Could this comment be equally descriptive of NZ Labour?… “….they became trapped in a technocratic, desiccated, uninspirational account of social democracy that is hopeless at making emotional connections with people.”
“Key’s close personal friend McCaw has recently committed a foul by entering into the flag debate, speaking of his preference for a flag that bore the silver fern as worn on rugby jumpers, the sacred frond also the personal favourite of the Prime Minister.
The tweets by certain All Blacks during the last election day suggested that the players had voted National.
And Key reading out McCaw’s ‘Yes we can’ tweet to him during the campaign were totally off-side – but the ‘Key’ players involved weren’t properly carded or even relegated to the bench.
What I want to know is where is the rugby union and the All Black coach in all of this? It goes against the grain – and the discipline – of the sport for individual players and a team to effectively be hijacked and used as the personal super hero army of a prime minister.
To look back into the annals of National Party history, it also flies in the face of the late Sir Robert Muldoon, that sporting-mad prime minister who so bitterly divided the country by allowing the 1981 Springbok tour to proceed on the notion that politics should never enter sport.
Now politics is so far up the backside of sport and our national game you can see the flag bearing the wretched silver fern waving from the back of the tonsil tunnel.
Giving us only four flags to peruse – and three of those bearing the silver fern – is not a real choice.
Sometimes you can lead the horse to water but it won’t take the pre-ordered drink. Even though I don’t like the old flag, I too like many others will vote to keep it, purely out of protest.”
“Now politics is so far up the backside of sport and our national game ”
Must be getting a bit crowded at the right wing National Party parties ….. what with McCaw having Key’s nose up his arsehole, and with Hosking jowls well entrenched up the cheeks of Key …. it is becoming something of a conga-line
“The poll, taken before the final four potential flag designs were announced, shows 66 per cent want to keep the current flag, up 2 per cent from 18 months ago….
( a waste of the $26 million …jonkey’s vanity project…could have gone to helping refugees from the MIddle East)
Personally I think we could have helped thousands more people by helping build and resource refugee camps in Europe as opposed to bringing in a couple of hundred people into NZ
Also the UN should be applying pressure to Saudi Arabia and the UAE to be taking in more of these people as they certainly have enough money to be doing More
Funding more refugee camps is a stupid idea. Refugees need somewhere that that can create a new life, where they can work and where their children can get an education. Refugee camps are just holding pens.
I just think that for the amount of money it will cost to bring over a couple of hundred refugees we could help thousands more even if it meant sending the money directly to the european countries itself
Although it really should be the oil-rich middle eastern islamic countries picking up the slack on this
I guess the issue i have is that we have a housing shortage, unemployment is rising, i’m note sure how many translators we have but im guessing that again its not many so I don’t know that we have the infrastructure to deal with hundreds (possibly thousands) more
I’m sorry but the article almost sounds like a cop-out for the middle eastern states that don’t do anything yet could easily afford to pay for these people
NZ doesn’t have a housing shortage. Auckland has one, and some other parts of the country, but as a whole we don’t. There are plenty of houses in NZ and refugees don’t have to live in Auckland.
no they don’t but you also wouldn’t want to farm refugees out to the provinces where there less work and infrastructure for them so that only leaves a few cities for them to live in
I think the provinces would be good places for refugees and it would probably be good for the provinces as well. There are plenty of cities in NZ without a housing crisis. Auckland and Chch are out obviously, but there are many other places.
“Personally I think we could have helped thousands more people by helping build and resource refugee camps in Europe as opposed to bringing in a couple of hundred people into NZ”
No reason we can’t do both (assuming that our input in that is useful). Refugee camps should be interim measures. Utlimately the people in them are still going to need somewhere safe to live.
Not really. Just having a quick look at that link, there are 2.3M refugees and Germany is taking 10,000. The total places offered by all countries is 18,000. So when you talking about building camps, you are referring to permanent sites. We should be honest about that.
The numbers are enormous. And reading the background to why they have chosen to flee, many have nothing left in Syria – bombed out, no job. No hope.
Why would they leave in these huge numbers? The equation is simple – when you have nothing where you are and likely soon to have less, running away while you have strength is the best idea.
What about the refugees on our own doorstep? Those fcking ‘camps’ in Nauru and Manis Island need to go! We’re talking a handful of thousand at most. Split proportionately with Australia, NZ would likely be looking at less than 1000 people. But then, Syrians are de rigueur, yes?
As for refugees from Syria and elsewhere in Europe and the USA apparently not stepping up after they’ve, in some cases, bombed their countries back to the stone age, well…
Yeh, it was quite alright for many European countries to give the go ahead to America’s foreign policy in the middle east for years, now the chickens are coming home to roost.
Great to see the hard hitting journalism from our media on what the real cause of this crisis is… If the States/UK put as much money into humanitarian aid now as they did into bombs, problem solved.
So your strategy is an entirely short-term one, then.
Just help these 1,000 refugees (or however many there are), and when they get replaced by 10 times as many, what then?
I heard a snippet on the radio a week or two ago about Labor in Australia having to grit their teeth and agree with the government’s policy on boat people, because although they found the human rights angle of it abhorrent, it had actually stopped the boats from coming.
Not sure what the homophobia has to do with it. Yes, yes, I know you don’t hate gay people, but the use of the word ponce to describe Key merely adds to the idea that there is something wrong with being gay instead of a good bloke.
Both meanings here, although it’s saying a ponce is not a pimp in that they’re employed by the prostitute. Ponce meaning effeminate is classed as derogatory usage.
You’re welcome to ‘your’ implication Weka……if you care to pick up your dictionary you’ll find mine…..read “ponce”, then read “pimp”, then see how easily those terms extrapolate to “TPPA”.
In my view the Ponce Key is poncing and pimping New Zealand off to his foreign masters, oh…..and selected members of the Cabinet Club.
In any event, how possibly could a man who’s ‘besties’ with Richie suffer ‘your’ implication ?
The MV Rena caused our worst maritime environmental disaster when it ploughed into the Bay of Plenty’s Astrolabe Reef. Nearly four years later, a round of hearings – starting today – will determine whether it stays there.
Four years on, he believed it was essential that authorities and the shipping industry learn from an incident that cost the lives of at least 2400 birds and an estimated $1.2 million each day in local business losses over what was a ruined summer.
The penalty
Rena captain Mauro Balomaga and navigator Leonil Relon are jailed for seven months for offences including altering the ship’s documents.
Rena owners Daina Shipping are fined $300,000 in the Tauranga District Court for discharging harmful substances.
The Rena’s owners lodge a resource consent application to leave much of the ship.
Gosh it sounds like a slap on the wrist, – polluting pays in this country. There does not seem to be any audit on how much it cost the taxpayers to clean up the spill, all the reports, the council and legal cost, insurance costs, etc and the long term effects on the community as well as the costs to residents, (were they even compensated) and there is no remedy for the harm and death of the animals and environment at that time.
Meanwhile exploitation of oil into extreme situations in this country is still going on and if they spill or cause damage, clearly they do not have to worry about being held to account for the ‘$300k fine and jail for a few people (paid for by NZ taxpayer) for falsifying records.
Gosh it sounds like a slap on the wrist, – polluting pays in this country.
I guess a reader could come to that conclusion if they don’t realise you’ve left out the costs of the cleanup and the effect on the company’s insurance premiums.
I’m more worried about the victims – mums and Dads and the kids and the ocean and the wildlife in the community than a liberian flagged oil tankers increases in insurance.
By the sound of it the NZ army and community did most of the clean up. Why because they had too!
Also what about the effect on the NZ business premiums when all the Kiwi businesses were collectively losing 1.2million dollars a day?
Somehow all this corporate welfare does not seem to pay. The total cost will be massive to this country and the community but it is all swept under the table and the focus in environment court is, should the poor oil company be made to do a clean up or is it impossible?
If it is impossible to clean up then it speaks for itself, they and others are not held to account and also it occurred in 2011 so 4 years later the wreck is not gone from the ocean and Kiwis are having to fight to be rid of it.
…the focus in environment court is, should the poor oil company be made to do a clean up or is it impossible?
The shipping company has been made to do a clean-up, one that’s run to hundreds of millions of dollars. You may have noticed the news footage of floating cranes hauling up huge pieces of the wreck so they can be brought ashore. The focus in the Environment Court is on whether there’s any point in trying to recover the remaining parts of the ship that haven’t been removed because they’re stuck in the reef, given the risk to the lives of the divers involved, the technical difficulty of achieving success, the enormous cost involved and the mimimal benefit gained from the exercise.
But yeah, if the shipping company ignores the fact that it lost an expensive ship and a full load of cargo, then had to spend hundreds of millions removing the wreck, it could possibly come to the conclusion that “pollution pays.”
Yes but nothing for the community but $300,000 fine. What about all those businesses losing 1.2m a day and the loss of natural environment.
The fact is cost the business to pollute to clean up is not the point.
No real compensation has been made to the community when the oil spills.
Perhaps the company should have better ship and captain next time and not be complaining what it cost them when it is nothing compared to a minimum wage family who actually live there and have to bear the true cost of the negligence.
“This is the problem with the Red Peak or anything else, there will always be a range of views about whether to change and a range of views on what to go to, and that’s what makes the process immensely difficult,” John Key told TV3’s Paul Henry this morning.
After reading that, I have to admit to wrong thinking. I have always thought that Key used the “I can get you another opinion on that” as a way of not answering a question.
Now it is revealed. He has trouble dealing with more than one opinion at a time. This is why he needs a “focus group”- these groups help him to intellectually grasp the issues and enable him to focus enough to decide.
John Key has UFO, or Un-Focussed Opinions, a disorder which means that he exhibits the mental equivalent of verbalising “Woo Woo! Woo Woo!” until he gets a metaphorical cheek-slapping to help him choose.
This means that the country is eksshully run by people with enough reach to slap the PM’s face.
“Treasury has warned dairy prices may not rebound by as much as first thought, which could mean the Government’s books remain in deficit for three more years.
…
Some economists argue the Government should have a back-up plan if the economy stalls, which the Prime Minister has ruled out.”
Weaker dairy products in the first-half of August led the decline, with prices falling to their lowest level since mid-2004.”
Draco that was early August its now September, there have been two more auctions and as I correctly pointed out milk powder prices have increased around 30%. 19% in the first auction and 11% in the last auction. Do try and keep up old boy.
“My feeling is that we need to see less milk production to provide enough support for the market,” he said. “We have not got to a point of supply-demand balance yet,” he said. “This market has not turned around – it is still a bear market.”
“For now, the income they’re getting from Fonterra via the $3.85 milk price is still not a lot and it’s not going very far. Their cash flows are very tight and that will continue for most of the season,” Penny said.
He said there was some prospect of the price being lifted closer to $4.50 later on but that still meant farmers would be losing money.
“From here to get further gains we need to see a material slowing in New Zealand production and later on a material slowing in global production,” he said.
Yeah, I’d say that you’re still talking out your arse.
