
A week that began in triumph ended in an all-too-familiar disaster for the Green Party. Duncan Greive asks if there’s something in the mission that breaks its best and brightest. A long, strange week for the Green party began with a fantastic poll result. On one level this is hardly ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Vanuatu’s former prime minister and opposition MP Ishmael Kalsakau has stepped down — just two days after he confirmed he was the rightful opposition leader. Kalsakau, MP for Port Vila, confirmed to ABC’s Pacific Beat, and the Vanuatu Daily Post on Thursday that he ...
What’s to blame for the coalition’s choppy start? Six months in, and the mojo meter is in the doldrums. A new poll would put National out of power and sees its leader, Chris Luxon, sliding in popularity. How much is it about policy, how much coalition management and a perception ...
The striking report goes far beyond the proposed repeal of the Oranga Tamariki Act’s Treaty of Waitangi provision, and its impact should be felt far beyond the unique circumstances of the claim it addresses. Earlier this week, the Waitangi Tribunal released an interim report on the government’s proposed repeal of ...
The world has been experiencing a productivity slowdown, from which New Zealand has not been exempt. COVID-19 temporarily boosted labour productivity, but more recently, productivity has retreated. The overall trend since 2007 has been one of slow productivity ...
What’s more wasteful than spending $315k on syrup and machine maintenance? Trying to drum up a controversy about it.Cast your mind back to the pre-pandemic idylls of 2019. A “rat” was a disgusting rodent and not a self-administered plague test; the sixth Labour government was in power; and the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Fitz-Gibbon, Professor of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts, Monash University, Monash University Ken stocker/Shutterstock In the wake of numerous killings of women allegedly by men’s violence in 2024, thousands of Australians have joined rallies across the country to demand action ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Henry Cutler, Professor and Director, Macquarie University Centre for the Health Economy, Macquarie University Oleg Ivanov IL/Shutterstock Waiting times for public hospital elective surgery have been in the news ahead of this year’s federal budget. That’s the type of non-emergency surgery ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Konstantine Panegyres, McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellow, Historical and Philosophical Studies, The University of Melbourne Amna Artist/Shutterstock One of the earliest descriptions of someone with cancer comes from the fourth century BC. Satyrus, tyrant of the city of Heracleia on the Black Sea, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Rose, Professor of Sustainable Future Transport, University of Sydney LanaElcova/Shutterstock Electric vehicles are often seen as the panacea to cutting emissions – and air pollution – from transport. Is this view correct? Yes – but only once uptake accelerates. Despite the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Giselle Natassia Woodley, Researcher and Phd Candidate, Edith Cowan University There is widespread agreement Australia needs to do better when it comes to gender-based violence. Anger and frustration at the numbers of women being killed saw national rallies over the weekend and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Graham, Lecturer in Economics, University of Sydney Mark and Anna Photography/Shutterstock As home ownership moves further out of reach for many Australians, “rentvesting” is being touted as a lifesaver. Rentvesting is the practice of renting one property to live ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sukhmani Khorana, Associate Professor, Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture, UNSW Sydney Netflix The new season of Heartbreak High is garnering mixed reviews. Critics are writing about the racy story lines, comparing it to other coming-of-age series about teenage relationships and ...
Bob Carr intends to launch legal action against Winston Peters and Julie Anne Genter is facing a second allegation of bullying. Both sucked the air out of an announcement on education, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in ...
In 1995, Sally Clark went out on her own in a bold and unorthodox attempt to join an illustrious group of equestrian riders conquering the world. In the days of glovebox road maps, brick cell phones, and the hit song How Bizarre, Clark refused to follow Sir Mark Todd, Blyth ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Beaglehole, Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Otago niphon/Getty Images The number of people accessing medication for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in Aotearoa New Zealand increased significantly between 2006 and 2022. But the disorder is still under-diagnosed and ...
To celebrate the start of New Zealand music month, we look back at the best local tuneage that managed to weasel its way into Hollywood productions. There’s nothing quite like the thrilling zap of recognition when New Zealand weasels its way into a glamorous Hollywood production. Crack open a Tui ...
People trust other people more than institutions. So how can the media gain that trust through journalists without losing what’s important about the institution? Anna Rawhiti-Connell reflects on two years of curating the news for The Bulletin.Amonth ago, armed cops descended on my neighbourhood as calls to “lock your ...
