This is powerful stuff from a political blog that is fast becoming a must read.
On top of his unique insight into British politics because of his connections, his intellect and empathy make his observations on other issues worth looking at.
Craig Murray talks about the courage of protesters and the vileness of the media. Here he looks at the recent events in Gaza and the ghastly Guardian’s building of false narratives.
“I cannot imagine the cold courage it must take to be a Palestinian, walking in protest, unarmed, towards the fence that contains the agony of their long drawn-out genocide, in the knowledge that the bullets will start splintering bones and ripping out brain matter around them, and every millisecond could be their own last.
I cannot imagine the cold viciousness it must take to work on the Guardian newspaper, where on the homepage the small headline of the latest six Palestinians to be shot dead, is way below the larger headline of the several hundredth article associating Jeremy Corbyn with anti-Semitism, on the basis of the quite deliberate conflation of anti-Semitism with criticism of Israel.”
“I don’t wish death on anyone, but for purely educational purposes, I have a warning for anyone who dreams of such a career…
“The profession of a traitor is one of the most dangerous in the world…
Alcoholism, drug addiction, stress and depression resulting in heart attacks and even suicide were the “professional illnesses of a traitor”
“Don’t choose Britain as a place to live. Something is wrong there. Maybe it’s the climate, but in recent years there have been too many strange incidents with grave outcomes there.”
Firstly, drinking cow’s milk promotes cruelty to animals. This milk is designed for baby cows, not adult humans. Millions of male calves are killed as a result and the mother cow is separated from her child at birth.
Secondly, people’s consumption of milk has major, well documented environmental impacts for our country. Our waterways are being trashed. We can’t swim in our rivers and we can’t drink our water.
And then there is this. To make intensive dairy farming possible, New Zealand farmers import palm kernel from Indonesia. And in doing so, they are responsible for the deforestation of the world’s last primary forests. The Deforestation of Borneo makes catastrophic climate change more likely and takes away the habitat of the orangutan, which is in rapid decline.
Finally, Indonesia since the 1960s has been a nation shorn of many civil rights. Fonterra has become connected with some shady characters ( to put it mildly) as it accesses palm kernel.
So if you are comfortable with animal cruelty, happy to see New Zealand’s environment ruined, can turn a blind eye to your part in climate change and you don’t care about human rights, drink up that white gold.
After all, milk is so healthy.
That must be true.
Fonterra told me so in their last avalanche of advertisements.
Secondly, people’s consumption of milk has major, well documented environmental impacts for our country.
No, the industrial farming of dairy cows is doing this. As you know, cows and chickens are integral components of permaculture land systems. Again you conflate environmental issues with veganism. You are dishonest.
That is not relevant. You are advocating for change. The change that you would have is not the option with the most environmental benefit. You would throw the baby out with the bathwater.
What percentage of soy beans are produced using sustainable methods?
Do you eat cow’s milk or soy milk or both?
I tend to drink coconut or almond milk.
Feel free to present the arguments against soy and I am happy to read your research.
Bu please can we be civil and polite.
Just ignore them Ed, it’s clear from your very first statement that you are addressing animal cruelty concerns and the associated environmental impacts. I have much respect for your viewpoint.
The point is that anything produced unsustainably is unsustainable. You could say soy or broccoli or dairy. Industrial agriculture is destroying water and soil ecosystems regardless of the product.
But i never see you make general comments about the need to move to permaculture based land systems but rather just always that people need to STOP eating animal products. Those who eat large amounts of these products will need to substantially reduce their consumption but as cows and chickens are integral components of permaculture land systems there is no environmental need for people to go vegan.
@Maui: do you believe that guilt-trips are a good strategy to achieve environmental and animal/human rights improvements? That shaming people works?
If so, I have some bad news for you: it doesn’t work on beneficiaries either, no matter how much the National Party tries it. Funny how it’s so easy to recognise and oppose when they do it, eh.
Lets just sum up one more shall we ” It is concluded that phytic acid is a major inhibitory factor of iron absorption in soy-protein isolates but that other factors contribute to the poor bioavailability of iron from these products.”
So it also a good idea not to eat walnuts nor wheat germ when you want to absorb iron, they are high in phytic acid as well.
I’m 2 for 2 for reading that these are not arguments against soy. Just more really good arguments for a balanced diet.
I’m almost exclusively of northern European extraction with a hint of eastern Mediterranean so my ancestors wouldn’t know a soy product if it bit them. And because I reckon that if you eat what your grandparents ate you’ll be just fine, I ain’t going to consuming soy products anytime soon. And I reckon you, Ed and whoever the fuck else wants to eat soy products can do just that, but unless your ancestors ate that shit, soy as a dietary mainstay is likely a risk to your health.
And as for Ed’s day in day out you must do this, you must do that to save the fucking planet caterwauling , Mr Yeats’ said it best:
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
That was a better response than “fill ya boots” – joe90. Thanks.
I agree, I’m happy to talk about farming, but let’s not put people off that process, by evangelizing about a diet which many people can’t have. Myself included.
Ed if you just talked about farming, and why we need to change it, I’d join in the discussion. But, to prescribe a diet – well you lost me. The debate on diet especially a mono diet is bad.
A well balanced diet with not to much meat, and lots of vegetables and good oils seems the best for human health, and a good quality of life – if you consider the consumption of food a quality of life issue.
Joe90 is right, the day in day out slog on you part for a mono diet, is getting tiresome. We are better off discuss farming, and how to do it better. Me I’m a fan off working on getting more perennials into the farming, rather than annuals process.
You advocacy of ceasing “industrial” farming would have to be accompanied by a reduction in the worlds population by at least two thirds. Because that is what the end of “industrial” farming implies.
Most food in Europe, Russia, Ukraine, the US, Canada, and increasingly much of Asia, Africa and South America, is grown on large scale farms with the use of modern machinery and high yield crops. That is how the bulk of the world’s population is fed.
You might as rail against the fact that virtually all modern manufactures are made in huge factories. They simply cannot be made any other way. Smart phones (just to name one product among thousands) are just too complex for any other way of manufacturing.
Over 2 billion people in Asia have escaped poverty in the last 40 years precisely because of large scale mechanisation of both farming and manufacturing.
Over the top claim Wayne just throwing figures around.
I was talking to a post grad Chinese doctor about the Chinese economy she said nearly 600 million still live in poverty.
Large scale industrial farming opens us up to large scale farming failure.
Making it easier for pests and diseases to spread.
Not just China, but also South East Asia, South Korea and the Indian sub continent. That is how I get 2 billion people.
The World bank says about 700 million of them are in China.
Tell that to the Africans and Mexicans who are much poorer than they were, due to competition from US, mega farms destroying their lives, while they, themselves, can, no longer, afford to buy food.
As the food their farms produced is replaced with coffee, soy, beef and dairy and palm kernel farms, for large corporates and consumption in wealthy countries, , on the land they used to farm.
Yes it will as I can see it now happening in Gisborne where factory farms are being developed out in these back hills.
So as the roads are dirt not tar sealed, and these factory farms send big trucks full of feed for their stock they come all the time now with feed for the animals, as they are force feed continually to fatten them as fast as they can.
So our roads are now falling apart and guess who is going to be paying for the maintenance?
We are going to wind up paying not them.
These chinese companies are causing the roads to fail with their dirty farming practices, we should not allow this as we will pay highly for water and land pollution. also as the road repairs.
no reason why we can’t feed the same number of people using regenerative agriculture. The reason we still have industrial ag instead is because of economic ideology. People still think that making money is more important than growing food sustainable. Thus polluted rivers and Peak Soil.
You might also want to look at how industrial ag can survive in a post-carbon world. It’s not pretty. Best we get on with transitioning now before we are forced to.
All that time you wasted “learning” the things you believe, eh Wayne. It’s almost as though the National Party is a life-support system for the ignoratii.
Reducing the population is an excellent idea Wayne. We have way more people than the planet can sustain. I think that people with extravagant resource consuming lifestyles should not have children and other people should be encouraged to have less.
That’s already happening. The wealthy aren’t having enough children to replace themselves, and as the developing world gets wealthier, they’re having fewer children too.
Huge chicken farm has iwi, vege growers worried
Rewa Harriman
More than 1 million chickens will be on the farm at any one time. Credits: Video – The Hui; Image – Getty
Watch the video for the full story from The Hui, including Tegel’s response.
Dargaville locals are crying fowl about Tegel’s proposal to build the country’s largest broiler chicken farm in their backyard.
The proposed site is in Arapohue, a small settlement south east of Dargaville, and neighbouring properties – including the Kapehu Marae – are furious.
Marae chairwoman Margaret Mutu says the enormity of the project has them very concerned.
“We won’t be able to use this place, we’ll be covered in dust, we won’t be able to use the water off our roof because that will have all of the dust and we won’t be able to hear ourselves speak.”
Lizzie Marvelly has written a scathing article on the state of Middlemore saying national have a lot of questions to answer. She calls the situation outrageous and questions what sort of ministry was Jonathan Coleman running. The language is appropriately strong. It came through on my fb feed. I duly looked for it on the herald’s website, but it was nowhere to be seen. Not even lurking at the bottom of the scroll. I finally accessed it by searching Lizzie. Of course easily viewed on the herald website was all sorts of crap including another piece from resident clairvoyant HDA who is now predicting the greens will no longer exist in 10 years.
I am having difficulty posting the link to this article (maybe it came up yesterday on open mike?). But I will keep trying and urge you all to check it out. She nails it
Thank you Ankerrawshark, I had thought Lizzie had been dropped along with some others recently. So I have used your method to access her articles. As you say, always to the point and pithy.
Ryall and Coleman worked to make that sham Bill English look good.
Typical rob peter to pay paul stuff.
Thanks for bringing this article, and subject, to attention again, Ankerrawshark. It is one that must be given attention. I see you have provided the link now in your comments below at 5 and 6.
Although I am not a great Bryce Edwards’ fan, he has actually done a good job on summarising the situation re wider media reporting on the Middlemore Hospital issues in his Political Round up article on 4 April in the Herald.
He gives main kudos for bringing this situation to notice to Phil Pennington, a RNZ senior reporter (formerly DomPost from my memory) who started the ball rolling on 22 March. Edwards says that Pennington has produced about a dozen articles on Middlemore since then and links to a number of these are in Edwards’s article (ie the link above). The article also provides links to a couple of other media articles – eg Gordon Campbell’s excellent piece in Werewolf, and also a good piece in the Spinoff by Dr David Galler, an intensive care specialist at Middlemore.
The Spinoff has also produced a later article not included in Edwards’ Round Up by Peter Glensor entitled “Beyond the toxic mould: how we can get our DHBs back” which is also a thought provoking read on the wider issues with the DHB model.
[“Peter Glensor was an elected member of the Hutt Valley DHB for 12 years. He was chair of the Hutt Valley DHB, ALAC and DHBNZ, and was deputy chair of Capital and Coast DHB. He also helped found and lead a network of community-based health services across New Zealand.”]
Am concerned that health funding and Middlemore taking a back seat to far less important items.
I feel outraged that John f…g key states his one regret is that he didn’t managed to change the flag. What does that say about how he feels about Middlemore. Doesn’t give a s..t that this went on under his watch
Thanks, red-blooded, and also thanks to you and Ankerrawshark for putting up Marvelly’s article because it spurred me to do the research to find the Herald articles and also check out BE’s Political Round Up article, because I tend to not go to the Herald nearly as much as I used to.
I also hope in the longer term this situation leads to a review of the DHB model because IMO it is well past its use by date, and admin costs etc gobble up far too many $$$ that should be going to actual healthcare.
“The district health board system has some real strengths,” he says, “you have local innovation, response to local need. What you don’t have . . . is the sharing of that innovation across the system.”
That seems to suggest that there’s not going to be a total rethink (which might be desirable but would be a very big ask), but that he’s looking at ways to share best practice (which is at least an improvement on the current situation).
Sadly the problems are wider than underfunding (as bad as that is)….its systemic and I think directly related to the cause of most of our problems…the 80s reforms.
Came across this a few years ago when involved in quake issues…..dosnt make for happy reading but is compelling.
Appropriately scathing article about the state of Middlemore by Lizzie Marvelly. Nowhere to be seen on The heralds website. You have to search her name to find it. Cam through my fb feed
In the last few days he seems to have been talking to WO about the Northcote by-election.