Sure, there’s been an increase in prices but it’s still below production costs and further increases are based upon global production decline. Personally, I expect the only real decline to come from NZ as the cheaper producers, i.e, everybody else, keep producing.
NZ’s dream of dairy heaven has come to an end but our farmers don’t want to hear that as it means that they’ve wasted billions building plant that is now worthless.
You can try to spin it any way you like Draco
All I said was prices have increased 30% from the low
I know farmers will be making a loss until global production falls
but that’s already happening.
Great Moments in Broadcasting No.1
Vileness live on air: Linda Clark and John Tamihere, 2005
This excruciating encounter happened on Radio NZ National back on Friday 16 September 2005, 9:20 a.m.
Looks like JOHN TAMIHERE is gonna be tipped out of his Tamaki Makaurau seat in favour of the Māori Party’s Pita Sharples. He discusses the situation with SEAN PLUNKET and LINDA CLARK….
JOHN TAMIHERE: It’s a tribute to the way the Maori Party has politicised our Maori education system.
SEAN PLUNKET: Are you conceding, John?
TAMIHERE: Oh, hey, it’s not over till the fat lady sings!
LINDA CLARK: Well that’s not me!
ALL: Ha ha ha ha ha!
PLUNKET: It’s not Linda, John! She’s not fat!
CLARK: If you hear me singing, you’re still okay!
PLUNKET: Well, whatever happens, John, you’ve got a GREAT career in broadcasting just waiting for you!
TAMIHERE: Yeah, if Willie Jackson can do it, anyone can.
CLARK: I’ve always got a slot here just waiting for you.
……[Protracted, stunned silence]…..
PLUNKET: Moving right along….
Transcribed by MORRISSEY BREEN for Radio Transcripts Ltd, a division of Daisycutter Sports Inc.
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Subsidise their tobacco intake while they are on an effective (free) plan to quit. No reason this couldn’t come out of the health budget considering what smoking costs us all
“It is addictive but that doesn’t stop people from quitting.”
But the reasons why people smoke (or take any drug) might stop them from quitting. This isn’t just a question of will power or intention.
Most people working in the field accept that addiction has a physiological component, but also social and mental health components. We’re not just our nicotine receptors.
Not everyone has that degree of agency. What you are suggesting is akin to saying that poor people can really afford to feed their kids they’re just not looking at their life right. Or everyone can get a job if they try hard enough.
For some people, making the changes that would mean they didn’t need the support of a drug is beyond their capacity.
As far as smoking goes they do. It’s their decision to smoke.
What you are suggesting is akin to saying that poor people can really afford to feed their kids they’re just not looking at their life right. Or everyone can get a job if they try hard enough.
Not even close. The situations you mention there and smoking aren’t in any way comparable.
Tobacco is not that different from other drugs that are physically and psychologically different. Do you think that herion uses just decide to use and could just as easily decide to stop?
“The situations you mention there and smoking aren’t in any way comparable.”
They are in the way I compared them, whereby some of the people in all those situations don’t have the agency that you are claiming they do. For many people stopping smoking is a matter of will power (it was for me). For others it’s not that straightforward. You can’t take the addicted person out of their lives and it’s the lives that are going to largely determine if someone can stop or not. Even something simple as access to a stop smoking programme can make the difference. Not everyone has that.
But there are those that do and who are just too overloaded and stressed in their lives to successfully manage the intense process of getting off a drug and staying off (the second but is often the more difficult). It takes many factors lining up for that to work, and that’s not in the reach of some people. Which is why I relate it to other situations where people have things outside of their control that impact on them negatively.
but if those reasons exist because of things outside of their control, how can they remove them any easier than finding a non-existent job or not having enough money to feed their kids? Can’t say that too many other ways than I already have, so let’s try this. Evidence suggests that for some people addiction is not an issue of choice and that they need more than will power in order to stop using. That’s a pretty standard understanding within addiction support services, including smoking cessation.
Lebanese Communist Party members are taking up the fight against Islamic State and al-Nusra Front in the regions of the country affected by unrest in Syria by forming an ad hoc guerrilla group.
Fighters of the Lebanese Communist Party formed a guerrilla group to patrol the Beqaa Valley in the east of the country, RT’s Paula Slier reports.
Unfortunately, these people probably will be on the receiving end of Western bombs rather than getting help they need because they happen to be communists.
And people like you sitting there in your comfort telling them that they don’t and that they should all just run away aren’t helping them realise that agency.
I’m not telling them anything, you are the one doing that.
Re cigarettes, you can keep asserting personal choice all you like. You can also ignore the real life things that affect people’s addiction (eg poverty), but your ideas are in direct contradiction of the people who work with addiction recovery and the people who struggle with addiction they can’t overcome. You are making value judgements about people you don’t know and don’t appear to understand and from what I can tell those judgements are based on your personal experience of being able to quit smoking.
@MM
No, the point is that if they banded together and stood up for themselves they’d find that they could bring the conflict to an end and wouldn’t have to run away or get killed.
@ Draco:
“No, the point is that if they banded together and stood up for themselves they’d find that they could bring the conflict to an end and wouldn’t have to run away or get killed.”
But, in doing that, it is very likely that at least some of them will be killed.
There truly aren’t a huge number of people who are willing to put themselves in mortal danger in an attempt to change their government, without any real assurance that the new government or regime will be better than the one they’re wanting to change. That’s why dictators stay in power – theoretically you can’t stop a riot of 4M+ people (at least not forever), so the trick is to ensure one never starts.
Christ Draco, think about this a little, will you? If it was merely a case of will-power and decision making, then there would be no such thing as addiction!
Some people can smoke for 20 or 30 years and then just drop it. Same with drinking alcohol, sugar, heroin or whatever. Meanwhile, other struggle and some just can’t.
I don’t know all the factors that contribute to something being addictive, but it’s far more complex than everyone overcoming it with a simple “I’m not going to do this any more.”
Here’s a thought for you. I smoked for years. Tried will power and all the patches or what not. Couldn’t give up for any length of time. Always craving.
Sugar is addictive. I was brought up on a fairly sugary diet. Don’t touch the stuff.
So maybe addiction is a complex relationship between a given substance and a particular individual that follows no universal set of rules?
I don’t know all the factors that contribute to something being addictive, but it’s far more complex than everyone overcoming it with a simple “I’m not going to do this any more.”
No, actually, it’s not.
I tried to give up for years before I decided to just stop. Took me about 6 months to get over the craving for them but I didn’t have a smoke in that time and did get over it.
I found the difference was in mindset. Previously I had been trying to give up and failed at it whereas I when I quit I simply said no more.
So, you weren’t one of the people who could give it up at the drop of a hat. Some can. I think you’ve just reinforced my point that addiction is comprised from a broad spectrum of various interactions, and that we just don’t know what it comprises of or, obviously, all the things that can contribute to it.
So, you weren’t one of the people who could give it up at the drop of a hat.
No, I was – once I decided to actually stop.
I think you’ve just reinforced my point that addiction is comprised from a broad spectrum of various interactions, and that we just don’t know what it comprises of or, obviously, all the things that can contribute to it.
Nope, you’ve just proven that all you can do is make excuses rather than making up your mind.
Erm…not sure what you think I’m making excuses about. This is a conversation about the nature of addiction, yes? And whereas you say it’s a ‘one size fits all’ type of a thing, I’m saying it’s far more varied and nuanced than that.
Take nicotine – widely regarded as the most addictive substance out there.
Some people just stop, even after years of smoking, with no craving or withdrawal – nothing.
Some people smoke only when they’re having a social drink and don’t think twice about it otherwise.
Others smoke once or twice and are viciously hooked.
As far as I can see, you’re suggesting a world of humans as automata, where a simple ‘correct’ thought, thought with sufficient force, belief or conviction will produce a tidy, standard result.
But life – the hugely complex array of dynamic environmental interactions, of which our thoughts or emotions constitute only a small part, would suggest otherwise.
As far as I can see, you’re suggesting a world of humans as automata, where a simple ‘correct’ thought, thought with sufficient force, belief or conviction will produce a tidy, standard result.
Not a correct thought, no need for force or belief – just a decision to be made.
And of course the result will be standard. We’re talking about giving up smoking with the only two possible results being either that a person continues smoking or that they don’t.
But life – the hugely complex array of dynamic environmental interactions, of which our thoughts or emotions constitute only a small part, would suggest otherwise.
And you can either wait around till all those complexities are resolved (ie, never) or make the decision to stop smoking now thus resolving one of those complexities. Your like a RWNJ demanding that everything be proven to work perfectly before it be put in place.
There’s absolutely nothing in anything I’ve said that could reasonably be taken as a flat out rejection of some-one ‘making a decision’ being a possible way out of addiction. (The ‘at the drop of a hat’ quitters being the most obvious opposite to what you’d like to claim I’ve said.)
A mere ‘decision’ doesn’t work for everyone though.
I just can’t see what’s either right wing or nutty about that observation.
But since you want to insist that there’s ‘only one way’ and anyone failing is, presumably, just not making the decision in ‘the proper manner’ ie, so as to make it conducive to the ‘only one way’, then…well, bang away on your drum, eh?
True, and I would add that the people who actually work in the field, including addicts themselves, do have a pretty good idea of the range of things that work and don’t work. I agree that’s not complete knowledge, but it’s clear that for some people will power is not enough, they need other things to be in place and not all of those things are within their control. When those things are in place, some of those people are able to stop.
Draco is essentially correct in that the reason for the increasing pricing/taxation on tobacco is that this has been the easiest and most effective way that the health authorities and government have found to discourage smoking.
I don’t doubt that this is one of the reasons for it these days.
However, I also recall that the cost of NZ1’s free healthcare for preschoolers after the 1996 election was also astonishing similar to the extra revenue gathered by the excise increase in the next budget. And it was several years before the government offered even token quit support for free.
There were a few years where excise increases were basically the government shaking down addicts for cash without helping them quit.
but tobacco is one of the topics that makes me a tad… irritated and ranty 🙂
I think i remember some data to suggest the government takes in considerably more revenue from tobacco they they spend on its downstream health effects.
i’ve always thought the most sensible way to deal with it is to progressively raise the age of sale and supply as from a health perspective you want people to never start a habit with it rather than trying to stop a habit and treat the consequences.
On another note did you see this story (the comments read like some of the threads on here)
It’s a natural consequence of the increasingly authoritarian approach that governments and health authorities are taking in regards to vaccination. There are other ways this could be managed.
“i’ve always thought the most sensible way to deal with it is to progressively raise the age of sale and supply as from a health perspective you want people to never start a habit with it rather than trying to stop a habit and treat the consequences.”
I started smoking at 15 by stealing smokes from my parents 😉 I guess once the buying age was inline with alcohol it would be easier to control because there’s already an ID/age system in place. Still, we’re never going to get around teens having older friends/siblings who supply.
Lolz, I stole cigarettes from parents. Having the buying age at 45 will just encourage teens to be more creative in accessing their supply.
I think raising the age to 20 is a good idea (and alcohol should have been left there), but I suspect that beyond that there will be resistance from the public who generally believe that all adults are allowed to make the same kinds of decisions.
