So while Eddie is banging on about the “substantive’ issue of Melissa Lee’s NZOA funding the Labour party is tearing itself apart. It seems Key could carry out a ritualistic sacrifice of his first born live on air and still be more electable than Phil-in.
micky, which of the quotes of Mr Little and Mr Goff’s spokesman do you think are untrue? If they are not untrue, don’t you think it destabilises Mr Goff’s leadership to have the party president criticise him for his policy decisions?
“There has been a range of reaction to the speech amongst the party membership and these reactions have been fully canvassed at last weekend’s New Zealand Council meeting. Like any major speech on a controversial issue there will continue to be discussion and reactions which is what needs to happen on these two crucial issues.
I support the stance taken by Phil in the speech and encourage ongoing discussion and debate about the issues that matter to New Zealanders.”
I think that you call this vindication.
Like I said, never trust anything you read in the Herald.
Mr Little said he supported the stance in raising the issue of relitigating treaty settlements Felix.
Mr Little was very careful with his words. He didn’t come out and say: “I give a ringing endorsement of Mr Goff’s speech. It was a great speech, and I approve of everything in it, and have no concerns with any of the issues or how they were raised. I particularly approve of the way Mr Goff titled his speech “Nationhood”.”
Mr Little in fact damned the speech by failing to endorse it. It says a lot about the power relationship between the president and the leader that Mr Little has to clarify a point on whether or not he has personal concerns with the leader’s speech, yet very craftily says he it is rightly Mr Goff’s position to question the government on two points, as if it is Mr Little’s job to approve policy positions announced by the Leader.
Mr Little certainly didn’t point out in his press release that at the last Labour conference he called the foreshore and seabed legislation a mistake, yet Mr Goff’s speech was a slap in the face to the position that Mr Little took at Labour’s conference.
Time will tell in the next couple of days just how much heat is aired at tomorrow’s caucus meeting I suppose.
So now TV3, radiolive, and TVNZ are running the same story Micky noting Mr Robertson’s discontent, Mr Ltitle’s critical comments of Mr Goff, and that it will be discussed as a point of contention in caucus tomorrow Micky. It seems to me not all is well in the Labour caucus at the moment, and you can’t blame it all on the Herald.
It seems to me that both Mr Little and Mr Robertson see themselves as Labour’s future leader, but they know their best chance is for Mr Cunliffe to take the reins going into the 2011 election and be blamed for the loss.
No it is a beat up. There is no mood to replace Goff as leader. There is discussion about his speech. No parliamentarian that I know of it has any concerns about the speech itself. Some members do but that is the left for you. We actually allow each other to have different beliefs and views and consider this to be healthy.
Some are worried that the right are spinning it to suggest that Goff is playing the race card. IMHO we should not allow the right to set the agenda or to apply their view of reality on us.
So what do you think of Mr Little’s comments, Micky? How is it that Mr Little has “personal concerns” with Mr Goff’s speech? That sounds to me that he does have concerns. Granted Mr Little is not a member of caucus, but he is a very senior and influential person in the party.
How about Mr Robertson? Does he have concerns about the speech? Reports suggest he does. Is this a beat up also?
It doesn’t sound like the right are setting the agenda re Mr Goff playing the race card. It sounds like Mr Robertson and Mr Little are fuelling the agenda.
Sounds to me like he’s a living breathing human being with his own opinions rather than an autominon who spends his days mindlessly parroting NACT talking points.
A living breathing human being who is the party president on the one hand, and a caucus member on the other, criticising the party leader. That puts a lie to Micky’s statement that no Labour MP has had concerns with Mr Goff’s speech.
I realize that the Nats are an autocracy and therefore have frequent back-room palace coups.
However Labour MPs are expected to hold their own opinions, but to follow due process. This is a more civilized process that is somewhat less feudal than the one that the tories cling to.
I prefer our process.
I commented on that rule yesterday. It has to be there in each parties rules because of the nature of MMP. If the Nats had any sense they’d use it on Melissa Lee who clearly lied to someone, probably John Key.
However you avoided my comment on the handling of dissent (ie not behaviour) in National and Labour respectively – which is a wholly different topic. I asserted that National acted like an antique autocratic feudalism, and Labour was more civilised and tolerated open dissent more easily.
You seem to avoid discussions that you’re not controlling the topic as much as TR did the other day. Not particularly healthy on the net. It usually means that someone is either a nutter or a PR hack. Which one are you?
On the Melissa Lee topic LP, there isn’t evidence of lying. I see you didn’t wade into the debate to counter my claims. Eddie gave up defending his position on it.
As for handling of dissent, there is a long history of it in the National Party as you know LP. Your statements on it really just are tribal nonsense.
Yes yes Tim – didn’t your doctor tell you not to get excited and stressed out. I’m sure that someone somewhere agrees with at least one of your points, and the others who don’t would accept that its time to agree to disagree.
Why don’t you give yourself a break from blogging for a whole day before it becomes an obsession that squeezes the joy of life out of you and twists your mind and wrenches your soul from its moorings etc.
What about this Federated Farmers approved application to run dairy-factory-farming? Jeanette Fitzsimons says in reply to the remark that there is shed farming in the south, that in fact these are shelters providing a place for cows to stay and keep warm and dry.