Opinion: PFAS – per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances – are a class of thousands of man-made chemicals used widely in everyday consumer items such as textiles, packaging, and cookware, popular for their water, grease and stain-repellent properties. However, the very properties that make PFAS so attractive to manufacturers are also what ...
NONFICTION 1 The Last Secret Agent by Pippa Latour & Jude Dobson (Allen & Unwin, $37.99)’ This is the hottest book in New Zealand, number one with a bullet in its first week, selling more than any overseas title, and demand is so huge that it’s already been reprinted. A ...
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A warning – suicide is discussed in this podcast New Zealand’s own long-running soap Shortland Street doesn’t hesitate to kill off its much-loved characters. But would TVNZ dare to kill off our favourite soap? That’s the fear as times get tough in television – even though it’s been pointed out ...
Essay: If the Crown harms children, how do you hold it accountable? Analysis by Aaron Smale in light of the Waitangi Tribunal court decision. The post The Crown versus Māori Children appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Asia Pacific Report A West Papuan resistance leader has condemned the United Nations role in allowing Indonesia to “integrate” the Melanesian Pacific region in what is claimed to be an “egregious act of inhumanity” on 1 May 1963. In an open letter to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, Organisasi Papua Merdeka-OPM ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra A key part of the Albanese government’s political strategy is to fill the news cycle with its presence and messaging. Ministers are deployed to the maximum, even when they’ve little to say. This week ...
Recent extreme weather events showed the importance of a well-functioning insurance system, says Commerce and Consumer Affairs minister Andrew Bayly. ...
By Jo Moir, RNZ News political editor, and Craig McCulloch, deputy political editor New Zealand’s Labour Party is demanding Winston Peters be stood down as Foreign Minister for opening up the government to legal action over his “totally unacceptable” attack on a prominent AUKUS critic. In an interview on RNZ’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christian Brakenridge, Postdoctoral research fellow at Swinburne University, Centre for Urban Transitions, Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute The Conversation, Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock People have a pretty intuitive sense of what is healthy – standing is better than sitting, exercise is great for overall ...
The Wellington-based Reserve Force soldier is now almost three years into his New Zealand Army career with 5th/7th Battalion, Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment. ...
"The Government needs to release the review immediately as this reckless approach to change risks disjointed decision making and creates more distress and uncertainty for staff," Fitzsimons said. ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor Jeremiah Manele has been elected Prime Minister of Solomon Islands, polling 31 votes to 18 over rival candidate and former opposition leader Mathew Wale with one abstention. The final result of the election by secret ballot was announced by the Governor-General, Sir David Vunagi, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Priestley Habru, PhD candidate, public diplomacy, University of Adelaide Former foreign minister Jeremiah Manele has been elected the next prime minister of Solomon Islands, defeating the opposition leader, Matthew Wale, in a vote in parliament. The result is a mixed bag for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shaun Eaves, Senior Lecturer in Physical Geography, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington Jamey Stutz, CC BY-SA How often do mountains collapse, volcanoes erupt or ice sheets melt? For Earth scientists, these are important questions as we try ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Flood, Professor of Sociology, Queensland University of Technology Shutterstock Most young adult men in Australia reject traditional ideas of masculinity that endorse aggression, stoicism and homophobia. Nonetheless, the ongoing influence of those ideas continues to harm men and the people ...
The NZQA proposal released to staff today would involve a net loss of 35 roles. There are 66 roles being disestablished with 13 of those currently vacant, and 31 new roles proposed, said Fleur Fitzsimons Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga ...
Alex Casey talks to Loren Taylor, the writer, director and star of new film The Moon is Upside Down, about assembling her dream ensemble cast, toilet paper pads and turning literal dreams into reality. There’s a moment in The Moon is Upside Down where frazzled anaesthetist Briar (Loren Taylor) gets ...
Renters and realtors are upset with a government decision to scrap a bill meant to regulate property managers over concerns about unethical and unlawful behaviours. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cassy Dittman, Senior Lecturer/Head of Course (Undergraduate Psychology), Research Fellow, Manna Institute, CQUniversity Australia With winter sports swinging into action, adults around the country have volunteered or been volunteered by others (humorously known as being “volun-told”) to coach junior sports teams. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Karleen Gribble, Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Western Sydney University richardernestyap/Shutterstock Parents are often advised to burp their babies after feeding them. Some people think burping after feeding is important to reduce or prevent discomfort crying, or to ...