I don’t know if nsd was suggesting raising the age to 75.
He said:
“i’ve always thought the most sensible way to deal with it is to progressively raise the age of sale and supply as from a health perspective you want people to never start a habit with it rather than trying to stop a habit and treat the consequences.”
To me, that means raise the age of buying them by 1 year every year. Or at least a large amount, and keep it going up-up-up and not stop at some arbitrary and ineffective age like 20 or 21.
Yes, you stole cigarettes from parents. But eventually, with such strict controls on availability, kids just won’t be interested in smoking, especially when it’s something “only people over the age of 40” do…
I didn’t read it that way. I took it to mean we really want to stop young adults from starting, because that’s the most at risk group in terms of uptake.
I’d love to see the govt that would try and tell a 45 yr old or a 60 yr old that they’re not allowed to buy cigarettes 😉
@weka: well the idea is to raise the age 1 year for every year.
So there will never be a case of someone who used to be able to buy cigarettes, losing the right.
Instead, people who havn’t ever been legally allowed to buy them because they were too young, would never be legally allowed to buy them because the age of purchase would rise by 1 year each year.
Actually the way this would be implemented, would just be to say “no one born after the year 2000 is legally allowed to buy cigarettes”.
since they cut my hours at the same time the revenue went up – either begining of the year or last year sometime. It wasn’t a big milestone, just the frequency got less and less until it’s practically nil. Maybe had a cigar on my birthday.
Funnily enough, I expected at least some general improvement in lifestyle, but allergies mean my sense of taste is dulled anyway, and even the coughing after a night on the piss seems to be caused by alcohol because it still happens. I always figured it was smoking too much, but nope, it’s something else I do at parties. The only thing now is that my mouth doesn’t taste like an ashtray so much the next morning – but I seem to be more aware of the beer/whiskey coming out of my pores.
All a bit meh, really. I feel like I bought one of those amazing mattresses from the ads where everyone snaps awake to jump up and smile like maniacs, whereas I still wake up as grumpy as ever, lol
My personal experience is that if you are 40+ and feeling less than sparkling, nothing even comes close to the positive change that locking in 30 min’s of sweat 6 days a week makes…
I think I’ve mentioned just today that I like to smoke, drink, and eat.
Those are the choices I make. My body is a temple, but I worship Dionysis.
As for exercise, it’s a bit like masturbation: most people do it to some degree but good taste suggests that it should not really be discussed, let alone performed, in public.
Although if people want to go to private clubs and exercise with each other, that’s their business.
Putting up taxes punished people with addiction and has only led to a burgeoning market for home grown and cured tobacco. Subsidised pharmaceutical products simply do not work for many, many smokers.
Meanwhile, I’ve yet to meet a smoker who took up vaping who hasn’t cut their tobacco intake substantially or completely.
Vapourising nicotine laced vegetable glycerine at around 30 or 40 degrees might not be entirely safe, but is certainly safer than tobacco, only costs a couple of dollars a week and, unlike patches, gum or pills, actually works in either cutting back nicotine intake or eliminating it altogether.
But then, the pharmaceutical companies don’t get all those public subsidies for their less than effective products. And that’s a bad thing.
Maybe ‘someone’ should fund studies that routinely or recklessly ‘dry burn’ vaporisers and then measure the toxins that come from scorched wicks and burned coils as a way to claim that vaping exposes users to all types of shit like formaldehyde and what have you? Oh, hang on. Already doing that! 😉
Of course it’s the objective. A fiscal incentive to quit.
The point is, the hardcore addict has no intention to quit, regardless the cost.
For example, my uncle had emphysema, yet was still smoking on his deathbed.
Ones I’ve spoken too merely redirect their expenditure, cutting out other consumer goods and services, negatively impacting on the return of other businesses and service providers.
The real concern is, how is it impacting on the hardcore smoking poor?
I get pissed off every doctor’s visit when he has to rehash the lifestyle questions for the DHB, and is always pleased to find I no longer smoke. Sadly it’s moved out of my fiscal reach, and sanctimonious pricks think this is a good thing.
I liked it. I liked the variety, I liked the rituals, and I liked the excuse to just sit in the garden for an hour. And I liked the fact that I was saving the country money.
Nope its not time to change it , unless you can prove that the expense has had no effect on young people taking up smoking. We have to break the cycle somehow . BTW I smoked for 17 years
However, the board has now placed an outright interim ban on the book after Family First asked for a review, objecting to the book’s sex scenes, offensive language and references to drug-taking.
Mr Dawe said he was very bitter about the latest turn of events.
“The idea that some Christian group can bring about the banning of a book seems to me a hideously unfair situation and something of a miscarriage of justice.”
The book was trying to reach out to teenagers and young people who would not normally read, he said.
This obviously falls into the teaching children anything other than Christianity and is thus evil category.
Personally, I’d call Family First an Anti-Christian group. I certainly haven’t seen them act in any way that could be considered Christian.
Bob McKroskie has managed to get an interim ban for a teenage novel “Into the River”.
According to stuff.co.nz:
“…Conservative lobbying group Family First, who pushed for the review and an R18 restriction, applauded the decision.
“We’ve empowered parents to start expressing their concerns about books more,” leader Bob McCoskrie said. “We believe the censor is out of touch with material parents don’t want their kids to be reading.”
McCoskrie supported a wider move to a film-like sticker rating system for books.
“We do it for movies so why not books? I think to be honest parents expect this to be happening.”
“These books can exert a significant influence. We just think its about age appropriateness.”
Family First claim the censor has received over 400 letters from concerned parents….”
I’m assuming the majority of those letters were the result of a campaign by Family First, and will either be from members or sympathisers, rather than genuine self-initiated complaints.
Books have the rare ability to enable you to process on an intimate level, the lives and experiences of someone else (fictional character or real person).
As an avid reader throughout my childhood and teenage years, my exposure to dark themes and violence was tempered by my lack of taste for such stories, but also by my ability to pace them at a speed that I could absorb, and to also skip passages that were too emotionally fraught. (Didn’t do that very often that I could recall, but I always had that option).
I’ve unfortunately met adults who can’t even discuss the straightforward and trite themes of Harry Potter, let alone countenance the Hunger Games. But stories are a great way of introducing people to diversity of thought, action and opinion.
And our reading public is one shade paler today by the loss of this NZ Post Children’s Book Award’s 2013 winner.
(I’m going have to consider buying one on Kindle now, just in protest even though it is not on my list of books to buy.)
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by Philip Ferguson Last month B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, reported: “In 2019, Israeli security forces killed 133 Palestinians, including 28 minors. Of the casualties, 104 were killed in the Gaza Strip, 26 in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and three within ...
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I move, That this House place on record its appreciation and thanks for the devoted and distinguished service to New Zealand by the late Rt Hon Michael Kenneth Moore, member of the Order of New Zealand, a member of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, an Honorary Member of the ...
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The West Coast has had a funding injection of over $1.2 million from the Provincial Growth Fund, Under Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau announced at Waitangi Day commemorations in Hokitika today. The PGF projects announced are: $800,000 to Development West Coast for a Grey District Regional Digital Hub ...
Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor has declared an adverse event for the Southland and Otago regions, unlocking Government support for farmers and growers. “Widespread flooding has resulted in severe disruption, with many people evacuated from their homes and many farms being affected by flood waters. It’s putting pressure on our farmers, ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced a funeral service for former Labour Prime Minister the Rt Hon Mike Moore, ONZ, AO. A public service will be held on Friday 14 February at 2pm at Dilworth School senior campus, 2 Erin Street, Epsom, Auckland. “The service will be a celebration of ...
Today’s news of low unemployment, rising wages and record numbers of Maori in work shows the economy is in good shape and that the Government is delivering better outcomes across New Zealand. “The Coalition Government has overseen a strong economy. Our investments in infrastructure, our focus on lifting wages of ...
Opening of Waitangi Museum Te Rau Aroha 9.30am, 5 February 2020 [CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY] Good morning, Let us start with important acknowledgements. First, this special day, in remembrance of the 28th Maori Battalion, is also to honour all those men and women who have risked their lives in the service ...
The government has agreed to help crayfish exporters to minimise the impact of trade disruptions caused by the coronavirus outbreak in China. Between 150 and 180 tonnes of live rock lobster are currently held in New Zealand in pots and tanks, at sea and on land, after export orders were ...
Rural Communities Minister Damien O’Connor is travelling to Southland today. The region is in a state of local emergency following widespread flooding. “I’m heading down there to support response and recovery efforts and meet with the locals”, he said. “A lot of people have been evacuated from their homes, have suffered ...
The boundaries of free speech were at issue in two recent court cases, one in Britain, the other in New Zealand. In the British case, a judge ruled that the police response to an ex-officer’s tweets (allegedly transphobic) was a “disproportionate interference” with his right to freedom of expression. The ...
The Tauranga-based power company Trustpower has cut its earnings expectations by as much as 14 percent because of lower power prices and pressure on margins. ...
It’s not worth putting much credence in Simon Bridges’s complaints about the current Government’s piling on hikes in petrol taxes until he commits to reversing them, says the Taxpayers’ Union . Spokesman Louis Houlbrooke said, “It’s not ...
Researchers say councils need to be doing much more to ensure homes and buildings aren't wiped out when a mega-tsunami eventually strikes the east coast of the North Island. ...
Water utilities right across the country face major challenges to upgrade and maintain their underground three waters network. Water New Zealand’s Technical Manager, Noel Roberts says Wellington’s waste water woes are not unique to the capital city. ...
With more than a thousand locations in 250 cities worldwide, UK company Stasher is allowing travellers to store their luggage while offering local businesses a way to earn extra cash. Having recently launched in New Zealand, co-founder and CEO Jacob Wedderburn-Day explains how the business works. How did Stasher start and ...
National's deputy leader Paula Bennett says if Winston Peters had any involvement in covert photographs of journalists meeting a source, he is not fit to be deputy prime minister. ...
ALRANZ Abortion Rights Aotearoa is co-sponsoring a National Day of Action – Our Bodies, Our Choices, with Fem Force, Victoria University Feminists Organisation, NCW, and HELP. “Now is the time for people who care about women and pregnant people ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s contentPolitical donations Danyl Mclauchlan (Spinoff): The donations mess reveals a vacuum in our political system. Who will fill it? ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Robinson, Lecturer, Department of Occupational Therapy, Monash University When people think about Australian Rules Football injuries, they tend to think about head injuries and the long-term effects of concussion. Or they might think of the potentially lengthy recoveries after hamstring, shoulder ...
Simon Bridges reckons those on the average wage shouldn’t be hit by a 33-cents-in-the-dollar tax. And they’re not. Not even close. Alex Braae explains. It takes an incredible political talent to announce that you disagree with a policy setting, and have that critique be so powerful that it retroactively becomes government ...
Sam Brooks heads along to Meatstock 2020, and finds himself questioning the symbiotic relationship between meat-eating and machismo.As I entered Auckland’s ASB Showgrounds for the first day of Meatstock 2020, a girl was exiting. Trucker cap on, eyes hidden behind aviators, manicured fingers wrapped around a can, itself wrapped in ...