The applications to Canterbury Environment would be for 18,000 cows in stalls for 18hours 8 months a year, and the rest for 12hours. Feed would have to be brought to them, their effluent would be resprayed on the fields at optimum times. Industrial farming at its worst and the type of farming approach that led to the foot and mouth outbreak in Britain.
We have sold ourselves to the world on raising our stock on green pastures in a climate that other countries don’t enjoy. This would be seen as a drop in quality and image and we open ourselves to attack on transport miles if our produce is no different than what is available close to our sales locations. Our major export, that we have sacrificed most of our manufacturing work-rich jobs for, would be put under threat, and we would be allowing the cold-blooded types who are the same as the financiers we have learned to despise, take this factory approach, probably using newly developed technology which allows operations handled from a distant site, the swivel chair farmers! The type was exemplified in the case where a manager died of overwork, he was thinking he would be a sharemilker and build up a herd of his own, but his bosses laid so much on him that there weren’t enough hours in his day to handle their animals as well as his own.
I feel its the scale of what they are proposing that is the problem, rather than what they are proposing. I’d have a hard time believing that they would be able to hire enough qualified animal handlers capable of caring for that many very large animals in such a small space. The animal welfare implications would be mind blowing.
My suggestion for the proponents would be to start small and demonstrate you can do it humanely and in an environmentally responsible manner before trying to ramp up to such large numbers.
What about growing whatever in a suitable climate?
Sheep may be better for the cold south and more work done to improve that market than just milk rush after the fast dollar at the expense of animal welfare.
The bottom line, as ever, is profit. Regardless of the animal welfare issues or damage to New Zealand’s reputation these operations will make money for the people running them and apply price-pressures to anyone continuing the ‘old-fashioned’ way, forcing them to compete by squeezing more milk from more cows for even less cost. The inevitable herd-health, environmental and perceptual problems are ten years in the future, by which time the ones setting this up will have made their money, sold up and moved on leaving a hundred similar operations on the same slippery slope to the same problems and disasters.
New Zealand agriculture has shot itself in the head rather than the foot this way over the years but seems incapable of learning – i heard the President of New Zealand farmers on radio this morning blaming environmentalists for forcing farmers to adopt these practices.
British Labour Mp talking on Nat Radio this morning. Some are asking Gordon Brown to stand down as the belief is that if he remains, a Conservative govt will get in and be able to stay in for decades.
Interesting because I thought that is what happened with Helen Clark. A good leader but it seemed that only losing would get the Party to look for another and her to stand down. Now we have National which we all knew would be a disaster for the country. Now we have talk of privatising school property. Every time the right come in they push the jigsaw off the table and start doing it again, their own way. How useful is that to the country, expensive too.
think that we need to have a control system on leaders that they can’t serve more than two consecutive terms. The present system does not encourage new leaders to be nurtured. Leaders don’t like competition, it is regarded as disloyal. Muldoon managed to stand on Tallboys (and another’s) fingers.
You know, I am no greenie by a long stretch. I eat meat and I don’t believe, for instance, that trying to reduce carbon output (Kyoto, Copenhagen) has a hope in hell of saving the planet from global warming. I believe the only way to do that is use technology to sequester carbon and reduce the number of humans on the planet.
But I hate gratuitous cruelty to animals, I loathe treating creatures with intelligence as simple production tools. A cow – or a pig – is not a form of industrial robot.
The McKenzie country is high, cold, arid and infertile tussock country. It is a fragile environment not suitable for dairy farming. Factory farming cows in the McKenzie country is simply immoral greed writ appalllingly large from an industry that is not used to being told “no”. I cannot believe we would even consider this, buut then again Federated Farmers under the glogal warming denying, neo-liberal fanaticism that characterises the leadership of Don Nicolson appears to be heading down the Greg O’Conner route of irresponsibility.
I would go out of my way to boycott milk produced in such a way. Of course, Fonterra will go out of its way to try and make sure I don’t know where the milk is sourced from. I am lucky in that I live near a charming couple who run their own organic dairy unit, so I can get “happy” milk anytime. But even then, why should I have to go to such trouble to simply source ethically and sustainably produced dairy produce??
The only solution is to make quite clear to Nicholson and the rest of his hateful, cruel big-farm mates that there will be direct action against their farms, and plenty of New Zealanders will be calling for an international boycott of our dairy industry if this is the only way to the march of immoral greed in our farming industry.
With you all the way on animal cruelty, I have never ceased to be amazed at how some stock are treated by farmers, its so variable between those who care and those who dont.
On the dairy issue, the whole industry is highly reliant on energy, to pump water, milk cows, move milk long distance etc, not to mention the energy input costs of maintaining marginal land as feedstock for animals. If the price of energy were to spike upwards even a minor amount the whole economic viability of production in remote or marginal areas would collapse quickly. I can assure you this will happen, hopefully before your concerns with animal welfare are realised. Its just another one of the elephants in the room that we prefer not to see, its called peak oil.
Fonterra appointed a new top guy a wee while ago and the comment was made that he was a commodity trader rather than a brand supporter or developer of value-added products. The result of these very large dairy farms will be to increase the supply of milk but run the risk of dirtying the brand that is our crown jewel.
