Every post here since Key’s announcement on Monday has been boo-Key and boo-National.
National are vulnerable. The public will have an extra look to see who they think can run Government competently. But I see mostly see Opposition mud flying, still. It seems like a stupid first impression post-Key to present to the public.
If opposition parties, and supporting online forums like The Standard, want to take advantage of National’s vulnerability surely they can at least try to look better, rather than worse.
This blog and others from the right or left of politics are not the face of a political bloc in NZ – they are the venting and ravings of a few signifying nothing. Most voters will look at those they are voting for and the respective party leaders when casting their vote at the general election not the standard where all authors and the vast majority of commenters have decided how they will vote years out from the election usually due to their entrenched views and personal prejudices
Pete, maybe you would prefer to read the thoughts of one of the Herald writers on Keys departure… ?
“I could have chosen to dress up my column today with all sorts of nuanced, insightful, and charitable words about John Key’s departure. It’d be akin to going to someone’s funeral that you consistently bagged – both publicly and privately. Tacky”
The opposition parties were on fire in Parliament yesterday, and I for one am extremely proud of how they have approached this shocking news.
The statesman like response from the future PM of NZ aka Alpha Andy and Grant Robertson on the day Key announced his resignation spoke volumes. A stark contrast to the negative little personal put downs from the PM whom has quit.
How about starting the day singing praises about the opposition parties rather than whining about Keys resignation and the fact that the national party is in tatters. Where are your positive stories about the outgoing government in the last few days Pete?
What a stream of negativity, and what could be more negative than lying about the Opposition’s response to Key’s resignation:
On behalf of Metiria, the Green Party MPs and the Party, I would like to thank John Key for his eight years of service as Prime Minister,” said Green Party Co-leader James Shaw.
“No matter your political allegiance, you have to respect someone who chooses to make the personal sacrifices required to be our country’s Prime Minister.”
John Key has served New Zealand generously and with dedication. Although we may have had our policy differences over the years, I respect the Prime Minister’s decision to stand down.
“I can empathise with his reasons. Politics requires much sacrifice. We may all be politicians, but not all our lives are politics.
“The Prime Minister has served New Zealand through times of considerable global instability, and will leave politics proud of his achievements. I wish him and his family the best for the future.
“Labour is ready and willing to contest the 2017 general election. We will present a credible choice for people and look forward to the opportunity to contest the election on our values and vision for New Zealand.”
Why does Petty George tell so many desperate unoriginal lies? Does anyone care?
“On behalf of Metiria”
Did he talk to Metria before he came out with this statement? It certainly isn’t the approach that Turei was expounding in her mean spirited little contribution in Parliament yesterday.
Have they decided to play “good cop (Shaw) bad cop (Turei)”?
The political parties in the Opposition are crazy. They should learn from the way Key behaved after Helen Clark was defeated and stood down after the 2008 election.
She was defeated. She didn’t matter any more. He didn’t waste even a moment kicking a relic of the past on the side of the road because there was absolutely nothing to be gained.
Why are Labour and the Green MPs continuing the fight with someone who is retiring. All they do is exhibit their bitter little approach to life. Wait till there is a new National leader, and Prime Minister, and attack them. That is what Key did. He forgot Clark and aimed his fire at the new leader from that moment on. Staying on a path that attacks Key is stupid.
It doesn’t matter for people who contribute to this website, just as it didn’t matter to people who contributed to attacks on Clark on other sites after she had stood down. They were not MPs and nobody really cared about the mad ravings of a pack of loons, then against Clark or now against Key.
It is MPs who have to avoid looking like idiots.
Hi Alwyn, were you watching yesterday? I noticed a very cohesive group of opposition MP’s in the house yesterday, concentrating their questions on possible nat party leaders.
3. ANDREW LITTLE to the Minister of Finance: Does he stand by his statement that “the prices you pay for a house are ridiculous”, given New Zealand house prices have risen by over 50 percent since he made that statement? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b09iWjnarLE
4. Hon ANNETTE KING to the Minister of Health: Does he expect an estimated 533,000 New Zealanders who did not visit a GP due to cost in the last year to continue to wait for primary care reform which might “form part of a future Budget”, possibly under a different health Minister as stated by him? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUg1JikLdLg
7. PHIL TWYFORD to the Minister for Social Housing: Does she stand by her statement, “look I can’t guarantee that”, when asked if anyone living in a car can go to a Government agency today and get a roof over their head tonight? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bksgViHJ1MM
9. DAVID CLENDON to the Minister of Finance: Does he stand by his statement to this House that “having surpluses does not mean that the Government can go spending more money on ineffective public services or infrastructure that may not be needed”? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqvLUqaRuWA
11. STUART NASH to the Minister of Police: Does she think there is any correlation between the closure of over 20 Community Policing Centres and the 13,000 increase in victimisations in the last 12 months; if not, why not? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMfQ7MtdWkk
However the debate that followed gave way for all to vent or praise the outgoing PM or in the case of Crusher, Coca Coleman and Dippy a chance to push their own agendas. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGgIWCeyHiA
Currently the outgoing government are infighting flat out with a leadership war. And the choices are so sad, I almost feel sorry for Nat voters, almost
The questions, except for Turei’s one to John Key were the MPs being sensible. They were focussing on now, not on something that has passed
The speeches in the debate were not. He’s gone. Give up. You couldn’t lay a glove on him while he was PM and there is simply no point in trying to do it now. Have a read of Turei’s speech yesterday in that debate. The words of a bitter twisted woman who is still trying to fight what is yesterday’s war. https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/hansard-debates/rhr/document/HansS_20161206_056100000/turei-metiria
As for your dream of there being a leadership war. Forget it. The National Party hasn’t had a real war since Muldoon came to be leader and even that wasn’t really out in the open.
It isn’t quite the word I would use but still.
He was, as Chris Trotter pointed out once, the cleverest politician of our generation. He was vastly ahead of anyone else of his time.
I remember looking at that list of stories blip used to link to. He claimed they were Key’s “lies”. When I checked some of them I found they weren’t lies at all. They may have been carefully composed statements that people “thought” were lies but they weren’t. People tended to read into the things he said meanings that simply weren’t there.
If you didn’t like him you might say “slippery”. If you did like him, and clearly most New Zealanders do, you would simply say he was a master of his art. The only one in my lifetime who was in the same class was Keith Holyoake.
Actually, we are on the cusp of something special and at the end of the day I’m relaxed and comfortable about that.
Is that positive enough for you Pete? Not that this implies in any way or form that I am or speak for “the left” because that’s typically just a lovely meme for people that grapple with reality.
Pete, if that’s all you can see then you a blinded by the “light”.
Now let us get on with the rejoicing – because the “evil one” has gone.
And yes he is evil. Some may think the sun shines from his posterior – but for many* he brought nothing, but hardship and suffering. He was appointed by the people to care for them, (that is the primary role of Government), but like the Levite, he simply walked by on the other side.
*
40,000 more unemployed
41,000 homeless
300,000 children living in poverty
foodbank cupboards around the country are now under severe threat of becoming empty as the number of parcels isssued this year doubles.
Emergency shelters are permanently overflowing.
the cost of providing shelter for oneself, or ones family, has doubled.
Wages have risen barely 10% in the same period (if your lucky enough to earn a full time wage) – or stayed the same. Key on the other hand receives twice the renumeration for the “job” as does the British PM.
Mental health services run down to such an extent, they can no longer care for the vulnerable.
Our DHBs have been held to the same funding for almost a decade despite rising costs, and can now barely provide critical services, let alone “elective” surgery; and patients are pushed off, or kept off, “waiting” lists to make the statistics look good.
Schools have been forced from providing education to children and are now mere training centres for a National testing regime that sees our children’s ability falling in comparison with children from other countries. But never mind soon there will be COOL, and they can stay at home and do nothing.
And those are only the Social Justice Issues of the day.
Key has overseen the embeggarment of future generations. His largesse to the wealthy has come at the expense of every one else, and the failure to provide for future generations will see him held responsible for a deriliction of duty. NZ’s GHG emmissions have continued to increase as he trashed the ETS, and removed all incentives for saving energy. Our rivers are now cess pits for the dairy industry. Our seas are denuded of their fish, and marine life, and the Tasman Sea is a garbage dump of plastic and flotsum endangering the lives of 50% of sea birds that breed on our Islands. There is virtually nothing that he has not seen deteriorate under his watch, except the bank balances of his mates.
About the only thing “good” I can say is “GOOD RIDDANCE”
Sacha
That was such a good story too. And you spoil it with the facts!
And Pete George fertilises the post and I think 15 comments grew up in his shadow.. He certainly is stimulating. Like an electric shock, he can jerk everybody into a response. Some of them are very detailed and no doubt informative. So that is a positive result.
Russia is primarily concerned with supporting Assad. All his opponents are therefore fair game so far as the Russians are concerned.
As someone who is far from an expert on the subject – indeed I am normally among the populace who leave such complex discussions to those who know what they’re talking about – I am nevertheless sure your premise that Russia is primarily concerned with supporting Assad is correct. But I will go further and posit the theory that their support has less to do with Assad himself, and more to do with the desire to gain dominance of the Middle East oil supply chain. And of course America’s basic premise for being so intimately involved in the region is exactly the same. That is, both sides are fighting to gain dominance over the same supply chain.
The above will be seen by some as simplistic, but I venture to suggest that the moment technology produces an acceptable and easily produced alternative fuel hey presto… both sides will clear out of the Middle East and leave them to their own devices which is precisely what most of the M.E countries want to see happen.
Syria is the wrong country to choose if you want to dominate the oil trade; it has no significant oil and, while close to Iraq, is not on a major oil trade route. Also Russia is a major producer in its own right so could influence the market more effectively by altering its production. As could the US.
However, Syria has long provided a Mediterranean port and two airbases to Russia. Without these, Russia’s presence in the Middle East and the Med would be very much reduced.
Russia is generally hemmed in by geography. All the ‘Stans and deserts to the South. Mostly hostile Europeans to the West. Ice to the North and a bleak Pacific coast on the East.
The Black Sea is their easiest access to much of the world and Syria figures in that. Less about oil, more about centuries old geo-politics.
Fair enough Wayne but lets balance the situation. Whilst America has oil wells of it’s own, it is also dependent upon M.E. oil to cover the balance of it’s needs. That is my understanding anyway.
I read an analysis by Robert Kennedy Jr. a month or two ago where he talked of a major pipe-line still on the drawing board which both East and West are currently attempting to gain control over by way of the proposed route it will take. I can’t remember the exact details but it certainly brought home to me the fundamental essence of most of the warring factions… and it is really all about oil.
It is the Kurdish population that is playing a major role in the alliances chosen by Russia, Turkey and the US.
This is a comment by Dr Ismail Besikci:
“why did the British and the French decided to erase Kurdistan from the map and deny the Kurds existence by parting Kurdistan into four between Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria?”
This is as much about access to the Mediteranian as it is about a deal that has a Kurdistan to be kept from forming (Kurds refer to their ancestry back in 600BC, Arabs mentioned Kurds in the 7th century as nomadic people) Turkey plays a big role in that.
And then most of the time it’s the Kurd’s doing the hard yards on the ground.
I read recently, and can’t find the piece. That Russia is mainly avoiding ISIS so as not to rack up the Muslim at home. Chechnya has been, and still is a major thorn for Russia.
I don’t think the Chinese will be viewing Trump’s agenda as isolationist, not after the “Fuck you” messages he’s been sending them the last week. Still, the fact they’re not chuffed with him might also explain that veto.
Political broadcast brought to you via exiting entertainer Paul Henry interviewing Judith this morning…
Crusher says….
She will make Pike a memorial tomb.
She will suck up to Winny, says he is one of the best politicians who has ever been in Parliament and wants more options with support parties.
She’s not into English, he’s been preventing an increase in the police force apparently
Has no faith in Coleman
With a wavering voice says she wants more police
IMHO she doesn’t appear to be very confident in her chances. If her leadership bid fails will she form a breakaway party? Interesting times ahead.
PS Merry Christmas Paddy, maybe the Nation should do a special episode in the weekend, you’ll be bumming a bit that last week was your Christmas final. And you thought the Trump election was the highlight of your year lololol been thinking of you, happy for you, i don’t like you, but i’m happy for you. What a year huh?
Rachel Stewart pulls no punches in saying honestly what she thinks of John key. She tells of voting Nats for Key’s first term – I’m constantly surprised that people couldn’t tell Key was slippery as from the getgo.