Today’s launch of the Ngati Porou treaty settlement documentary is significant for the iwi and for all New Zealanders as we further our understanding of the journey to Te Tiriti o Waitangi settlements, Bernadette Cavanagh CE Manatū Taonga Ministry ...
Why don’t Western democratic governments typically regulate the porn industry, internet service providers (ISPs) or other internet services who make pornographic content accessible to children? And how is a change in the idea of what it means ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is calling on the Ministry of Health to demand back the $319,000 of taxpayers spent on a flawed study suggesting a weekly lotto ticket is as harmful as an amputated leg and that occasional gambling is comparable to having a heart ...
Across the prime minister’s Monday morning broadcast interviews, there was one overwhelming theme: the behaviour of NZ First and Winston Peters, who happens also to be the deputy prime minister.With turmoil engulfing government coalition partner NZ First and deputy PM Winston Peters, the logical next person to ask for a ...
By Michael Norris in Wellington After a week-long controversy, New Zealand’s public broadcaster Radio New Zealand (RNZ) has withdrawn a proposal to axe its classical music station RNZ Concert. But despite the sudden backtrack, RNZ Concert isn’t safe yet. Whatever the final outcome of RNZ’s rethink, it is clear ...
“The Government’s current dispute with councils regarding the Urban Development Bill is the result of Phil Twyford’s failure to cut red tape on a broader basis,” says New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke. “In Opposition, ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says the New Zealand First Foundation - which faces investigation from the SFO - has nothing to do with her or Winston Peters' role in her Cabinet. ...
The Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has been speaking with her Australian counterpart about options to evacuate New Zealanders stuck on a cruise ship, quarantined in Japan. ...
Government seeks power to seize reins over electricity industry; and property investors to blame for NZ's high house prices, not lack of supply, researcher says. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bénédicte Cenki-Tok, Associate professor at Montpellier University, EU H2020 MSCA visiting researcher, University of Sydney As the world shifts away from fossil fuels, we will need to produce enormous numbers of wind turbines, solar panels, electric vehicles and batteries. Demand for the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Chris Salisbury, Research Associate, School of Political Science & International Studies, The University of Queensland With cries of “Quexit!” still echoing faintly in our ears, Queenslanders head towards a state election in October. For many, interest lies in whether federal Labor’s poor ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Susanne Becken, Professor of Sustainable Tourism and Director, Griffith Institute for Tourism, Griffith University If you’re a traveller who cares about reducing your carbon footprint, are some airlines better to fly with than others? Several of the world’s major airlines have announced ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Pi-Shen Seet, Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Edith Cowan University Every year, the Australian Taxation Office releases a report that includes the highest earning occupations in Australia. These are mostly in the medical, legal and financial sectors. This information is commonly used ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hal Pawson, Professor of Housing Research and Policy, and Associate Director, City Futures Research Centre, UNSW Despite two years of housing market cooling in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia stayed near the top of the global unaffordability league in 2019. And with prices ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Diane Kraal, Senior Lecturer, Business Law and Taxation Dept, Monash Business School, Monash University So worried is the government about the meagre income it is getting from gas during the middle of Australia’s biggest gas export boom that it asked an independent ...
NZ's effective policy of tempting guest workers here with the chance of permanent residency and then quietly withdrawing that chance has become a damaging economic addiction that is mean and fraudulent, Bernard Hickey argues. ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Bridges gives signal of tax cuts, police under pressure over family violence problem, and condemnation rains down over Peters scandal.Expect plenty of news today about National’s economic manifesto to take into the next election. From Simon Bridges’ appearance on Q+A yesterday (welcome back ...
A "surreptitious" conspiracy to introduce special NZ gold kiwifruit plants into China could cost a Chinese-born local grower $15m for breaches of intellectual property laws. ...
Maia Wilson is being tipped as the next Maria Folau in the Silver Ferns shooting circle, but she wants to stamp her own unique footprint on netball history. ...
Dental decay is NZ's most common chronic disease, yet it is not covered by the health system. Cat McLennan explains why we should introduce free dental care for adults. ...
Winston Peters was once the one who could plausibly rail against the self-interest of the establishment. Today that seems laughable, So where are the real critics offering reform, asks Danyl Mclauchlan. Politics is messy. It’s chaotic; most things happen for complex combinations of reasons and these are not always obvious, ...
The conversation around how we prepare for coronavirus here needs to be guided by a sense of our common humanity, write Ruth Cunningham, Charlotte Paul, Andrew Moore, Ayesha Verrall of the University of Otago’s Department of Public Health.Borders have been closed, arrivals from Wuhan are in quarantine, and New Zealanders ...
Pretty much everything has a breaking point. The only questions are where, when and how. Might it be coming soon with climate change policy? This week there was disarray in the Australian Liberal and National party coalition over the costs of climate change policy. This was one of the issues ...
Ex-tropical cyclone Uesi is due to reach the west of the South Island this afternoon, bringing further pain to flood-hit Southland. Here’s what you need to know.Ex-tropical, you say. What on earth does that mean? A tropical cyclone, which is a low-pressure system that forms over warm waters in the tropics, ...
The Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand has confirmed anti-poverty campaigner Ricardo Menendez March as their candidate for Maungakiekie in this general election. Ricardo Menendez March has been working as the Coordinator for Auckland Action Against Poverty, ...
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today, a bunch of us have a hoon on Burger King’s new chip butty.The United Kingdom’s contributions to world cuisine, like its contributions to the world in general (Morris dancing, Piers Morgan, colonialism etc), are ...
Emily Writes reviews the now infamous orgasm episode of the even more infamous Netflix show The Goop Lab.It was four days after the fourth person asked me to review the orgasm episode of Netflix’s The Goop Lab that I finally sat down to watch it.I don’t like Gwyneth Paltrow but ...
Beige and on-trend? Not for this poet. Paula Harris gives some real-life, applicable decor advice.Last night I was procrastinating and avoiding working on some poem revisions, because being a poet means that when you have other things to do, you write a poem, and when you have a poem to ...
Have we reached peak smartphone? Henry Burrell reviews the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip, an engineering marvel which all but highlights how few ways there are to improve phones in 2020.In the age of smartphones, notifications and constant communication, you might wish for a simpler time when the old flip phone ...
By Hans Nicholas Jong in Jakarta Experts have warned that a slate of sweeping deregulation planned by the Indonesian government could prove disastrous for the environment and create even more conflicts over land and resources. The administration of President Joko Widodo is preparing to submit to Parliament two bills ...
Dr Bryce Edwards.Does money buy policy in New Zealand politics and government? Based on the ongoing political finance scandal involving New Zealand First, which comes hot on the heels of the Serious Fraud Office charging four people in relation to donations to the National Party, New Zealanders have every ...
It’s an unprecedented level of excitement in the US for a New Zealand novel. It’s also very sudden. The hype for The Absolute Book, published by Victoria University Press in September last year, took off with a hiss and a roar after Dan Kois’s ...
Taxpayers were called on to cough up $87,994 million in the 2019 Budget, accounting for much of the $120,984m which the Treasury estimated would be collected in government revenue this financial year. In his Budget speech, Finance Minister Grant Robertson said: So, today in this first Wellbeing Budget, we are ...
The State Housing Action Network (SHAN) is deeply disappointed that the Government’s recently announced Aotearoa Homelessness Action Plan fails to provide for increases in the state housing stock which are essential for addressing the homelessness crisis. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Norris, Associate Professor, Programme Director (Composition), Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington After a week-long controversy, New Zealand’s public broadcaster Radio New Zealand (RNZ) has withdrawn a proposal to axe its classical music station RNZ Concert. But despite the ...
Serena Bentley writes on an illuminating survey in Auckland and Christchurch of the work of a daring modernist artist deserving of wider attention.Cigarette in hand, Dame Louise Henderson stares straight down the barrel of the camera. Her gaze is magnetic. So begins this exhibition, a partnership between Christchurch and Auckland ...
A secretive group excavating a cave near Huntly believe it’s filled with a race of pre-Polynesian giants’ skeletons, but iwi and archaeologists have serious concerns, reports RNZ’s Susan Strongman.Archaeologists say a group of people tunnelling into the side of a country road in search of a race of pre-Polynesian giants’ ...
Friends, it’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, and season five of our beloved Outlander is finally here.Droughtlander is done for another year, and while we might be shrivelled husks of our former selves, the first episode of our favourite time-travelling drama quenched our thirst with a ginger tsunami of ...
The cancellation of this weekend’s Lantern Festival isn’t the only knock-on effect from the novel coronavirus outbreak to reach Auckland, with the city’s Chinese restaurants reporting a decline in custom.The ban on inbound travel from China combined with overly cautious local diners avoiding their establishments has hit Auckland Chinese restaurateurs ...
"The man I had liked became the man I knew I would detest for a long time": a short story from the new collection by a master of the form, Vincent O'Sullivan. ...
A special national event happened yesterday in Epsom, Auckland. A remarkable life of national and global success was recognised from all points on the political spectrum. Tim Murphy was there. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The secretary of the Prime Minister’s department, Phil Gaetjens, has criticised “significant shortcomings” in Bridget McKenzie’s decision-making in the sports rorts affair, while outlining his argument that her allocation of grants was not politically biased. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The secretary of the Prime Minister’s department, Phil Gaetjens, has criticised “significant shortcomings” in Bridget McKenzie’s decision-making in the sports rorts affair, while outlining his argument that her allocation of grants was not politically biased. ...
By Lian Buan in Manila A Philippines court has issued arrest warrants against former senator Antonio Trillanes IV and 10 other people for conspiracy to commit sedition, the court confirmed. The branch clerk of Quezon City Metropolitan Trial Court (MeTC) Branch 138 confirmed today that the warrants had been ...
5 & 6 August 2020 (pre-conference workshop on 4 August) Grand Millennium Hotel, Auckland New Zealand has an exceptional reputation internationally for the food it produces, exporting premium quality produce to meet the growing demands of ...
Open mike 07/09/2015 
Open mike is your post.