Then there is the water needed. These big businesses are pretty cold-eyed, they will try to get water rights for long terms. Even if others can’t get the water they need in the future, they will have supplies sewn up legally. Australia is running out of water, why wouldn’t some of their capital come here and find a way to utilise this asset of ours as well. There are long-term contracts already being made that will give some rich guys great advantage. Environment Canterbury I am pretty sure, said about water and the environment, that it didn’t want to grant too many rights for tree planting at the heads of catchments because that would reduce the amount available downstream. A queer attitude from a practical environmental perspective.
Lastly, in early colonial days the govt stepped in to prevent a few wealthy men getting large tracts of land so they could not follow the path of British aristocratic land grabbing and become squatters here.
But that is actually what is happening now, the small dairy farmer is being squeezed out. And the Crayfurs and the Gillespies are examples of the greedy being able to leverage their way onto farms they couldn’t afford or manage properly, but causing the land price to rise because of demand from such financial gamers.
Yes Sanctuary, the Feds are big and snide, and pretend that they are trying to make environmental changes to improve their pollution, but will need strong disapproval to stop them marching on in the way they prefer. Many farmers are planting flax along streams etc. but the big ones I don’t think have such ideas in their business plans that will squeeze out the most profit for them.
One idea for using pollution from cowyards was to harness it for energy use from methane produced. I wonder if that has proved to provide useful power with low wastes.
There are presently troubles for some farmers trying to stop thefts from their farms with cables for remote cameras being cut etc. I would think that such things may be done to harrass the factory and polluting farmers if they are allowed to continue ‘creaming’ the country. They are worse than foul-mouthed politicians and those trying dodgy methods to increase their salaries.
Since this post has a lot of people on the left saying that the left are good at handling dissenting views, GC, I doubt I’ll be banned for putting forward a contrary opinion.
[lprent: No. We don’t ban for contrary opinions. We usually ban for trolling and other attacks on the operation of this site.
Since much of the time the authors of posts don’t agree between themselves that wouldn’t be a particularly effective way to run a site.
I think you’ve been banned twice by Irish (the second time I’d have banned you as well if he hadn’t done it first). Both times were for personally attacking the authors of posts for what they wrote rather than what they were writing about. That is something the moderators do not allow.]
Just because people get tired of going around in circles with you about imaginary points you’ve pulled out of your arse doesn’t mean that anyone “gave up defending his position”.
In fact there are a lot of responses to all of your claims on that thread, most of which you haven’t even bothered to address. Does that mean you “gave up defending your position” too, Tim?
Yes I’ve noticed that too PB. The front page seems to miss the first post for a while and the posts frequently go to a different page thing.
[lprent: That is probably the super-cache. It stores generated pages and will sometimes serve up old pages when the system is under load.
Looks like we’re having another spamming attack *sigh*. There was one on friday evening as well (actually pulled down the server for a couple of 10 minute stints). It is a bloody noisy environment and every so often we get a string of attacks that amount to denial of service attacks. ]
Ok. Looks like I pushed down the limits on simultaneous connections too far on fridays attacks. Pushed it back up again. That should let through the css files that were failing to be loaded where the client side didn’t have them cached.
I need a better mechanism for defeating the multiple-connection spam attacks.
Interesting collection of Paul Krugman quotes talking about the need to lower interest rates for a housing led recovery back in 2001 precipitating the housing bubble in the US and people still listen to these Keynesians. Krugman Did Cause the Housing Bubble.
To fight this recession the Fed needs more than a snapback; it needs soaring household spending to offset moribund business investment. And to do that, as Paul McCulley of Pimco put it, Alan Greenspan needs to create a housing bubble to replace the Nasdaq bubble.
All this stupid talk about leadership change reminds me of the time when Helen Clark was on 2% . Remember how Banks refered to HC as miss 2% every day on his talk back show. Wake up people the Right will always have the upper hand regarding publicity . How long ago since we had a Left Wing Paper, Left Wing TV channel, or a talk back show. The only way the Left can get its message across is by direct involvement or Union activity.
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She was born 25 years ago today in North Shore hospital. Her eyes were closed tightly shut, her mouth was silently moving. The whole theatre was all quiet intensity as they marked her a 2 on the APGAR test. A one-minute eternity later, she was an 8. The universe was ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is Antarctica gaining land ice? ...
Images of US students (and others) protesting and setting up tent cities on US university campuses have been broadcast world wide and clearly demonstrate the growing rifts in US society caused by US policy toward Israel and Israel’s prosecution of … Continue reading → ...
Barrie Saunders writes – Dear Paul As the new Minister of Media and Communications, you will be inundated with heaps of free advice and special pleading, all in the national interest of course. For what it’s worth here is my assessment: Traditional broadcasting free to air content through ...
Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its arguments for such a bold reform. ...
Peter Dunne writes – The great nineteenth British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, once observed that “the first essential for a Prime Minister is to be a good butcher.” When a later British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, sacked a third of his Cabinet in July 1962, in what became ...
Ele Ludemann writes – New Zealanders had the OECD’s second highest tax increase last year: New Zealanders faced the second-biggest tax raises in the developed world last year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says. The intergovernmental agency said the average change in personal income tax ...
We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Simon Clark. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). This year you will be lied to! Simon Clark helps prebunk some misleading statements you'll hear about climate. The video includes ...