Workers at a major ASB contact centre in Auckland have voted to take strike action and withdraw their labour following disappointing pay negotiations with the employer and an "offer" to workers that would leave them worse off than the previous year. ...
As the government tries to get the country back on track with a school phone ban, Tara Ward has an idea for where they should turn their attention to next.New Zealand students returned to school on Monday morning, but their cellphones did not. The government’s new phone ban began ...
The Labour Party is demanding Peters be stood down, saying "he's embarrassed the country" with a "totally unacceptable" attack on a prominent AUKUS critic. ...
The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance, whose members were victims of a China-backed cyber attack, is discussing forming a standing committee to deal with foreign influence. ...
The PSA is concerned that the voluntary redundancies being offered to staff by Stats NZ will impact on the agency’s ability to deliver on its core functions. ...
Results ranged from surprisingly yum to soul-destroying. I love cooking. The kitchen is a hearth of culinary creation, of sensory delights, of gastronomic poetry. I also can’t afford anything nice. Why does a pack of instant noodles and some milk cost ten bucks? I love you, Aotearoa, but I miss ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor Police in Solomon Islands are on high alert ahead of the election of the prime minister today. The two candidates for the top job are former foreign affairs minister Jeremiah Manele at the head of the Coalition for National Unity and Transformation, which is ...
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/9009941/Dunne-lashes-back-at-noisy-protesters
Methinks it ain’t the protesters who are the irresponsible scum here, Dunny. Or is it Dunce?
“They are the lowest form of life imaginable.” – Peter Dunne re protesters.
Huh ! Projection projection projection !
Who does not reflexively distrust and mock that man ?
lol – shows that dunne has no imagination
GCSB the only government department that really listens to people.
Dunne would win re-election if he could bounce Key out of office with “I’m not with stupid anymore”.
“They are the lowest form of life imaginable.”
I thought he was talking about Nat politicians.
Smug and deluded man, that Dunne: not worthy to hold office in a democracy.
Not willing to listen to the voice of the people.
How to Lose an Election, Part 94: Let your larger donors buy their kid’s selection as a candidate:
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2013/abbott-could-yet-rue-not-finding-a-greenway-solution-20130806-2rdhy.html
Yup the pre selections have been nasty affairs in a few seats yielding candidates like muppet boy Diaz.
Could you see our MSM doing such a number on Jamie lee Ross or banksy as an example.
do jamie lee ross…!..please..!..please..!..please..!
phillip ure..
The Queensland State government is full of idiots who make Diaz look presidential. The talent pool in both ALP and Liberal is very shallow.
Heard Collins called Canadians feral inbreds. For shame.
Blame Canada!
Let’s see how many trading partners we can alienate in a week.
when & where? thats absolutley disgusting! i presume its regarding that judge?
If anyone ran into the database outage earlier this morning ~0600-0630, that was me.
Was using the illuminated keyboard in the dark upgrading the database to a later version and changing some parameters on it.It MAY get rid of the double posts on the comments.
Poverty
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10909153
and wealth
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10909180
how about the news today that kelloggs’ frosties are 41.3% sugar..?
..whoar..!
phillip ure..
you’re surprised?
i am surprised at that level..i knew a lot of them are around 30% sugar..
..people fret about the obesity-epidemic..?..and wonder why..?..really..?
..maybe the people at kellogs are working towards a ‘healthy’ breakfast cereal..that will be 100% sugar..?
..a big sugar crystal..?..coated in caramel..?..just for that extra sugar-kick..?
..phillip ure..
do you understand that Ribena is more than 80% sugar ? and it’s fed to babies in their bottles as a healthy drink …
On pages 428-429 of Jared Diamond’s book ‘The World Until Yesterday‘ he notes the following:
“Around the year 1700 sugar intake was only about 4 pounds per year per person in England and the U.S. (then still a colony), but it is over 150 pounds per year per person today. One-quarter of the modern U.S. population eats over 200 pounds of sugar per year. A study of U.S. eighth-graders showed that 40% of their diet consisted of sugar and sugar-yielding carbohydrates.”
Also, in relation to your 100% sugar breakfast cereal comment he describes the temptations for his children in a trip to his supermarket:
“Among breakfast foods, my kids were tempted by the choice between Apple Cinnamon Cheerios and Fruit Loops, respectively 85% and 89% carbohydrate according to their manufacturers, with about half of that carbohydrate in the form of sugar. … Snack choices included Fruit Bears (92% carbohydrate, no protein) …“
Picking up from a comment by Travellerev a couple of days ago, le’s take another look at how the BS flows, blatantly as news!