Stewart fell out of support for Key over water quality, and it was all down hill from there, through rising inequality to tasteless media stunts and women being relegated to cheerleaders.
A good money man? Key’s bold and brassy belief that he managed the Global Financial Crisis well is, shall we say, deluded. He got lucky. Pure and simple.
I’ll wager that within the next 12 months, and well before the 2017 election, our economy will match the global outlook perfectly. It’ll be munted. He is less an economic guru and more a tinny bastard, frankly.
I say this in complete awe at Key’s uncanny ability to ride the rollercoaster of pure providence. Despite the poor getting poorer, and the rich getting richer, he somehow managed to convince the wider electorate that he was a financial whizz – as opposed to the money trading gambler he ultimately is.
1. Destruction of waterways and lack of care for the environment.
2. Mismanagement of the economy so we have become a very unequal society.
3. His gutter behaviour towards women.
This – “He seemed to me to care only for running New Zealand like a huge corporation by squeezing every last dollar out of it – no matter the downstream consequences.”
A country isn’t a corporation and shouldn’t be run like one. Hell, even a corporation shouldn’t be run like corporations are run these days. Every business should care about the environment and about the people it employs and their well being.
Do the Nat MP’s ask their constituents whom they feel would be the best choice in the race for leader of the national party and then vote accordingly?
Or do the MP’s vote according to their own wants and needs?
It just doesn’t seem very democratic to me, I’d be a bit pissy i think if i was a nat party member and did not have a say in whom the leader of the party i belong to should be.
Leader
82.
(a) The Parliamentary Section shall appoint its Leader as soon as
practicable after each General Election.
(b) If at any time the leadership of the Parliamentary Section falls vacant,
the Parliamentary Section shall appoint a Leader to fill such vacancy.
Notwithstanding Rule 82 (a), the Parliamentary Section may at any
time between General Elections confirm or change its Leader.
(c) The Leader of the Parliamentary Section shall, upon receiving the
approval of the Board, become the Leader of the Party. The Board shall
consider such approval as soon as practicable after the appointment
by the Parliamentary Section of its Leader.
As the rules indicate it is the MP’s who decide. Otherwise how could it be done in a week.
However, I am pretty sure the MP’s will be thinking who will be the most effective in the next election and will be taking more than a few soundings on that very point.
I hope that some of those people who voted for John Key will reflect on what he actually did or didn’t do for NZ and start to consider the pressing issues facing this country and the world. That so many people could fail to see past the fawning MSM smokescreen for 8 years has never failed to amaze me. I also hope that those journalists who were “seduced’ by Key’s “friendliness” will take the opportunity to look back at their own contribution to the distraction he provided for a government that failed to deal with the pressing issues apart from a few superficial interventions. An alternative government could have made quite a difference to the current housing situation, reduced the foreign ownership of land, removed the tax haven status and worked with the Pike River families in a more compassionate manner had not the “show us the money” , the dirty politics/Ede/Slater feeding of MSM clouded the public’s view of the real issues.
How fake news has trashed the old idea of checking facts before publishing and tried to replace it with the idea that any kind of nutso raving is truth until someone else proves it wrong (to the nutso raver’s standards).
This backgrounder makes Comet Ping Pong sound like an interesting place. Also explains why malicious kooks would want to use it as a centrepiece of a fake news story.
Murtaza Hussain @MazMHussain 23h23 hours ago
2003: Rifle-toting Americans barge into Iraq after reading viral Fake News story about weapons of mass destruction.
Yep, more right wingers creating fake news with disastrous consequences. With not enough attention being paid to Hans Blix and his inspection team fact-checking and saying there’s nothing there.
Bill English will be the next PM but it will be close, very close with Jude so close in fact that I wouldn’t be at all surprised if theres a coup a year or so into Englishs reign, obviously it will be much earlier if English loses the next election
Having said that I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Jude managed to take the leadership of English
If I could pick I’d pick Coleman as he’s the freshest (or least most unknown) face and being a medical doctor is not exactly a bad thing to have on ones CV but he won’t get near the leadership
Prediction time?
Cut’n’run Key will be seen as shallower and shallower as time passes.
Cigar-smoke Coleman will be unable to hide his arrogance.
Crusher Collins will be unable to shake off the Slater on her back.
Boring Bill will fail to rid himself of his Double-Dipton title.
You must feel bereft, Pucky, and appalled by the present state of affairs.
Its not ideal but lets say National lose 7-8% over Key leaving, that leaves National on approx. 40%, I’d suggest NZFirst might gain as much as 3-4% of that which puts NZFirst well and truly over 10%
Jude would have no issues working with Winston and, probably, vice versa so the most logical outcome is a National/NZFirst government in 2017 and every other party on the outside unless Winston wants them in
Not sure how Winston and English get on though so its certainly made the upcoming election more interesting
No. It’s not ideal for the likes of you and other Key-adorers. In fact, it’s THE WORST POSSIBLE THING, and that’s, as you say, not ideal. For you. For others, myself included, this is High Humour and Pure Oxygen to the Soul 🙂 Now, you are reduced to trying to build something from a pile of fetid goop, relatively speaking, given that previously, you (believed) you were spinning with gold. How quickly that precious metal turned to straw. You must feel betrayed, as indeed you were. Key’s smiled as he assassinated National and the hopes of his sycophants such as your pucky self. These are dark days for you, Pucky, and all you can do now is try to make purses from sow’s ears. Good luck, ol’ chappy!
“These are dark days for you, Pucky, and all you can do now is try to make purses from sow’s ears”
Yes its this exactly, we could sit around and go into mourning and think the worst has happened and we should all just give up but that won’t achieve anything and would almost certainly guarantee an election loss
Or we could see what we’re left with and go from there and it looks like there’s now no real impediment to National and Winston combining that that’s a…positive I guess
Its not what I (or anyone) would have wanted but sometimes you have to play the hand you’re dealt and National did manage to win one or two elections without John Key and I dare say they’ll be able to do it again
I suppose if ones trying to look positive I’d say that John Key has the left the party in the high 40s and there won’t be a bye-election needed, which is something a certain ex-Labour leader maybe should have looked at doing
Sitting around, mourning…yes, there’ll be a lot of that going on, Pucky, and more of it to come for your horrid crew who over the past 8 years have been crowing from the top of the dunghill you now discover is all thart remains for you. You had a merry trickster as your star and he’s dumped on you all from his great height – what treachery! How neatly and heartlessly he’s slid his dagger into the heart of his party and his supporters! Smiling Assassin indeed – did you think you were exempt? What I see now, is Mr Little, solid and trustworthy, established and supported, generously suppressing his delight at Key’s feckless knee-capping of the Right, eyes fixed on his up-coming win in 2017 – Little’s played it perfectly, as he’s played you and your gutted team. A marvelous week for the Left, Pucky, and the first of many.
Well leaving National in the high 40s and with the door fully open for NZFirst is not a bad position to be in
I know you don’t like my predictions but I predict that after the next general election National will still be in power and I think its now going to be National/NZFirst
Who do you think will make up the next government?
“trying to build something from a pile of fetid goop, ”
Like the golem…
“In Jewish folklore, a golem (/ˈɡoʊləm/ goh-ləm; Hebrew: גולם) is an animated anthropomorphic being that is magically created entirely from inanimate matter (specifically clay or mud). The word was used to mean an amorphous, unformed material in Psalms and medieval writing.[1]
The most famous golem narrative involves Judah Loew ben Bezalel, the late-16th-century rabbi of Prague. There are many tales differing on how the golem was brought to life and afterwards controlled.”
Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series features allusions to many beliefs and weaves them into his stories. The golems appear particularly in Feet of Clay. The ideas about them seem to have been carried further into the thinking about how robots could be limited in their free will by Asimov.
Good to talk with you Rosemary. Yes Terry P was a good and funny writer and man. Also I have started reading Ellis Peters who wrote a series around Cadfael the monk who was sort of an ideal man that I think some women writers like to bring to life and imagine stories around. He lives in the 1100s and she writes vividly about that time and I think has the historical background and the culture of that time probably well covered.
While we are in these dire straits in the world I am interested in what people are, under all our layers of civilisation and poncy clothes and cars and high-heeled shoes. I’m looking for nobility and soul and clever use of our machiavellian minds and love and fascination with and for each other. Things I have never bothered thinking about before but now I see clearly how humans have trouble learning from past errors and am brought to the question of what did my birth father die for in 1944 WW2, which we don’t seem to have transcended, then what are we? It seems to me that there is an insect brain in us, along with other primitive inherent cognition.
This is a bit heavy but when one starts looking into the void as is happening now, then it makes ya think doesn’t it.
(Funny just as I was closing off – Puckish Rogue’s astute comment dame up Sounds more like Frankensteins monster in that case
“she has no new policy idea’s apart from more police”.
Don’t say that Cinny.
If you give her the credit Little, Andrew will have a hissy fit. He’ll be tearing up the carpet and complaining that it was HIS idea and that she is stealing it.
I can hear the wails from here. “Tt’s not fair, it’s not fair, it’s not fair ……..”
Please, spare me. Some things just shouldn’t have to be thought of.
However, have you ever heard Winston laugh? He lasts about 2 seconds and then ends wheezing furiously. Far too many cigarettes to manage a laugh any more.
Bombers got some great descriptions on the Nat candidates on TDB – (he sadly holds back on Collins however, the worst candidate in my view a mash up of Trump, Hitler, Imelda Marcos and Thatcher with the Enron accountants, rolled into one body )
BILL ENGLISH – A RELIGIOUS FANATIC
“I wouldn’t be surprised if he whips himself to sleep nightly. English desperately needed Key because English has all the charm and personal warmth of a road accident. Key was the smiling vacant face while English spent time privatising state housing, expanding the neoliberal welfare state and pushing for mass surveillance of beneficiaries.”
COLEMAN – DALEK
“The Minister of Wheeze, Dr Croak has a voice honied by years of cigarettes and stepping on poor peoples dreams. Possibly the most hopeless Minister ever, he did a shit job with Broadcasting and he’s a joke in Health. He wouldn’t publicly eat the cheap slop he was forcing hospital patients to eat and had the audacity to privately eat it and tweet about how yummy it was.”
Nope Collins will just kick out English as PM when she sees her chance – no break away party for the Natz – they are too lazy to break away and too clueless to start a party from scratch.
I have been wondering just how deep the divisions within the National Party are over the issue of legalising euthanasia.
There have been numerous attempts by from both left and right over the years to facilitate assisted dying. This year has seen a high profile court case and a continuing exhaustive select committee hearing with over 20,000 submissions.
Despite my personal well founded reservations, I honestly thought that this time the issue would get over the line and the syringes would sharpened and extra stocks of ‘blue juice’ ordered.
But no…despite having fully supported Lecretia Seales, John Key announced a month ago that…
“There is zero chance of Government introducing legislation to legalise euthanasia even if an inquiry strongly recommends it, ”
The reason given…”Key said he personally supported euthanasia. He would not take the step himself, but he believed others should be able to.
However, there was strong opposition to it within the National caucus, he said.
Senior members of the Cabinet such as Bill English and Gerry Brownlee have previously voted against bills which would have made euthanasia legal.”
There is a real taste for physician assisted dying and the loud protagonists, although they dismiss the concerns of those who would be most at risk from misuse of such a facility, seemed to be winning.
So why the sudden back off from Key…who’s fair physiognomy dominated the Seales’ campaign page?
The politicians are too afraid of thinking deeply about anything because it just creates a precedent, and why fiddle while everything is going their way. So euthanasia, assisted dying, whatever has no chance with these peabrains.
And physician-assisted doesn’t have to come into it. If people have signed a document that they wish to do so, gone through legal measures of ensuring they have a will, left messages with a functionary with solicitor’s background if they don’t want to explain it to their children as is the best way, then they should have the right to do so. A proper procedure should be established in compliance with what older people who have thought through the process have decided and worked through with the pollies. Then there will be a peace of mind that life can be lived to the full and not in the end interfered with by forcing it to continue because of others’ beliefs and rigid principles.
At present there is this shameful and excessive watchfulness trying to prevent people even thinking or hearing about means of death. Police raids, disgusting. Politicians on top of the money heap and controlling, being the gatekeepers against those who wish to determine their own length of incapacity, they are a disgrace to their ‘profession’, incompetents and shallow. And the religious and hospices should stop trying to be Burkes in reverse.