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
By Jo Moir, RNZ News political editor, and Craig McCulloch, deputy political editor New Zealand’s Labour Party is demanding Winston Peters be stood down as Foreign Minister for opening up the government to legal action over his “totally unacceptable” attack on a prominent AUKUS critic. In an interview on RNZ’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christian Brakenridge, Postdoctoral research fellow at Swinburne University, Centre for Urban Transitions, Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute The Conversation, Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock People have a pretty intuitive sense of what is healthy – standing is better than sitting, exercise is great for overall ...
The Wellington-based Reserve Force soldier is now almost three years into his New Zealand Army career with 5th/7th Battalion, Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment. ...
"The Government needs to release the review immediately as this reckless approach to change risks disjointed decision making and creates more distress and uncertainty for staff," Fitzsimons said. ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor Jeremiah Manele has been elected Prime Minister of Solomon Islands, polling 31 votes to 18 over rival candidate and former opposition leader Mathew Wale with one abstention. The final result of the election by secret ballot was announced by the Governor-General, Sir David Vunagi, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Priestley Habru, PhD candidate, public diplomacy, University of Adelaide Former foreign minister Jeremiah Manele has been elected the next prime minister of Solomon Islands, defeating the opposition leader, Matthew Wale, in a vote in parliament. The result is a mixed bag for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shaun Eaves, Senior Lecturer in Physical Geography, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington Jamey Stutz, CC BY-SA How often do mountains collapse, volcanoes erupt or ice sheets melt? For Earth scientists, these are important questions as we try ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Flood, Professor of Sociology, Queensland University of Technology Shutterstock Most young adult men in Australia reject traditional ideas of masculinity that endorse aggression, stoicism and homophobia. Nonetheless, the ongoing influence of those ideas continues to harm men and the people ...
The NZQA proposal released to staff today would involve a net loss of 35 roles. There are 66 roles being disestablished with 13 of those currently vacant, and 31 new roles proposed, said Fleur Fitzsimons Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga ...
Alex Casey talks to Loren Taylor, the writer, director and star of new film The Moon is Upside Down, about assembling her dream ensemble cast, toilet paper pads and turning literal dreams into reality. There’s a moment in The Moon is Upside Down where frazzled anaesthetist Briar (Loren Taylor) gets ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cassy Dittman, Senior Lecturer/Head of Course (Undergraduate Psychology), Research Fellow, Manna Institute, CQUniversity Australia With winter sports swinging into action, adults around the country have volunteered or been volunteered by others (humorously known as being “volun-told”) to coach junior sports teams. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Karleen Gribble, Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Western Sydney University richardernestyap/Shutterstock Parents are often advised to burp their babies after feeding them. Some people think burping after feeding is important to reduce or prevent discomfort crying, or to ...
Workers at a major ASB contact centre in Auckland have voted to take strike action and withdraw their labour following disappointing pay negotiations with the employer and an "offer" to workers that would leave them worse off than the previous year. ...
As the government tries to get the country back on track with a school phone ban, Tara Ward has an idea for where they should turn their attention to next.New Zealand students returned to school on Monday morning, but their cellphones did not. The government’s new phone ban began ...
The Labour Party is demanding Peters be stood down, saying "he's embarrassed the country" with a "totally unacceptable" attack on a prominent AUKUS critic. ...
The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance, whose members were victims of a China-backed cyber attack, is discussing forming a standing committee to deal with foreign influence. ...
The PSA is concerned that the voluntary redundancies being offered to staff by Stats NZ will impact on the agency’s ability to deliver on its core functions. ...
Results ranged from surprisingly yum to soul-destroying. I love cooking. The kitchen is a hearth of culinary creation, of sensory delights, of gastronomic poetry. I also can’t afford anything nice. Why does a pack of instant noodles and some milk cost ten bucks? I love you, Aotearoa, but I miss ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor Police in Solomon Islands are on high alert ahead of the election of the prime minister today. The two candidates for the top job are former foreign affairs minister Jeremiah Manele at the head of the Coalition for National Unity and Transformation, which is ...
He’s fine but it feels like I’m losing a friend and it’s making me bitter. How do I say ‘enough is enough’? Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzHey Hera,I’ve recently moved in with a girlfriend, her partner Steve, and his friend. We all live in a lovely little house. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nick Chartres, Senior Research Fellow, Faculty of Medicine & Health, University of Sydney shutterstockAhmet Misirligul/Shutterstock You go to the gym, eat healthy and walk as much as possible. You wash your hands and get vaccinated. You control your health. This is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jacqueline Hendriks, Research Fellow and Lecturer, Curtin University Children and young people may be seeing news headlines about men murdering women or footage of people rallying to call for action. Perhaps they or their friends have even gone to the protests. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jessica Balanzategui, Senior Lecturer in Media, RMIT University ABC “Bluey mania” shows no sign of abating. Bluey’s season finale, The Sign, was the most viewed ABC program of all time on iView. A “hidden” follow-up episode, aptly named The Surprise, created ...
Labour market figures came in softer than the Reserve Bank had forecast, but they won’t be enough to move the needle on interest rates, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. Unemployment ...
The campaign will engage the community and encourage submissions on the bill to the New Zealand government by the closing submission deadline of Friday 31st of May 2024 4pm. ...
The paper raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand's political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency plays in that. ...