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/08/05/world/yemen-us-drone-strike
Hold on a minute… – This link has many links to re-used so called AQ leaders
http://www.legitgov.org/CLG-Al-Zawahri-back-dead-issuing-new-al-Qaeda-terror-threats
It strikes (no pun intended!) me as curious that, faced with international condemnation, the American NSA spooks conveniently raise a “major” scare about Al Queda. Embassies are closed, a worldwide warning goes out.
Meanwhile, in NZ our PM raises the issue of home grown malcontents being trained by Al Queda just at the time that his GCSB legislation comes under increasing criticism.
Coincidence anyone? Or an I irredeemably cynical?
Here is what is odd.
After making massive complaints that Snowden had given “the terrorists” important clues about the capabilities and activities of the spy listening agencies, the US has just spent the last 3 days trumpeting as loudly as possible through the media that they’ve overheard something, that chatter is up, that al-zawahiri has been heard giving orders for attacks etc.
Yeah right, American intelligence ”we can even pick up on what the dead are talking about”…
“American intelligence” is an oxymoron……
Random thought for the morning … maybe NSA et al have something on Key causing him to bluster with all the urgency and bullying and complete disregard for our rights ? Is it really just for his ego and his next job ?
In a total surveillance state you can never have actual democracy, only the appearance of it.
Frank Zappa ….
“”The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it’s profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way, and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theatre.”
I reckon this building is gonna come down into its own footprint in freefall speed soon!
But then again that only happened three times in the entire history of highrise buildings. All on one day, in the same city, in the same neighborhood. Funny that!
And no mainstream questioning of this, even by independent journalists.
And to a different type of high-rise building which used different construction techniques.
How tall is that building? A dozen floors?
Love it when nutbars pretend to be structural engineers.
About a thousand of them (engineers and architects, not nutbars) are members of Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth.
Out of how many architects and engineers in the US?
Edit: 105,000 architects in the US. The nuttiest <1% agree with you.
1800+ all vetted and registered Architects and Engineers. Also 17,535 citizen signers. Here is another site compiling High profile American Patriots who want a new and independent investigation into what happened on 9/11.
What are your credentials?
Unlike us, McFlock is a Not-Nut-Bar.
🙂
I understand what the words “free-fall speed” actually mean.
You’re overqualified in that case.
Red Flag _ Say no more.
Fukushima crisis continues
Tepco admit they cannot stop radioactive contaminated water flowing into the pacific. Surely time for the Japanese government to step in and the rest of the World as well to help them?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-23584008
http://www.activistpost.com/2013/08/radioactive-water-from-fukushima-is.html
There’s nothing to be done. No amount of money can resolve this situation in an acceptable time frame. A hard lesson to learn about how nature and physics always trumps financials on the last roll of the dice.
Who the heck keeps leaking to Whaleoil? Is it Labour MPs or their staff?
Take your pick plus the good old ‘reliable source’ which could be one of the voices in his head.
Oz just had over 50 parties registered for the 7/9 poll date, twice last elections so folk are over the ‘centre’ as it’s just not working for the non 1%’ers.
To save us a dive into the sewer, can you link us what he’s saying.
Just last week Banks was declaring that we hated China
because china were amongst the world of foreign non-residents
that were going to be stopped from buying investment properties.
This week China may have real concern that we might actually
hate them, sending them allegedly tainted baby formula, pretty
stiff. Banks using the race card.
The bitter fruits of inequality are being sampled by that home of the 1% the neoliberal paradise of the U$. Our own Yankey wants to continue down the same road destroying the commongood which glue keeps societies together. 🙁
“11 Examples Of The Escalating Crime And Violence That Are Plaguing Communities Across America”
“Even though communities all over America now feel under siege by the growing wave of crime and violence that we have been witnessing, the truth is that this is only just the beginning. When the next major economic downturn strikes things are going to get much worse.
The seeds that we have been planting for decades are now springing to life, and America is about to reap a very bitter harvest.”
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/11-examples-of-the-escalating-crime-and-violence-that-are-plaguing-communities-across-america
So..