It is people who make other people suffer. Their ego, and dependence of being constantly appreciated. Hang on…. mostly male I think. Yep, looking around the world and it adds up.
I don’t know if he harasses waitresses or fondles the hair of little girls, but this bloke is a real piece of work.
The Sunday Star Times reported yesterday that Dr Coleman had been punched after he allegedly blew his cigar smoke at a woman. Dr Coleman said there were two sides to every story, but he did not intend to press charges over the incident.
Coca Cole-man, calls himself a Dr, but refuses to tackle the sugar issue even though across the globe other countries are tackling it and identifying it as so harmful. We have a public health system, why would he stretch it further by not addressing sugar?
Obesity and diabetes rates are obscene in NZ, sugar is an issue. Coleman would rather push through RMA changes and dump fluoride in our water than tackle the sugar issue. By adopting this mind set he shows himself as a Dr of Death.
We have a public health system, why would he stretch it further by not addressing sugar?
Probably because he’s a MD and can identify this wailing about sugar as the kind of simplistic thinking that results in bad policy and unforeseen consequences. Obesity and diabetes are problems of carbohydrates in general, not sucrose in particular, and any minister wanting to deal with them walks into a political minefield – if Coleman doesn’t fancy using his feet as mine detectors, that’s hardly surprising.
Psycho, Coca Coleman is a fortune seeker, and not a good listener…
“A Herald poll last month suggested an overwhelming public desire to introduce a sugar tax, with more than 80% of 11,700 voters in favour of new legislation.”
“More than 84 per cent of GPs responding to the latest New Zealand Doctor/IMS fax poll believe a sugar tax should be introduced in this country.
And nearly 70 per cent reject health minister Jonathan Coleman’s view of the effect a tax would have on consumption of sugary drinks.”
To whom? If the answer is “Evidence,” yes I do want a PM who listens. If it’s “Opinion polls,” then meh, not so much. (Not that I want a Nat PM either way, mind.)
“A Herald poll last month suggested an overwhelming public desire to introduce a sugar tax, with more than 80% of 11,700 voters in favour of new legislation.” “Don’t you want a PM that listens?”
You just had one for the past 8 years and he was berated for being poll driven. Do you want him back already?
“More than 84 per cent of GPs responding to the latest New Zealand Doctor/IMS fax poll believe a sugar tax should be introduced in this country.
And nearly 70 per cent reject health minister Jonathan Coleman’s view of the effect a tax would have on consumption of sugary drinks.”
How many of those GP’s also have an MBA? Interesting that you think they would have a better understanding on the effect taxation on consumption and the wider effects of such a tax (does it just cover sucrose? what about glucose? what if Coke just switched to a fructose based sweetener, do we have to tax fruit then? Would it include pure fruit juices? What about reconstituted fruit juices? All sugars are linked to diabetes, so do we tax everything with any trace of sugar like beer and wine? It would clearly have to cover Balsamic Vinaigrette, Almond Butter, yogurt) than a GP MP with an MBA…
Need more evidence? Scandinavian countries have such a tax, as does, Mexico, France, Hungary, Britain ..
Recent evidence further suggests an association between sugar-sweetened beverage consumption and preventable mortality from diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and cancer, with the majority of deaths occurring in low and middle-income countries.. says the WHO.. so why on earth would we not want to do something about this? Something sensible, something that works, just like tobacco tax. Or do you think people will start holding up their local dairy for a red bull?
Now Coca Coleman is promising more funding for health if he gets the new job.. is that just some kind of excuse for his short comings in looking after the Health Ministry?
Lots of questions, so let’s make it easy…. A sugary drinks tax or soda tax is a tax or surcharge designed to reduce consumption of drinks with added sugar. Drinks covered under a soda tax often include, carbonated drinks, uncarbonated drinks, sports drinks and energy drinks
The way I see it is any against such a tax are just pro big business aka big sugar profits, and we all know they make more than enough as it is.
Let’s be pro the NZ Health System that our taxes pay for, lets look after the people.
Need more evidence? Scandinavian countries have such a tax, as does, Mexico, France, Hungary, Britain ..
Other countries implementing simplistic policies based on noise from lobbyists isn’t “evidence” – except, maybe, evidence that weak politicians are prey for noisy lobbyists.
Recent evidence further suggests an association between sugar-sweetened beverage consumption and preventable mortality from diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and cancer…
Sugar-sweetened beverage consumption and a shitload of other things that are probably more important factors. But instead of looking at the actual causes of obesity and diabetes (which come down to “foods that raise blood glucose levels rapidly”) and seeing what can be done about them, let’s tax sugary drinks because left-wingers hate the Coca Cola corporation. Why, oh why, isn’t Coleman on board with that, I wonder?
Lots of questions, so let’s make it easy…. A sugary drinks tax or soda tax is a tax or surcharge designed to reduce consumption of drinks with added sugar.
To serve what purpose? If the purpose is to reduce rates of obesity and diabetes in the population, a sugary-drinks tax is not fit for purpose for several reasons (the tax would have to be very high to actually suppress consumption, there’s extensive scope for unintended consequences, and singling out sugary drinks is pointless – if you look at the glycemic index, white bread and various other foods are actually worse than sucrose for making you fat and diabetic). The actual purpose of such a tax would be to make hand-wringers feel like they were doing something useful, which is not a good justification for new taxes.
Would you apply the same logic to a doctor that drinks alcohol? Ethanol is a Group 1 carcinogen also, not to mention processed meat, would you not trust a doctor that drinks beer or eats pepperoni pizza?
To answer your question, I would trust a doctor that smokes, or drinks, or eats pepperoni pizza.
Labour – I guess I’m from the little-known “surly curmudgeon” faction. That was the first time since 1987, though – was an Alliance voter, then Green, then fuck-who-can-a-left-libertarian-vote-for-now, then back to Labour again on the basis that these days they’re the underdog and need some support. Proud to say I’ve never voted Winston First, although to my shame I did vote ACT once – at the time, they and the Greens were the only ones backing liberty when it came to drugs, anti-terrorism over-reach laws etc and the Greens were anti-science, so I swallowed a big dead rat. Never again…
You don’t think a tax on sugary drinks would achieve anything? I disagree, it would do something to help, it would not solve the whole problem, but it would be a factor in that solution.
The tax does not appear to have dented sales in Mexico, the government is collecting tax from it that can be used in the health sector, for other factors of obesity, maybe it could be used to encourage more people into physical activity or something, maybe the tax could be enough to cover dental care for the whole population? I don’t see any loses with this kind of tax from either side.
It’s long been clear that you lack one, Pucky, as your hero-to-zero, John Key lacks anything resembling one, but I didn’t want to make an issue of it. I can see now, why you favour Collins for your next empty-vessel leader.
Actually I favour Coleman because he’s a fresher (or unknown) face whereas English, though talented, can’t really claim to be renewing and Jude has been unfortunately hamstrung by nasty lefties that fear her talent, hard work and charisma
No one will win in this race of the losers, Pucky, least of all you and silly-billies like you who believed in Key. You’ve been slam-dunked, abandoned, short-changed and abused. I’m leaving you to your stranded-fish gaspings today as I’ve got fun things to do and this is miserable stuff.
Unless you are more ignorant than I think you are, my friend, you will realize that Hager’s book was very successful. As he pointed out in this morning’s interview, the book led to Judith Collins losing her cabinet seat.
And the sordid parts of his book are the revelations of what Collins, Slater, Jordan Williams, Jason Eade and co. were doing. You’re muddle-headed to confuse the journalist with the things he reveals.
Ok its true that in my opinion the purpose of the book was to swing the election the lefts way which means it was a failure, National was re-elected, John Key was still popular and the left was still stagnating
According to Hager – and despite the right’s claims to the contrary he is a thoroughly honest person – the timing of the publication of the book just before the election was coincidental. He had hoped it would be ready for publication early in 2014 but it didn’t work out that way. Having said that, I’m sure he did want to see it published before the 2014 election.
Hager does not make claims about anybody without solid evidence to back them up. And that is precisely what happened with “Dirty Politics”. That it did not have an effect on the election is an indictment on the voters – the vast majority of whom were too glassy eyed and lazy to bother to read the book and/or digest the information that was widely reported and it’s inherent ramifications.
I recall Hager being quite open about the fact he wanted to publish the book before the election because he believed it was important that voters were aware of the dirty political machinations (Ede, Slater, Odgers, Lusk and Carrick Graham in particular) that were occurring. It was also deplorable that it was being coordinated from within “the PM’s office” and it defies logic Key didn’t know what was going on as he subsequently claimed.
Hager intended to publish much sooner but there were various delays and it ended up coming only a month before the election. Too late to have much affect on the election.
“the vast majority of whom were too glassy eyed and lazy to bother to read the book and/or digest the information that was widely reported and it’s inherent ramifications.” One of whom is you eh Pluckliss Rogue.
But it’s a great go-to for another insight and possible leads, that index.. fantastico.
GOsh it’s super exciting really… a race when you can’t stand any of the candidates, it’s like the USA presidential election all over again post Bernie of course.
Bridges I love oil is about to throw his hat in the ring too…. let the circus begin.. lmfaooooo best reality show in some time this is.
Really? One of the better selling NZ books, I would have thought.
Positive feedback for Nicky Hager’s book, Dirty Politics, keeps on coming.
“I can’t go anywhere, like the supermarket, without people coming up and thanking me for writing it – it’s like no experience I’ve had before,” he says.
The Wellington-based journalist says he intended the book to be a small sequel to The Hollow Men. “But this one really struck a chord; it’s been amazing.”
Dirty Politics has sold 18,000 copies, which is huge for New Zealand. Normally, best sellers clock up about 2000 in sales.
I thought it was telling that in that interview Collins claimed she doesn’t hold grudges but spent the entire time attacking Nicky Hager, and deliberately mispronouncing his name. She came across as vindictive and bullying – so quite accurate really.
First Policy out from The Opportunities Party. Gareth Morgan.
“The current tax regime favours owners of capital and unjustly burdens wage earners. This is not only inequitable, it results in poor utilisation of capital and lower than necessary income and employment. ”
“It addresses issues of rising inequality, housing affordability, foreign debt and poor levels of business investment. The end result will be more jobs, more businesses growth and tax cuts that leave 80% of the population better off.”
(I am watching with cautious interest.) http://www.top.org.nz/top1?utm_campaign=top1_members&utm_medium=email&utm_source=garethmorgan
“In case you missed it, I repeat
– under this policy NOT ONE
ADDITIONAL DOLLAR OF TAX
WILL BE COLLECTED. What
will happen is that some of
us will pay more (in mine and
John Key’s case, a lot more) and
for the great majority of people
they will either be unaffected
or pay significantly less. ”
It is closing a tax loop hole, not a new tax, nor an attack on the poorest on society. Quite smart really.
Being a “cash-poor homeowner” is a piss poor reason to expect tax exemptions. There are a lot of hard working people getting heavily taxed and will never own a home. What happened to a fair go?
Exactly. The idea that owning a home is somehow a special burden needs to be put to rest.
I get tired of home owners who endlessly bang on about ‘how hard it is to pay the mortgage’, as if somehow paying rent with absolutely no benefit or gain or security, till the day you die, is the easy ‘option’.
Some work to pay the rent, some work to pay the mortgage. The renter is the one left well behind in that equation.
We need some fairness in our financial and taxation systems.
A lot of kiwi homeowners think they are entitled to some kind of special privileges and tax breaks that renters never get. They are very sensitive to anything that threatens their inflated asset value
What about the older folks? They ones who have saved all their lives, survived wars and worked hard raising their families in a home as apartments obviously were not in vogue. But you could also look to the older folks that have to fork out 16 Mil for repair bills of apartments not so long ago build.
The core of it is that instead of getting off on envy and bashing people who have worked hard, work on a fairer system. This would certainly not include any tax cuts but rather have progressive tax applied.
You didn’t read Gareth Morgan’s piece didja? His proposal seems eminently fair. Taxing the top few % who are asset rich and using accounting tricks to hide their income from capital gains. Why should people who work for a living have to pay all the tax and people in million dollar houses pay none, while gaining (at least) 70K per year tax free.
You refereed to “a lot of Kiwi homeowners” – a lot? Many, many older folks are asset rich (if one could say that) because they have paid off the mortgage for the roof over their heads. With the 350 bucks a week to survive I doubt that you can add another tax.