The Urban Habitat Collective was an attempt to built an innovative new form of apartment building in Wellington. Here’s why it failed, and why the idea could still work, writes co-founder Bronwen Newton. When we started the Urban Habitat Collective in November 2018, we thought we were starting a revolution, ...
Two decades ago this week, a controversial law that attempted to define ownership of the foreshore and seabed prompted a formidable display of outrage and kōtahitanga as 15,000 marched to parliament. Jamie Tahana looks back.‘Hīkoi, hīkoi,” they chanted by the thousands as the biggest Māori march in a generation ...
Why has New Zealand slipped from third to 12th on Quality of Death Indexes over the past decade or so? Hospice New Zealand Chief Executive Wayne Naylor has a list of reasons. “We don’t have a current national strategy – the Government hasn’t renewed our 2001 strategy, so we don’t ...
While women’s sport is exploding in Aotearoa and around the world, you still don’t hear a lot of talk about athletes and their periods, RED-S, breastfeeding and visible panty-lines. SASS (Suze and Sez Sports)Talk isn’t afraid to have that kōrero.LockerRoom founder Suzanne McFadden and Olympian broadcaster Sarah ...
On an unusually hot night in January 2019, a little boy’s lifeless body was found face up in a small town’s sewage oxidation pond. To the police, it was an open and shut case: three-year-old Lachlan Jones had run away from his home in the Southland town of Gore, climbed ...
A Labour Party Member’s Bill aims to plug a culpability gap between manslaughter and health and safety breaches The post New push for corporate killing laws appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Terence O’Brien had the rare and no doubt undesired distinction of rising to one of the most exalted positions in New Zealand diplomacy, then being unceremoniously recalled to Wellington without explanation just when his career was at its zenith. What is perhaps more surprising is that he appears to have ...
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Rongotai MP Julie Anne Genter has apologised in Parliament after National accused her of intimidating and attacking one of its ministers in the House. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Prime Minister and state and territory leaders met on Wednesday as the national cabinet to discuss a crisis gripping Australia – the horrific number of women murdered this year. The killings have shocked ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Radhika Raghav, Teaching Fellow, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Otago Netflix Indian director Sanjay Leela Bhansali is known for his big-budget Bollywood production, featuring grand sets, star casts, meticulously choreographed dance sequences and lavish costumes, jewellery and furnishings. ...
Sir Robert devoted his life to disability rights after living in institutions in his younger years, says Kaihautū Tika Hauātanga | Disability Rights Commissioner Prudence Walker. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University Violence against women is not a women’s problem to solve, it is a whole of society problem to solve; and men in particular have to take responsibility. Those were the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jessica Allen, Senior Lecturer in Chemical and Renewable Energy Engineering, University of Newcastle Snapshot freddy/ShutterstockPlans to revive an old coal-fired power station using bioenergy are being considered in the Hunter region of New South Wales. Similar plans for the station ...
Responding to the long-awaited release of judges’ special allowances, including free air travel and hotels for spouses, generous sabbaticals, and access to limousines, Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Alex Murphy said: “In what world does your employer ...
Analysis - The United States has unveiled plans to boost the weapons trade with Australia and the UK, on the same day that Winston Peters is expected to sketch NZ's position on AUKUS. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrea Carson, Professor of Political Communication, Department of Politics, Media and Philosophy, La Trobe University Since Australia’s First Nations Voice to Parliament referendum in October 2023, diverse commentaries have sought to explain why it failed. But what does an analysis of media ...
Lawyers representing two iwi as well as the Māori Women’s Welfare League on Wednesday asked the Court of Appeal to overturn last week’s High Court decision on the Waitangi Tribunal’s decision to summons Children’s Minister Karen Chhour. The Tribunal is currently investigating the Government’s decision to repeal section 7AA of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Albanese government will introduce legislation to ban deepfake pornography and provide more funding for the eSafety Commission to pilot age-assurance technologies. The contribution of internet sites to gender-based violence was one major issue ...
I wonder what the political motive is for this play by Andrew ?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10613894
So while Eddie is banging on about the “substantive’ issue of Melissa Lee’s NZOA funding the Labour party is tearing itself apart. It seems Key could carry out a ritualistic sacrifice of his first born live on air and still be more electable than Phil-in.
Surely Jones or Cunliffe are working the numbers?
Sorry Seti
From long practice I have learned that you should not believe everything that you read in the Herald.
micky, which of the quotes of Mr Little and Mr Goff’s spokesman do you think are untrue? If they are not untrue, don’t you think it destabilises Mr Goff’s leadership to have the party president criticise him for his policy decisions?
Tim
Straight from the Horse’s mouth.
In particular,
“There has been a range of reaction to the speech amongst the party membership and these reactions have been fully canvassed at last weekend’s New Zealand Council meeting. Like any major speech on a controversial issue there will continue to be discussion and reactions which is what needs to happen on these two crucial issues.
I support the stance taken by Phil in the speech and encourage ongoing discussion and debate about the issues that matter to New Zealanders.”
I think that you call this vindication.
Like I said, never trust anything you read in the Herald.
Micky Mr Little’s press release is more important in what it doesn’t say than what it does. It doesn’t say that Mr Little was happy with the speech.
Just as an aside there seems to be a quote mark in your link that shouldn’t be there, perhaps a moderator can edit it so that it works properly.
[Fixed.]