From a google search on “Simon Lusk” for the last month;
Mar 28, 2018 -Dirty Politics – Episode 17- Can Labour Win Northcote? by Cameron Slater on March 28, 2018 at 10:18am. Welcome to episode 17 of our Dirty Politics podcasts. In this episode, Simon Lusk and I discuss whether or not Labour could win the Northcote by-election …
3 days ago – Why taking heads is required in politics. by Simon Lusk on April 5, 2018 at 9:15am. The current Labour government cannot buy a good news story. They are lurching from disaster to disaster, and mainly through inept political management. This inept behaviour is reinforced by the unwillingness to sack anyone for mistakes, … INCITE Archives – Whale Oil Beef Hooked | Whaleoil Media https://www.whaleoil.co.nz/category/incite/
21 hours ago – by Simon Lusk on April 5, 2018 at 9:15am. The current Labour government cannot buy a good news story. They are lurching from disaster to disaster, and mainly through inept political management. This inept behaviour is reinforced by the unwillingness to sack anyone for mistakes, omissions or basic stupidity. Jacinda …
One Anonymous Bloke (7) … If it’s not Natz and its official PR mouthpiece msm having a joke on us, I’m picking it will be either Brownlee or Finlayson who will be taking the walk of shame next.
Yep. It shows where the Nats’ and other rightees values lie. These education support workers are doing a very skilled job, often with children with major needs.
They are making a valuable contribution to the lives of others and society, while being paid a pittance.
Then we hear ACToids complaining that tax is theft from their hard earned wages. And some of them are doing over highly paid jobs that enrich themselves and make little contribution to the betterment of lives of others.
PS: good on Alison Mau for following their case, and reporting it in the MSM.
“They won’t have to wait too long. Caring for the environment is no longer hippy politics. Every party is starting to do it. Virtually the first thing Labour did in Government was to ban plastic microbeads. NZ First has a policy on carbon pricing. Act wants to cut emissions.
Oddly enough the biggest threat is coming from the party the Greens are mostly likely to hiss at: National.
There’s a long tradition of Blue-Greenness within the Nats and things are really starting to ramp up. In his first interviews in the job, new leader Simon Bridges couldn’t have made it clearer he plans to go greener.”
I like the first line about making predictions in politics being an unwise thing to do, yet she did exactly the same thing last week too! More, foolish and attention seeking predictions seem to be all she is now capable of in terms of journalistic style.
Her case for National being the big mover in environmental policy rest entirely on one of Bridges’ reckons (rather than their actual long tradition of promoting the rape of New Zealand water systems for profit), while dismissing an entire election campaign from Labour on water access, irrigation industry reform, regulation of the dairy industry. Not to mention any of the wider global commitments Labour have made.
She really is a bitter caricature of a crappy click-bait hack who, disappointed at not making it as a broadcaster, is now lashing out at her traditional enemy – which is progress.
Well summed up Muttonbird. I began the article agreeing the Greens appear divided, then HDPA started big upping the Nats environmental cred and it became a work of fiction.
To be honest I’m not sure why she gets any airtime she appears quite shallow and a bit thick.
Yes, and if she applied the same rationale to Green vs National then she’d have to say that National cannot ever be environmentally conscious when she claims they are.
There are green nats in the same way there are nats who care about poverty-related social issues:
they will utter soothing words on a case-by-case basis;
make tax-deductible donations to charities they like the look of;
they might even volunteer some of the spare time they are privileged to have towards a worthy organisation,
but all those efforts will be less than nothing when faced against the policies of their preferred government.
What’s really starting to happen with big events in cities…. they start to destroy local business – not help it – as local people are increasingly being taught to “stay away” and can’t even afford to go to the events their tax dollars hosts and pays for.
Gold Coast businesses ’empty’ despite Commonwealth Games
“Businesses struggled in the lead-up, with constant roading upgrades pushing people away.
Mr Day says they had banked on the Games being their cash cow.
“We’ve lost quite a lot of money in the lead-up to the Games, so there’s nothing in the coffers. It won’t give us the build-up we’ve been looking forward to.”
Minutes up the road, it’s a similar story in Surfers Paradise. Christine Broadway runs a bar with her son and is blaming the council and government for scaring people off.
“The roads were going to be very busy; the traffic was going to be impossible, but the M1 was going to be blocked.”
Many cafes and bars in the area are sharing similar stories of being practically empty, but there seems to be little sympathy from Mayor Tom Tate, or Games organisers.”
I wouldn’t read to much into it as the entire Australian retail sector has been struggling for a number of years now due to low wage growth and the high domestic household debt that the average Australian has atm. Sooner or later the interest rates will eventually go up and then things will get very interesting.
The Gold Coast retailers were hoping the games would’ve help them get a boost as these of events in Oz do have a trend of helping the local retail sector out. But from what mother-law has said last week as she lives on the Goldie that transport in and round the Goldie is a bloody mess atm! To a point the locals have been told to stay at home WTF as she was looking to attend a couple of events before she comes up Darwin for few weeks to help with our new house.
If you have a Twitter account? Check out Alan Kohlers graphs as he has some interesting ones of late showing what would a .25%, .50% and .75% interest rate would do to household debt also he has a few on Oz retail sales trends as well.
Alan Kohler does the ABC’s Finance Report on the 7 o’clock news week night, does a articles in the Oz newspaper and has a Twitter Account which is wealth of information IRT graphs which are very interesting and some silly ones, but even those one have a interesting point to them.
Keep this story in mind when the New Zealand and Auckland Governments tell you how wonderful the America’s cup is going to be for the city.
Billions of dollars of income will be promised.
What will happen? Auckland will find that people avoid the city if not interested in the yachting and after the event the city will be left with a white elephant.
A complete waste of at least a quarter of a billion dollars.
Why do politicians adore these circuses? Is it because they hope visiting Billionaires will feed them the very best Champagne and caviar?
visiting Billionaires will feed them the very best Champagne and caviar… don’t you mean the taxpayers of NZ will feed the billionaires the best Champagne and caviar… oh and build the America’s cup ‘charity’ a marina, steal some of the public harbour paid for with free ratepayer and tax payer funds.
I have no problem with America’s cup and billionaires having a whale of a time, just not when the tab is put on the rest of society when there are more socially responsible things to spend the money on and the billionaires could raise the cash themselves.
Still we must keep our beloved Lester living in the style he desires. Bugger the little things like rubbish collection and playgrounds for children. Feed Lester the very best items on the menu seems to be the rule.
I suppose we should be grateful that it was only $98,000. This time.
Auckland will be flushing about two thousand five hundred times that amount on their folly.
If they were really courting investors why did only “a handful of ratepayers” get invited. You aren’t going to tell me that you want our Local Government Council getting involved surely?
Look at their last attempt. Our then Mayor got a bee in her bonnet that there were hordes of people wanting to fly out to China from Wellington. So they did a deal where the ratepayers subsidise a SIA flight from Wellington, via Australia, and then on to Singapore. Why would anyone want to go via Canberra, soon to be Melbourne, and on to Singapore rather than go straight through Auckland. That cuts out one lot of Customs and Immigration checks for a start.
Meanwhile she also proposed extending the runway where the rate payer will pay and a private company gets the benefit. Forget it. If you really want to attract investors, without getting robbed blind, keep Councillors well away.
Most if not all major events cost more for cities to host than they ever get in return. Deloittes and others make big money writing reports for bidding cities etc which market the lie the city will make money.
The boat building industry in NZ is strong, our designing industry is strong and has been for decades, regardless of weather we hosted the Americas Cup
That isn’t what happened last time or the time before that.
Both Americas Cup facilities have gone on to redevelop from grimy heavy marine environments to places where tens of thousands of people visit and have a great time every week.
Pop down some time and have a look at where the old bases were now.
People avoiding the city during the racing will of course be living and shopping elsewhere in New Zealand. Who knows, maybe even Wellington.
Pray tell me then.
If the previous regatta bases were so successful why do we need a new one?
What is wrong with the one that was used last time? Are they planning to spend close to a quarter of a billion dollars and then, should they win and get another chance start all over again?
Looking like the Greens turn to be dumped on this week. If that Duplicity woman is the first to kick off the weeks “pile on” does that mean she will be at the bottom of the pile by weeks end.
Making political predictions as HDA has done for the second week in a row, is a fools game as seldom correct [ridiculous to predict an election 2 and a half years out) and anybody who follows politics knows this to be the case, think trump, brexit, even Jeremy Corbin’s near election victory. And even here at home with the results in 2017.
It suggests to me either a lack of motivation or brain power to write something of substance. Or deliberately trying to spin the narrative or all three.
No, they’re not rogue landlords…they’re sexual predators.
/
To the unaware, the true meaning of some of the phrases used on the ads for tenants could be missed. Rooms for rent are offered in exchange for “benefits” or “keeping me company”. Others are less subtle – “free accommodation in exchange for an erotic arrangement”.
Renting rooms for sexual favours is seen as a growing menace by campaigners, and a byproduct of a housing crisis where young people are unable to find somewhere to live without spending exorbitant sums.
The problem has become particularly marked in university towns, where young women are targeted by rogue landlords. But while then justice secretary David Lidington last year said such offers may breach the Sexual Offences Act, there is frustration that more is not being done.
“Since last year, there has not been a single arrest, let alone a conviction, let alone anybody actually going to jail for it,” says Peter Kyle, Labour MP for Hove.
Kyle has been campaigning on the issue and has consistently called for landlords who offer accommodation in exchange for sex to be prosecuted.
Agree Joe 90 (12) … There was a situation many years ago in NZ, where a highly respected landlord preyed on the girl children of tenants! The young victims were too scared to say anything to their parents, because the landlord threatened if they did, he would throw the family out and tell the parents what their daughters “asked” him to do to them! Of course the young girls didn’t know any better and the result was, the devious sly bastard continued to sexually assault them! He got away with it, because apart from being highly respected in his community in those days a child was considered a liar to report such things and a denial from the man would have been believed above the statements of the child.
This one now deceased thank Christ, would have been the rogue of landlord sexual predators! on young girls!
Murdered with one of the bullets the IDF said they knew exactly where they landed?
A Palestinian journalist shot by Israeli forces during a mass demonstration along the Gaza border has died of his wounds.
Yaser Murtaja, a photographer with the Gaza-based Ain Media agency, was shot in the stomach in Khuza’a in the south of the Gaza Strip on Friday, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Murtaja, 30, was hit despite wearing a blue flak jacket marked with the word “press”, indicating he was a journalist.
Dude dreamed big as he spent his life trapped in the poverty and oppression of a fucking prison camp. Pricks.
“My name is Yaser Murtaja. I’m 30-years-old. I live in Gaza City. I’ve never traveled!” He never did. https://t.co/PSWDgg9WZh— Loveday Morris (@LovedayM) April 7, 2018
Yaser Murtaja had often filmed from the sky, but he never lived to fulfill his dream of flying on an airplane through the clouds.
The young journalist shot drone images and video for Ain Media, a small Gaza-based news agency he started five years ago. Just two weeks ago, he posted an aerial photo of Gaza City’s port on Facebook. “I wish that the day would come to take this shot when I’m in the air and not on the ground,” he wrote. “My name is Yaser Murtaja. I’m 30 years old. I live in Gaza City. I’ve never traveled!”
It was one of his last posts.
Murtaja, who was married and had a 2-year-old son, died Saturday after being shot the day before while covering protests at the edge of the Gaza Strip.
And this is a slow-cooked Ombudsman special: NZDF admits spending millions with Palantir. https://t.co/ibvTgzoiue— Matt Nippert (@MattNippert) April 7, 2018
The New Zealand Defence Force has spent millions on controversial spy software produced by secretive Silicon Valley firm Palantir.
After refusing for more than a year to reveal the extent of links to Peter Thiel’s big data analysis company, prompting a complaint by the Herald on Sunday to the Ombudsman, the NZDF were forced to disclose annual spending with Palantir averaged $1.2 million.
The figures suggest since contracts were first signed in 2012 the defence force has spent $7.2m with the firm.
With regard to the attacks on the government for the petrol excise duty increases, particularly the criticism of Twyford calling it 10 cents over three years instead of 3 cents a year, could someone better at this than me find a graph on PED increases in the last 10 or 20 years?