As to your assertion of “entitlement” – there is no such thing. There is however, fairness in distribution which has never played out as for every mentioning of a group getting a share someone will put a veto in. This is what greed is all about, measuring entitlements.
Corrections Minister Judith Collins has also announced she’ll seek the leadership of the party – and the nation – but is potentially less able to relate to the financial struggles of ordinary kiwis.
Collins has no money, but purchases all her goods by silently staring people down until they cave.
Outgoing Prime Minister John Key has been tipped as a potential candidate to head the International Monetary Fund – an appointment signed off by US President Barack Obama.
Someone must be getting upset with all the research that the IMF has done recently that proves the present socio-economic system that’s been rammed down our throats, often via the IMF, doesn’t work.
With the mess he has made of promoting high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reducing poverty in New Zealand he has no hope of accomplishing the stated goals of the IMF. The IMF seeks to facilitate trade as well, but that trade is meant to be fair and balanced trade. The type of trade he has sort to facilitate but luckily has failed so far has been to give the big internationals all the power to bully the little guys and small countries with anonymous international courts paid for, staffed by and beholden to those same big internationals.
This is of course going to happen if Jonathon “We’ll have to agree to disagree” Coleman gets one of the two Top Spots.
and to confirm my earlier assertion that he could be The Man…
“‘I think [Dr Coleman] glosses over the serious plight the public health system is in, and I don’t think he sufficiently gets it.
”At our last conference he annoyed the delegates a lot, because when somebody would express a different view to his, he had a stock answer of simply saying: ‘We’ll have to agree to disagree’.””
Sounds like Someone Else doesn’t it? Not getting it and glossing over the problems….but I guess that to achieve such a constant state of ‘relaxedness’ you’d have to be that way inclined.
Has the NZ Herald published the real reason Key has resigned?
Did he get a tap on the shoulder from President Obama in his last days in office and wants an even bigger stage for his ego?
John Key named as ideal candidate to head IMF http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11762219
We will have to wait and see.
A lot of the things that job is meant to accomplish are things he has totally failed at in New Zealand. QUOTE: The IMF seeks to facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world.
He has only ever focused on one of those things in his time as NZ PM and the last 3 have got worse every year for us here under his government. He shrugged off as to hard reducing poverty here, imagine the mess with him in that role.
Now that makes sense at last! Hearing Key say he doesn’t know what he will do next…..casually throwing in “maybe the speaking circuit..” He has had a game plan since being a ten year old, deciding he would learn golf, because rich people play golf, so who is he trying yo kid?
LMFAO !!!!!! That headline caught my eye and i was like, nah who cares, as long as he fucks off from here, i won’t read that.
And it’s a year old, and Herald is running it today… bahahahaha. Thanks for letting us all know.
Sad, real sad, looking for click bait are we? Well it aint john the pm who quit key, any headline with his name in it is now yesterdays news or in this case yester-years news
Excellent opinion piece on Key in the Grauniad today. Includes thought-provoking discussion of the need for the political opposition to produce a viable counter-narrative.
“In this regard, Key was like a Tony Blair of the South Seas: a certain level of personal charisma and a socially inclusive façade allowed both Key and Blair to sell the nasty side of neoliberalism.”
“Like Blair, Key had the Teflon gene. Despite ignoring public preferences not to privatise state-owned enterprises (2-1 against in a referendum), increasing the GST during the global financial crisis, and more or less ignoring New Zealand’s chronic child poverty because he blames the victims, none of it stuck.”
What a brilliant summary of the PR image (not the actual human being) that was our Prime Minister.
When Labour-voting women were asked what kind of husband they imagined Key would be, they saw him as having so much social and economic capital that they would be prepared to tolerate multiple breaches of trust in the relationship before considering severing it. Such was the appeal of Key’s persona.
But the money story central to neoliberalism and so crucial to Key’s success is built on a false analogy that can be killed off with the correct mix of branding and narrative.
For a start, it is necessary to assert that we live in a society, not an economy. The national budget is not like a household budget and anyone who tells you it is, is hiding something from you. Households don’t indulge quantitative easing (ie printing money); make decisions about what levels of social inequality are tolerable; set tax levels; or decide what scale of deficits will be run in order to redistribute income, feed the poor, educate our children or, heaven forbid, help them get well (for free!) when they are sick.
These are all social decisions that determine our approach to fiscal management, rather than economic imperatives that determine our values as society. We don’t decide to starve our children until the mortgage has been paid off.
If you want to unseat the neoliberal elites, be they the Trump-style authoritarians, or the Key and Blair style charlatans of social inclusion, you have to unpick their story of fiscal morality. And you need charismatic and popular champions to tell your story about creating a society that is caring and just.
Why doesnt the entire opposition call for a VOTE OF NO CONFIDENCE in the government led by English
That will trigger an early GENERAL ELECTION so we can all be part of who runs our country instead of having yet another money lusting chauvenistic bully forced on us!!!
That way we dont need an expensive by election for Shearers seat if he goes.
Inspirational: The Family of Man is a glorious hymn to human equality, but, more than that, it is a clarion call to human freedom. Because equality, unleavened by liberty, is a broken piano, an unstrung harp; upon which the songs of fraternity will never be played.“Somebody must have been telling lies about ...
Tax Lawyer Barbara Edmonds vs Emperor Justinian I- Nolo Contendere: False historical explanations of pivotal events are very far from being inconsequential.WHEN BARBARA EDMONDS made reference to the Roman Empire, my ears pricked up. It is, lamentably, very rare to hear a politician admit to any kind of familiarity ...
It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support for the various parties in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Housing Minister Chris Bishop delivered news – packed with the ingredients to enflame political passions – worthy of supplanting Winston Peters in headline writers’ priorities. He popped up at the post-Cabinet press conference to promise a crackdown on unruly and antisocial state housing tenants. His ...
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Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
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Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
Every year, in the Budget, Parliament forks out money to government agencies to do certain things. And every year, as part of the annual review cycle, those agencies are meant to report on whether they have done the things Parliament gave them that money for. Agencies which consistently fail to ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – Recent events in American universities point to an underlying crisis of coherent thinking, an issue that increasingly affects the progressive left across the Western world. This of course is nothing new as anyone who can either remember or has read of the late ...
The thing about life’s little victories is that they can be followed by a defeat.Reader Darryl told me on Monday night:Test again Dave. My “head cold” last week became COVID within 24 hours, and is still with me. I hear the new variants take a bit longer to show up ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Angus Deaton on rethinking his economics IMFLocal scoop: The people behind Tamarind, the firm that left a $500m cleanup bill for taxpayers at Taranaki’s Tui oil well, are back operating in Taranaki under a different company name. Jonathan ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
The government’s attack on Māori health this week is committing tangata-whenua to a premature death, says Te Pāti Māori. “The government have begun their onslaught on Māori health with the abolishment of the Māori Health Authority and smokefree laws in the same day” said health spokesperson and co-leader, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. ...
Today marks a tragic milestone for New Zealanders as the Coalition Government side with big tobacco to repeal the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Smoked Tobacco) Amendment Act 2022, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins and Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
This year’s Pacific Language Weeks celebrate regional unity and the contribution of Pacific communities to New Zealand culture, says Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti. Dr Reti announced dates for the 2024 Pacific Language Weeks during a visit to the Pasifika festival in Auckland today and says there’s so ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Tod Wright and Hien Nguyen, Fiscal incidence in New Zealand: The effects of taxes and benefits on household incomes in tax year 2018/19 . Analyses of the distributional impact of taxation and government ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Cory Davis, Boston Hart and Benjamin Stubbing, Household cost-of-living impacts from the Emissions Trading Scheme and using transfers to mitigate regressive outcomes . This Analytical Note ...
A coalition of public transport and climate organisations, united as ‘Transport for All’, is actively opposing the government’s transport proposals. The draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) includes plans for higher fares for public transport, ...
Greater Wellington is inviting feedback on proposed changes to its Revenue and Financing Policy. The Revenue and Financing Policy covers the Council’s various sources of funding, and how the cost of services is shared across the region. This includes ...
Labour has conceded it could have done more to deal with disruptive state housing tenants while in government but says the current coalition is going too far. ...
The band has asked their record label to issue a cease and desist to stop the NZ First leader using their 1997 hit to support his ‘misguided political views’. “I get knocked down, but I get up again,” blared through the speakers on Sunday as Winston Peters took the stage ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Food rationing is underway in remote areas in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands following torrential rain and flash flooding. More than 20 people have been reported dead in Chimbu Province. In nearby Enga Province, the centre of last month’s massacre, a 15-year-old boy has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Hughes, Lecturer, Research School of Management, Australian National University After months of debate and intrigue, the AFL’s 19th and newest team, the Tasmania Devils, finally launched its jumper, logo and colours in Devonport this week. The Devils will wear green, ...
Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews the debut novel by Saraid de Silva.One of the most baffling things for children who move to a new country is what their parents’ (or grandparents’) lives were like prior to moving – for kids in particular, they’re too busy trying to fit in in their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT University Narelle Portanier/Binge “If you don’t know who your mob are, you don’t know who you are,” Detective Andrea “Andie” Whitford (played by Leah Purcell) is told early into the new crime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Associate professor, Australian National University It’s commonly accepted that women do the vast majority of caregiving in Australian society. But less appreciated is that Indigenous women do larger amounts of unpaid care than any other group. Working with the Aboriginal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Joe Biden and Donald Trump have both secured their parties’ nominations for the November 5 United States general election by winning a ...
Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. This one-off documentary presents three intimate portraits of young Polynesians who are pulled into a Korean cultural phenomenon. K-POLYS is directed by Litia Tuiburelevu, Produced by Hex ...
There’s ample evidence demonstrating free school lunch programmes provide wide benefits across schools, households and communities according to public health researchers. ACT Minister David Seymour wants to reduce the spending on Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Fiji is facing an exodus of Fijians as many are leaving for overseas seeking employment and education and others are migrating, says Opposition MP Viliame Naupoto. Speaking in Parliament, he said: “His Excellency’s speech (Ratu Wiliame Katonivere) comes after a little over one year of ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
SAFE is urgently calling on the Environment Committee to reject the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill, and is urging New Zealanders to rally behind the call. The proposed Bill, currently under consideration with the Environment select committee, ...
Teammates who spend all their time picking fights with spectators are only helpful for the other team, writes Madeleine Chapman. Anyone who has ever played a team sport competitively, particularly as a child and particularly, for some reason, basketball, will know that there’s a lot of politics involved. While there ...
The long-running Wellington music festival is too focused on the Jim Beam-ness and not enough on the Homegrown-ness.There is something about Homegrown that’s difficult to place. A barely perceptible-ness. Like feeling a ghost is watching you from the corner of the room but when you look, there’s nothing there. ...
The latest Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor reveals that fewer New Zealanders believe crime / law and order is one of the top issues facing our country. In 2018, Ipsos New Zealand started tracking the key issues facing New Zealand. In this wave ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Deputy Program Director, Budgets and Government, Grattan Institute Australia’s political donations rules are woefully inadequate, but donations reform is finally on the agenda. The federal government has signalled its interest in reform and will soon begin briefing MPs on its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University Naiyana Somchitkaeo/Shutterstock A recent study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine has linked microplastics with risk to human health. The study ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Van Dijk, Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University Global climate records were shattered in 2023, from air and sea temperatures to sea-level rise and sea-ice extent. Scores of countries recorded their hottest year ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a teacher explains why he and his partner are in frugal mode – and how they’re making it work. Gender: Male Age: 35Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: I am an intermediate school teacher and my partner is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Bendall, Senior Lecturer, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University Binge Mary & George, the new British television drama series, depicts the real-life story of Mary Villiers and her son George, and their social climbing at the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason Nassios, Associate Professor, Centre of Policy Studies, Victoria University This article is part of The Conversation’s series examining the housing crisis. Read the other articles in the series here. Australian state and federal governments spend money in many ways to ...
The finance minister is denying that there’s a $5.6b shortfall in paying for the government’s campaign promises, including tax cuts. At his post-cabinet press conference yesterday, the PM refused to rule out new taxes to pay for the cuts, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s ...
Kāinga Ora tenants abused by their neighbours are doubting the government's crackdown on disruptive tenants will make a difference on their behaviour. ...
Kāinga Ora is New Zealand’s biggest residential landlord, housing more than 180,000 vulnerable people in more than 67,000 properties. Yesterday the government announced a crackdown on its tenants who fall behind on rent. One longtime Kāinga Ora tenant shares her experience.For 18 years I lived in a 1960s standalone ...