Prof Philippa Howden-Chapman Housing policy is building up to be the key election issue again. In this blog I reflect on the importance of the role of the New Zealand Government in improving access to affordable housing. I look at what the Government has been doing to increase quality public housing ...48 mins ago
Writing on The Spinoff, Danyl Mclauchlan argues that we have a vacuum in our political system, in that there is no longer an anti-establishment party anymore:I think there’s a vacuum in our political system. There are obvious problems with the status quo but no real critics offering reform. It’s a ...1 hour ago
I am among the most pro-free speech people I know. I don’t doubt there are others more strident than me, but I’m certainly up there. And my support for freedom of expression isn’t limited to opposition to government-imposed restrictions. It extends to a belief that employers should have limited powers ...12 hours ago
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Feb 9, 2020 through Sat, Feb 15, 2020 Editor's Pick ANALYSIS-Climate change opens up 'frontier' farmland, but at what cost to the planet? Climate change could expand farmland globally by ...1 day ago
After cross-examination Jones knew he would lose the defamation case he took against film maker Renae Maihi. That’s why he threw in the towel. The weight of evidence was clearly against the old tycoon with the defense presenting fifty articles to confirm Jones’ racist views.Being unable to harass somebody into ...2 days ago
Sprung! Former NZ First president, Lester Gray, chats with RNZ's Guyon Espiner in the carpark of a Tauranga shopping centre. (Photo supplied anonymously to NZ First and The BFD.)IT’S CLEAR THAT an important aspect of Jacinda Ardern’s political success is her willingness to seek – and take – advice. This ...2 days ago
by Philip Ferguson Last month B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, reported: “In 2019, Israeli security forces killed 133 Palestinians, including 28 minors. Of the casualties, 104 were killed in the Gaza Strip, 26 in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and three within ...5 days ago
...1 week ago
Jonathan Freedland of the Guardian has penned a column which chastises the left wing of the Labour party for daring to retain principles and ideals, qualities - it seems - that should be jettisoned in pursuit of power.Never mind that Freedland was an ardent Remainer, that is to say, one ...1 week ago
We are confronted with the spectre of Simon Bridges making clear he cannot, will not, trust Winston Peters – the oft-cited “King Maker” in New Zealand politics. Supporters are lauding it as a master stroke, naturally, because in their eyes, it prevents him being the tail that wags the dog. ...2 weeks ago
Inaccuracies are very common in scientific paper abstracts. Image credit: Science in the Abstract: Don’t Judge a Study by its Cover I have come to accept anti-fluoride campaigners will never stop cherry-picking research and findings ... 2 weeks ago
“The scene is set, the players met…”. And what players they are in this farce of an Election coming up in the United States this year. There is a multi-faceted anger in the broader situation the world finds itself in, in which the false promises of so-called “moderates” find themselves ...2 weeks ago
Unhappy with the demonisation of Iran in Western media, I was fortunate to have the Australian Institute of International Affairs invite me to write an alternative analysis for their on-line journal Australian Outlook. I did, and they serialised it into two parts. The essays are short, so I did not ...2 weeks ago
New Zealand was the first country to decriminalise prostitution and it was promoted as a progressive move. Yet survivors of the sex trade say that pimps and johns are emboldened operating within the law, and that the women are treated more like a piece of property to be used and ...2 weeks ago
Darroch Ball, Spokesperson for Law and Order New Zealand First welcomes the deployment of an Eagle Police helicopter in Christchurch in what is a step towards fulfilling its long-standing goal to increase the use of police helicopters for the front line, particularly in addressing the scourge of fleeing drivers. Christchurch leads ...3 hours ago
It may have been the first sitting week of 2020, but our Government is already in full-swing - managing a strong economy, investing in infrastructure, and working to break the cycle of homelessness. Read below for all that, and more... ...3 days ago
A Government programme to wipe out pea weevil has achieved a world first, with Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor today announcing the successful eradication of the noxious pest from Wairarapa. This means the nearly four-year ban on pea plants and pea straw was lifted today. Commercial and home gardeners can again grow ...12 mins ago
RNZ's ploy was the equivalent of strapping Concert FM to a car’s front bumper and gunning the engine, and it seems to have worked. ...18 mins ago
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says the Covid-19 coronavrius will have a negative - but temporary - impact on New Zealand's GDP. ...23 mins ago
The boundaries of free speech were at issue in two recent court cases, one in Britain, the other in New Zealand. In the British case, a judge ruled that the police response to an ex-officer’s tweets (allegedly transphobic) was a “disproportionate interference” with his right to freedom of expression. The ...46 mins ago
Airbnb is putting forward its own blueprint to regulate holiday rentals in New Zealand. ...1 hour ago
The Tauranga-based power company Trustpower has cut its earnings expectations by as much as 14 percent because of lower power prices and pressure on margins. ...1 hour ago
It’s not worth putting much credence in Simon Bridges’s complaints about the current Government’s piling on hikes in petrol taxes until he commits to reversing them, says the Taxpayers’ Union . Spokesman Louis Houlbrooke said, “It’s not ...2 hours ago
Researchers say councils need to be doing much more to ensure homes and buildings aren't wiped out when a mega-tsunami eventually strikes the east coast of the North Island. ...2 hours ago
With more than a thousand locations in 250 cities worldwide, UK company Stasher is allowing travellers to store their luggage while offering local businesses a way to earn extra cash. Having recently launched in New Zealand, co-founder and CEO Jacob Wedderburn-Day explains how the business works. How did Stasher start and ...2 hours ago
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.
The National Party will campaign on a tax cut package, but the leader Simon Bridges is not yet revealing any of the details. ...4 hours ago
A new tenant has been found to occupy the top two floors of what will be New Zealand's tallest commercial building. ...7 hours ago
The Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has been speaking with her Australian counterpart about options to evacuate New Zealanders stuck on a cruise ship, quarantined in Japan. ...8 hours ago
National leader Simon Bridges will today outline the party's economic goals and who will benefit most from the party's proposed tax cuts. ...8 hours ago
Government seeks power to seize reins over electricity industry; and property investors to blame for NZ's high house prices, not lack of supply, researcher says. ...8 hours ago
NZ's effective policy of tempting guest workers here with the chance of permanent residency and then quietly withdrawing that chance has become a damaging economic addiction that is mean and fraudulent, Bernard Hickey argues. ...9 hours ago
A "surreptitious" conspiracy to introduce special NZ gold kiwifruit plants into China could cost a Chinese-born local grower $15m for breaches of intellectual property laws. ...10 hours ago
Mary Macpherson looks at the way photographer MItchell Bright has documented the post-earthquake rebuild of Selwyn in Canterbury. ...11 hours ago
A Conservation Department manager decided it wouldn’t submit on a water consent next to a scientific reserve ...11 hours ago
Maia Wilson is being tipped as the next Maria Folau in the Silver Ferns shooting circle, but she wants to stamp her own unique footprint on netball history. ...11 hours ago
Dental decay is NZ's most common chronic disease, yet it is not covered by the health system. Cat McLennan explains why we should introduce free dental care for adults. ...11 hours ago
Efforts by the Chinese government to contain the coronavirus have an unlikely casualty: our tourist visa processing systems ...12 hours ago
New Zealand has a massive e-waste problem, pushed along by rampant consumerism. ...12 hours ago
Pretty much everything has a breaking point. The only questions are where, when and how. Might it be coming soon with climate change policy? This week there was disarray in the Australian Liberal and National party coalition over the costs of climate change policy. This was one of the issues ...19 hours ago
It’s an unprecedented level of excitement in the US for a New Zealand novel. It’s also very sudden. The hype for The Absolute Book, published by Victoria University Press in September last year, took off with a hiss and a roar after Dan Kois’s ...2 days ago
Taxpayers were called on to cough up $87,994 million in the 2019 Budget, accounting for much of the $120,984m which the Treasury estimated would be collected in government revenue this financial year. In his Budget speech, Finance Minister Grant Robertson said: So, today in this first Wellbeing Budget, we are ...2 days ago
"The man I had liked became the man I knew I would detest for a long time": a short story from the new collection by a master of the form, Vincent O'Sullivan. ...2 days ago
A special national event happened yesterday in Epsom, Auckland. A remarkable life of national and global success was recognised from all points on the political spectrum. Tim Murphy was there. ...2 days ago
Trev’ in the Herald……
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11508899
Wow ! Crosby Textor must be only a few stitches away from completing the Ponce Key’s new crimplene ‘strutting’ suit, his ‘preening’ suit.
Rejoice Rejoice !……All Praise to the Ponce Key !……World-Famous-In-Parnell-Friend-Of-Humanity !
Truly……this is Nobel stuff.
Says it all…
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/news-cartoons/news/article.cfm?c_id=500814&objectid=11508840
As does this…..
https://mobile.twitter.com/domesticanimal/status/640266917215731712/photo/1
Both cartoons point out the utter lack of morals that this current government has.
It see morality as one more tool in it’s box of dirty tricks, with which to hold onto power.
Nor as a guiding principles, or values – but simple one more thing, to be manipulated for the sake of power.
The Guardian on the UK Labour Party….
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/sep/06/labour-moderates-leadership-jeremy-corbyn-tony-blair
Could this comment be equally descriptive of NZ Labour?…
“….they became trapped in a technocratic, desiccated, uninspirational account of social democracy that is hopeless at making emotional connections with people.”
Clayton’s flag choice and the All Blacks fouls:
“Key’s close personal friend McCaw has recently committed a foul by entering into the flag debate, speaking of his preference for a flag that bore the silver fern as worn on rugby jumpers, the sacred frond also the personal favourite of the Prime Minister.
The tweets by certain All Blacks during the last election day suggested that the players had voted National.
And Key reading out McCaw’s ‘Yes we can’ tweet to him during the campaign were totally off-side – but the ‘Key’ players involved weren’t properly carded or even relegated to the bench.
What I want to know is where is the rugby union and the All Black coach in all of this? It goes against the grain – and the discipline – of the sport for individual players and a team to effectively be hijacked and used as the personal super hero army of a prime minister.
To look back into the annals of National Party history, it also flies in the face of the late Sir Robert Muldoon, that sporting-mad prime minister who so bitterly divided the country by allowing the 1981 Springbok tour to proceed on the notion that politics should never enter sport.
Now politics is so far up the backside of sport and our national game you can see the flag bearing the wretched silver fern waving from the back of the tonsil tunnel.
Giving us only four flags to peruse – and three of those bearing the silver fern – is not a real choice.
Sometimes you can lead the horse to water but it won’t take the pre-ordered drink. Even though I don’t like the old flag, I too like many others will vote to keep it, purely out of protest.”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/71783746/a-purrfect-example-of-why-politics-and-sport-dont-mix
“Now politics is so far up the backside of sport and our national game ”
Must be getting a bit crowded at the right wing National Party parties ….. what with McCaw having Key’s nose up his arsehole, and with Hosking jowls well entrenched up the cheeks of Key …. it is becoming something of a conga-line
continue to dwell on at your peril …
‘Flag change opposed by two-thirds – poll’
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/flag-change-opposed-by-two-thirds-poll-q09308.html
“The poll, taken before the final four potential flag designs were announced, shows 66 per cent want to keep the current flag, up 2 per cent from 18 months ago….
( a waste of the $26 million …jonkey’s vanity project…could have gone to helping refugees from the MIddle East)
Personally I think we could have helped thousands more people by helping build and resource refugee camps in Europe as opposed to bringing in a couple of hundred people into NZ
Also the UN should be applying pressure to Saudi Arabia and the UAE to be taking in more of these people as they certainly have enough money to be doing More
Sorry but heres the link I should have added:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/09/04/the-arab-worlds-wealthiest-nations-are-doing-next-to-nothing-for-syrias-refugees/
How about reading this one instead:
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-09-04/why-don-t-gulf-
Funding more refugee camps is a stupid idea. Refugees need somewhere that that can create a new life, where they can work and where their children can get an education. Refugee camps are just holding pens.