The PED now sits at 66 cents but it’s the successive increases which are important in comparing this government’s announcement with what has happened in the past.
I have tried, honest, but don’t know where to look to get that particular info.
Interesting GA had to do the research on the stats in question (it being their graph) rather than it being freely available in that form at MBIE.
Interesting too that NZ has a relatively low tax to price ratio compared with other OECD countries. This is shown here. I guess that the high cost of the product in NZ means we’ve never charged what other countries do in excise which is required for decent infrastructure.
Result? Poor quality roads and terrible public transport infrastructure.
The Legatum Institute is a Stink Tank funded mainly by Chris Chandler … one of a pair of NZ Billionaire Brothers…. who operate their various business s / hedge funds / vulture capitalism from tax havens like Dubai .
I call them a stink tank as opposed to a think tank … as among other things they rank countries in their own Legatum ‘prosperity index’.
But as Oxfam has correctly pointed out, … tax havens are the biggest drivers of inequality and poverty in the world.
Making Chandlers project like a trader in kiddie porn … lecturing people on children s well-being.
They also employ discredited dishonest anti-russian hacks … and have been pumping out propaganda for quite a while … laying the ground work for the Mays and Clintons to pile it on even thicker.
Here’s some quotes about Legatum … who are also lobbying for a ‘hard Brexit’ ….
apparently nothing to do with tax dodging Billionaires who do not like the EU … with all its regulations … standing in the way of their vulture / disaster capitalism
. https://irrussianality.wordpress.com/2017/11/26/the-hunters-become-the-hunted/
“In an ironic twist of fate, those shouting loudest about Russian ‘fake news’ and demanding that the West take action against RT and other Russian media outlets, are now finding themselves accused of being Russian agents. It is, of course, completely absurd. But I can’t help thinking that what goes around comes around, and that Legatum and co. have only themselves to blame for their predicament. In creating the hysteria about Russian interference in Western politics, they established the conditions which made the assault on their own position possible. If you start a witch-hunt, you shouldn’t be surprised if one day the Witchfinder General comes looking for you.”
“Chandler has made a fortune from so-called disaster capitalism – taking advantage in countries either politically or economically destabilised. What is this foreign national doing by meddling in Britain’s future one wonders.” Chandler has made a fortune from so-called disaster capitalism – taking advantage in countries either politically or economically destabilised. What is this foreign national doing by meddling in Britain’s future one wonders.”
” Liberal Democrat MP Tom Brake insisted it was “clear” the Government was “extremely sensitive about their very close relationship with the Legatum Institute. …He said: “Ministers must distance themselves from a ‘think tank’ whose agenda is leading the UK to a disastrous no deal Brexit that would inflict permanent damage on UK families and jobs.” https://news.sky.com/story/brexiteers-favourite-think-tank-the-legatum-institue-rejects-russia-link-11145291
“Johnson and Gove’s Legatum-backed letter, revealed by The Mail on Sunday a fortnight ago, made three key demands to Mrs May: to force Chancellor Philip Hammond to do more to plan for a ‘hard Brexit’; to use our withdrawal from the EU to scrap swathes of rules and regulations; and to appoint a new ‘Brexit Tsar’ to head up a task force within Whitehall….All three demands seem to have been met. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5117547/Putins-link-Boris-Goves-Brexit-coup-revealed.html
“According to the Legatum Institute, anybody who doesn’t agree with them is under the control of Moscow’s security services. The notion that an individual might have an honest personal opinion that differs from their worldview is unfathomable for these intrepid, self-appointed defenders of freedom…….You’ve read this correctly. A think-tank which claims to be devoted to “revitalising” democracy is smearing its opponents as ‘spooks’. Not just any old sort either – KGB agents. https://www.rt.com/op-ed/322968-legatum-kgb-russia-applebaum/
“Billionaire founder of think tank that advocates leaving single market obtains right to work anywhere in Europe” ….”Christopher Chandler, founder of Legatum, which backs leaving the single market and the customs union, has become a citizen of the Mediterranean island ……..Critics branded the move double standards as the passport would give him the right to live and work in any European country. A hard Brexit is expected to leave Britons without that same privilege.” https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/brexiteer-hard-brexit-eu-passport-buy-malta-christopher-chandler-single-market-customs-union-a8185336.html
“The founder of the libertarian thinktank, Christopher Chandler, is a New Zealand-born financier who made a fortune in the “wild capitalism” days in Russia in the 90s when state-run companies were privatised. His former company, Sovereign Global, was the largest foreign portfolio investor in Russia by 1994…. The company’s investments are believed to have netted Mr Chandler and his brother Richard several billion dollars and by 2012 they were the fourth largest investors in Gazprom – the Russian gas company which has since been taken partly back into state control,” https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-latest-thinktank-russia-legatum-institute-boris-johnson-michael-gove-christopher-chandler-a8076436.html
Chandler is based in Dubai …. a good place for money laundering and extreme misogyny.
And cue the predictable “falling in behind” that would have us believe that an army on the cusp of victory, that has proceeded slowly in retaking urban areas and evacuated as many civilians as it could, would unload chemical weapons for the sake of…well, what’s it going to be?
Because they could? Because they have a track record (allegedly)? Because they’re just mad and bad?
Oh, I know! They were wanting to grab those international news headlines again. Bloody ego-ists!
And there will be no talk of beleaguered terrorists topping members of a captive civilian population who aren’t properly ideologically aligned for propaganda purposes. That, afterall, is an insane suggestion to make about “rebels”.
The poor young RNZ news reader is having to parrot the propaganda unfortunately, with the proviso, though, that no independent reports have been received. I guess that’s something.
The report is from the white helmets. A ‘Syrian based NGO’. Hilarious.
Funny when journalist who have been to Syria call the White Helmets nothing more than a propaganda tool, you do have to ask who for. The journalist being Pilger, Fisk and others.
Odd One Anonymous Bloke, for a guy who believes we can blame the Russians, because they have a track record, you rather unwilling to apply the same methodology to the head choppers in Syria. You should, you might just learn that they are nasty, manipulative and vicious killers, not democratic loving individuals some in the west want to portray them as.
Do you believe the official narrative from Damascus? From the Snopes article linked above:
The accusations seem to be levied at the group based on political motivations, not evidence.
You should stop pretending that you can summarise what I think, Adam. Or that you are teaching me something about “headchoppers” – for one thing I’m suspicious of all such dehumanising labels.
I believe that the most plausible explanation for the Salisbury poisoning is that the Kremlin is involved NOT that we can “blame the Russians”. I believe I have explained this to you before. If you can’t argue with my comments without misrepresenting them that says something about you, and nothing whatsoever about my arguments.
Lift your game. National Party tactics won’t help you.
National party tactics, misrepresentation, calling me a supporter of Damascus.
Yeap, I hit a nerve.
Funny I’ve explained to you over and over who I support in Syria – seems you never get it.
Oh and by the way there’s a reason to call them head choppers, they chop off heads. It might be a bit much for you making a moral decision at this point, but by the very action of killing human beings in such a barbaric way, they gave up on humanity. And yes I think of them as somthing less than human.
I can’t think of any human being I’ve met who thinks it’s normal to cut off someone’s head to prove a religious, or political point, or in the name of power.
I will call them what they are, head choppers, becasue when the barbarity is that obvious, it is a disservice to humanity to brush over their murderous ways.
Most likely, they’re a search and rescue operation whose activities are often used for propaganda purposes, especially since they’ve received funding and resources from a wide range of Western sources.
However, since most of the information about them comes from a civil war zone, I’d be a fool to think that I “know” that. Hence the phrase “most likely”.
a) Believe western government takes or, b) believe other government’s takes (or, laughably, what you interpret from such a bastion of rigorous analysis as Snopes to be the line of other governments)
In other words (to paraphrase Bush, and yes, somewhat ironically given this topic) you’re either with us or against us 🙄
In fact, that’s exactly what Bill said: the notion that your only options are (a) or (b), when experience tells us that the ‘truth’ is probably some third thing entirely.
So if you think Bill is guilty of “post-modern piffle” I suggest you take it up with him.
And now RNZ repeat the propaganda…..
Sure enough – the underling message is ‘Blame Russia.’ as usual.
RNZ do not question the propaganda about the white helmets and accept their lies without any challenge.
Journalism is basically dead in the mainstream. It serves the neoliberal establishment and its lust for war.
Like Robbins, I’m a rather large human and it was obvious to me he that was using his size to physically intimidate the woman, prick was leading with his fist, and dollars to donuts, he’s a fucking expert at it.
Not to mention using the crowd. The “raise your arm” thing is a neat trick – it keeps the audience awake, but also creates group compliance, and makes it even more intimidating to try and discuss something with him.
Interesting variation on “sorry, not sorry”: his version was ‘I’m showing great integrity by not being sorry’.
I was intrigued that a downside of #metoo was, according to Robbins, that attractive women are discriminated against because male employers can’t trust themselves to avoid harrassing attractive women. Sigh.
Keep an eye out for the article by Simon Wilson that’s coming out in tomorrow’s Herald. Apparently he’s interviewed Johnathan Coleman, who “said some pretty surprising things about Middlemore Hospital”.
That sent me rushing to Simon’s Twitter account. Damn, no clues. But liked Kirsty Johnston’s comment that “So he is real?”. Also see Simon fully endorsed Lizzy’s article. Well suppose we have only a few hours to wait. Thanks for the alert.
A well needed piece by Colin Peacock on RNZ. A straight counter argument to the corporate backers of NZME and why we so desperately need RNZ to turn the mirror on conservative media more often.
I wonder if this piece and more to come are a sign that principled journalists at RNZ are actually sick to the stomach about the attack on their organisation by the Herald in the last two weeks.
If there’s going to be a media war I know whose side I’m on…
So was it food poisoning after all those lies about spies?
The Moon of Alabama explains.
“On Wednesday the niece of Sergej Skripal, Viktoria Skripal, received a phone call from Yulia Skripal. She was interviewed by a Russian TV station and suggested that food poisoning might have been the real cause of the calamities her relatives were in:
“Did they eat a dish that one cannot eat, or is it banned in England?
“The first signs when they were found were very similar to fish poisoning.”
Victoria intended to visit the UK and to bring Yulia back home to Moscow. The United Kingdom just rejected Victoria Skripal’s visa application because she “did not comply with the immigration rules.” No further explanation was given.”
“The guinea pigs were reported to have died of thirst; the cat was taken for testing to the Porton Down chemical weapons facility, where all three bodies were incinerated.[29]”
Fish is not a likely source to hospitalize people for much over a week.
The common fish sourced food poisonings – staph aureus, e coli, salmonella, even listeria rarely put people out for two weeks, and are readily identified.
Sure, but the ‘food poison’ had already been positively ‘identified’ and confirmed by the UK Government as Novichok …
Remember the Fonterra botulism debacle? How long did it take to get to the bottom of that? Minimal or no involvement of real experts, just spin doctors and journalists too hungry & desperate for a story?
I would have thought that other customers of Zizzi would have suffered similar symptoms. Then again, it may have been a quiet time with not many people ordering seafood pizza. It would have been coincidence if Nick Bailey just happened to have eaten something at or from Zizzi at around the same time – was it lunch time by any chance?
I didn’t bother with Ed’s link, but on the basis of “fish poison” excluded saxitoxin because that causes mouth dryness rather than foaming at the mouth.
I also excluded things like campylobacter, because of the lack of reports of vomiting etc.
Yeah, it’d be an amazing coincidence if three cops had the same fish lunch at the same place as the Skripals on the same day, all come down with symptoms to varying degrees, but no, like, plumbers or accountants also had the fish for lunch. Like all the disinformation theoretically possible, but… come on, really?
Good point; I once experienced a suspected fish poisoning myself but no frothing at the mouth – I only experience this when reading the comments of some RWNJs here 😉 Nevertheless, some food poisoning symptoms can resemble poisoning with organophosphates (e.g. insecticides).
Cops are known to have lunch together. And it could have been just one little fish or mushroom carrying the poison and this would have limited the transfer to only a few victims instead of poisoning all customers of Zizzi that day.
Yeah, it’s possible in theory, but relies on readers not knowing where the cops had lunch that day. Like the entire “the doorhandle would have been soaked by the rain” thing – nobody knows if it was raining when the Skripals left the house, or if the rain was blowing into the door or away from it.