Why does this myth persist, and what’s the real reason our skin is suffering?It’s one of the biggest international grievances New Zealanders hold, up there with the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior and 1981’s underarm incident. We’re quick to tell international travellers that the world’s pollution led to the ...
Opinion: We are fast approaching a fundamental change in prisons. As the number of people on custodial remand looks set to overtake the number of sentenced prisoners, the main function of prisons in New Zealand may become incarcerating un-sentenced people who may not be guilty of offending. We have already ...
A huge seven months lies in store for the White Ferns, beginning this week with the visit of England and culminating with the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in September and October. Starting on Tuesday in Dunedin, the world ranked No. 2 visitors will play five T20s and three ODIs, ...
Opinion: In a move that has shocked road safety advocates across the country, the new Minister of Transport, Simeon Brown, is poised to abandon the previous government’s speed limit reduction policy, particularly around schools. Even more alarmingly, he wants school speed limits to be variable rather than full-time, arguing ...
Auckland Council is opposing a fast-track development backed by Sir John Kirwan and Spark NZ, because it doesn’t meet stringent new climate adaptation requirements The post Surf-data centre faces new 3.8C climate warming rules appeared first on Newsroom. ...
When the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act was introduced in 2009 it was firmly targeted at gangs and drugs. The legislation means police no longer need a conviction to seize assets that criminals can’t prove were paid for legitimately, as long as their alleged offences are punishable by more than a ...
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Bob’s relationship with certain members of Lincoln’s academic staff continued to deteriorate in the 1990s. Others supported him publicly, though articles such as Roland Clark’s 1993 piece in Growing Today cannot have pleased the university management. Clark wrote that Bob was selling onions from the Biological Husbandry Unit to a ...
SailGP’s races feature in-your-face action, with agile, hydro-foiling catamarans tacking and jibing for the title over several days. However, public comments ahead of the global series’ return to New Zealand have left this past year’s controversy in the shadows, as a key appointment attracts criticism from dolphin advocates. A year ...
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Every post here since Key’s announcement on Monday has been boo-Key and boo-National.
National are vulnerable. The public will have an extra look to see who they think can run Government competently. But I see mostly see Opposition mud flying, still. It seems like a stupid first impression post-Key to present to the public.
If opposition parties, and supporting online forums like The Standard, want to take advantage of National’s vulnerability surely they can at least try to look better, rather than worse.
Is the left capable of being positive?
This blog and others from the right or left of politics are not the face of a political bloc in NZ – they are the venting and ravings of a few signifying nothing. Most voters will look at those they are voting for and the respective party leaders when casting their vote at the general election not the standard where all authors and the vast majority of commenters have decided how they will vote years out from the election usually due to their entrenched views and personal prejudices
@Stunned mullet – yet you still post in to ts….
Until Key’s resignation, most voters had already made their minds up.
He has unsettled both the commercial and political markets sufficiently for the polis to pause and reconsider.
Pete, maybe you would prefer to read the thoughts of one of the Herald writers on Keys departure… ?
“I could have chosen to dress up my column today with all sorts of nuanced, insightful, and charitable words about John Key’s departure. It’d be akin to going to someone’s funeral that you consistently bagged – both publicly and privately. Tacky”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11761381
The opposition parties were on fire in Parliament yesterday, and I for one am extremely proud of how they have approached this shocking news.
The statesman like response from the future PM of NZ aka Alpha Andy and Grant Robertson on the day Key announced his resignation spoke volumes. A stark contrast to the negative little personal put downs from the PM whom has quit.
How about starting the day singing praises about the opposition parties rather than whining about Keys resignation and the fact that the national party is in tatters. Where are your positive stories about the outgoing government in the last few days Pete?
What a stream of negativity, and what could be more negative than lying about the Opposition’s response to Key’s resignation:
Why does Petty George tell so many desperate unoriginal lies? Does anyone care?
He does it for attention and no one cares because he is a very shallow thinker.
“On behalf of Metiria”
Did he talk to Metria before he came out with this statement? It certainly isn’t the approach that Turei was expounding in her mean spirited little contribution in Parliament yesterday.
Have they decided to play “good cop (Shaw) bad cop (Turei)”?
The political parties in the Opposition are crazy. They should learn from the way Key behaved after Helen Clark was defeated and stood down after the 2008 election.
She was defeated. She didn’t matter any more. He didn’t waste even a moment kicking a relic of the past on the side of the road because there was absolutely nothing to be gained.
Why are Labour and the Green MPs continuing the fight with someone who is retiring. All they do is exhibit their bitter little approach to life. Wait till there is a new National leader, and Prime Minister, and attack them. That is what Key did. He forgot Clark and aimed his fire at the new leader from that moment on. Staying on a path that attacks Key is stupid.
It doesn’t matter for people who contribute to this website, just as it didn’t matter to people who contributed to attacks on Clark on other sites after she had stood down. They were not MPs and nobody really cared about the mad ravings of a pack of loons, then against Clark or now against Key.
It is MPs who have to avoid looking like idiots.
Hi Alwyn, were you watching yesterday? I noticed a very cohesive group of opposition MP’s in the house yesterday, concentrating their questions on possible nat party leaders.
3. ANDREW LITTLE to the Minister of Finance: Does he stand by his statement that “the prices you pay for a house are ridiculous”, given New Zealand house prices have risen by over 50 percent since he made that statement?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b09iWjnarLE
4. Hon ANNETTE KING to the Minister of Health: Does he expect an estimated 533,000 New Zealanders who did not visit a GP due to cost in the last year to continue to wait for primary care reform which might “form part of a future Budget”, possibly under a different health Minister as stated by him?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUg1JikLdLg
7. PHIL TWYFORD to the Minister for Social Housing: Does she stand by her statement, “look I can’t guarantee that”, when asked if anyone living in a car can go to a Government agency today and get a roof over their head tonight?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bksgViHJ1MM
8. RON MARK to the Minister of Finance: Does he stand by all his statements?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FNnms6R6T8
9. DAVID CLENDON to the Minister of Finance: Does he stand by his statement to this House that “having surpluses does not mean that the Government can go spending more money on ineffective public services or infrastructure that may not be needed”?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqvLUqaRuWA
11. STUART NASH to the Minister of Police: Does she think there is any correlation between the closure of over 20 Community Policing Centres and the 13,000 increase in victimisations in the last 12 months; if not, why not?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMfQ7MtdWkk
However the debate that followed gave way for all to vent or praise the outgoing PM or in the case of Crusher, Coca Coleman and Dippy a chance to push their own agendas.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGgIWCeyHiA
Currently the outgoing government are infighting flat out with a leadership war. And the choices are so sad, I almost feel sorry for Nat voters, almost
The questions, except for Turei’s one to John Key were the MPs being sensible. They were focussing on now, not on something that has passed
The speeches in the debate were not. He’s gone. Give up. You couldn’t lay a glove on him while he was PM and there is simply no point in trying to do it now. Have a read of Turei’s speech yesterday in that debate. The words of a bitter twisted woman who is still trying to fight what is yesterday’s war.
https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/hansard-debates/rhr/document/HansS_20161206_056100000/turei-metiria
As for your dream of there being a leadership war. Forget it. The National Party hasn’t had a real war since Muldoon came to be leader and even that wasn’t really out in the open.
“couldn’t lay a glove on him…”
’cause, slippery.
It isn’t quite the word I would use but still.
He was, as Chris Trotter pointed out once, the cleverest politician of our generation. He was vastly ahead of anyone else of his time.
I remember looking at that list of stories blip used to link to. He claimed they were Key’s “lies”. When I checked some of them I found they weren’t lies at all. They may have been carefully composed statements that people “thought” were lies but they weren’t. People tended to read into the things he said meanings that simply weren’t there.
If you didn’t like him you might say “slippery”. If you did like him, and clearly most New Zealanders do, you would simply say he was a master of his art. The only one in my lifetime who was in the same class was Keith Holyoake.
Well you know – the more you complain – the longer god lets you live 😈
Actually, we are on the cusp of something special and at the end of the day I’m relaxed and comfortable about that.
Is that positive enough for you Pete? Not that this implies in any way or form that I am or speak for “the left” because that’s typically just a lovely meme for people that grapple with reality.
Is the left capable of being positive?
Have you stopped beating your wife?
M’eh, its a left aligned political website so what do you expect? It’d be a pretty dull place if everyone played nice all of the time.
Pete, if that’s all you can see then you a blinded by the “light”.
Now let us get on with the rejoicing – because the “evil one” has gone.
And yes he is evil. Some may think the sun shines from his posterior – but for many* he brought nothing, but hardship and suffering. He was appointed by the people to care for them, (that is the primary role of Government), but like the Levite, he simply walked by on the other side.
*
40,000 more unemployed
41,000 homeless
300,000 children living in poverty
foodbank cupboards around the country are now under severe threat of becoming empty as the number of parcels isssued this year doubles.
Emergency shelters are permanently overflowing.
the cost of providing shelter for oneself, or ones family, has doubled.
Wages have risen barely 10% in the same period (if your lucky enough to earn a full time wage) – or stayed the same. Key on the other hand receives twice the renumeration for the “job” as does the British PM.
Mental health services run down to such an extent, they can no longer care for the vulnerable.
Our DHBs have been held to the same funding for almost a decade despite rising costs, and can now barely provide critical services, let alone “elective” surgery; and patients are pushed off, or kept off, “waiting” lists to make the statistics look good.
Schools have been forced from providing education to children and are now mere training centres for a National testing regime that sees our children’s ability falling in comparison with children from other countries. But never mind soon there will be COOL, and they can stay at home and do nothing.
And those are only the Social Justice Issues of the day.
Key has overseen the embeggarment of future generations. His largesse to the wealthy has come at the expense of every one else, and the failure to provide for future generations will see him held responsible for a deriliction of duty. NZ’s GHG emmissions have continued to increase as he trashed the ETS, and removed all incentives for saving energy. Our rivers are now cess pits for the dairy industry. Our seas are denuded of their fish, and marine life, and the Tasman Sea is a garbage dump of plastic and flotsum endangering the lives of 50% of sea birds that breed on our Islands. There is virtually nothing that he has not seen deteriorate under his watch, except the bank balances of his mates.
About the only thing “good” I can say is “GOOD RIDDANCE”
That’s very negative of you thanks Pete
Sacha
That was such a good story too. And you spoil it with the facts!
And Pete George fertilises the post and I think 15 comments grew up in his shadow.. He certainly is stimulating. Like an electric shock, he can jerk everybody into a response. Some of them are very detailed and no doubt informative. So that is a positive result.
Check out that UN Security Council resolution for a Syrian ceasefire: blocked by both Russia and China.
Interesting tag team.
I think Russia and China are viewing Trumps isolationist election as a signal to rapidly accelerate their territorial ambition.
Bullshit Ad. They are trying to rout ISIS ,which is more than the stupid Yanks could do with their ratbag bunch of unorganised mish mash factions.
The resolution was seeking a ceasefire and was well supported across the Council.
“They are trying to rout ISIS..”
Or not
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-russia-strikes-idUSKCN0SF24L20151021
garibaldi,
To believe that you have to believe the insurgents in Aleppo are ISIS. There is precious little evidence of that.
In fact Russia virtually ignores ISIS and leaves them to the western coalition.
Russia is primarily concerned with supporting Assad. All his opponents are therefore fair game so far as the Russians are concerned.
As someone who is far from an expert on the subject – indeed I am normally among the populace who leave such complex discussions to those who know what they’re talking about – I am nevertheless sure your premise that Russia is primarily concerned with supporting Assad is correct. But I will go further and posit the theory that their support has less to do with Assad himself, and more to do with the desire to gain dominance of the Middle East oil supply chain. And of course America’s basic premise for being so intimately involved in the region is exactly the same. That is, both sides are fighting to gain dominance over the same supply chain.
The above will be seen by some as simplistic, but I venture to suggest that the moment technology produces an acceptable and easily produced alternative fuel hey presto… both sides will clear out of the Middle East and leave them to their own devices which is precisely what most of the M.E countries want to see happen.
Syria is the wrong country to choose if you want to dominate the oil trade; it has no significant oil and, while close to Iraq, is not on a major oil trade route. Also Russia is a major producer in its own right so could influence the market more effectively by altering its production. As could the US.
inspider,
Agreed about Syria and oil.