Government control of the wholesale price of power (for the benefit of consumers) = bad, communist, bad, end of the world, bad etc
Government control of the wholesale price of broadband over copper lines (for the benefit of Chorus shareholders) = good?
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1308/S00095/governments-telco-intervention-unprecedented-says-tuanz.htm
Huh?
Yeah, that’d be right.
I figure that if we hadn’t sold Telecom the Commerce Commission’s suggested wholesale price that Chorus gets to charge ISPs is what we’d actually be paying for a private phone line. The only thing removed is the middleman’s (the ISPs) ability to make a profit for providing nothing.
From today’s Herald-online, rents in some areas of Auckland have spiked over winter by as much as $60 a week,
Most of that spike admittedly is in the higher end of the market, 5-$600 a week rentals, but while the spike has yet to translate into the lower end of the rental market 3-$400 a week rentals you can bet that this is only a matter of time,
How the hell do the low waged working families survive paying such rents, i suppose that if mum and dad are working then 2 wages will keep them out of the food bank, just,
According to the Herald there is a growing trend of families doubling up in rental properties so as to afford the rent, this they are apparently doing on ‘the sly’ to avoid the attention of Landlords who object to 2 families paying the one rent,
Hello Labour Party, the flagship housing policy is looking more and more like a sinking ship, what is needed in Auckland and Christchurch is 10,000 new State houses in each city directly targeted at low waged working families,
At the point of writing this there might be support up into the 70%s for barring non-residents from speculating in the New Zealand housing market and there might be some smudge of support for Labour’s grand plan of shoe-horning the children of the middle class into home ownership,
But none of it, such support if it exists has so far turned up in the political polls for Labour, and i doubt whether it will,
Meanwhile, back in the jungle while Labour fiddle the low waged working families, the traditional base of previous Labour Governments are left with nothing, tortured on the device of the free market rack-rented by the Landlords while Labour Housing spokespeople have only ”we will have to look at the numbers” and ”we will release our state House policy close to the election” as cold comfort in an ever uglier rental market…
I suspect a 70%+ support for banning foreign ownership outright.
From RadioNZ National a piece of news better labelled new-speak, how to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat when announcing employment figures,
The claim is that there are now an extra 46,000 people in the workforce than six months ago, led of course by more workers required in the Christchurch rebuild,
Unemployment tho has risen in the past 3 months from 6.2% to 6.4% and there are now 153,000 registered unemployed,
i personally fail to see how this is good news for anyone let alone the Government as described on RadioNZ National such figures simply show that this Government’s only good news is that it has profited politically form the disaster of the Christchurch earthquakes and despite it’s attacks on beneficiaries nothing has been gained…
[citation needed]
For???, i am citing RadioNZ and the info comes from their website, of course if we use the figures of those told to look for work by WINZ, Bennett and this ugly little Government adding another 100,000 to the figure just about gets you there…
So, why didn’t you link to their website?
This could be something to do with the fact that i am a computer illiterate and unless there’s a obvious www link i wouldn’t have a clue about how it’s all done,
Then again it might be because i am a lazy little sod,or a combination of both…
Found it
I saw this on 3 news on monday and could not believe my eyes, at the end of this video – what’s the dog doing at the plant running around machines? So much for safe food practices.
http://www.3news.co.nz/What-is-Botulism/tabid/1160/articleID/307650/Default.aspx
The dog is in a cow shed not the factory..tricky juxtaposition…TV3 are tricky mongrols.
Mongrels or Mongols 😈
I feel concern about the effect that overload has on the public.
I believe this is one of the tactics of the ‘disaster capitalist’ approach.
If you pile a whole lot of dodgy leglislation/problems at the public all at once; people get overloaded and a lot of dodgy laws and approaches will get passed due to this overwhelm.
The concept is the same as the game ‘bullrush’. A large amount of people running toward a line; one person trying to catch them. Some will always get through
I would like to see the many problemS New Zealand has faced since this government has been in power to be explained to the NZ public in a simple and clear way; the reason mostly all of the problems are occurring is aligned with concerns expressed very early on after Mr Key took the reins (if you can call it that) regarding the lacksidaisical and hands off style of ‘managing’ that Mr Key and his lapdogs are pursuing.
This would be more digestible, accurate and provide a practical positive way forward for people rather than this barrage of disasters we are being fed nearly every week for years now that simply leads to overwhelm.