But we do know that the officers and the Skripals all had contact with the flat, and the symptoms seem to be explained by some sort of nerve toxin/agent.
Which basically leaves “it’s a really weird coincidence and Porton Down are incompetent” vs “somebody used an exotic poison to poison several people (with subsets of ‘intentional harm by another person’ and ‘unintentional self-injury’)”.
The AM Show Duncan Marama handled your interview well I did hope she would win the Co leadership of the Greenparty .
Congratulations Marama its a good thing having you as Co Leader Mana Wahine this will lift the mana of all whaine and Maori ka pai.
Our New Zealand Netball Team has been in a decline for a few years
I say its management someone in that organization is making all the wrong calls to me it looks intentional the generals are to blame enough said .
I went to see the Whano and tupuna it was a one in a hundred year event the new Carvings going up on Pokai Marae my hupu has a lot of Mana and the Whano have restored that with all the mahi they put into achiveing this great feat my Marae is right at the end of a long gravel road and it is thriving.
Mark and Amanda the shonky party deliberately set the welfare systems up so one has to do that to survive and that gives him easy targets to damage brown peoples mana whom needs the service the most big brother now sees all with the tec they have now .He most he gave millions to wealthy people in tax cuts and other subsides to rich irrigation farms down south and starved the reigns that have high Maori populations this phenomenon is steering US in the eyes heaps of money has poured into sports that the wealthy minority participate in these sports that are to expenses for the common person to participate in I will not name these sports if you look you will see it. Duncan you have a interview with one of those people who should retire himself and his views .Mark the only thing shonky did was line his hip pocket and his m8 and try to suppress brown people . Ana to kai Kia kaha ka kite ano
Newshub I had to jump through a few hoops to get this out my sky is in rain faves no reciption my computer x2 cannot get the standard site I have 2 use my old computer to get TV 3 livestreaming and use my Phone to put up this post I will always solve a problem that’s the Rooster way I have the Phoenix – – – –
That’s a tragedy the Broncos Canadian Ice hockey team condolences to all their families and friends.
What a beautiful Tui They are a beautiful bird we can thank The department of Conservation for all our wild life that are surviving this fast pase of industrialisation that mostly base the choices they make on money and not the long term survival of Papatuanukue and her Creations.
Its good having the Common wealth games on the Gold Coast OUR New Zealand stars yes they are all brilliant stars in
ECO MAORI Eyes will have alot of support.
Kia kaha Ka kite ano P.S its awesome to see OUR Pacific Island cousin winning medals to Kia kaha
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It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
Asia Pacific Report Chief Mandla Mandela, a member of the National Assembly of South Africa and Nelson Mandela’s grandson, has joined the Freedom Flotilla in istanbul as the ships prepare to sail for Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. Mandela is also the ambassador for the Global Campaign to Return to ...
Pacific Media Watch Journalists who report on environmental issues are encountering growing difficulties in many parts of the world, reports Reporters Without Borders. According to the tally kept by RSF, 200 journalists have been subjected to threats and physical violence, including murder, in the past 10 years because they were ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra BagzhanSadvakassov/Upsplash, CC BY-SA Australia’s inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and it’s now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. ...
ACT's Rural Communities and Veterans spokesman Mark Cameron responds to cancellations and protests of ANZAC Day commemorations in Wellington. He says, "These pitiful attempts to detract from ANZAC Day are not at all indicative of the feelings of mainstream ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meighen McCrae, Associate Professor of Strategic & Defence Studies, Australian National University American and Australian stretcher bearers working together near the front line during the Battle of Hamel in 1918.Australian War Memorial While the AUKUS alliance is new, the Australian-American partnership ...
Pōneke based peace activists staged a silent protest at the ANZAC day service to highlight New Zealand’s complicity in war and genocide, and urge the government to take concrete steps to stop the genocide in Palestine. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Magdalena M.E. Bunbury, Postdoctoral Researcher, James Cook University Burial with a horse at the Rákóczifalva site, Hungary (8th century AD).Sándor Hegedűs, Hungarian National Museum, CC BY How do we understand past societies? For centuries, our main sources of information have been ...
Amanda Thompson doesn’t really do Anzac Day. But what she does do is remember the people she knew who had a lifetime to remember stuff they didn’t really want to, because of a war they didn’t ask for. And she does make Anzac biscuits.First published in 2021.All my ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kathryn Willis, Postdoctoral Researcher, CSIRO Xavier Boulenger/Shutterstock In the two decades to 2019, global plastic production doubled. By 2040, plastic manufacturing and processing could consume as much as 20% of global oil production and use up 15% of the annual carbon ...
With our collective remembrance, and steadfast belief in our common humanity, we strengthen our hope and resolve to do what we can to foster dialogue and understanding, and to heal divisions in our pursuit of peace. ...
Principal reasons for the opposition is the loss of the public’s democratic right to have “a fair say” and the vital need for a government free from corruption, said Casey Cravens of Dunedin, president of the New Zealand Federation of Freshwater ...
Never mind the scoreboard – in the 2000 Bledisloe Cup decider, the real trans-Tasman battle was won before kickoff.First published in 2016. The dawn of the new millennium was a dark time for the All Blacks. Their final game pre-Y2K was a 22-18 loss to South Africa in the ...
I’m on the wrong side of 40, I never pursued creative work and now my job is killing my soul. Help! Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,May I start with the least original conversation opener you’re likely to hear around the motu at the moment, particularly in Wellington: ...
“Never again - No AUKUS” was the message of the wreath laid at this morning’s national ANZAC Day commemorative service at Pukeahu National War Memorial Park this morning by the Stop AUKUS group. ...
Until this month, Auckland swimmer Hazel Ouwehand had never met a qualifying time in an Olympic event for a New Zealand team, even as a junior. Now she’s very likely off to the Paris Olympics after swimming well under the qualifying standard in the 100m butterfly twice – both in ...
While Anzac Day has experienced a resurgence in recent years, our other day of remembrance has slowly faded from view.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand. Original illustrations by Hope McConnell.First published in 2022.The high school’s head girl and ...
Australian and New Zealand volunteers fought together in the Waikato War, yet still its place in the Anzac tradition is unacknowledged by our defence forces or Returned Services Association.First published in 2018.When I was a boy cub I attended Anzac Day services in the South Auckland suburb of ...
A poem by Wellington writer Tayi Tibble.Hoki Mai She kisses him goodbye with her eyes still wet and alight from their last swim in the Awatere river. At the train station celebration, she leads the Kapa Haka but her voice keeps breaking under and over itself like waves. ...
A poem from Bill Manhire’s 2017 book of verse Some Things to Place in a Coffin.My World War I Poem Inside each trench, the sound of prayer. Inside each prayer, the sound of digging. Image courtesy of Auckland War Memorial Museum. ...
There are three books I have wolfed down in one sitting over the last two years. Colleen Maria Lenihan’s gorgeous and sad debut Kōhine, Noelle McCarthy’s memoir Grand about becoming her mother and then unbecoming her, and now Hine Toa, a staunch yet gentle self-portrait by living legend Ngāhuia te ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Thursday 25 April appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Asia Pacific Report Students and activist staff at Australia’s University of Sydney (USyd) have set up a Gaza solidarity encampment in support of Palestinians and similar student-led protests in the United States. The camp was pitched as mass graves, crippled hospitals, thousands of civilian deaths and the near-total destruction of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James B. Dorey, Lecturer in Biological Sciences, University of Wollongong Australian teddy bear bees are cute and fluffy, but get a look at that massive (unbarbed) stinger! James Dorey Photography Most of us have been stung by a bee and we ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jen Roberts, Senior Lecturer, School of Humanities and Social Inquiry, University of Wollongong Aussie~mobs/FlickrVictor Farr, a private in the 1st Infantry Battalion, was among the first to land at Anzac Cove just before dawn on April 25 1915. Victor Farr ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Gregory Moore I had the good fortune to care for the sugar gum at The University of Melbourne’s Burnley Gardens in Victoria where I worked for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra BagzhanSadvakassov/Upsplash, CC BY-SA Australia’s inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and it’s now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachel Ong ViforJ, ARC Future Fellow & Professor of Economics, Curtin University Just when we think the price of rentals could not get any worse, this week’s Rental Affordability Snapshot by Anglicare has revealed low-income Australians are facing a housing crisis like ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meighen McCrae, Associate Professor of Strategic & Defence Studies, Australian National University American and Australian stretcher bearers working together near the front line during the Battle of Hamel in 1918.Australian War Memorial While the AUKUS alliance is new, the Australian-American partnership ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tracey Holmes, Professorial Fellow in Sport, University of Canberra When the news broke last weekend that 23 Chinese swimmers had tested positive to a banned drug in early 2021 and were allowed to compete at the Tokyo Olympic Games six months later ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cally Jetta, Senior Lecturer and Academic Lead; College for First Nations, University of Southern Queensland Australian War MemorialAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains names and images of deceased people, as well as sensitive historical information ...
RNZ News Melissa Lee has been ousted from New Zealand’s coalition cabinet and stripped of the Media portfolio, and Penny Simmonds has lost the Disability Issues portfolio in a reshuffle. Climate Change and Revenue Minister Simon Watts will take Lee’s spot in cabinet. Simmonds was a minister outside of cabinet. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Lindenmayer, Professor, Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University laurello/Shutterstock Some reports and popular books, such as Bill Gammage’s Biggest Estate on Earth, have argued that extensive areas of Australia’s forests were kept open through frequent burning by ...
Analysis - Christopher Luxon framing the demotion of two ministers as the portfolios getting "too complex" is a charitable way of saying they weren't up to the job. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra With Jim Chalmers’s third budget on May 14, Australians will be looking for some more cost-of-living relief – beyond the tax cuts – although they have been warned extra measures will be modest. As ...
Analysis: Melissa Lee has lost the media portfolio and her spot in Cabinet after multiple failed attempts to find solutions for a media industry in crisis. On Wednesday, the Prime Minister announced Lee would be losing her spot in Cabinet along with her media and communications ministerial portfolio. The job ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simon Wilmot, Senior Lecturer, Film, Deakin University Among the many Australian who served during the second world war, there is a small group of people whose stories remain largely untold. These are the Muslim men and women who, while small in number, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kelly Saunders, PhD Candidate, University of Canberra There has been much analysis and praise of Justice Michael Lee’s recent judgement in Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation case against Channel Ten. Many people were openly relieved to read Lee’s “forensic” and “nuanced” application of law ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kathy Gibbs, Program Director for the Bachelor of Education, Griffith University zEdward_Indy/Shutterstock Around one in 20 people has attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). It’s one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders in childhood and often continues into adulthood. ADHD is diagnosed ...
The Fairer Future coalition of anti-poverty groups say Whaikaha must be properly funded going forward, and that to argue that poor financial management of the new Ministry is a red herring by the Prime Minister. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is today congratulating Hon. Paul Goldsmith on his appointment as Minister for Media and Communications and urges him to rule out state intervention in the private media sector. ...
Asia Pacific Report The West Papuan resistance OPM leader has condemned Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and US President Joe Biden, accusing their countries of “six decades of treachery” over Papuan independence. The open letter was released today by OPM chairman Jeffrey P Bomanak on the eve of ANZAC Day ...
Welcome to The Spinoff Books Confessional, in which we get to know the reading habits and quirks of New Zealanders at large. This week: writer and one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2024, Lauren Groff.The book I wish I’d writtenIf I wish I’d written a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Fechner, Research Fellow, Social Marketing, Griffith University mavo/Shutterstock Imagine having dinner at a restaurant. The menu offers plant-based meat alternatives made mostly from vegetables, mushrooms, legumes and wheat that mimic meat in taste, texture and smell. Despite being given that ...
“Three Strikes is a dead-end policy proposed by a dead-end government. The Three Strikes law ignores the causes of crime, instead just brutalising people already crushed by the cost of living.” ...
By Don Wiseman, RNZ Pacific senior journalist An Australian-born judge in Kiribati could well face deportation later this week after a tribunal ruling that he should be removed from his post. The tribunal’s report has just been tabled in the Kiribati Parliament and is due to be debated by MPs ...
With its clear mandate for police use, political nuances, and nuanced public trust, Denmark's insights provide valuable considerations for Australia and New Zealand. ...