However, Syria has long provided a Mediterranean port and two airbases to Russia. Without these, Russia’s presence in the Middle East and the Med would be very much reduced.
Russia is generally hemmed in by geography. All the ‘Stans and deserts to the South. Mostly hostile Europeans to the West. Ice to the North and a bleak Pacific coast on the East.
The Black Sea is their easiest access to much of the world and Syria figures in that. Less about oil, more about centuries old geo-politics.
Fair enough Wayne but lets balance the situation. Whilst America has oil wells of it’s own, it is also dependent upon M.E. oil to cover the balance of it’s needs. That is my understanding anyway.
I read an analysis by Robert Kennedy Jr. a month or two ago where he talked of a major pipe-line still on the drawing board which both East and West are currently attempting to gain control over by way of the proposed route it will take. I can’t remember the exact details but it certainly brought home to me the fundamental essence of most of the warring factions… and it is really all about oil.
It is the Kurdish population that is playing a major role in the alliances chosen by Russia, Turkey and the US.
This is a comment by Dr Ismail Besikci:
“why did the British and the French decided to erase Kurdistan from the map and deny the Kurds existence by parting Kurdistan into four between Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria?”
This is as much about access to the Mediteranian as it is about a deal that has a Kurdistan to be kept from forming (Kurds refer to their ancestry back in 600BC, Arabs mentioned Kurds in the 7th century as nomadic people) Turkey plays a big role in that.
And then most of the time it’s the Kurd’s doing the hard yards on the ground.
I read recently, and can’t find the piece. That Russia is mainly avoiding ISIS so as not to rack up the Muslim at home. Chechnya has been, and still is a major thorn for Russia.
I don’t think the Chinese will be viewing Trump’s agenda as isolationist, not after the “Fuck you” messages he’s been sending them the last week. Still, the fact they’re not chuffed with him might also explain that veto.
China has a shot at a regional trade agreement in 2017 excluding all the environmental and labour controls of TPPA such as they were.
China gets Trump as the US eclipse it is, and is making its own space fast.
Keep watching MSNBC and CNN Ad, Hillary cant lose from here and there’s russian airplanes just off the coast.
Not quite sure your meaning there.
Political broadcast brought to you via exiting entertainer Paul Henry interviewing Judith this morning…
Crusher says….
She will make Pike a memorial tomb.
She will suck up to Winny, says he is one of the best politicians who has ever been in Parliament and wants more options with support parties.
She’s not into English, he’s been preventing an increase in the police force apparently
Has no faith in Coleman
With a wavering voice says she wants more police
IMHO she doesn’t appear to be very confident in her chances. If her leadership bid fails will she form a breakaway party? Interesting times ahead.
PS Merry Christmas Paddy, maybe the Nation should do a special episode in the weekend, you’ll be bumming a bit that last week was your Christmas final. And you thought the Trump election was the highlight of your year lololol been thinking of you, happy for you, i don’t like you, but i’m happy for you. What a year huh?
Rachel Stewart pulls no punches in saying honestly what she thinks of John key. She tells of voting Nats for Key’s first term – I’m constantly surprised that people couldn’t tell Key was slippery as from the getgo.
Stewart fell out of support for Key over water quality, and it was all down hill from there, through rising inequality to tasteless media stunts and women being relegated to cheerleaders.
Stewart’s column: John Key era one giant facepalm”
Her three reasons for disliking Key’s government.
1. Destruction of waterways and lack of care for the environment.
2. Mismanagement of the economy so we have become a very unequal society.
3. His gutter behaviour towards women.
This – “He seemed to me to care only for running New Zealand like a huge corporation by squeezing every last dollar out of it – no matter the downstream consequences.”
A country isn’t a corporation and shouldn’t be run like one. Hell, even a corporation shouldn’t be run like corporations are run these days. Every business should care about the environment and about the people it employs and their well being.
Questions please
Do the Nat MP’s ask their constituents whom they feel would be the best choice in the race for leader of the national party and then vote accordingly?
Or do the MP’s vote according to their own wants and needs?
It just doesn’t seem very democratic to me, I’d be a bit pissy i think if i was a nat party member and did not have a say in whom the leader of the party i belong to should be.
From the the National Party Rules
Thank you Carolyn much appreciated
As the rules indicate it is the MP’s who decide. Otherwise how could it be done in a week.
However, I am pretty sure the MP’s will be thinking who will be the most effective in the next election and will be taking more than a few soundings on that very point.
Interesting listening to talk back, some are ringing concerned at the procedure, fascinating talk back this week.
I hope that some of those people who voted for John Key will reflect on what he actually did or didn’t do for NZ and start to consider the pressing issues facing this country and the world. That so many people could fail to see past the fawning MSM smokescreen for 8 years has never failed to amaze me. I also hope that those journalists who were “seduced’ by Key’s “friendliness” will take the opportunity to look back at their own contribution to the distraction he provided for a government that failed to deal with the pressing issues apart from a few superficial interventions. An alternative government could have made quite a difference to the current housing situation, reduced the foreign ownership of land, removed the tax haven status and worked with the Pike River families in a more compassionate manner had not the “show us the money” , the dirty politics/Ede/Slater feeding of MSM clouded the public’s view of the real issues.
The purpose of journalism is thus to provide citizens with the information they need to make the best possible decisions about their lives, their communities, their societies, and their governments.
https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/journalism-essentials/what-is-journalism/purpose-journalism/
i hope for similar – but its been a cult of personality for years.
And with all cults, when your in it, its hard to see it from the outside
How fake news has trashed the old idea of checking facts before publishing and tried to replace it with the idea that any kind of nutso raving is truth until someone else proves it wrong (to the nutso raver’s standards).
https://thinkprogress.org/the-most-dangerous-thing-about-fake-news-sites-is-not-what-they-say-but-how-they-say-it-f7bd89501028#.tl759hzes
This backgrounder makes Comet Ping Pong sound like an interesting place. Also explains why malicious kooks would want to use it as a centrepiece of a fake news story.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/outward/2016/12/06/comet_ping_pong_is_a_haven_for_weirdos_and_now_a_target.html
Fake News-
Murtaza Hussain @MazMHussain 23h23 hours ago
2003: Rifle-toting Americans barge into Iraq after reading viral Fake News story about weapons of mass destruction.
Yep, more right wingers creating fake news with disastrous consequences. With not enough attention being paid to Hans Blix and his inspection team fact-checking and saying there’s nothing there.
+100
Had the same thought, but not the energy to be as succinct as you. Thanks for doing so.
‘Fake News’ is repackaged ‘Conspiracy Theory’ for the catch and dispatch crew
Nothing more!
Which of your ‘reliable sources’ influenced you most to parrot the latest narrative for them, Andre?
The ego explores the progressive expansion of self-knowledge.
Ok so prediction time
Bill English will be the next PM but it will be close, very close with Jude so close in fact that I wouldn’t be at all surprised if theres a coup a year or so into Englishs reign, obviously it will be much earlier if English loses the next election
Having said that I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Jude managed to take the leadership of English
If I could pick I’d pick Coleman as he’s the freshest (or least most unknown) face and being a medical doctor is not exactly a bad thing to have on ones CV but he won’t get near the leadership
Prediction time?
Cut’n’run Key will be seen as shallower and shallower as time passes.
Cigar-smoke Coleman will be unable to hide his arrogance.
Crusher Collins will be unable to shake off the Slater on her back.
Boring Bill will fail to rid himself of his Double-Dipton title.
You must feel bereft, Pucky, and appalled by the present state of affairs.
Its not ideal but lets say National lose 7-8% over Key leaving, that leaves National on approx. 40%, I’d suggest NZFirst might gain as much as 3-4% of that which puts NZFirst well and truly over 10%
Jude would have no issues working with Winston and, probably, vice versa so the most logical outcome is a National/NZFirst government in 2017 and every other party on the outside unless Winston wants them in
Not sure how Winston and English get on though so its certainly made the upcoming election more interesting
“Its not ideal”
Ha ha ha ha ha!
No. It’s not ideal for the likes of you and other Key-adorers. In fact, it’s THE WORST POSSIBLE THING, and that’s, as you say, not ideal. For you. For others, myself included, this is High Humour and Pure Oxygen to the Soul 🙂 Now, you are reduced to trying to build something from a pile of fetid goop, relatively speaking, given that previously, you (believed) you were spinning with gold. How quickly that precious metal turned to straw. You must feel betrayed, as indeed you were. Key’s smiled as he assassinated National and the hopes of his sycophants such as your pucky self. These are dark days for you, Pucky, and all you can do now is try to make purses from sow’s ears. Good luck, ol’ chappy!
I thought you might appreciate that 🙂
“These are dark days for you, Pucky, and all you can do now is try to make purses from sow’s ears”
Yes its this exactly, we could sit around and go into mourning and think the worst has happened and we should all just give up but that won’t achieve anything and would almost certainly guarantee an election loss
Or we could see what we’re left with and go from there and it looks like there’s now no real impediment to National and Winston combining that that’s a…positive I guess
Its not what I (or anyone) would have wanted but sometimes you have to play the hand you’re dealt and National did manage to win one or two elections without John Key and I dare say they’ll be able to do it again
I suppose if ones trying to look positive I’d say that John Key has the left the party in the high 40s and there won’t be a bye-election needed, which is something a certain ex-Labour leader maybe should have looked at doing
Sitting around, mourning…yes, there’ll be a lot of that going on, Pucky, and more of it to come for your horrid crew who over the past 8 years have been crowing from the top of the dunghill you now discover is all thart remains for you. You had a merry trickster as your star and he’s dumped on you all from his great height – what treachery! How neatly and heartlessly he’s slid his dagger into the heart of his party and his supporters! Smiling Assassin indeed – did you think you were exempt? What I see now, is Mr Little, solid and trustworthy, established and supported, generously suppressing his delight at Key’s feckless knee-capping of the Right, eyes fixed on his up-coming win in 2017 – Little’s played it perfectly, as he’s played you and your gutted team. A marvelous week for the Left, Pucky, and the first of many.
Well leaving National in the high 40s and with the door fully open for NZFirst is not a bad position to be in
I know you don’t like my predictions but I predict that after the next general election National will still be in power and I think its now going to be National/NZFirst
Who do you think will make up the next government?
“trying to build something from a pile of fetid goop, ”
Like the golem…
“In Jewish folklore, a golem (/ˈɡoʊləm/ goh-ləm; Hebrew: גולם) is an animated anthropomorphic being that is magically created entirely from inanimate matter (specifically clay or mud). The word was used to mean an amorphous, unformed material in Psalms and medieval writing.[1]
The most famous golem narrative involves Judah Loew ben Bezalel, the late-16th-century rabbi of Prague. There are many tales differing on how the golem was brought to life and afterwards controlled.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golem
Jewish folklore is spattered with tales of golem failing to obey the will of their controllers and running amok….creating havoc and disorder…
Shalom.
Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series features allusions to many beliefs and weaves them into his stories. The golems appear particularly in Feet of Clay. The ideas about them seem to have been carried further into the thinking about how robots could be limited in their free will by Asimov.
This is from wiki –
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golems_%28Discworld%29
http://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/Golems
Yes…some may cast doubt upon the value of fiction and folklore, but they both have their roots in the vast arena of human experience over the ages.
I’ve always seen golem as a metaphor for the potential of one’s creation to go beyond one’s control.
Especially when the quality of raw material for that creation is less than optimal.
When I have the time I will read my way through Pratchett’s work, perhaps there is a good starting point?
Sounds more like Frankensteins monster in that case
“Sounds more like Frankensteins monster in that case”
Variations on the theme PR, variations on the theme…
True true
Good to talk with you Rosemary. Yes Terry P was a good and funny writer and man. Also I have started reading Ellis Peters who wrote a series around Cadfael the monk who was sort of an ideal man that I think some women writers like to bring to life and imagine stories around. He lives in the 1100s and she writes vividly about that time and I think has the historical background and the culture of that time probably well covered.
While we are in these dire straits in the world I am interested in what people are, under all our layers of civilisation and poncy clothes and cars and high-heeled shoes. I’m looking for nobility and soul and clever use of our machiavellian minds and love and fascination with and for each other. Things I have never bothered thinking about before but now I see clearly how humans have trouble learning from past errors and am brought to the question of what did my birth father die for in 1944 WW2, which we don’t seem to have transcended, then what are we? It seems to me that there is an insect brain in us, along with other primitive inherent cognition.