Sorry but the link didn’t work
I just think that for the amount of money it will cost to bring over a couple of hundred refugees we could help thousands more even if it meant sending the money directly to the european countries itself
Although it really should be the oil-rich middle eastern islamic countries picking up the slack on this
Link here.
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-09-04/why-don-t-gulf-states-accept-more-refugees-
Germany takes 800,000 refugees a year already. They need other countries to do their share.
Refugees need to build a new life and NZ can well afford to double the quota immediately then gradually increase it over the next 10 years.
I guess the issue i have is that we have a housing shortage, unemployment is rising, i’m note sure how many translators we have but im guessing that again its not many so I don’t know that we have the infrastructure to deal with hundreds (possibly thousands) more
I’m sorry but the article almost sounds like a cop-out for the middle eastern states that don’t do anything yet could easily afford to pay for these people
NZ doesn’t have a housing shortage. Auckland has one, and some other parts of the country, but as a whole we don’t. There are plenty of houses in NZ and refugees don’t have to live in Auckland.
no they don’t but you also wouldn’t want to farm refugees out to the provinces where there less work and infrastructure for them so that only leaves a few cities for them to live in
I think the provinces would be good places for refugees and it would probably be good for the provinces as well. There are plenty of cities in NZ without a housing crisis. Auckland and Chch are out obviously, but there are many other places.
Yeah, and watch Germany hit the shitter because of it. Ask any German what they think of it.
Bullsh**t. There are plenty of Germans who are more than happy to welcome refugees to their country. Just because you are a selfish prick doesn’t mean everyone else is.
+ 1 Well spotted – little innys bullshit shows a sad selfish prick who would be first in line if the tables were turned
Karen
I should have said that 800,000 is Germany’s projected intake this year.
“Personally I think we could have helped thousands more people by helping build and resource refugee camps in Europe as opposed to bringing in a couple of hundred people into NZ”
No reason we can’t do both (assuming that our input in that is useful). Refugee camps should be interim measures. Utlimately the people in them are still going to need somewhere safe to live.
I’m just thinking of the most efficent use of our limited resources, help hundreds or help thousands…
What do you think happens to the people once they get to the camps in Europe?
Seems like they make a bee-line for Germany
All of them?
http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2014/jan/29/where-are-the-syrian-refugees-going
A fair amount you’d have to say
Not really. Just having a quick look at that link, there are 2.3M refugees and Germany is taking 10,000. The total places offered by all countries is 18,000. So when you talking about building camps, you are referring to permanent sites. We should be honest about that.
10000 out of 18000 places is not bad going for one country
I agree, but that’s not what we are talking about.
The numbers are enormous. And reading the background to why they have chosen to flee, many have nothing left in Syria – bombed out, no job. No hope.
Why would they leave in these huge numbers? The equation is simple – when you have nothing where you are and likely soon to have less, running away while you have strength is the best idea.
Syria – good coverage
http://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2015/mar/12/syria-crisis-four-years-on-a-day-of-in-depth-reports-and-analysis
What about the refugees on our own doorstep? Those fcking ‘camps’ in Nauru and Manis Island need to go! We’re talking a handful of thousand at most. Split proportionately with Australia, NZ would likely be looking at less than 1000 people. But then, Syrians are de rigueur, yes?
As for refugees from Syria and elsewhere in Europe and the USA apparently not stepping up after they’ve, in some cases, bombed their countries back to the stone age, well…
Yeh, it was quite alright for many European countries to give the go ahead to America’s foreign policy in the middle east for years, now the chickens are coming home to roost.
Great to see the hard hitting journalism from our media on what the real cause of this crisis is… If the States/UK put as much money into humanitarian aid now as they did into bombs, problem solved.
“Split proportionately with Australia, NZ would likely be looking at less than 1000 people.”
Yeah, that’s a really good disincentive to stop people getting in boats and crossing to Australia – resettling all of them.
Lacking as I do any ‘fuck off and die’ mentality for people in desperate straits, yes, it’s the perfect disincentive.
So your strategy is an entirely short-term one, then.
Just help these 1,000 refugees (or however many there are), and when they get replaced by 10 times as many, what then?
I heard a snippet on the radio a week or two ago about Labor in Australia having to grit their teeth and agree with the government’s policy on boat people, because although they found the human rights angle of it abhorrent, it had actually stopped the boats from coming.
The gulf states do take them, it’s just not counted under the UN.
Ha ! The Ponce Key such a strong and resolute leader when it comes to maintaining his personal vanity project……
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11508844
“We would have to go back to Parliament and we’re not doing that……”
Oh really ?…… so Parliament’s just another piece of furniture in the castle of his personal feifdom is it ?
I think the insufferable child/bankster is losing it……’hubris for breakfast’ ? Probably. Look whom he took breakfast with.
Catch Seven PM Sharp tonight for more of the same. Appallingly they’re now quite unashamed at the shonkery, the pathology of it.
YES but We need urgency to pass a booze law for the RWC!!!
Not sure what the homophobia has to do with it. Yes, yes, I know you don’t hate gay people, but the use of the word ponce to describe Key merely adds to the idea that there is something wrong with being gay instead of a good bloke.
??
edit: since you’ve edited your post, in my world a ponce has always been either a strutting rich boy or a pimp.
in mine, ponce was a name for an effeminate man, implication is gay.
Both meanings here, although it’s saying a ponce is not a pimp in that they’re employed by the prostitute. Ponce meaning effeminate is classed as derogatory usage.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ponce
I wasn’t suggesting that Key was acting in a homophobic manner.
You’re welcome to ‘your’ implication Weka……if you care to pick up your dictionary you’ll find mine…..read “ponce”, then read “pimp”, then see how easily those terms extrapolate to “TPPA”.
In my view the Ponce Key is poncing and pimping New Zealand off to his foreign masters, oh…..and selected members of the Cabinet Club.
In any event, how possibly could a man who’s ‘besties’ with Richie suffer ‘your’ implication ?
I’ve already looked up a dictionary,
It’s meant effeminate or homosexual in every context I’ve ever heard it in.
was often used to describe what the Americans term a pimp in older UK tv/film…..we however take our cues from the US these days , mores the pity
“The Press Council doubts many New Zealand readers would associate the word “ponce” with living on a prostitute’s earnings…… Rather the connection would most likely be with precious, effete or show-off behaviour.”
http://www.presscouncil.org.nz/rulings/g-f-sharp-against-southland-times
And none of the dictionaries I looked at link ‘Effete’ with an implication of ‘gay’…..so think your homophobia meter can be turned down a notch Weka?
The MV Rena caused our worst maritime environmental disaster when it ploughed into the Bay of Plenty’s Astrolabe Reef. Nearly four years later, a round of hearings – starting today – will determine whether it stays there.
Four years on, he believed it was essential that authorities and the shipping industry learn from an incident that cost the lives of at least 2400 birds and an estimated $1.2 million each day in local business losses over what was a ruined summer.
The penalty
Rena captain Mauro Balomaga and navigator Leonil Relon are jailed for seven months for offences including altering the ship’s documents.
Rena owners Daina Shipping are fined $300,000 in the Tauranga District Court for discharging harmful substances.
The Rena’s owners lodge a resource consent application to leave much of the ship.
Gosh it sounds like a slap on the wrist, – polluting pays in this country. There does not seem to be any audit on how much it cost the taxpayers to clean up the spill, all the reports, the council and legal cost, insurance costs, etc and the long term effects on the community as well as the costs to residents, (were they even compensated) and there is no remedy for the harm and death of the animals and environment at that time.
Meanwhile exploitation of oil into extreme situations in this country is still going on and if they spill or cause damage, clearly they do not have to worry about being held to account for the ‘$300k fine and jail for a few people (paid for by NZ taxpayer) for falsifying records.
Gosh it sounds like a slap on the wrist, – polluting pays in this country.
I guess a reader could come to that conclusion if they don’t realise you’ve left out the costs of the cleanup and the effect on the company’s insurance premiums.
I’m more worried about the victims – mums and Dads and the kids and the ocean and the wildlife in the community than a liberian flagged oil tankers increases in insurance.
By the sound of it the NZ army and community did most of the clean up. Why because they had too!
Also what about the effect on the NZ business premiums when all the Kiwi businesses were collectively losing 1.2million dollars a day?
Somehow all this corporate welfare does not seem to pay. The total cost will be massive to this country and the community but it is all swept under the table and the focus in environment court is, should the poor oil company be made to do a clean up or is it impossible?
If it is impossible to clean up then it speaks for itself, they and others are not held to account and also it occurred in 2011 so 4 years later the wreck is not gone from the ocean and Kiwis are having to fight to be rid of it.
…the focus in environment court is, should the poor oil company be made to do a clean up or is it impossible?
The shipping company has been made to do a clean-up, one that’s run to hundreds of millions of dollars. You may have noticed the news footage of floating cranes hauling up huge pieces of the wreck so they can be brought ashore. The focus in the Environment Court is on whether there’s any point in trying to recover the remaining parts of the ship that haven’t been removed because they’re stuck in the reef, given the risk to the lives of the divers involved, the technical difficulty of achieving success, the enormous cost involved and the mimimal benefit gained from the exercise.
But yeah, if the shipping company ignores the fact that it lost an expensive ship and a full load of cargo, then had to spend hundreds of millions removing the wreck, it could possibly come to the conclusion that “pollution pays.”
“Gosh it sounds like a slap on the wrist, – polluting pays in this country”
What a load of bollocks, the clean up has cost $300 mill US so far
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/national/71503076/Rena-disaster-huge-but-environmental-effects-not-long-lasting
Yes but nothing for the community but $300,000 fine. What about all those businesses losing 1.2m a day and the loss of natural environment.
The fact is cost the business to pollute to clean up is not the point.
No real compensation has been made to the community when the oil spills.
Perhaps the company should have better ship and captain next time and not be complaining what it cost them when it is nothing compared to a minimum wage family who actually live there and have to bear the true cost of the negligence.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/opinion/71771196/late-inadequate-and-frequently-defective
“This is the problem with the Red Peak or anything else, there will always be a range of views about whether to change and a range of views on what to go to, and that’s what makes the process immensely difficult,” John Key told TV3’s Paul Henry this morning.
After reading that, I have to admit to wrong thinking. I have always thought that Key used the “I can get you another opinion on that” as a way of not answering a question.
Now it is revealed. He has trouble dealing with more than one opinion at a time. This is why he needs a “focus group”- these groups help him to intellectually grasp the issues and enable him to focus enough to decide.
John Key has UFO, or Un-Focussed Opinions, a disorder which means that he exhibits the mental equivalent of verbalising “Woo Woo! Woo Woo!” until he gets a metaphorical cheek-slapping to help him choose.
This means that the country is eksshully run by people with enough reach to slap the PM’s face.
UFO is very common on Planet Key.
UFO , that’s very cool
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/business/283436/treasury-warning-over-dairy-price-recovery
“Treasury has warned dairy prices may not rebound by as much as first thought, which could mean the Government’s books remain in deficit for three more years.