Books editor Claire Mabey reviews poet Louise Wallace’s debut novel. A famous poet once said to me that he’s always suspicious when a poet publishes a novel. I never really understood why but maybe it’s something to do with cheating on your first form. Louise Wallace is a poet. She’s ...
For a few months at the turn of the millennium, TrueBliss burned bright as the biggest pop stars in the country. Alex Casey chats to two superfans who still hold the flame. During a humble backyard wedding in Nelson, 1999, one of the cordially invited guests had to excuse themselves ...
How will the recent wave of job cuts impact ethnic diversity in the media? In November last year, I was working a very busy day in the newsroom of a large online news site, interviewing whānau about their concerns over the imminent closure of one of the few puna reo ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ruth Knight, Researcher, Queensland University of Technology Have you ever felt sick at work? Perhaps you had food poisoning or the flu. Your belly hurt, or you felt tired, making it hard to concentrate and be productive. How likely would you be ...
Despite heavy criticism and an ongoing select committee process, the Police Minister says the Government will forge ahead with a ban on gang patches. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sam Whiting, Lecturer – Creative Industries, University of South Australia Shutterstock Everyone has a favourite band, or a favourite composer, or a favourite song. There is some music which speaks to you, deeply; and other music which might be the current ...
A new survey says ‘outlook not great’ for those charged with building infrastructure, while RMA changes delight farmers and depress environmentalists, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. First RMA changes announced ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Olli Hellmann, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Waikato Getty Images When New Zealanders commemorate Anzac Day on April 25, it’s not only to honour the soldiers who lost their lives in World War I and subsequent conflicts, but also ...
A leaked document shows the Canterbury/Waitaha arm of health agency Te Whatu Ora is scurrying to save $13.3 million by July. The “financial sustainability target”, which was “allocated” to Waitaha, is consistent with what’s happening in other districts, says Sarah Dalton, executive director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists. ...
This is powerful stuff from a political blog that is fast becoming a must read.
On top of his unique insight into British politics because of his connections, his intellect and empathy make his observations on other issues worth looking at.
Craig Murray talks about the courage of protesters and the vileness of the media. Here he looks at the recent events in Gaza and the ghastly Guardian’s building of false narratives.
“I cannot imagine the cold courage it must take to be a Palestinian, walking in protest, unarmed, towards the fence that contains the agony of their long drawn-out genocide, in the knowledge that the bullets will start splintering bones and ripping out brain matter around them, and every millisecond could be their own last.
I cannot imagine the cold viciousness it must take to work on the Guardian newspaper, where on the homepage the small headline of the latest six Palestinians to be shot dead, is way below the larger headline of the several hundredth article associating Jeremy Corbyn with anti-Semitism, on the basis of the quite deliberate conflation of anti-Semitism with criticism of Israel.”
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2018/04/those-who-die-in-palestine-those-with-dead-souls-here/
Thanks Ed.
IMO Craig’s articles are the epitome of great journalism. The comments they generate are also damned good value.
Pauli Walnuts is concerned, and offers some friendly advice to the public:
Thanks Pauli.
There are many reasons not to drink cow’s milk.
Firstly, drinking cow’s milk promotes cruelty to animals. This milk is designed for baby cows, not adult humans. Millions of male calves are killed as a result and the mother cow is separated from her child at birth.
Secondly, people’s consumption of milk has major, well documented environmental impacts for our country. Our waterways are being trashed. We can’t swim in our rivers and we can’t drink our water.
And then there is this. To make intensive dairy farming possible, New Zealand farmers import palm kernel from Indonesia. And in doing so, they are responsible for the deforestation of the world’s last primary forests. The Deforestation of Borneo makes catastrophic climate change more likely and takes away the habitat of the orangutan, which is in rapid decline.
Finally, Indonesia since the 1960s has been a nation shorn of many civil rights. Fonterra has become connected with some shady characters ( to put it mildly) as it accesses palm kernel.
So if you are comfortable with animal cruelty, happy to see New Zealand’s environment ruined, can turn a blind eye to your part in climate change and you don’t care about human rights, drink up that white gold.
After all, milk is so healthy.
That must be true.
Fonterra told me so in their last avalanche of advertisements.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/102536599/fonterra-concerned-by-brutality-claim-made-against-indonesian-police-hosted-by-its-pke-supplier
Secondly, people’s consumption of milk has major, well documented environmental impacts for our country.
No, the industrial farming of dairy cows is doing this. As you know, cows and chickens are integral components of permaculture land systems. Again you conflate environmental issues with veganism. You are dishonest.
What percentage of cows and chickens in New Zealand are not farmed in an industrial manner?
1%, 2%……?
That is not relevant. You are advocating for change. The change that you would have is not the option with the most environmental benefit. You would throw the baby out with the bathwater.
What percentage of soy beans are produced using sustainable methods?
It is very relevant.
I am advocating for the cessation of industrial farming.
That includes industrial soy farming, especially with gm seeds.
I am advocating for the cessation of industrial farming.
No you’re not, you are advocating for veganism. Otherwise you could have very well said that people should stop eating soy beans.
Please do not tell me what I think.
Thank you
OK, so DO YOU advocate that people stop eating soy beans?
Do you eat cow’s milk or soy milk or both?
I tend to drink coconut or almond milk.
Feel free to present the arguments against soy and I am happy to read your research.
Bu please can we be civil and polite.
Fill ya boots.
Overall risks and benefits of soy assessed
Latest review by American Heart Association
Soy inhibits iron absorption
Poor iron bioavailability
Poor calcium bioavailability
Calcium and zinc absorbed better from milk than from soy — even without phytates
Soy provides no benefits with respect to heart disease risk
Soy causes bladder cancer
Soy isoflavones during pregnancy increase breast cancer risk in female offspring
High levels of cadmium in soy formula
Soy linked to peanut allergy and increased risk for asthma
Whole milk vs. soy beverage — asthma risk
Persistent sexual arousal syndrome associated with increased soy intake
Genistein: Does it prevent or promote breast cancer?
Just ignore them Ed, it’s clear from your very first statement that you are addressing animal cruelty concerns and the associated environmental impacts. I have much respect for your viewpoint.
The point is that anything produced unsustainably is unsustainable. You could say soy or broccoli or dairy. Industrial agriculture is destroying water and soil ecosystems regardless of the product.
But i never see you make general comments about the need to move to permaculture based land systems but rather just always that people need to STOP eating animal products. Those who eat large amounts of these products will need to substantially reduce their consumption but as cows and chickens are integral components of permaculture land systems there is no environmental need for people to go vegan.
@Maui: do you believe that guilt-trips are a good strategy to achieve environmental and animal/human rights improvements? That shaming people works?
If so, I have some bad news for you: it doesn’t work on beneficiaries either, no matter how much the National Party tries it. Funny how it’s so easy to recognise and oppose when they do it, eh.
Almond milk. Good for you – very bad for the environment.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/shortcuts/2015/oct/21/almond-milk-quite-good-for-you-very-bad-for-the-planet
http://cebp.aacrjournals.org/content/11/12/1674 Soy cause bladder cancer link, maybe you should have read it.
It sums up with “Thus, a possible effect of dietary soy on bladder cancer risk warrants further study. ”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1503071?dopt=Abstract, Poor iron bioavalibility
Lets just sum up one more shall we ” It is concluded that phytic acid is a major inhibitory factor of iron absorption in soy-protein isolates but that other factors contribute to the poor bioavailability of iron from these products.”
So it also a good idea not to eat walnuts nor wheat germ when you want to absorb iron, they are high in phytic acid as well.
I’m 2 for 2 for reading that these are not arguments against soy. Just more really good arguments for a balanced diet.
Righto, let’s.
I’m almost exclusively of northern European extraction with a hint of eastern Mediterranean so my ancestors wouldn’t know a soy product if it bit them. And because I reckon that if you eat what your grandparents ate you’ll be just fine, I ain’t going to consuming soy products anytime soon. And I reckon you, Ed and whoever the fuck else wants to eat soy products can do just that, but unless your ancestors ate that shit, soy as a dietary mainstay is likely a risk to your health.
And as for Ed’s day in day out you must do this, you must do that to save the fucking planet caterwauling , Mr Yeats’ said it best:
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
That was a better response than “fill ya boots” – joe90. Thanks.
I agree, I’m happy to talk about farming, but let’s not put people off that process, by evangelizing about a diet which many people can’t have. Myself included.
Ed if you just talked about farming, and why we need to change it, I’d join in the discussion. But, to prescribe a diet – well you lost me. The debate on diet especially a mono diet is bad.
A well balanced diet with not to much meat, and lots of vegetables and good oils seems the best for human health, and a good quality of life – if you consider the consumption of food a quality of life issue.
Joe90 is right, the day in day out slog on you part for a mono diet, is getting tiresome. We are better off discuss farming, and how to do it better. Me I’m a fan off working on getting more perennials into the farming, rather than annuals process.
@adam
How does this deal with animal cruelty issues as created by industrial farming?
You mean talking about farming, and as part of that there won’t be a discussion around the cruelty done to animals? I very much doubt that.
Yeah Solkta, and do try not to employ any passive-aggressive dishonesty while you’re at it 😉
Gosh, i’ll try not to.
Ed
You advocacy of ceasing “industrial” farming would have to be accompanied by a reduction in the worlds population by at least two thirds. Because that is what the end of “industrial” farming implies.
Most food in Europe, Russia, Ukraine, the US, Canada, and increasingly much of Asia, Africa and South America, is grown on large scale farms with the use of modern machinery and high yield crops. That is how the bulk of the world’s population is fed.
You might as rail against the fact that virtually all modern manufactures are made in huge factories. They simply cannot be made any other way. Smart phones (just to name one product among thousands) are just too complex for any other way of manufacturing.
Over 2 billion people in Asia have escaped poverty in the last 40 years precisely because of large scale mechanisation of both farming and manufacturing.
Over the top claim Wayne just throwing figures around.
I was talking to a post grad Chinese doctor about the Chinese economy she said nearly 600 million still live in poverty.
Large scale industrial farming opens us up to large scale farming failure.
Making it easier for pests and diseases to spread.
Not just China, but also South East Asia, South Korea and the Indian sub continent. That is how I get 2 billion people.
The World bank says about 700 million of them are in China.
Tell that to the Africans and Mexicans who are much poorer than they were, due to competition from US, mega farms destroying their lives, while they, themselves, can, no longer, afford to buy food.
As the food their farms produced is replaced with coffee, soy, beef and dairy and palm kernel farms, for large corporates and consumption in wealthy countries, , on the land they used to farm.
Trickledrown you are right 100%
Yes it will as I can see it now happening in Gisborne where factory farms are being developed out in these back hills.
So as the roads are dirt not tar sealed, and these factory farms send big trucks full of feed for their stock they come all the time now with feed for the animals, as they are force feed continually to fatten them as fast as they can.
So our roads are now falling apart and guess who is going to be paying for the maintenance?
We are going to wind up paying not them.
These chinese companies are causing the roads to fail with their dirty farming practices, we should not allow this as we will pay highly for water and land pollution. also as the road repairs.
no reason why we can’t feed the same number of people using regenerative agriculture. The reason we still have industrial ag instead is because of economic ideology. People still think that making money is more important than growing food sustainable. Thus polluted rivers and Peak Soil.
You might also want to look at how industrial ag can survive in a post-carbon world. It’s not pretty. Best we get on with transitioning now before we are forced to.
3 Big Myths about Modern Agriculture.
All that time you wasted “learning” the things you believe, eh Wayne. It’s almost as though the National Party is a life-support system for the ignoratii.
Touche
I have a theory, frequently confirmed, that right wingers can’t read. Or if they can, they refuse to research in depth.
Reducing the population is an excellent idea Wayne. We have way more people than the planet can sustain. I think that people with extravagant resource consuming lifestyles should not have children and other people should be encouraged to have less.
That’s already happening. The wealthy aren’t having enough children to replace themselves, and as the developing world gets wealthier, they’re having fewer children too.
Good Point there Ed;
just look at this way they treat Chickens and at the same time call this ‘Environmentally friendly and organic’
This makes me sick at what a large Corporation says and does to us now.
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/shows/2018/04/huge-chicken-farm-has-iwi-vege-growers-worried.html
LIVESTREAM
Newshub Nation
Huge chicken farm has iwi, vege growers worried
Rewa Harriman
More than 1 million chickens will be on the farm at any one time. Credits: Video – The Hui; Image – Getty
Watch the video for the full story from The Hui, including Tegel’s response.