This is a bit heavy but when one starts looking into the void as is happening now, then it makes ya think doesn’t it.
(Funny just as I was closing off – Puckish Rogue’s astute comment dame up Sounds more like Frankensteins monster in that case
Crusher is promoting working with NZ First, what is the general feeling within the outgoing government towards working with Winny?
Is she wanting to work with Winny because she has no new policy idea’s apart from more police?
Probably guarantees another two terms.
How’s that make you feel another 7 years of National?
http://iforce.co.nz/i/oxzgglw5.1rg.jpg
Dear BM… what can I say but…
http://68.media.tumblr.com/a9e157e5b1b96078d1e7f41e93296e9f/tumblr_nk2pf5Z2qY1s7uqdjo4_250.gif
“she has no new policy idea’s apart from more police”.
Don’t say that Cinny.
If you give her the credit Little, Andrew will have a hissy fit. He’ll be tearing up the carpet and complaining that it was HIS idea and that she is stealing it.
I can hear the wails from here. “Tt’s not fair, it’s not fair, it’s not fair ……..”
I can hear Winston laughing hard at her attempts to seduce him
“attempts to seduce him”.
Please, spare me. Some things just shouldn’t have to be thought of.
However, have you ever heard Winston laugh? He lasts about 2 seconds and then ends wheezing furiously. Far too many cigarettes to manage a laugh any more.
Exactly alwyn. Don’t rely on Winston being up to it… a year is a long time when you have his self imposed health problems.
Bombers got some great descriptions on the Nat candidates on TDB – (he sadly holds back on Collins however, the worst candidate in my view a mash up of Trump, Hitler, Imelda Marcos and Thatcher with the Enron accountants, rolled into one body )
BILL ENGLISH – A RELIGIOUS FANATIC
“I wouldn’t be surprised if he whips himself to sleep nightly. English desperately needed Key because English has all the charm and personal warmth of a road accident. Key was the smiling vacant face while English spent time privatising state housing, expanding the neoliberal welfare state and pushing for mass surveillance of beneficiaries.”
COLEMAN – DALEK
“The Minister of Wheeze, Dr Croak has a voice honied by years of cigarettes and stepping on poor peoples dreams. Possibly the most hopeless Minister ever, he did a shit job with Broadcasting and he’s a joke in Health. He wouldn’t publicly eat the cheap slop he was forcing hospital patients to eat and had the audacity to privately eat it and tweet about how yummy it was.”
“Judith Collins – the crypto-fascist”
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2016/12/07/a-religious-fanatic-a-crypto-fascist-and-a-dalek-these-are-our-choices-for-prime-minister-of-nz/
Okies I predict, English will get it and National will lose next election and Judith might possibly create a break away party.
Nope Collins will just kick out English as PM when she sees her chance – no break away party for the Natz – they are too lazy to break away and too clueless to start a party from scratch.
Well well well. That was taken down quick yesterday.
Must be something in those “conspiracy theories”.
?
????
Yes.
It looks dodgy as.
I have been wondering just how deep the divisions within the National Party are over the issue of legalising euthanasia.
There have been numerous attempts by from both left and right over the years to facilitate assisted dying. This year has seen a high profile court case and a continuing exhaustive select committee hearing with over 20,000 submissions.
Despite my personal well founded reservations, I honestly thought that this time the issue would get over the line and the syringes would sharpened and extra stocks of ‘blue juice’ ordered.
But no…despite having fully supported Lecretia Seales, John Key announced a month ago that…
“There is zero chance of Government introducing legislation to legalise euthanasia even if an inquiry strongly recommends it, ”
The reason given…”Key said he personally supported euthanasia. He would not take the step himself, but he believed others should be able to.
However, there was strong opposition to it within the National caucus, he said.
Senior members of the Cabinet such as Bill English and Gerry Brownlee have previously voted against bills which would have made euthanasia legal.”
http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/politics/john-key-no-chance-of-govt-legalising-euthanasia/
There is a real taste for physician assisted dying and the loud protagonists, although they dismiss the concerns of those who would be most at risk from misuse of such a facility, seemed to be winning.
So why the sudden back off from Key…who’s fair physiognomy dominated the Seales’ campaign page?
The politicians are too afraid of thinking deeply about anything because it just creates a precedent, and why fiddle while everything is going their way. So euthanasia, assisted dying, whatever has no chance with these peabrains.
And physician-assisted doesn’t have to come into it. If people have signed a document that they wish to do so, gone through legal measures of ensuring they have a will, left messages with a functionary with solicitor’s background if they don’t want to explain it to their children as is the best way, then they should have the right to do so. A proper procedure should be established in compliance with what older people who have thought through the process have decided and worked through with the pollies. Then there will be a peace of mind that life can be lived to the full and not in the end interfered with by forcing it to continue because of others’ beliefs and rigid principles.
At present there is this shameful and excessive watchfulness trying to prevent people even thinking or hearing about means of death. Police raids, disgusting. Politicians on top of the money heap and controlling, being the gatekeepers against those who wish to determine their own length of incapacity, they are a disgrace to their ‘profession’, incompetents and shallow. And the religious and hospices should stop trying to be Burkes in reverse.
In a word Rosemary…. Religion. God wants everyone to suffer apparently.
It is people who make other people suffer. Their ego, and dependence of being constantly appreciated. Hang on…. mostly male I think. Yep, looking around the world and it adds up.
MEET THE CANDIDATES
No. 2: Dr. Jonathan Coleman
I don’t know if he harasses waitresses or fondles the hair of little girls, but this bloke is a real piece of work.
Coca Cole-man, calls himself a Dr, but refuses to tackle the sugar issue even though across the globe other countries are tackling it and identifying it as so harmful. We have a public health system, why would he stretch it further by not addressing sugar?
Obesity and diabetes rates are obscene in NZ, sugar is an issue. Coleman would rather push through RMA changes and dump fluoride in our water than tackle the sugar issue. By adopting this mind set he shows himself as a Dr of Death.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/287782/the-sugar-filled-elephant-in-the-room
We have a public health system, why would he stretch it further by not addressing sugar?
Probably because he’s a MD and can identify this wailing about sugar as the kind of simplistic thinking that results in bad policy and unforeseen consequences. Obesity and diabetes are problems of carbohydrates in general, not sucrose in particular, and any minister wanting to deal with them walks into a political minefield – if Coleman doesn’t fancy using his feet as mine detectors, that’s hardly surprising.
Psycho, Coca Coleman is a fortune seeker, and not a good listener…
“A Herald poll last month suggested an overwhelming public desire to introduce a sugar tax, with more than 80% of 11,700 voters in favour of new legislation.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11615519
“More than 84 per cent of GPs responding to the latest New Zealand Doctor/IMS fax poll believe a sugar tax should be introduced in this country.
And nearly 70 per cent reject health minister Jonathan Coleman’s view of the effect a tax would have on consumption of sugary drinks.”
http://www.nzdoctor.co.nz/news/2016/april-2016/14/sour-on-obesity,-gps-at-odds-with-coleman-over-introducing-a-sugar-tax.aspx
Don’t you want a PM that listens?
To whom? If the answer is “Evidence,” yes I do want a PM who listens. If it’s “Opinion polls,” then meh, not so much. (Not that I want a Nat PM either way, mind.)
“A Herald poll last month suggested an overwhelming public desire to introduce a sugar tax, with more than 80% of 11,700 voters in favour of new legislation.” “Don’t you want a PM that listens?”
You just had one for the past 8 years and he was berated for being poll driven. Do you want him back already?
“More than 84 per cent of GPs responding to the latest New Zealand Doctor/IMS fax poll believe a sugar tax should be introduced in this country.
And nearly 70 per cent reject health minister Jonathan Coleman’s view of the effect a tax would have on consumption of sugary drinks.”
How many of those GP’s also have an MBA? Interesting that you think they would have a better understanding on the effect taxation on consumption and the wider effects of such a tax (does it just cover sucrose? what about glucose? what if Coke just switched to a fructose based sweetener, do we have to tax fruit then? Would it include pure fruit juices? What about reconstituted fruit juices? All sugars are linked to diabetes, so do we tax everything with any trace of sugar like beer and wine? It would clearly have to cover Balsamic Vinaigrette, Almond Butter, yogurt) than a GP MP with an MBA…
Need more evidence? Scandinavian countries have such a tax, as does, Mexico, France, Hungary, Britain ..
Recent evidence further suggests an association between sugar-sweetened beverage consumption and preventable mortality from diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and cancer, with the majority of deaths occurring in low and middle-income countries.. says the WHO.. so why on earth would we not want to do something about this? Something sensible, something that works, just like tobacco tax. Or do you think people will start holding up their local dairy for a red bull?
Now Coca Coleman is promising more funding for health if he gets the new job.. is that just some kind of excuse for his short comings in looking after the Health Ministry?
Lots of questions, so let’s make it easy…. A sugary drinks tax or soda tax is a tax or surcharge designed to reduce consumption of drinks with added sugar. Drinks covered under a soda tax often include, carbonated drinks, uncarbonated drinks, sports drinks and energy drinks
The way I see it is any against such a tax are just pro big business aka big sugar profits, and we all know they make more than enough as it is.
Let’s be pro the NZ Health System that our taxes pay for, lets look after the people.
https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2016/mar/16/will-a-sugar-tax-actually-work-budget
Need more evidence? Scandinavian countries have such a tax, as does, Mexico, France, Hungary, Britain ..
Other countries implementing simplistic policies based on noise from lobbyists isn’t “evidence” – except, maybe, evidence that weak politicians are prey for noisy lobbyists.
Recent evidence further suggests an association between sugar-sweetened beverage consumption and preventable mortality from diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and cancer…
Sugar-sweetened beverage consumption and a shitload of other things that are probably more important factors. But instead of looking at the actual causes of obesity and diabetes (which come down to “foods that raise blood glucose levels rapidly”) and seeing what can be done about them, let’s tax sugary drinks because left-wingers hate the Coca Cola corporation. Why, oh why, isn’t Coleman on board with that, I wonder?
Lots of questions, so let’s make it easy…. A sugary drinks tax or soda tax is a tax or surcharge designed to reduce consumption of drinks with added sugar.
To serve what purpose? If the purpose is to reduce rates of obesity and diabetes in the population, a sugary-drinks tax is not fit for purpose for several reasons (the tax would have to be very high to actually suppress consumption, there’s extensive scope for unintended consequences, and singling out sugary drinks is pointless – if you look at the glycemic index, white bread and various other foods are actually worse than sucrose for making you fat and diabetic). The actual purpose of such a tax would be to make hand-wringers feel like they were doing something useful, which is not a good justification for new taxes.
PM – Out of interest, do you mind sharing who you voted for at the last election (party vote)?
I have just flicked through your comments on OM and I cannot get a read on you. I am guessing either Winston First or ACT…?
Just a question on Coleman. Who would trust a doctor that smokes?
I agree with you there Garibaldi
Would you apply the same logic to a doctor that drinks alcohol? Ethanol is a Group 1 carcinogen also, not to mention processed meat, would you not trust a doctor that drinks beer or eats pepperoni pizza?
To answer your question, I would trust a doctor that smokes, or drinks, or eats pepperoni pizza.
Labour – I guess I’m from the little-known “surly curmudgeon” faction. That was the first time since 1987, though – was an Alliance voter, then Green, then fuck-who-can-a-left-libertarian-vote-for-now, then back to Labour again on the basis that these days they’re the underdog and need some support. Proud to say I’ve never voted Winston First, although to my shame I did vote ACT once – at the time, they and the Greens were the only ones backing liberty when it came to drugs, anti-terrorism over-reach laws etc and the Greens were anti-science, so I swallowed a big dead rat. Never again…
Thanks PM, that all makes perfect sense and I learnt something new, I wasn’t previously aware of Labour’s “surly curmudgeon” faction!
Unfortunately I held my nose and voted Winston First in 2005, so I know what that dead rat tastes like.
You don’t think a tax on sugary drinks would achieve anything? I disagree, it would do something to help, it would not solve the whole problem, but it would be a factor in that solution.
The tax does not appear to have dented sales in Mexico, the government is collecting tax from it that can be used in the health sector, for other factors of obesity, maybe it could be used to encourage more people into physical activity or something, maybe the tax could be enough to cover dental care for the whole population? I don’t see any loses with this kind of tax from either side.
https://www.ft.com/content/e4f36a0e-6485-11e6-8310-ecf0bddad227
“Nicky Hager is trying to scaremonger and make himself relevant again.”