“I support the stance taken by Phil in the speech and encourage ongoing discussion and debate about the issues that matter to New Zealanders.’
Will there be anything else, my petulant child?
Mr Little said he supported the stance in raising the issue of relitigating treaty settlements Felix.
Mr Little was very careful with his words. He didn’t come out and say: “I give a ringing endorsement of Mr Goff’s speech. It was a great speech, and I approve of everything in it, and have no concerns with any of the issues or how they were raised. I particularly approve of the way Mr Goff titled his speech “Nationhood”.”
Mr Little in fact damned the speech by failing to endorse it. It says a lot about the power relationship between the president and the leader that Mr Little has to clarify a point on whether or not he has personal concerns with the leader’s speech, yet very craftily says he it is rightly Mr Goff’s position to question the government on two points, as if it is Mr Little’s job to approve policy positions announced by the Leader.
Mr Little certainly didn’t point out in his press release that at the last Labour conference he called the foreshore and seabed legislation a mistake, yet Mr Goff’s speech was a slap in the face to the position that Mr Little took at Labour’s conference.
Time will tell in the next couple of days just how much heat is aired at tomorrow’s caucus meeting I suppose.
That’s it mickey – denial is the best course when the truth is unbearable.
This is a sad end to Goffs long but pretty boring life in politics..
So now TV3, radiolive, and TVNZ are running the same story Micky noting Mr Robertson’s discontent, Mr Ltitle’s critical comments of Mr Goff, and that it will be discussed as a point of contention in caucus tomorrow Micky. It seems to me not all is well in the Labour caucus at the moment, and you can’t blame it all on the Herald.
Those are interesting points Seti.
It seems to me that both Mr Little and Mr Robertson see themselves as Labour’s future leader, but they know their best chance is for Mr Cunliffe to take the reins going into the 2011 election and be blamed for the loss.
No it is a beat up. There is no mood to replace Goff as leader. There is discussion about his speech. No parliamentarian that I know of it has any concerns about the speech itself. Some members do but that is the left for you. We actually allow each other to have different beliefs and views and consider this to be healthy.
Some are worried that the right are spinning it to suggest that Goff is playing the race card. IMHO we should not allow the right to set the agenda or to apply their view of reality on us.
So what do you think of Mr Little’s comments, Micky? How is it that Mr Little has “personal concerns” with Mr Goff’s speech? That sounds to me that he does have concerns. Granted Mr Little is not a member of caucus, but he is a very senior and influential person in the party.
How about Mr Robertson? Does he have concerns about the speech? Reports suggest he does. Is this a beat up also?
It doesn’t sound like the right are setting the agenda re Mr Goff playing the race card. It sounds like Mr Robertson and Mr Little are fuelling the agenda.
Sounds to me like he’s a living breathing human being with his own opinions rather than an autominon who spends his days mindlessly parroting NACT talking points.
A living breathing human being who is the party president on the one hand, and a caucus member on the other, criticising the party leader. That puts a lie to Micky’s statement that no Labour MP has had concerns with Mr Goff’s speech.
News Flash!
Labour MP’s hold own opinions
must be a fucking slow news day.
News flash, Mr Brown. Mr Goff is at five percent in the polls, and his colleagues are openly criticising him. Can’t see his leadership lasting long.
I realize that the Nats are an autocracy and therefore have frequent back-room palace coups.
However Labour MPs are expected to hold their own opinions, but to follow due process. This is a more civilized process that is somewhat less feudal than the one that the tories cling to.
I prefer our process.
Rule 242 LP, plus just yesterday Mr Mallard was gloating about the ease by which Labour leaders can dump list MPs from Parliament.
Gloating about the ease or explaining that there was a process for doing so?
I commented on that rule yesterday. It has to be there in each parties rules because of the nature of MMP. If the Nats had any sense they’d use it on Melissa Lee who clearly lied to someone, probably John Key.
However you avoided my comment on the handling of dissent (ie not behaviour) in National and Labour respectively – which is a wholly different topic. I asserted that National acted like an antique autocratic feudalism, and Labour was more civilised and tolerated open dissent more easily.
You seem to avoid discussions that you’re not controlling the topic as much as TR did the other day. Not particularly healthy on the net. It usually means that someone is either a nutter or a PR hack. Which one are you?
On the Melissa Lee topic LP, there isn’t evidence of lying. I see you didn’t wade into the debate to counter my claims. Eddie gave up defending his position on it.
As for handling of dissent, there is a long history of it in the National Party as you know LP. Your statements on it really just are tribal nonsense.
Yes yes Tim – didn’t your doctor tell you not to get excited and stressed out. I’m sure that someone somewhere agrees with at least one of your points, and the others who don’t would accept that its time to agree to disagree.
Why don’t you give yourself a break from blogging for a whole day before it becomes an obsession that squeezes the joy of life out of you and twists your mind and wrenches your soul from its moorings etc.
Hi Tim. Got any plans for the rest of the day?
Reminder: must complain to Red Alert for banning Tim Ellis so that he feels the need to post here a billion times a day…
Trevor had the same complaint when Timmeh was banned from here.
You are misquoting me. I was referring to the words of the speech themselves. Of course the speech and subsequent commentary has invoked discussion.
Now how about a discussion about some really big issues such as global warming or corruption in New Zealand?