…
Some economists argue the Government should have a back-up plan if the economy stalls, which the Prime Minister has ruled out.”
No back-up plan for us! Headlong into the breach…
Sooner or later Treasury may get round to joining the rest of us in the real world.
Chances are that dairy prices won’t recover at all.
“Sooner or later Treasury may get round to joining the rest of us in the real world.
Chances are that dairy prices won’t recover at all.”
Not sure which world you live in Draco but dairy prices have recovered 30% since their low.
Seems that you’re talking out your arse again:
And that was all of four days ago.
“Seems that you’re talking out your arse again:
Weaker dairy products in the first-half of August led the decline, with prices falling to their lowest level since mid-2004.”
Draco that was early August its now September, there have been two more auctions and as I correctly pointed out milk powder prices have increased around 30%. 19% in the first auction and 11% in the last auction. Do try and keep up old boy.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11499112
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/dairy/71641902/dairy-prices-up-109-per-cent-in-fonterra-globaldairytrade-auction
Yeah, I’d say that you’re still talking out your arse.
Sure, there’s been an increase in prices but it’s still below production costs and further increases are based upon global production decline. Personally, I expect the only real decline to come from NZ as the cheaper producers, i.e, everybody else, keep producing.
NZ’s dream of dairy heaven has come to an end but our farmers don’t want to hear that as it means that they’ve wasted billions building plant that is now worthless.
You can try to spin it any way you like Draco
All I said was prices have increased 30% from the low
I know farmers will be making a loss until global production falls
but that’s already happening.
Great Moments in Broadcasting No.1
Vileness live on air: Linda Clark and John Tamihere, 2005
This excruciating encounter happened on Radio NZ National back on Friday 16 September 2005, 9:20 a.m.
Looks like JOHN TAMIHERE is gonna be tipped out of his Tamaki Makaurau seat in favour of the Māori Party’s Pita Sharples. He discusses the situation with SEAN PLUNKET and LINDA CLARK….
JOHN TAMIHERE: It’s a tribute to the way the Maori Party has politicised our Maori education system.
SEAN PLUNKET: Are you conceding, John?
TAMIHERE: Oh, hey, it’s not over till the fat lady sings!
LINDA CLARK: Well that’s not me!
ALL: Ha ha ha ha ha!
PLUNKET: It’s not Linda, John! She’s not fat!
CLARK: If you hear me singing, you’re still okay!
PLUNKET: Well, whatever happens, John, you’ve got a GREAT career in broadcasting just waiting for you!
TAMIHERE: Yeah, if Willie Jackson can do it, anyone can.
CLARK: I’ve always got a slot here just waiting for you.
……[Protracted, stunned silence]…..
PLUNKET: Moving right along….
Transcribed by MORRISSEY BREEN for Radio Transcripts Ltd, a division of Daisycutter Sports Inc.
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/nz.politics/%22radio$20transcripts$20ltd%22/nz.politics/Eg7-wOFG2-0/6aKZNDluPAwJ
Radionz is redesigning its web site. We are invited along.
We are about to start re-designing radionz.co.nz and we want you to help us.
Most websites re-design every few years. It’s a process that rarely involves the public at large, or if it does the input you can have is minimal.
We aren’t like that. We’d like you to be involved. The process will take months, and before we get started we’d like to hear from you (see at the foot of this article).
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/283197/stick-your-beak-in
Radionz is a taonga. We must take care of it, support it.
The unintended consequences of taxing tobacco
The ever escalating price of tobacco is adding to the financial stress of individuals (and their families) that are strongly addicted.
Smoking is strongly addictive and I personally know of a number of individuals that have no intention to quit, thus are literally paying the price.
Is it time for a rethink of this heavy taxing approach of pricing people out of the market?
Thoughts?
Subsidise their tobacco intake while they are on an effective (free) plan to quit. No reason this couldn’t come out of the health budget considering what smoking costs us all
The government takes more in via tobacco taxes then it costs in healthcare
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10809145
Its a couple of years old but I’m still guessing its similar today
It is addictive but that doesn’t stop people from quitting. The people who choose to continue to smoke are choosing the costs themselves.
Have you ever considered that that is the reason for pricing?
“It is addictive but that doesn’t stop people from quitting.”
But the reasons why people smoke (or take any drug) might stop them from quitting. This isn’t just a question of will power or intention.
Most people working in the field accept that addiction has a physiological component, but also social and mental health components. We’re not just our nicotine receptors.
Yes it is and that includes looking at your life and changing it so as to remove the other issues.
Not everyone has that degree of agency. What you are suggesting is akin to saying that poor people can really afford to feed their kids they’re just not looking at their life right. Or everyone can get a job if they try hard enough.
For some people, making the changes that would mean they didn’t need the support of a drug is beyond their capacity.
As far as smoking goes they do. It’s their decision to smoke.
Not even close. The situations you mention there and smoking aren’t in any way comparable.
Tobacco is not that different from other drugs that are physically and psychologically different. Do you think that herion uses just decide to use and could just as easily decide to stop?
“The situations you mention there and smoking aren’t in any way comparable.”
They are in the way I compared them, whereby some of the people in all those situations don’t have the agency that you are claiming they do. For many people stopping smoking is a matter of will power (it was for me). For others it’s not that straightforward. You can’t take the addicted person out of their lives and it’s the lives that are going to largely determine if someone can stop or not. Even something simple as access to a stop smoking programme can make the difference. Not everyone has that.
But there are those that do and who are just too overloaded and stressed in their lives to successfully manage the intense process of getting off a drug and staying off (the second but is often the more difficult). It takes many factors lining up for that to work, and that’s not in the reach of some people. Which is why I relate it to other situations where people have things outside of their control that impact on them negatively.
No they’re not. People do have agency over their own actions. They do have agency over who they associate with.
So, yeah, people who smoke and want to quit have the agency to do so. Those who don’t want to quit can pay the higher prices.
But the reasons that people smoke are sometimes outside of their control. You appear to think that addiction is a matter of personal choice. It’s not.
Then they need to remove themselves from those reasons. This is still their choice.
but if those reasons exist because of things outside of their control, how can they remove them any easier than finding a non-existent job or not having enough money to feed their kids? Can’t say that too many other ways than I already have, so let’s try this. Evidence suggests that for some people addiction is not an issue of choice and that they need more than will power in order to stop using. That’s a pretty standard understanding within addiction support services, including smoking cessation.
Such as removing themselves from the social environment that encourages them to continue using…
Oh, wait, that would be their choice as well.
Draco,
poverty, for example, is not a personal choice.
yes and I believe draco said it was the refugees own decision not to overthrow their horrible governments didn’t you draco – all their own fault too
But Draco quit smoking, so everyone else can too.
Yeah, I saw that marty.
Poverty isn’t, smoking is.
People have agency:
Unfortunately, these people probably will be on the receiving end of Western bombs rather than getting help they need because they happen to be communists.
And people like you sitting there in your comfort telling them that they don’t and that they should all just run away aren’t helping them realise that agency.
is the point that if they got killed instead of ‘running away’ there’d be no refugee problem?
I’m not telling them anything, you are the one doing that.
Re cigarettes, you can keep asserting personal choice all you like. You can also ignore the real life things that affect people’s addiction (eg poverty), but your ideas are in direct contradiction of the people who work with addiction recovery and the people who struggle with addiction they can’t overcome. You are making value judgements about people you don’t know and don’t appear to understand and from what I can tell those judgements are based on your personal experience of being able to quit smoking.
@MM
No, the point is that if they banded together and stood up for themselves they’d find that they could bring the conflict to an end and wouldn’t have to run away or get killed.
And they’d also stop smoking.
I guess that makes refugees who travel thousands of kilometres weak-willed as well as fiendish job-stealers.
we should send them guns and shit so they can have ‘agency’, plus motivational videos and for those too stubborn a few nicotine patches /SARC
I had a feeling we were at the increasing sarcasm stage of the conversation.
Shall we find something else to talk about? 🙂
@ Draco:
“No, the point is that if they banded together and stood up for themselves they’d find that they could bring the conflict to an end and wouldn’t have to run away or get killed.”
But, in doing that, it is very likely that at least some of them will be killed.
There truly aren’t a huge number of people who are willing to put themselves in mortal danger in an attempt to change their government, without any real assurance that the new government or regime will be better than the one they’re wanting to change. That’s why dictators stay in power – theoretically you can’t stop a riot of 4M+ people (at least not forever), so the trick is to ensure one never starts.
…
Christ Draco, think about this a little, will you? If it was merely a case of will-power and decision making, then there would be no such thing as addiction!
Some people can smoke for 20 or 30 years and then just drop it. Same with drinking alcohol, sugar, heroin or whatever. Meanwhile, other struggle and some just can’t.
I don’t know all the factors that contribute to something being addictive, but it’s far more complex than everyone overcoming it with a simple “I’m not going to do this any more.”
Here’s a thought for you. I smoked for years. Tried will power and all the patches or what not. Couldn’t give up for any length of time. Always craving.
Sugar is addictive. I was brought up on a fairly sugary diet. Don’t touch the stuff.
So maybe addiction is a complex relationship between a given substance and a particular individual that follows no universal set of rules?
No, actually, it’s not.
I tried to give up for years before I decided to just stop. Took me about 6 months to get over the craving for them but I didn’t have a smoke in that time and did get over it.
I found the difference was in mindset. Previously I had been trying to give up and failed at it whereas I when I quit I simply said no more.
Do. Or do not. There is no try
So, you weren’t one of the people who could give it up at the drop of a hat. Some can. I think you’ve just reinforced my point that addiction is comprised from a broad spectrum of various interactions, and that we just don’t know what it comprises of or, obviously, all the things that can contribute to it.
No, I was – once I decided to actually stop.
Nope, you’ve just proven that all you can do is make excuses rather than making up your mind.
Erm…not sure what you think I’m making excuses about. This is a conversation about the nature of addiction, yes? And whereas you say it’s a ‘one size fits all’ type of a thing, I’m saying it’s far more varied and nuanced than that.
Take nicotine – widely regarded as the most addictive substance out there.
Some people just stop, even after years of smoking, with no craving or withdrawal – nothing.
Some people smoke only when they’re having a social drink and don’t think twice about it otherwise.
Others smoke once or twice and are viciously hooked.
As far as I can see, you’re suggesting a world of humans as automata, where a simple ‘correct’ thought, thought with sufficient force, belief or conviction will produce a tidy, standard result.
But life – the hugely complex array of dynamic environmental interactions, of which our thoughts or emotions constitute only a small part, would suggest otherwise.
Not a correct thought, no need for force or belief – just a decision to be made.
And of course the result will be standard. We’re talking about giving up smoking with the only two possible results being either that a person continues smoking or that they don’t.
And you can either wait around till all those complexities are resolved (ie, never) or make the decision to stop smoking now thus resolving one of those complexities. Your like a RWNJ demanding that everything be proven to work perfectly before it be put in place.
There’s absolutely nothing in anything I’ve said that could reasonably be taken as a flat out rejection of some-one ‘making a decision’ being a possible way out of addiction. (The ‘at the drop of a hat’ quitters being the most obvious opposite to what you’d like to claim I’ve said.)