What someone collapsing under pressure looks like
She’s already losing her temper and calling people names….
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/319800/collins-hager-is-trying-to-scaremonger
Sour grapes on Hagers part, his sordid little book failed and now he’s trying to flog a dead horse
You choice of words reflects the state of your soul right now, Pucky. You’re lashing out. You are bitter, thanks to John Key, and you are right to be.
I’m an atheist so the soul doesn’t exist 🙂
It’s long been clear that you lack one, Pucky, as your hero-to-zero, John Key lacks anything resembling one, but I didn’t want to make an issue of it. I can see now, why you favour Collins for your next
empty-vesselleader.Actually I favour Coleman because he’s a fresher (or unknown) face whereas English, though talented, can’t really claim to be renewing and Jude has been unfortunately hamstrung by nasty lefties that fear her talent, hard work and charisma
I just don’t think Coleman will win
No one will win in this race of the losers, Pucky, least of all you and silly-billies like you who believed in Key. You’ve been slam-dunked, abandoned, short-changed and abused. I’m leaving you to your stranded-fish gaspings today as I’ve got fun things to do and this is miserable stuff.
Aww its sweet you’re trying to do that thing where you try to bring someone from the opposite political spectrum down
I mean it won’t work because the probability of a National/NZFirst government has increased but I appreciate the effort 🙂
Dude you didn’t hear Sanso interview Crusher then Winny this morning?
Oh dang, sorries to burst your bubble. For reals it does not look good for a coalition with Sir Winston if that’s what you are excited about.
http://www.radiolive.co.nz/Winston-Peters-on-Judith-Collins-calling-him-the-real-leader-of-the-opposition/tabid/506/articleID/133814/Default.aspx
If you asked him about what he said the next day he’d deny he ever said it
Jonky resigned Puckish, stop projecting.
Fixed.
Unless you are more ignorant than I think you are, my friend, you will realize that Hager’s book was very successful. As he pointed out in this morning’s interview, the book led to Judith Collins losing her cabinet seat.
And the sordid parts of his book are the revelations of what Collins, Slater, Jordan Williams, Jason Eade and co. were doing. You’re muddle-headed to confuse the journalist with the things he reveals.
Ok its true that in my opinion the purpose of the book was to swing the election the lefts way which means it was a failure, National was re-elected, John Key was still popular and the left was still stagnating
According to Hager – and despite the right’s claims to the contrary he is a thoroughly honest person – the timing of the publication of the book just before the election was coincidental. He had hoped it would be ready for publication early in 2014 but it didn’t work out that way. Having said that, I’m sure he did want to see it published before the 2014 election.
Hager does not make claims about anybody without solid evidence to back them up. And that is precisely what happened with “Dirty Politics”. That it did not have an effect on the election is an indictment on the voters – the vast majority of whom were too glassy eyed and lazy to bother to read the book and/or digest the information that was widely reported and it’s inherent ramifications.
“the timing of the publication of the book just before the election was coincidental”
and if you believe that do I have a deal for you: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=i%20have%20a%20bridge%20to%20sell%20you
C,mon PR. Read what I said.
I recall Hager being quite open about the fact he wanted to publish the book before the election because he believed it was important that voters were aware of the dirty political machinations (Ede, Slater, Odgers, Lusk and Carrick Graham in particular) that were occurring. It was also deplorable that it was being coordinated from within “the PM’s office” and it defies logic Key didn’t know what was going on as he subsequently claimed.
Hager intended to publish much sooner but there were various delays and it ended up coming only a month before the election. Too late to have much affect on the election.
“the vast majority of whom were too glassy eyed and lazy to bother to read the book and/or digest the information that was widely reported and it’s inherent ramifications.” One of whom is you eh Pluckliss Rogue.
That’s Mr Puckish Rogue Esq. if you please 🙂
But it’s a great go-to for another insight and possible leads, that index.. fantastico.
GOsh it’s super exciting really… a race when you can’t stand any of the candidates, it’s like the USA presidential election all over again post Bernie of course.
Bridges I love oil is about to throw his hat in the ring too…. let the circus begin.. lmfaooooo best reality show in some time this is.
The contents certainly were sordid, but that was down to the participants being quoted (including Collins), not Hager.
Really? One of the better selling NZ books, I would have thought.
My bold, heh.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/lifestyle/70871949/Endless-praise-for-Nicky-Hagers-book-Dirty-Politics
I thought it was telling that in that interview Collins claimed she doesn’t hold grudges but spent the entire time attacking Nicky Hager, and deliberately mispronouncing his name. She came across as vindictive and bullying – so quite accurate really.
Exactly what struck me, too, Karen. Watching her self-destruct over the next few weeks will be a diverting if ugly spectacle.
She came across as vindictive and bullying – so quite accurate really.
The problem for National in a Collins leadership, summed up nicely.
test.
Hi Mod I have two stuck – one meant for Open Mike and one for Barbecue Season. When and if you have time could you release. Ta
First Policy out from The Opportunities Party. Gareth Morgan.
“The current tax regime favours owners of capital and unjustly burdens wage earners. This is not only inequitable, it results in poor utilisation of capital and lower than necessary income and employment. ”
“It addresses issues of rising inequality, housing affordability, foreign debt and poor levels of business investment. The end result will be more jobs, more businesses growth and tax cuts that leave 80% of the population better off.”
(I am watching with cautious interest.)
http://www.top.org.nz/top1?utm_campaign=top1_members&utm_medium=email&utm_source=garethmorgan
He should really exempt the family home. Taxing cash-poor homeowners is not the way to go to fix our problems.
millsy, This from the full policy.
“In case you missed it, I repeat
– under this policy NOT ONE
ADDITIONAL DOLLAR OF TAX
WILL BE COLLECTED. What
will happen is that some of
us will pay more (in mine and
John Key’s case, a lot more) and
for the great majority of people
they will either be unaffected
or pay significantly less. ”
It is closing a tax loop hole, not a new tax, nor an attack on the poorest on society. Quite smart really.
He doesn’t want poor people to own houses.
Being a “cash-poor homeowner” is a piss poor reason to expect tax exemptions. There are a lot of hard working people getting heavily taxed and will never own a home. What happened to a fair go?
Exactly. The idea that owning a home is somehow a special burden needs to be put to rest.
I get tired of home owners who endlessly bang on about ‘how hard it is to pay the mortgage’, as if somehow paying rent with absolutely no benefit or gain or security, till the day you die, is the easy ‘option’.
Some work to pay the rent, some work to pay the mortgage. The renter is the one left well behind in that equation.
We need some fairness in our financial and taxation systems.
A lot of kiwi homeowners think they are entitled to some kind of special privileges and tax breaks that renters never get. They are very sensitive to anything that threatens their inflated asset value
What about the older folks? They ones who have saved all their lives, survived wars and worked hard raising their families in a home as apartments obviously were not in vogue. But you could also look to the older folks that have to fork out 16 Mil for repair bills of apartments not so long ago build.
The core of it is that instead of getting off on envy and bashing people who have worked hard, work on a fairer system. This would certainly not include any tax cuts but rather have progressive tax applied.
You didn’t read Gareth Morgan’s piece didja? His proposal seems eminently fair. Taxing the top few % who are asset rich and using accounting tricks to hide their income from capital gains. Why should people who work for a living have to pay all the tax and people in million dollar houses pay none, while gaining (at least) 70K per year tax free.
You refereed to “a lot of Kiwi homeowners” – a lot? Many, many older folks are asset rich (if one could say that) because they have paid off the mortgage for the roof over their heads. With the 350 bucks a week to survive I doubt that you can add another tax.
As to your assertion of “entitlement” – there is no such thing. There is however, fairness in distribution which has never played out as for every mentioning of a group getting a share someone will put a veto in. This is what greed is all about, measuring entitlements.
Interesting, once again Labour gives it to a meek and compliant Greens, please sir may I have another
http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2016/12/labour_backs_down_on_nelson_greens_furious.html
When will the Greens learn that being a doormat means you won’t get any respect from Labour…
Bless ’em 🙂
http://www.thecivilian.co.nz/english-and-colemans-inspiring-stories-how-they-came-from-money-and-stayed-there/
Corrections Minister Judith Collins has also announced she’ll seek the leadership of the party – and the nation – but is potentially less able to relate to the financial struggles of ordinary kiwis.
Collins has no money, but purchases all her goods by silently staring people down until they cave.
And now Key’s been tipped to head the IMF:
Someone must be getting upset with all the research that the IMF has done recently that proves the present socio-economic system that’s been rammed down our throats, often via the IMF, doesn’t work.
Well that won’t please wify
With the mess he has made of promoting high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reducing poverty in New Zealand he has no hope of accomplishing the stated goals of the IMF. The IMF seeks to facilitate trade as well, but that trade is meant to be fair and balanced trade. The type of trade he has sort to facilitate but luckily has failed so far has been to give the big internationals all the power to bully the little guys and small countries with anonymous international courts paid for, staffed by and beholden to those same big internationals.
Well that wouldn’t really be a surprise seeing Key is part of the oneworld group. in fact it’s just an extension of his burning desire for the TPP.
And Michael “Beware of the Worms!” Woodhouse is tipped to be Minister of Health.
Please Goddess, end the misery now.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11762144
This is of course going to happen if Jonathon “We’ll have to agree to disagree” Coleman gets one of the two Top Spots.
and to confirm my earlier assertion that he could be The Man…
“‘I think [Dr Coleman] glosses over the serious plight the public health system is in, and I don’t think he sufficiently gets it.
”At our last conference he annoyed the delegates a lot, because when somebody would express a different view to his, he had a stock answer of simply saying: ‘We’ll have to agree to disagree’.””
Sounds like Someone Else doesn’t it? Not getting it and glossing over the problems….but I guess that to achieve such a constant state of ‘relaxedness’ you’d have to be that way inclined.
Has the NZ Herald published the real reason Key has resigned?
Did he get a tap on the shoulder from President Obama in his last days in office and wants an even bigger stage for his ego?
John Key named as ideal candidate to head IMF
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11762219
We will have to wait and see.
A lot of the things that job is meant to accomplish are things he has totally failed at in New Zealand.
QUOTE: The IMF seeks to facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world.
He has only ever focused on one of those things in his time as NZ PM and the last 3 have got worse every year for us here under his government. He shrugged off as to hard reducing poverty here, imagine the mess with him in that role.
Yeah.
Fucker finally got a bigger gig and bailed on his mates lol.
Now that makes sense at last! Hearing Key say he doesn’t know what he will do next…..casually throwing in “maybe the speaking circuit..” He has had a game plan since being a ten year old, deciding he would learn golf, because rich people play golf, so who is he trying yo kid?
Oh look, corruption and cronyism working hand in hand with old small hands. Nothing changes, poor C.V. must be feeling quite sick at this point.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6A2arZllmqw&t=73s
Lyndon Hood from Scoop NZ points out the ‘IMF wants Key’ story our local media are recycling now is actually a year old: http://www.mscnewswire.co.nz/reporters-desk/item/1019-nz-premier-john-key-imf-managing-director-prospect.html
LMFAO !!!!!! That headline caught my eye and i was like, nah who cares, as long as he fucks off from here, i won’t read that.
And it’s a year old, and Herald is running it today… bahahahaha. Thanks for letting us all know.
Sad, real sad, looking for click bait are we? Well it aint john the pm who quit key, any headline with his name in it is now yesterdays news or in this case yester-years news
Excellent opinion piece on Key in the Grauniad today. Includes thought-provoking discussion of the need for the political opposition to produce a viable counter-narrative.
“In this regard, Key was like a Tony Blair of the South Seas: a certain level of personal charisma and a socially inclusive façade allowed both Key and Blair to sell the nasty side of neoliberalism.”
“Like Blair, Key had the Teflon gene. Despite ignoring public preferences not to privatise state-owned enterprises (2-1 against in a referendum), increasing the GST during the global financial crisis, and more or less ignoring New Zealand’s chronic child poverty because he blames the victims, none of it stuck.”
What a brilliant summary of the PR image (not the actual human being) that was our Prime Minister.
Why doesnt the entire opposition call for a VOTE OF NO CONFIDENCE in the government led by English
That will trigger an early GENERAL ELECTION so we can all be part of who runs our country instead of having yet another money lusting chauvenistic bully forced on us!!!
That way we dont need an expensive by election for Shearers seat if he goes.