It is not all gloom. Some good indicators in the consumer trends survey. Nearly half of the population planning an overseas holiday this year. That suggests that there is a lot of spare money about for many people – not just the top 1%.
http://tonyalexander.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/BNZ-Nine-Rewards-August-2013.pdf
@ Srylands,
Excellent.
All that money earned in NZ will be going out of the country to be spent elsewhere.
Brilliant news, thanks
Yeah well we can hardly ration overseas holidays.
Correct.
Rationing only occurs amongst those in unfortunate positions in NZ and the Western world. Rationing for those in comfort is considered sacrilege. Its all about equality, you see.
‘
And what a good example our Minister of Tourism sets. Where was his last holiday? Singapore. (Although scouting out old haunts looking to line up a directorship sinecure or two for next year as a reward from one’s capitalist masters might not count as most people’s idea of a holiday.)
Easily done, if required.
Our Dear Leader – Minister of Tourism – spends all has overseas.
So do you retract your statements from a few days ago about unemployment being down?
that was yesterday’s spin, and judging it against reality is unfair.
Now half of us are going on holiday (and 9% are thinking about emigrating, apparently)
I see you’re busy again today …..trolling on this site.
To enrich the 1% the Government must have enough support from the voting public to enable it to stay in office long enough to pass the legislation and regulation which provides that 1%’s continual enrichment,
The present Slippery lead National Government has accomplished this by use of the ‘tax switch’ where the top 50% of earners in the economy gained the greatest benefit from the tax switch and the bottom 50% of earners in the economy gained the least on a sliding scale from the middle to the bottom,
So for the top 50% of earners it’s all good news and for those from the mid point of the earnings ladder it’s all bad news which gets worse the further away from that mid point in earnings any particular person finds themselves,
Unemployment in the last quarter moved up from 6.2% to 6.4%, which is simply bad news and highlights the failure of this Government to ensure a balanced economy…
“where the top 50% of earners in the economy gained the greatest benefit from the tax switch and the bottom 50% of earners in the economy gained the least on a sliding scale from the middle to the bottom”
The bottom 50% of houselholds don’t pay any net tax.
You are missing the important point that the tax system is highly progressive, especialy after taking account of transfers. But it is even highly progressive before transfers.
BEFORE TRANSFERS
In 2013 taxpayers earning less than $30,000 paid 12 % of all tax
Taxpayers earning > $30,000 pay 88% of all tax
The top 2% pay 21% of all tax, up from 19% the previous year.
http://www.treasury.govt.nz/budget/2013/taxpayers/02.htm
http://www.treasury.govt.nz/budget/2012/taxpayers/02.htm
AFTER TRANSFERS
If you look at households and the effect of net transfers the picture is very stark.
The lowest-income 43 percent of households currently receive more in income support than they pay in income tax.
The 1.3 million households with incomes under $110,000 a year collectively pay no net tax—that is, their total income support payments match their combined income tax.
The top 10 percent of households contribute over 70 percent of income tax, net of transfers.
http://www.parliament.nz/en-nz/pb/business/qoa/49HansQ_20110713_00000002/2-tax-system%e2%80%94fairness
David Farrar has compiled this table that show the interaction betwen transfers and the tax system by household income
http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/nettaxpaid.png
Better than spending their time deleting John Key’s emails concering his misuse of the powers of office for personal reasons by instigating a grievous breach of privacy to help soothe the severe butthurt he experienced after having a cuppa with noted criminal John Banks.
David Farrar is not a reliable or impartial source.
Arguing about percentage tax paid by a strata of earners is a deeply dishonest way of presenting a case as you are using two different denominators.
For “percentage tax paid” you are talking about a percentage of an amount of money (tax). For “top x% of taxpayers” you are talking about a percentage of people. One cannot fairly compare the two percentages as they are based on different things (an amount of money vs a number people).
The fair way of doing this comparison is of course to look at the “percentage tax paid” versus “percentage income earned”. If one does this comparison, it is immediately obvious that higher earners receive a large proportion of total income and therefore it is unsurprising that they also pay a large proportion of total tax*. Of course, the proportions are not exactly equal, because we have a progressive tax system and therefore the higher earners do pay a slightly larger proportion of tax than their proportion of income.
However, such data are not used by individuals such as yourself, because if you do it becomes immediately obvious to most people that the higher earners are getting more than their ‘fair share’ of the cake, and therefore the response of most people would probably be “tax them more!”