A mere ‘decision’ doesn’t work for everyone though.
I just can’t see what’s either right wing or nutty about that observation.
But since you want to insist that there’s ‘only one way’ and anyone failing is, presumably, just not making the decision in ‘the proper manner’ ie, so as to make it conducive to the ‘only one way’, then…well, bang away on your drum, eh?
Dubai Airport still has great duty-free cigar stores.
And smoking rooms!
True, and I would add that the people who actually work in the field, including addicts themselves, do have a pretty good idea of the range of things that work and don’t work. I agree that’s not complete knowledge, but it’s clear that for some people will power is not enough, they need other things to be in place and not all of those things are within their control. When those things are in place, some of those people are able to stop.
Draco is essentially correct in that the reason for the increasing pricing/taxation on tobacco is that this has been the easiest and most effective way that the health authorities and government have found to discourage smoking.
I don’t doubt that this is one of the reasons for it these days.
However, I also recall that the cost of NZ1’s free healthcare for preschoolers after the 1996 election was also astonishing similar to the extra revenue gathered by the excise increase in the next budget. And it was several years before the government offered even token quit support for free.
There were a few years where excise increases were basically the government shaking down addicts for cash without helping them quit.
but tobacco is one of the topics that makes me a tad… irritated and ranty 🙂
I think i remember some data to suggest the government takes in considerably more revenue from tobacco they they spend on its downstream health effects.
i’ve always thought the most sensible way to deal with it is to progressively raise the age of sale and supply as from a health perspective you want people to never start a habit with it rather than trying to stop a habit and treat the consequences.
On another note did you see this story (the comments read like some of the threads on here)
http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/parenting/71772571/australian-mother-plans-to-open-controversial-no-vax-childcare-centre
It’s a natural consequence of the increasingly authoritarian approach that governments and health authorities are taking in regards to vaccination. There are other ways this could be managed.
“i’ve always thought the most sensible way to deal with it is to progressively raise the age of sale and supply as from a health perspective you want people to never start a habit with it rather than trying to stop a habit and treat the consequences.”
I started smoking at 15 by stealing smokes from my parents 😉 I guess once the buying age was inline with alcohol it would be easier to control because there’s already an ID/age system in place. Still, we’re never going to get around teens having older friends/siblings who supply.
“Still, we’re never going to get around teens having older friends/siblings who supply.”
Yes, we are, if we steadily raise the age as Northshoredoc suggests.
If the age to buy cigarettes is 45, then the average 15 year old is not going to have siblings or friends of that age to supply them.
Eventually the age to buy them would be 75+, and again the average 15 year old would not have siblings or friends of that age.
Is it a quick fix? No. Would it be effective? Yes. Would it completely stamp out the problem of underage smoking? No.
Lolz, I stole cigarettes from parents. Having the buying age at 45 will just encourage teens to be more creative in accessing their supply.
I think raising the age to 20 is a good idea (and alcohol should have been left there), but I suspect that beyond that there will be resistance from the public who generally believe that all adults are allowed to make the same kinds of decisions.
I don’t know if nsd was suggesting raising the age to 75.
He said:
“i’ve always thought the most sensible way to deal with it is to progressively raise the age of sale and supply as from a health perspective you want people to never start a habit with it rather than trying to stop a habit and treat the consequences.”
To me, that means raise the age of buying them by 1 year every year. Or at least a large amount, and keep it going up-up-up and not stop at some arbitrary and ineffective age like 20 or 21.
Yes, you stole cigarettes from parents. But eventually, with such strict controls on availability, kids just won’t be interested in smoking, especially when it’s something “only people over the age of 40” do…
I didn’t read it that way. I took it to mean we really want to stop young adults from starting, because that’s the most at risk group in terms of uptake.
I’d love to see the govt that would try and tell a 45 yr old or a 60 yr old that they’re not allowed to buy cigarettes 😉
Lanthanide has correctly interpreted my intent – I probably should have been more explicit.
@weka: well the idea is to raise the age 1 year for every year.
So there will never be a case of someone who used to be able to buy cigarettes, losing the right.
Instead, people who havn’t ever been legally allowed to buy them because they were too young, would never be legally allowed to buy them because the age of purchase would rise by 1 year each year.
Actually the way this would be implemented, would just be to say “no one born after the year 2000 is legally allowed to buy cigarettes”.
how long since you stopped McFlock?
since they cut my hours at the same time the revenue went up – either begining of the year or last year sometime. It wasn’t a big milestone, just the frequency got less and less until it’s practically nil. Maybe had a cigar on my birthday.
Funnily enough, I expected at least some general improvement in lifestyle, but allergies mean my sense of taste is dulled anyway, and even the coughing after a night on the piss seems to be caused by alcohol because it still happens. I always figured it was smoking too much, but nope, it’s something else I do at parties. The only thing now is that my mouth doesn’t taste like an ashtray so much the next morning – but I seem to be more aware of the beer/whiskey coming out of my pores.
All a bit meh, really. I feel like I bought one of those amazing mattresses from the ads where everyone snaps awake to jump up and smile like maniacs, whereas I still wake up as grumpy as ever, lol
Do you exercise much McFlock?
My personal experience is that if you are 40+ and feeling less than sparkling, nothing even comes close to the positive change that locking in 30 min’s of sweat 6 days a week makes…
I think I’ve mentioned just today that I like to smoke, drink, and eat.
Those are the choices I make. My body is a temple, but I worship Dionysis.
As for exercise, it’s a bit like masturbation: most people do it to some degree but good taste suggests that it should not really be discussed, let alone performed, in public.
Although if people want to go to private clubs and exercise with each other, that’s their business.
+1
I certainly felt better after giving up smoking and then after I took up cycling.
Putting up taxes punished people with addiction and has only led to a burgeoning market for home grown and cured tobacco. Subsidised pharmaceutical products simply do not work for many, many smokers.
Meanwhile, I’ve yet to meet a smoker who took up vaping who hasn’t cut their tobacco intake substantially or completely.
Vapourising nicotine laced vegetable glycerine at around 30 or 40 degrees might not be entirely safe, but is certainly safer than tobacco, only costs a couple of dollars a week and, unlike patches, gum or pills, actually works in either cutting back nicotine intake or eliminating it altogether.
But then, the pharmaceutical companies don’t get all those public subsidies for their less than effective products. And that’s a bad thing.
Maybe ‘someone’ should fund studies that routinely or recklessly ‘dry burn’ vaporisers and then measure the toxins that come from scorched wicks and burned coils as a way to claim that vaping exposes users to all types of shit like formaldehyde and what have you? Oh, hang on. Already doing that! 😉
and conveniently bolster the consolidated fund..I wonder which is the main driver?
Of course it’s the objective. A fiscal incentive to quit.
The point is, the hardcore addict has no intention to quit, regardless the cost.
For example, my uncle had emphysema, yet was still smoking on his deathbed.
Ones I’ve spoken too merely redirect their expenditure, cutting out other consumer goods and services, negatively impacting on the return of other businesses and service providers.
The real concern is, how is it impacting on the hardcore smoking poor?
Is it contributing to crime, child poverty, etc?
I get pissed off every doctor’s visit when he has to rehash the lifestyle questions for the DHB, and is always pleased to find I no longer smoke. Sadly it’s moved out of my fiscal reach, and sanctimonious pricks think this is a good thing.
I liked it. I liked the variety, I liked the rituals, and I liked the excuse to just sit in the garden for an hour. And I liked the fact that I was saving the country money.
It slagged me off too. Pay to go see the doctor, only to be growled at for smoking .
Nope its not time to change it , unless you can prove that the expense has had no effect on young people taking up smoking. We have to break the cycle somehow . BTW I smoked for 17 years
Looks like rower Eric Murray decided against burning the NZ flag on the winner’s podium. A couple of weeks ago he was saying he wanted to take an alternative flag onto the podium to celebrate. The sport and politics meme is running hot at the moment.
http://cache1.asset-cache.net/gc/486977290-new-zealands-eric-murray-and-hamish-bond-gettyimages.jpg?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=X7WJLa88Cweo9HktRLaNXpgCGxl5OM4h1mbm%2BFlyK3H81HWeiZVVt96BICSp2fNGGKIoBuvQvfxnbRmF0uA9RA%3D%3D
For some time my favourite pseudonym on teh standard has been Esoteric Pineapple, but I have to admit now to some admiration for Mrs Brillo.
Book banned after Christian complaint
This obviously falls into the teaching children anything other than Christianity and is thus evil category.
Personally, I’d call Family First an Anti-Christian group. I certainly haven’t seen them act in any way that could be considered Christian.
Trouble is defining christianity. It has many iterations and like an old body changes as it ages with gradual small failures in its replication.
JC’s first day at his new job,
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/283480/john-campbell-starts-at-radio-nz
Bob McKroskie has managed to get an interim ban for a teenage novel “Into the River”.
According to stuff.co.nz:
“…Conservative lobbying group Family First, who pushed for the review and an R18 restriction, applauded the decision.
“We’ve empowered parents to start expressing their concerns about books more,” leader Bob McCoskrie said. “We believe the censor is out of touch with material parents don’t want their kids to be reading.”
McCoskrie supported a wider move to a film-like sticker rating system for books.
“We do it for movies so why not books? I think to be honest parents expect this to be happening.”
“These books can exert a significant influence. We just think its about age appropriateness.”
Family First claim the censor has received over 400 letters from concerned parents….”
I’m assuming the majority of those letters were the result of a campaign by Family First, and will either be from members or sympathisers, rather than genuine self-initiated complaints.
Books have the rare ability to enable you to process on an intimate level, the lives and experiences of someone else (fictional character or real person).
As an avid reader throughout my childhood and teenage years, my exposure to dark themes and violence was tempered by my lack of taste for such stories, but also by my ability to pace them at a speed that I could absorb, and to also skip passages that were too emotionally fraught. (Didn’t do that very often that I could recall, but I always had that option).
I’ve unfortunately met adults who can’t even discuss the straightforward and trite themes of Harry Potter, let alone countenance the Hunger Games. But stories are a great way of introducing people to diversity of thought, action and opinion.
And our reading public is one shade paler today by the loss of this NZ Post Children’s Book Award’s 2013 winner.
(I’m going have to consider buying one on Kindle now, just in protest even though it is not on my list of books to buy.)
I have a feeling this has come up before with this book. Wait until twitter get hold of it 😈
I’m figuring that’s Family Firsts biggest problem with the book – encouraging diversity.
One Shade of Grey paler anyway.
Hardly Farenheit 451 is it.
Republicans like Obama’s polices a LOT more if they’re attributed to Trump:
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/09/03/republicans-actually-do-like-obamas-ideas-when-they-think-theyre-trumps-poll-images/
Reminds me of polling here that showed that people actually liked Labour’s more left-wing policies without the Labour branding.
just heard Bob Jones is donating $500,000 to the refugee cause…for the education of 16 women refugees.
Bob Jones grooming his own personal harem shocker.