Dargaville locals are crying fowl about Tegel’s proposal to build the country’s largest broiler chicken farm in their backyard.
The proposed site is in Arapohue, a small settlement south east of Dargaville, and neighbouring properties – including the Kapehu Marae – are furious.
Marae chairwoman Margaret Mutu says the enormity of the project has them very concerned.
“We won’t be able to use this place, we’ll be covered in dust, we won’t be able to use the water off our roof because that will have all of the dust and we won’t be able to hear ourselves speak.”
Terrible clean green.
My biggest issue with industrial farming is cruelty.
Thank you for sharing.
I think pig farming in NZ is just as bad.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sT_OXjHzLtY
I suppose one might object to the eating of meat generally, but, if not, then one can hardly object to the killing of male calves.
The palm oil question is really a separate issue. Farmers could probably feed their cattle on other food.
You’re on your own on this one Ed.
Next time keep you’re thoughts to yourself and enjoy a peaceful stressful Sunday.
Goodnight
There are clearly a lot of people who agree with me on this.
Lizzie Marvelly has written a scathing article on the state of Middlemore saying national have a lot of questions to answer. She calls the situation outrageous and questions what sort of ministry was Jonathan Coleman running. The language is appropriately strong. It came through on my fb feed. I duly looked for it on the herald’s website, but it was nowhere to be seen. Not even lurking at the bottom of the scroll. I finally accessed it by searching Lizzie. Of course easily viewed on the herald website was all sorts of crap including another piece from resident clairvoyant HDA who is now predicting the greens will no longer exist in 10 years.
I am having difficulty posting the link to this article (maybe it came up yesterday on open mike?). But I will keep trying and urge you all to check it out. She nails it
Thank you Ankerrawshark, I had thought Lizzie had been dropped along with some others recently. So I have used your method to access her articles. As you say, always to the point and pithy.
Ryall and Coleman worked to make that sham Bill English look good.
Typical rob peter to pay paul stuff.
Thanks for bringing this article, and subject, to attention again, Ankerrawshark. It is one that must be given attention. I see you have provided the link now in your comments below at 5 and 6.
Marvelly’s article was actually put up here on Open Mike yesterday by red-blooded but did not get much attention as it was a bit lost in the morass of other subjects above it: https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-07-04-2018/#comment-1471172
In reply I also provided a list of all the 12 articles on Middlemore Hospital’s disgusting state of repair found using the Herald’s own search facility:
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-07-04-2018/#comment-1471204
Although I am not a great Bryce Edwards’ fan, he has actually done a good job on summarising the situation re wider media reporting on the Middlemore Hospital issues in his Political Round up article on 4 April in the Herald.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12026117
He gives main kudos for bringing this situation to notice to Phil Pennington, a RNZ senior reporter (formerly DomPost from my memory) who started the ball rolling on 22 March. Edwards says that Pennington has produced about a dozen articles on Middlemore since then and links to a number of these are in Edwards’s article (ie the link above). The article also provides links to a couple of other media articles – eg Gordon Campbell’s excellent piece in Werewolf, and also a good piece in the Spinoff by Dr David Galler, an intensive care specialist at Middlemore.
I second Edwards’ recommendation that Dr Galler’s article is a must read so here is the link again –
https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/03-04-2018/the-toxic-mould-and-rot-of-middlemore-is-the-legacy-of-a-crisis-in-values/
The Spinoff has also produced a later article not included in Edwards’ Round Up by Peter Glensor entitled “Beyond the toxic mould: how we can get our DHBs back” which is also a thought provoking read on the wider issues with the DHB model.
https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/06-04-2018/beyond-the-toxic-mould-how-dhbs-can-lead-the-fight-to-fix-our-hospitals/
[“Peter Glensor was an elected member of the Hutt Valley DHB for 12 years. He was chair of the Hutt Valley DHB, ALAC and DHBNZ, and was deputy chair of Capital and Coast DHB. He also helped found and lead a network of community-based health services across New Zealand.”]
A bit of reading there for anyone interested!
Thanks Veut.
Am concerned that health funding and Middlemore taking a back seat to far less important items.
I feel outraged that John f…g key states his one regret is that he didn’t managed to change the flag. What does that say about how he feels about Middlemore. Doesn’t give a s..t that this went on under his watch
Great summary, veutoviper.
Thanks, red-blooded, and also thanks to you and Ankerrawshark for putting up Marvelly’s article because it spurred me to do the research to find the Herald articles and also check out BE’s Political Round Up article, because I tend to not go to the Herald nearly as much as I used to.
I also hope in the longer term this situation leads to a review of the DHB model because IMO it is well past its use by date, and admin costs etc gobble up far too many $$$ that should be going to actual healthcare.
Interesting to see David Clark commenting on this in a background piece on Stuff today.
“The district health board system has some real strengths,” he says, “you have local innovation, response to local need. What you don’t have . . . is the sharing of that innovation across the system.”
That seems to suggest that there’s not going to be a total rethink (which might be desirable but would be a very big ask), but that he’s looking at ways to share best practice (which is at least an improvement on the current situation).
With 20 DHBs reinventing wheels imagine how much time & money could be saved if they were actually sharing their solutions and best practice!
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/101209726/health-boss-chai-chuah-spent-233000-on-foreign-academics-and-31000-on-course-months-before-he-quit
Sadly the problems are wider than underfunding (as bad as that is)….its systemic and I think directly related to the cause of most of our problems…the 80s reforms.
Came across this a few years ago when involved in quake issues…..dosnt make for happy reading but is compelling.
http://canterbury.royalcommission.govt.nz/documents-by-key/20120813.4973/$file/ENG.SCA.0002.RED.pdf
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12026497
I am having trouble posting on TS. Wrote a comment about this article by Lizzie Marvelly about Middlemore. This is a great article
I don’t know why your comments are hitting “pending”. If you have log-in details, use them and it might resolve the problem] – Bill
Thanks bill will look into and apologies everyone for the repetition
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12026497
Appropriately scathing article about the state of Middlemore by Lizzie Marvelly. Nowhere to be seen on The heralds website. You have to search her name to find it. Cam through my fb feed
Carter and Finlayson are enjoying life and minding their own business.
Has anyone seen Simon Lusk?
He’s been off hunting
Lusk is either fishing In the Wild
giving advice on it,
or working on campaigns to remove politicians that stand against his clients in parliamentary, by-elections and local government elections.
In the last few days he seems to have been talking to WO about the Northcote by-election.
From a google search on “Simon Lusk” for the last month;
One Anonymous Bloke (7) … If it’s not Natz and its official PR mouthpiece msm having a joke on us, I’m picking it will be either Brownlee or Finlayson who will be taking the walk of shame next.
When are labour going to discuss in Parliament about TPP?
Oi! Gummint! The Ministry of Education’s legal team needs their final written warning.
Again. Another National Party clusterfuck to repair.
Yep. It shows where the Nats’ and other rightees values lie. These education support workers are doing a very skilled job, often with children with major needs.
They are making a valuable contribution to the lives of others and society, while being paid a pittance.
Then we hear ACToids complaining that tax is theft from their hard earned wages. And some of them are doing
overhighly paid jobs that enrich themselves and make little contribution to the betterment of lives of others.PS: good on Alison Mau for following their case, and reporting it in the MSM.
HdPA at it again
“They won’t have to wait too long. Caring for the environment is no longer hippy politics. Every party is starting to do it. Virtually the first thing Labour did in Government was to ban plastic microbeads. NZ First has a policy on carbon pricing. Act wants to cut emissions.
Oddly enough the biggest threat is coming from the party the Greens are mostly likely to hiss at: National.
There’s a long tradition of Blue-Greenness within the Nats and things are really starting to ramp up. In his first interviews in the job, new leader Simon Bridges couldn’t have made it clearer he plans to go greener.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12027293
Given whats emerged from the past 9 years would anyone trust Nationals ability to do anything more than add a verdant hue to their incompetence?
I like the first line about making predictions in politics being an unwise thing to do, yet she did exactly the same thing last week too! More, foolish and attention seeking predictions seem to be all she is now capable of in terms of journalistic style.
Her case for National being the big mover in environmental policy rest entirely on one of Bridges’ reckons (rather than their actual long tradition of promoting the rape of New Zealand water systems for profit), while dismissing an entire election campaign from Labour on water access, irrigation industry reform, regulation of the dairy industry. Not to mention any of the wider global commitments Labour have made.
She really is a bitter caricature of a crappy click-bait hack who, disappointed at not making it as a broadcaster, is now lashing out at her traditional enemy – which is progress.
Well summed up Muttonbird. I began the article agreeing the Greens appear divided, then HDPA started big upping the Nats environmental cred and it became a work of fiction.
To be honest I’m not sure why she gets any airtime she appears quite shallow and a bit thick.
She gets airtime because she’s part of the rightwing stable of journalists employed by the conservative corporate controlled NZME.
They don’t care how thick she or any of their other hacks are, as long as they are critical of Labour.
Her argument is based on the ridiculous assumptions that Julie Anne is not left wing and Marama is not environmentally minded.
Yes, and if she applied the same rationale to Green vs National then she’d have to say that National cannot ever be environmentally conscious when she claims they are.
She really is thick.
Thick or dishonest.
In any political context, stupidity and dishonesty go hand-in-glove.
Or thick and dishonest.
The only Green thing about National would be verdigris.
Yes relics from the bronze age……. 🙂
or green mould 😉
Or their bile & venom 😉
Hospital mould can be sort of Blue/Green?
Algae blooms in our Lakes – Greening the country under National!
There are green nats in the same way there are nats who care about poverty-related social issues:
they will utter soothing words on a case-by-case basis;
make tax-deductible donations to charities they like the look of;
they might even volunteer some of the spare time they are privileged to have towards a worthy organisation,
but all those efforts will be less than nothing when faced against the policies of their preferred government.
National is saying they care about the environment and poor people. Their actions for 9 years speak volumes however
National using poor people for fertiliser = National caring for the Environment and reducing poverty?
😉
What’s really starting to happen with big events in cities…. they start to destroy local business – not help it – as local people are increasingly being taught to “stay away” and can’t even afford to go to the events their tax dollars hosts and pays for.
Gold Coast businesses ’empty’ despite Commonwealth Games
“Businesses struggled in the lead-up, with constant roading upgrades pushing people away.
Mr Day says they had banked on the Games being their cash cow.
“We’ve lost quite a lot of money in the lead-up to the Games, so there’s nothing in the coffers. It won’t give us the build-up we’ve been looking forward to.”
Minutes up the road, it’s a similar story in Surfers Paradise. Christine Broadway runs a bar with her son and is blaming the council and government for scaring people off.
“The roads were going to be very busy; the traffic was going to be impossible, but the M1 was going to be blocked.”
Many cafes and bars in the area are sharing similar stories of being practically empty, but there seems to be little sympathy from Mayor Tom Tate, or Games organisers.”
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/Commonwealth-Games/2018/04/gold-coast-businesses-empty-despite-commonwealth-games.html
I wouldn’t read to much into it as the entire Australian retail sector has been struggling for a number of years now due to low wage growth and the high domestic household debt that the average Australian has atm. Sooner or later the interest rates will eventually go up and then things will get very interesting.
The Gold Coast retailers were hoping the games would’ve help them get a boost as these of events in Oz do have a trend of helping the local retail sector out. But from what mother-law has said last week as she lives on the Goldie that transport in and round the Goldie is a bloody mess atm! To a point the locals have been told to stay at home WTF as she was looking to attend a couple of events before she comes up Darwin for few weeks to help with our new house.
If you have a Twitter account? Check out Alan Kohlers graphs as he has some interesting ones of late showing what would a .25%, .50% and .75% interest rate would do to household debt also he has a few on Oz retail sales trends as well.
Alan Kohler does the ABC’s Finance Report on the 7 o’clock news week night, does a articles in the Oz newspaper and has a Twitter Account which is wealth of information IRT graphs which are very interesting and some silly ones, but even those one have a interesting point to them.
Keep this story in mind when the New Zealand and Auckland Governments tell you how wonderful the America’s cup is going to be for the city.
Billions of dollars of income will be promised.