* an example of this is that done by Keith Ng a few years ago: http://publicaddress.net/onpoint/table-62-rich-pricks-others/
edit: Also, as it seems you are still visiting this thread, please respond to my comment at 19.2.
Even further compounding the dishonesty is that right wingers prefer to only quote income tax proportions.
Like Srylands, above.
GST and other taxes are strongly regressive as people on lower incomes tend to spend all they earn. Not to mention the more than half of New Zealand’s 300 or so wealthiest individuals who have a declared taxable income of less than 70k. (The source for that is the IRD).
The result is that wealthier people actually pay a considerably lower proportion of the total tax than their proportion of the national income. And even less, compared to their proportion of the national wealth.
Shcrilands the top income earners would not exist if not for the rest who spend all their money in their business’s !
Crosby Textered wool pulling Romney anyone!
Further, the survey you cite is a doubly self-selected survey. It only covers the 60k-odd people who decided to join “Nine Rewards” and even then only 500-odd people of this community who decided to complete the survey.
In other words, your statement that “nearly half of the population planning an overseas holiday this year” really means “nearly half of the population of people who joined Nine Rewards who could be bothered responding to the survey said that they were planning an overseas holiday”.
@wtl
Thanks for correcting Srylands inaccuracies.
The thing that really ‘gets’ me about the ideology that Srylands promotes is that it is a good reflection of the b/s that people actually vote for.
I note how Srylands never responds to any comment that requires more than a neo-liberal slogan.
This shows the level of reasoning available to neo-liberal ideology – there is none.
Sryland only has slogans because there is no rational argument for someone not in the elite to support neoliberal policies.
@ Paul
Agree, however I will add:
There are no rational arguments for neo-liberal policies full stop.
There is also plenty of evidence to support the view that such policies are destructive to society.
Agreed.
Hope they follow it up to see how many of those overseas holidays actually happen. I doubt half the population will have said holiday, maybe a lotto win dream influenced their answer, after all I’m planning to date a supermodel this year.
FTFY
And more than half looking at lowering debt which means lowering the amount of money in circulation and thus heading us towards recession.
It’s a problem with the debt based monetary system that we have.
550 people in a minor rewards programme is not a sound basis for extrapolating a national economic position on anything. Srylands, do you honestly, in your heart of hearts believe that half of our country are planning an overseas trip in the next year? You probably think carnival games are legit.
🙄
‘
Oooooh . . . Winston Peters has just said that John Key, via Wayne Eagelson, was “kept in the loop” about the police accessing Winston’s phone records as part of the investigation into Bradley Ambrose. This follows on from a question Winston put to Key asking if Key had ever used “any agency of the state” to monitor the phone records of a citizen in circumstances which did not involve national security. John Key decline the answer the question without first “taking advice”.
. . . and the beat goes on.
I wondered what Peters was getting at with his question (twice) to Key – and Key was extremely uncomfortable and playing avoidance tactics in his reponses.
Peters claim in the first speech of the General Debate left me gobsmacked – cannot believe he would make the claim without good evidence. Did you note Peters checking his watch? Was it “will this make the 3pm news?”
As Peters said, at the time of the Ambrose teaparty, Peters was a “private citizen” – not a politician.
There might be a time-limit on statements made in the General debate, Lolz did you notice the Speaker try and get Slippery off the hook, and then think better of barring Winston from asking the question the second time…
Carter was being very careful today – with the Speaker of the UK House of Commons sitting in the House!
Re the General Debate, this is limited to 12 five minute speeches.
Here is the Herald’s article on Peters’ claim, by Audrey Young.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10909502
And here is the Stuff one – http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/9013698/Peters-claims-link-to-tea-tapes-probe
RNZ National 4pm news also covered it, but nothing up yet on their website. But the 4pm news bulletin in now up.
://www.radionz.co.nz/radionz/programmes/news-bulletin/audio/2564823/radio-new-zealand-news
I expect it will be covered in Checkpoint and the 6pm TV news, as Peters has obviously given press interviews after leaving the House.
Thx for links … this is veteran Peters and he has some ammunition it seems. He does do revenge so sweetly, have to admire his courage.
This is so exactly like Nixon and Watergate .. drip, drip, drip, splosh, splosh, splosh — then belly dive !!!