While Goldman Sachs guys are arming themselves in fear of populist outrage, Morgan Stanley VC says ‘bring it on’…
http://trueslant.com/matttaibbi/2009/12/03/the-ultimate-vanity-plate/
What about this Federated Farmers approved application to run dairy-factory-farming? Jeanette Fitzsimons says in reply to the remark that there is shed farming in the south, that in fact these are shelters providing a place for cows to stay and keep warm and dry.
The applications to Canterbury Environment would be for 18,000 cows in stalls for 18hours 8 months a year, and the rest for 12hours. Feed would have to be brought to them, their effluent would be resprayed on the fields at optimum times. Industrial farming at its worst and the type of farming approach that led to the foot and mouth outbreak in Britain.
We have sold ourselves to the world on raising our stock on green pastures in a climate that other countries don’t enjoy. This would be seen as a drop in quality and image and we open ourselves to attack on transport miles if our produce is no different than what is available close to our sales locations. Our major export, that we have sacrificed most of our manufacturing work-rich jobs for, would be put under threat, and we would be allowing the cold-blooded types who are the same as the financiers we have learned to despise, take this factory approach, probably using newly developed technology which allows operations handled from a distant site, the swivel chair farmers! The type was exemplified in the case where a manager died of overwork, he was thinking he would be a sharemilker and build up a herd of his own, but his bosses laid so much on him that there weren’t enough hours in his day to handle their animals as well as his own.
I feel its the scale of what they are proposing that is the problem, rather than what they are proposing. I’d have a hard time believing that they would be able to hire enough qualified animal handlers capable of caring for that many very large animals in such a small space. The animal welfare implications would be mind blowing.
My suggestion for the proponents would be to start small and demonstrate you can do it humanely and in an environmentally responsible manner before trying to ramp up to such large numbers.
What about growing whatever in a suitable climate?
Sheep may be better for the cold south and more work done to improve that market than just milk rush after the fast dollar at the expense of animal welfare.
The bottom line, as ever, is profit. Regardless of the animal welfare issues or damage to New Zealand’s reputation these operations will make money for the people running them and apply price-pressures to anyone continuing the ‘old-fashioned’ way, forcing them to compete by squeezing more milk from more cows for even less cost. The inevitable herd-health, environmental and perceptual problems are ten years in the future, by which time the ones setting this up will have made their money, sold up and moved on leaving a hundred similar operations on the same slippery slope to the same problems and disasters.
New Zealand agriculture has shot itself in the head rather than the foot this way over the years but seems incapable of learning – i heard the President of New Zealand farmers on radio this morning blaming environmentalists for forcing farmers to adopt these practices.
You obviously have little faith in the government who are supposed to police the Animal Welfare Act and Resource Management Act.
Given the pitiful amount of resources MAF puts into policing animal welfare that is not without some justification.
British Labour Mp talking on Nat Radio this morning. Some are asking Gordon Brown to stand down as the belief is that if he remains, a Conservative govt will get in and be able to stay in for decades.
Interesting because I thought that is what happened with Helen Clark. A good leader but it seemed that only losing would get the Party to look for another and her to stand down. Now we have National which we all knew would be a disaster for the country. Now we have talk of privatising school property. Every time the right come in they push the jigsaw off the table and start doing it again, their own way. How useful is that to the country, expensive too.
think that we need to have a control system on leaders that they can’t serve more than two consecutive terms. The present system does not encourage new leaders to be nurtured. Leaders don’t like competition, it is regarded as disloyal. Muldoon managed to stand on Tallboys (and another’s) fingers.
You know, I am no greenie by a long stretch. I eat meat and I don’t believe, for instance, that trying to reduce carbon output (Kyoto, Copenhagen) has a hope in hell of saving the planet from global warming. I believe the only way to do that is use technology to sequester carbon and reduce the number of humans on the planet.
But I hate gratuitous cruelty to animals, I loathe treating creatures with intelligence as simple production tools. A cow – or a pig – is not a form of industrial robot.
The McKenzie country is high, cold, arid and infertile tussock country. It is a fragile environment not suitable for dairy farming. Factory farming cows in the McKenzie country is simply immoral greed writ appalllingly large from an industry that is not used to being told “no”. I cannot believe we would even consider this, buut then again Federated Farmers under the glogal warming denying, neo-liberal fanaticism that characterises the leadership of Don Nicolson appears to be heading down the Greg O’Conner route of irresponsibility.
I would go out of my way to boycott milk produced in such a way. Of course, Fonterra will go out of its way to try and make sure I don’t know where the milk is sourced from. I am lucky in that I live near a charming couple who run their own organic dairy unit, so I can get “happy” milk anytime. But even then, why should I have to go to such trouble to simply source ethically and sustainably produced dairy produce??
The only solution is to make quite clear to Nicholson and the rest of his hateful, cruel big-farm mates that there will be direct action against their farms, and plenty of New Zealanders will be calling for an international boycott of our dairy industry if this is the only way to the march of immoral greed in our farming industry.
With you all the way on animal cruelty, I have never ceased to be amazed at how some stock are treated by farmers, its so variable between those who care and those who dont.