What will happen? Auckland will find that people avoid the city if not interested in the yachting and after the event the city will be left with a white elephant.
A complete waste of at least a quarter of a billion dollars.
Why do politicians adore these circuses? Is it because they hope visiting Billionaires will feed them the very best Champagne and caviar?
visiting Billionaires will feed them the very best Champagne and caviar… don’t you mean the taxpayers of NZ will feed the billionaires the best Champagne and caviar… oh and build the America’s cup ‘charity’ a marina, steal some of the public harbour paid for with free ratepayer and tax payer funds.
I have no problem with America’s cup and billionaires having a whale of a time, just not when the tab is put on the rest of society when there are more socially responsible things to spend the money on and the billionaires could raise the cash themselves.
” don’t you mean the taxpayers of NZ will feed the billionaires ”
You are, unfortunately quite right. The Wellington City Council, with our Labour Mayor managed to spend $98,000 on a lavish dinner for some visiting Chinese, and a goodly number of the Councillors. A handful of ratepayers were invited according to the story.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/102840947/Wellington-ratepayers-pick-up-98-000-cheque-for-councils-lavish-banquet
Still we must keep our beloved Lester living in the style he desires. Bugger the little things like rubbish collection and playgrounds for children. Feed Lester the very best items on the menu seems to be the rule.
I suppose we should be grateful that it was only $98,000. This time.
Auckland will be flushing about two thousand five hundred times that amount on their folly.
I wonder how many of the guests were interpreters
You are clearly not used to courting investors.
It takes money, often civic money.
If they were really courting investors why did only “a handful of ratepayers” get invited. You aren’t going to tell me that you want our Local Government Council getting involved surely?
Look at their last attempt. Our then Mayor got a bee in her bonnet that there were hordes of people wanting to fly out to China from Wellington. So they did a deal where the ratepayers subsidise a SIA flight from Wellington, via Australia, and then on to Singapore. Why would anyone want to go via Canberra, soon to be Melbourne, and on to Singapore rather than go straight through Auckland. That cuts out one lot of Customs and Immigration checks for a start.
Meanwhile she also proposed extending the runway where the rate payer will pay and a private company gets the benefit. Forget it. If you really want to attract investors, without getting robbed blind, keep Councillors well away.
Most if not all major events cost more for cities to host than they ever get in return. Deloittes and others make big money writing reports for bidding cities etc which market the lie the city will make money.
The boat building industry in NZ is strong, our designing industry is strong and has been for decades, regardless of weather we hosted the Americas Cup
That isn’t what happened last time or the time before that.
Both Americas Cup facilities have gone on to redevelop from grimy heavy marine environments to places where tens of thousands of people visit and have a great time every week.
Pop down some time and have a look at where the old bases were now.
People avoiding the city during the racing will of course be living and shopping elsewhere in New Zealand. Who knows, maybe even Wellington.
Pray tell me then.
If the previous regatta bases were so successful why do we need a new one?
What is wrong with the one that was used last time? Are they planning to spend close to a quarter of a billion dollars and then, should they win and get another chance start all over again?
Looking like the Greens turn to be dumped on this week. If that Duplicity woman is the first to kick off the weeks “pile on” does that mean she will be at the bottom of the pile by weeks end.
Making political predictions as HDA has done for the second week in a row, is a fools game as seldom correct [ridiculous to predict an election 2 and a half years out) and anybody who follows politics knows this to be the case, think trump, brexit, even Jeremy Corbin’s near election victory. And even here at home with the results in 2017.
It suggests to me either a lack of motivation or brain power to write something of substance. Or deliberately trying to spin the narrative or all three.
No, they’re not rogue landlords…they’re sexual predators.
/
To the unaware, the true meaning of some of the phrases used on the ads for tenants could be missed. Rooms for rent are offered in exchange for “benefits” or “keeping me company”. Others are less subtle – “free accommodation in exchange for an erotic arrangement”.
Renting rooms for sexual favours is seen as a growing menace by campaigners, and a byproduct of a housing crisis where young people are unable to find somewhere to live without spending exorbitant sums.
The problem has become particularly marked in university towns, where young women are targeted by rogue landlords. But while then justice secretary David Lidington last year said such offers may breach the Sexual Offences Act, there is frustration that more is not being done.
“Since last year, there has not been a single arrest, let alone a conviction, let alone anybody actually going to jail for it,” says Peter Kyle, Labour MP for Hove.
Kyle has been campaigning on the issue and has consistently called for landlords who offer accommodation in exchange for sex to be prosecuted.
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2018/apr/02/sex-for-rent-accommodation-rogue-landlords-campaign?
Agree Joe 90 (12) … There was a situation many years ago in NZ, where a highly respected landlord preyed on the girl children of tenants! The young victims were too scared to say anything to their parents, because the landlord threatened if they did, he would throw the family out and tell the parents what their daughters “asked” him to do to them! Of course the young girls didn’t know any better and the result was, the devious sly bastard continued to sexually assault them! He got away with it, because apart from being highly respected in his community in those days a child was considered a liar to report such things and a denial from the man would have been believed above the statements of the child.
This one now deceased thank Christ, would have been the rogue of landlord sexual predators! on young girls!
And they’re using the power that being capitalists gives them to abuse people.
Of course, that’s capitalism hands down. It’s designed to give a few people power so that they can abuse people and bludge off of them.
Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Murdered with one of the bullets the IDF said they knew exactly where they landed?
A Palestinian journalist shot by Israeli forces during a mass demonstration along the Gaza border has died of his wounds.
Yaser Murtaja, a photographer with the Gaza-based Ain Media agency, was shot in the stomach in Khuza’a in the south of the Gaza Strip on Friday, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Murtaja, 30, was hit despite wearing a blue flak jacket marked with the word “press”, indicating he was a journalist.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/04/palestinian-journalist-yasser-murtaja-dies-shot-israeli-forces-180407054201619.html
https://twitter.com/btselem
Dude dreamed big as he spent his life trapped in the poverty and oppression of a fucking prison camp. Pricks.
Yaser Murtaja had often filmed from the sky, but he never lived to fulfill his dream of flying on an airplane through the clouds.
The young journalist shot drone images and video for Ain Media, a small Gaza-based news agency he started five years ago. Just two weeks ago, he posted an aerial photo of Gaza City’s port on Facebook. “I wish that the day would come to take this shot when I’m in the air and not on the ground,” he wrote. “My name is Yaser Murtaja. I’m 30 years old. I live in Gaza City. I’ve never traveled!”
It was one of his last posts.
Murtaja, who was married and had a 2-year-old son, died Saturday after being shot the day before while covering protests at the edge of the Gaza Strip.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/palestinian-journalist-in-vest-marked-press-shot-dead-by-israeli-troops-in-gaza/2018/04/07/ac57b524-3a30-11e8-8fd2-49fe3c675a89_story.html?utm_term=.696a7351b265
So much injustice.
Trump Tower on fire. Perhaps his hairpiece got too close to the hot air…
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/world/2018/04/trump-tower-in-new-york-on-fire.html
Hair, you say.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DaJHCudX0AEPKGy.jpg
Fun fact – tRump’s baby fingered ego means the fire on the 50th floor of Trump Tower is actually on the 40th floor.
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/trump-tower-is-not-as-tall-as-trump-says-2016-10?r=US&IR=T
Who’s the person who died, mutty?
Another ponyboy special.
The New Zealand Defence Force has spent millions on controversial spy software produced by secretive Silicon Valley firm Palantir.
After refusing for more than a year to reveal the extent of links to Peter Thiel’s big data analysis company, prompting a complaint by the Herald on Sunday to the Ombudsman, the NZDF were forced to disclose annual spending with Palantir averaged $1.2 million.
The figures suggest since contracts were first signed in 2012 the defence force has spent $7.2m with the firm.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12026641
With regard to the attacks on the government for the petrol excise duty increases, particularly the criticism of Twyford calling it 10 cents over three years instead of 3 cents a year, could someone better at this than me find a graph on PED increases in the last 10 or 20 years?
The PED now sits at 66 cents but it’s the successive increases which are important in comparing this government’s announcement with what has happened in the past.
I have tried, honest, but don’t know where to look to get that particular info.
here
Thank you.
Interesting GA had to do the research on the stats in question (it being their graph) rather than it being freely available in that form at MBIE.
Interesting too that NZ has a relatively low tax to price ratio compared with other OECD countries. This is shown here. I guess that the high cost of the product in NZ means we’ve never charged what other countries do in excise which is required for decent infrastructure.
Result? Poor quality roads and terrible public transport infrastructure.
The Legatum Institute is a Stink Tank funded mainly by Chris Chandler … one of a pair of NZ Billionaire Brothers…. who operate their various business s / hedge funds / vulture capitalism from tax havens like Dubai .
I call them a stink tank as opposed to a think tank … as among other things they rank countries in their own Legatum ‘prosperity index’.
But as Oxfam has correctly pointed out, … tax havens are the biggest drivers of inequality and poverty in the world.
Making Chandlers project like a trader in kiddie porn … lecturing people on children s well-being.
They also employ discredited dishonest anti-russian hacks … and have been pumping out propaganda for quite a while … laying the ground work for the Mays and Clintons to pile it on even thicker.
Here’s some quotes about Legatum … who are also lobbying for a ‘hard Brexit’ ….
apparently nothing to do with tax dodging Billionaires who do not like the EU … with all its regulations … standing in the way of their vulture / disaster capitalism
.
https://irrussianality.wordpress.com/2017/11/26/the-hunters-become-the-hunted/
“In an ironic twist of fate, those shouting loudest about Russian ‘fake news’ and demanding that the West take action against RT and other Russian media outlets, are now finding themselves accused of being Russian agents. It is, of course, completely absurd. But I can’t help thinking that what goes around comes around, and that Legatum and co. have only themselves to blame for their predicament. In creating the hysteria about Russian interference in Western politics, they established the conditions which made the assault on their own position possible. If you start a witch-hunt, you shouldn’t be surprised if one day the Witchfinder General comes looking for you.”
“Chandler has made a fortune from so-called disaster capitalism – taking advantage in countries either politically or economically destabilised. What is this foreign national doing by meddling in Britain’s future one wonders.” Chandler has made a fortune from so-called disaster capitalism – taking advantage in countries either politically or economically destabilised. What is this foreign national doing by meddling in Britain’s future one wonders.”
” Liberal Democrat MP Tom Brake insisted it was “clear” the Government was “extremely sensitive about their very close relationship with the Legatum Institute. …He said: “Ministers must distance themselves from a ‘think tank’ whose agenda is leading the UK to a disastrous no deal Brexit that would inflict permanent damage on UK families and jobs.” https://news.sky.com/story/brexiteers-favourite-think-tank-the-legatum-institue-rejects-russia-link-11145291
“Johnson and Gove’s Legatum-backed letter, revealed by The Mail on Sunday a fortnight ago, made three key demands to Mrs May: to force Chancellor Philip Hammond to do more to plan for a ‘hard Brexit’; to use our withdrawal from the EU to scrap swathes of rules and regulations; and to appoint a new ‘Brexit Tsar’ to head up a task force within Whitehall….All three demands seem to have been met. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5117547/Putins-link-Boris-Goves-Brexit-coup-revealed.html
“According to the Legatum Institute, anybody who doesn’t agree with them is under the control of Moscow’s security services. The notion that an individual might have an honest personal opinion that differs from their worldview is unfathomable for these intrepid, self-appointed defenders of freedom…….You’ve read this correctly. A think-tank which claims to be devoted to “revitalising” democracy is smearing its opponents as ‘spooks’. Not just any old sort either – KGB agents. https://www.rt.com/op-ed/322968-legatum-kgb-russia-applebaum/
“Billionaire founder of think tank that advocates leaving single market obtains right to work anywhere in Europe” ….”Christopher Chandler, founder of Legatum, which backs leaving the single market and the customs union, has become a citizen of the Mediterranean island ……..Critics branded the move double standards as the passport would give him the right to live and work in any European country. A hard Brexit is expected to leave Britons without that same privilege.” https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/brexiteer-hard-brexit-eu-passport-buy-malta-christopher-chandler-single-market-customs-union-a8185336.html
“The founder of the libertarian thinktank, Christopher Chandler, is a New Zealand-born financier who made a fortune in the “wild capitalism” days in Russia in the 90s when state-run companies were privatised. His former company, Sovereign Global, was the largest foreign portfolio investor in Russia by 1994…. The company’s investments are believed to have netted Mr Chandler and his brother Richard several billion dollars and by 2012 they were the fourth largest investors in Gazprom – the Russian gas company which has since been taken partly back into state control,” https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-latest-thinktank-russia-legatum-institute-boris-johnson-michael-gove-christopher-chandler-a8076436.html
Chandler is based in Dubai …. a good place for money laundering and extreme misogyny.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpmwBXPYdtA
Walker on Pie.
heh.