But still desperately seeking our own Martha Mitchell to spill the beans …
More links in my comment here http://thestandard.org.nz/hypocrisy-in-the-house-gcsb-bill/#comment-676275
These are Peters’ speech in the General Debate, and his earlier questions in Question Time trying to pin Key down without giving away the reason.
I am wondering if Winston has already done an the official information inquiry to the Police and has he got a whole pile of paper back with the Prime Ministers Chief of Staff Wayne Eaggleson’s fingerprints all over it…
‘
Thanks for the links, V. Good to see the Press Gallery are paying attention.
And now for a quick reminder of John Key’s views on Winston and NZ First:
The police accessed the phone records of the leader of a political party/MP as part of an investigation into the (bullshit) teapot tapes saga? Frak me. Totally unjustifiable.
Oooops, Slippery the Prime Minister having to a certain extent slipped out of the net closing around Him over the Dunne/Vance email/phone scandal by blaming the civil servant Andrew Kibblewhite for supposedly keeping Him in the dark over such dirty dealings is hauled back into the mud by Winston Peters,
Winston, who just yesterday i said seemed to be past His best just resurrected the scandal around the ‘Chimps tea party’ the meeting in the cafe between Slippery the Prime Minister and the then ACT candidate for Epsom John Banks,
Winston in the House today got to ask Slippery the Prime Minister IF he had any knowledge of any arm of the State, excluding the SIS, GCSB, had attempted to gain access to anyone’s phone information,
The answer of course was He didn’t know, it now appears that the Police with the full knowledge of Eaggleson, the Prime Ministers Chief of Staff while investigating the taping of the ‘chimps tea party’ had tried to get Winston Peters cell phone records,
There will be more to come on this, the Prime Minister still has to give Peters the answer to the question asked today and i assume will be called upon to provide any correspondence between the Police and Slippery’s Chief of Staff Eaggleson,
Now that will make interesting reading…(shall i leave this comment here,Blip while i was typing has already noted Winston’s lifting of Slippery’s toupee)…
Don’t know if anyone else has shared this: the Guardian has created a political slogan generator especially for the Australian election. Some of them aren’t bad…
Time’s up, John!
Spy, lie, Bye!
+ 1 Tautoko Viper
Excellent!
If it was another country (other than NZ) he would have reached his demise.
Come on GCSB, spy on me. But not on Tuesday. I go to knot lying classes. Never know when you need the appropriate knot.
The legislation which will ban gang patches from government buildings is being debated in the House,
My view is it has an entirely erroneous focus and a more positive piece of legislation would be the requirement that all Gang members wear suits in public, they would then be indistinguishable in word, actions and intent from the members of the present National Government…
Wish I could have thought up that little picture before I penned the comment below !
I think the “PORIRUA 4 EVER” tats would be a give away.
i grew up in Porirua and never once saw a Tatt with the words ‘Porirua 4 ever’,
You appear a little retarded today, lift your game…
Poor old Srylands……….too stupid to see that his ridiculous throwaway “PORIRUA 4 EVER” is the very response the author of this virtually unenforceable anti-gang legislation seeks to draw out. Work the hatred baby, work the hatred…….
Srylands being played for a dummy by his idols. Hahaha !
Come to think of it, and apropos Bad12’s mention of suits, I would have thought that the author of the bill Todd McClay might have every personal reason to include in the “danger profile” underlying the bill, those men in suits who are close to home and whom he and we all know, steal.
More like “I LUVS RED SQUAD” or “BASH MINTO TODAY”. Those ones show who are members of dangerous organisations devoted to violence.
The Minister being able to dictate that specific colours alone can be deemed representative of gang affiliation is a little worrying when you consider the rampaging anti-democratic hubris of the current administration. The potential for abuse of this aspect of the new law should be of serious concern.
To legally restrict someone’s access to Government land for simply wearing a particular colour with no proof of gang affiliation or criminal wrongdoing sounds like a very simple way to stifle protest activities in New Zealand during an election year.
This might have been covered above – no time to check – Richard Prosser NZF of Muslims fame in the House about 5.30 today I think – mock Churchillian voice booming – detached fixed demeanour of the tinpot dictator – eyes never off his notes – a ritual of bile and hatred re gangs.
“We’ll wipe them out !”
Wouldn’t it be good if we lived in a society where we own our social questions rather than simply ranting for $145,000 a year plus allowances – and feeling very elevated and righteous for it.
Sack this bludging prick who only talks shit !
You are so right North. That Prosser is evil!!!