On the dairy issue, the whole industry is highly reliant on energy, to pump water, milk cows, move milk long distance etc, not to mention the energy input costs of maintaining marginal land as feedstock for animals. If the price of energy were to spike upwards even a minor amount the whole economic viability of production in remote or marginal areas would collapse quickly. I can assure you this will happen, hopefully before your concerns with animal welfare are realised. Its just another one of the elephants in the room that we prefer not to see, its called peak oil.
Fonterra appointed a new top guy a wee while ago and the comment was made that he was a commodity trader rather than a brand supporter or developer of value-added products. The result of these very large dairy farms will be to increase the supply of milk but run the risk of dirtying the brand that is our crown jewel.
Then there is the water needed. These big businesses are pretty cold-eyed, they will try to get water rights for long terms. Even if others can’t get the water they need in the future, they will have supplies sewn up legally. Australia is running out of water, why wouldn’t some of their capital come here and find a way to utilise this asset of ours as well. There are long-term contracts already being made that will give some rich guys great advantage. Environment Canterbury I am pretty sure, said about water and the environment, that it didn’t want to grant too many rights for tree planting at the heads of catchments because that would reduce the amount available downstream. A queer attitude from a practical environmental perspective.
Lastly, in early colonial days the govt stepped in to prevent a few wealthy men getting large tracts of land so they could not follow the path of British aristocratic land grabbing and become squatters here.
But that is actually what is happening now, the small dairy farmer is being squeezed out. And the Crayfurs and the Gillespies are examples of the greedy being able to leverage their way onto farms they couldn’t afford or manage properly, but causing the land price to rise because of demand from such financial gamers.
Yes Sanctuary, the Feds are big and snide, and pretend that they are trying to make environmental changes to improve their pollution, but will need strong disapproval to stop them marching on in the way they prefer. Many farmers are planting flax along streams etc. but the big ones I don’t think have such ideas in their business plans that will squeeze out the most profit for them.
One idea for using pollution from cowyards was to harness it for energy use from methane produced. I wonder if that has proved to provide useful power with low wastes.
There are presently troubles for some farmers trying to stop thefts from their farms with cables for remote cameras being cut etc. I would think that such things may be done to harrass the factory and polluting farmers if they are allowed to continue ‘creaming’ the country. They are worse than foul-mouthed politicians and those trying dodgy methods to increase their salaries.
I asserted that National acted like an antique autocratic feudalism,
cf Richard Worth, who was drummed out of parliament for making the king look bad.
So it’s not just me then.
Lynn, the comments seem to be out of sequence.
Oh Timmy you’ll end up banned again.
Since this post has a lot of people on the left saying that the left are good at handling dissenting views, GC, I doubt I’ll be banned for putting forward a contrary opinion.
[lprent: No. We don’t ban for contrary opinions. We usually ban for trolling and other attacks on the operation of this site.
Since much of the time the authors of posts don’t agree between themselves that wouldn’t be a particularly effective way to run a site.
I think you’ve been banned twice by Irish (the second time I’d have banned you as well if he hadn’t done it first). Both times were for personally attacking the authors of posts for what they wrote rather than what they were writing about. That is something the moderators do not allow.]
No, you’ll probably get banned for being an obnoxious troll as you usually do.
Then you’ll complain that you were really banned because of your contrary opinions, as all trolls do.
I dunno Tim, I saw the thread about Lee.
Just because people get tired of going around in circles with you about imaginary points you’ve pulled out of your arse doesn’t mean that anyone “gave up defending his position”.
In fact there are a lot of responses to all of your claims on that thread, most of which you haven’t even bothered to address. Does that mean you “gave up defending your position” too, Tim?
Seems comments are being inserted to the thread almost at random?
Or izzat jus me?
[lprent: Odd. I’ll have a peek at the SQL server. ]
Yes I’ve noticed that too PB. The front page seems to miss the first post for a while and the posts frequently go to a different page thing.
[lprent: That is probably the super-cache. It stores generated pages and will sometimes serve up old pages when the system is under load.
Looks like we’re having another spamming attack *sigh*. There was one on friday evening as well (actually pulled down the server for a couple of 10 minute stints). It is a bloody noisy environment and every so often we get a string of attacks that amount to denial of service attacks. ]
fair enough LP, a system administrators job is never done!
Ok. Looks like I pushed down the limits on simultaneous connections too far on fridays attacks. Pushed it back up again. That should let through the css files that were failing to be loaded where the client side didn’t have them cached.
I need a better mechanism for defeating the multiple-connection spam attacks.
Interesting collection of Paul Krugman quotes talking about the need to lower interest rates for a housing led recovery back in 2001 precipitating the housing bubble in the US and people still listen to these Keynesians. Krugman Did Cause the Housing Bubble.
An even better Krugman quote here:
Keynesian FAIL.
All this stupid talk about leadership change reminds me of the time when Helen Clark was on 2% . Remember how Banks refered to HC as miss 2% every day on his talk back show. Wake up people the Right will always have the upper hand regarding publicity . How long ago since we had a Left Wing Paper, Left Wing TV channel, or a talk back show. The only way the Left can get its message across is by direct involvement or Union activity.
[lprent: we try as well…]
Interesting reading brought to you from beyond the grave from Isaac Asimov (one of my favorite writers of all time).
Credit to PZ Myers linking to an essay by him in his blog on the fuzzy nature of right and wrong when it comes to knowing things.
http://chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience/RelativityofWrong.htm