Aw ffs.
Here we go.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/syria-chemical-weapons-civilians-killed-douma-eastern-ghouta-damascus-a8294296.html
And cue the predictable “falling in behind” that would have us believe that an army on the cusp of victory, that has proceeded slowly in retaking urban areas and evacuated as many civilians as it could, would unload chemical weapons for the sake of…well, what’s it going to be?
Because they could? Because they have a track record (allegedly)? Because they’re just mad and bad?
Oh, I know! They were wanting to grab those international news headlines again. Bloody ego-ists!
And there will be no talk of beleaguered terrorists topping members of a captive civilian population who aren’t properly ideologically aligned for propaganda purposes. That, afterall, is an insane suggestion to make about “rebels”.
According to the Syrian official narrative, there has been no CW attack at all. The only person suggesting that “the rebels did it” is you.
You pretending, or have your reading comprehension levels really hit the depths your comment suggests?
Timed with the Russian spy story.
So predictable.
And the Guardian is in there,boots and all blaming the government.
How predictable.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/08/syrian-government-accused-of-chemical-attacks-on-civilians-in-eastern-ghouta
Reporting that someone has been accused is not the same as blaming them. Twisting peoples words like that is very uncivil of you.
The poor young RNZ news reader is having to parrot the propaganda unfortunately, with the proviso, though, that no independent reports have been received. I guess that’s something.
The report is from the white helmets. A ‘Syrian based NGO’. Hilarious.
Though it’s not funny at all.
You believe the Damascus official narrative about the WHs then?
Funny when journalist who have been to Syria call the White Helmets nothing more than a propaganda tool, you do have to ask who for. The journalist being Pilger, Fisk and others.
Odd One Anonymous Bloke, for a guy who believes we can blame the Russians, because they have a track record, you rather unwilling to apply the same methodology to the head choppers in Syria. You should, you might just learn that they are nasty, manipulative and vicious killers, not democratic loving individuals some in the west want to portray them as.
Do you believe the official narrative from Damascus? From the Snopes article linked above:
The accusations seem to be levied at the group based on political motivations, not evidence.
You should stop pretending that you can summarise what I think, Adam. Or that you are teaching me something about “headchoppers” – for one thing I’m suspicious of all such dehumanising labels.
I believe that the most plausible explanation for the Salisbury poisoning is that the Kremlin is involved NOT that we can “blame the Russians”. I believe I have explained this to you before. If you can’t argue with my comments without misrepresenting them that says something about you, and nothing whatsoever about my arguments.
Lift your game. National Party tactics won’t help you.
Wow One Anonymous bloke, did I hit a nerve did I?
National party tactics, misrepresentation, calling me a supporter of Damascus.
Yeap, I hit a nerve.
Funny I’ve explained to you over and over who I support in Syria – seems you never get it.
Oh and by the way there’s a reason to call them head choppers, they chop off heads. It might be a bit much for you making a moral decision at this point, but by the very action of killing human beings in such a barbaric way, they gave up on humanity. And yes I think of them as somthing less than human.
I can’t think of any human being I’ve met who thinks it’s normal to cut off someone’s head to prove a religious, or political point, or in the name of power.
I will call them what they are, head choppers, becasue when the barbarity is that obvious, it is a disservice to humanity to brush over their murderous ways.
That particular nerve has been “hit” so many times it’s gone numb.
I’m sure someone’s trying to brush over their murderous ways, but it ain’t me.
oab obviously hasn’t a clue who the white helmets are
Personalising the discussion won’t help you.
Most likely, they’re a search and rescue operation whose activities are often used for propaganda purposes, especially since they’ve received funding and resources from a wide range of Western sources.
However, since most of the information about them comes from a civil war zone, I’d be a fool to think that I “know” that. Hence the phrase “most likely”.
Because that’s the only option, right?
a) Believe western government takes or, b) believe other government’s takes (or, laughably, what you interpret from such a bastion of rigorous analysis as Snopes to be the line of other governments)
In other words (to paraphrase Bush, and yes, somewhat ironically given this topic) you’re either with us or against us 🙄
Nope. Shades of grey.
Post modern piffle.
In fact, that’s exactly what Bill said: the notion that your only options are (a) or (b), when experience tells us that the ‘truth’ is probably some third thing entirely.
So if you think Bill is guilty of “post-modern piffle” I suggest you take it up with him.
Do you?
The White Helmets
Everyone knows they’re a propaganda front for ISIS and other headchoppers
“everyone knows” 😆
Foucault’s Pendulum alert.
“Your reasoning is flawless,” Belbo said, giving me a sidelong glance.
Yes
Those of us who can read and comprehend.
Alas some cant do either.
Or won’t.
Trying to start a flame war again. Slow clap.
And now RNZ repeat the propaganda…..
Sure enough – the underling message is ‘Blame Russia.’ as usual.
RNZ do not question the propaganda about the white helmets and accept their lies without any challenge.
Journalism is basically dead in the mainstream. It serves the neoliberal establishment and its lust for war.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/world/354447/syria-toxic-gas-attack-kills-at-least-70-in-douma
Interesting perspective on the #metoo movement by Tony Robbins
https://youtu.be/74YILhy4RgE
@ Tracey comment 20
That woman had serious guts.
Interesting look at Robbins’ act, too. A very well-oiled team. Shame it seemed to be mostly platitude and reflex responses.
I agree. She stands her ground. Even when he seems to use his physical superiority to help her see sense.
Like Robbins, I’m a rather large human and it was obvious to me he that was using his size to physically intimidate the woman, prick was leading with his fist, and dollars to donuts, he’s a fucking expert at it.
Not to mention using the crowd. The “raise your arm” thing is a neat trick – it keeps the audience awake, but also creates group compliance, and makes it even more intimidating to try and discuss something with him.
Interesting variation on “sorry, not sorry”: his version was ‘I’m showing great integrity by not being sorry’.
I was intrigued that a downside of #metoo was, according to Robbins, that attractive women are discriminated against because male employers can’t trust themselves to avoid harrassing attractive women. Sigh.
Nanine McCool interview.
edit: more live chat, actually
https://www.facebook.com/destingerekprofile/videos/1349300891838871/
Keep an eye out for the article by Simon Wilson that’s coming out in tomorrow’s Herald. Apparently he’s interviewed Johnathan Coleman, who “said some pretty surprising things about Middlemore Hospital”.
“Ich habe es nicht gewußt”, by any chance?
That sent me rushing to Simon’s Twitter account. Damn, no clues. But liked Kirsty Johnston’s comment that “So he is real?”. Also see Simon fully endorsed Lizzy’s article. Well suppose we have only a few hours to wait. Thanks for the alert.
A well needed piece by Colin Peacock on RNZ. A straight counter argument to the corporate backers of NZME and why we so desperately need RNZ to turn the mirror on conservative media more often.
I wonder if this piece and more to come are a sign that principled journalists at RNZ are actually sick to the stomach about the attack on their organisation by the Herald in the last two weeks.
If there’s going to be a media war I know whose side I’m on…
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/mediawatch/audio/2018639331/transport-plan-sparks-front-page-road-rage
“How are we going to face up to the big difficult issues if politicians and commentators prefer the lazy option of easy trash talk?” he asked.
How indeed…..too much noise and not enough thought.
So was it food poisoning after all those lies about spies?
The Moon of Alabama explains.
“On Wednesday the niece of Sergej Skripal, Viktoria Skripal, received a phone call from Yulia Skripal. She was interviewed by a Russian TV station and suggested that food poisoning might have been the real cause of the calamities her relatives were in:
“Did they eat a dish that one cannot eat, or is it banned in England?
“The first signs when they were found were very similar to fish poisoning.”
Victoria intended to visit the UK and to bring Yulia back home to Moscow. The United Kingdom just rejected Victoria Skripal’s visa application because she “did not comply with the immigration rules.” No further explanation was given.”
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/49168.htm
OMG now the nutbars really are blaming FUGU!
lolz
What about the cops?
Mike Smith recommended this source to us all.
Is the ex-president of the Labour Party a nut bar?
Quite possibly, I don’t know the man.
But if the Skripals had food poisoning, what did the cops have? Exposure to latent traces of a fish dinner?
I don’t believe the story.
The policeman’s predicament points to poison.
So which direction does your pointy sense point towards the poisoners?
Don’t know to be honest
If everybody is equally bad (let’s just table that one for a bit), who has the greatest benefit for the least risk (and complexity is risk)?
I’m interested in your theory.
I like detective mystery thrillers.
I think I’ve already stated my case ad nauseum.
Such a shame about your pointy-sense, failing you just when you were about to form your own opinion rather than parroting other people’s sites.
Was the policeman the first one to notice them collapsed on the park bench and administer aid. Why not a member of the public?
let me wikipedia that for you.
No.
Thanks
Why was the evidence destroyed?
From your link.
“The guinea pigs were reported to have died of thirst; the cat was taken for testing to the Porton Down chemical weapons facility, where all three bodies were incinerated.[29]”
I expect they’d have retained samples.
Fish is not a likely source to hospitalize people for much over a week.
The common fish sourced food poisonings – staph aureus, e coli, salmonella, even listeria rarely put people out for two weeks, and are readily identified.
This MOOA claim is not tenable.
Sure, but the ‘food poison’ had already been positively ‘identified’ and confirmed by the UK Government as Novichok …
Remember the Fonterra botulism debacle? How long did it take to get to the bottom of that? Minimal or no involvement of real experts, just spin doctors and journalists too hungry & desperate for a story?
Actually, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saxitoxin; it was in the link in Ed’s comment. Tetrodotoxin is something different.
I would have thought that other customers of Zizzi would have suffered similar symptoms. Then again, it may have been a quiet time with not many people ordering seafood pizza. It would have been coincidence if Nick Bailey just happened to have eaten something at or from Zizzi at around the same time – was it lunch time by any chance?
I didn’t bother with Ed’s link, but on the basis of “fish poison” excluded saxitoxin because that causes mouth dryness rather than foaming at the mouth.
I also excluded things like campylobacter, because of the lack of reports of vomiting etc.
Yeah, it’d be an amazing coincidence if three cops had the same fish lunch at the same place as the Skripals on the same day, all come down with symptoms to varying degrees, but no, like, plumbers or accountants also had the fish for lunch. Like all the disinformation theoretically possible, but… come on, really?
Good point; I once experienced a suspected fish poisoning myself but no frothing at the mouth – I only experience this when reading the comments of some RWNJs here 😉 Nevertheless, some food poisoning symptoms can resemble poisoning with organophosphates (e.g. insecticides).
Cops are known to have lunch together. And it could have been just one little fish or mushroom carrying the poison and this would have limited the transfer to only a few victims instead of poisoning all customers of Zizzi that day.
Yeah, it’s possible in theory, but relies on readers not knowing where the cops had lunch that day. Like the entire “the doorhandle would have been soaked by the rain” thing – nobody knows if it was raining when the Skripals left the house, or if the rain was blowing into the door or away from it.
But we do know that the officers and the Skripals all had contact with the flat, and the symptoms seem to be explained by some sort of nerve toxin/agent.
Which basically leaves “it’s a really weird coincidence and Porton Down are incompetent” vs “somebody used an exotic poison to poison several people (with subsets of ‘intentional harm by another person’ and ‘unintentional self-injury’)”.
Wonder if we’ll ever know.
That all depends on the level of probability you regard as “knowledge”.
The AM Show Duncan Marama handled your interview well I did hope she would win the Co leadership of the Greenparty .
Congratulations Marama its a good thing having you as Co Leader Mana Wahine this will lift the mana of all whaine and Maori ka pai.
Our New Zealand Netball Team has been in a decline for a few years
I say its management someone in that organization is making all the wrong calls to me it looks intentional the generals are to blame enough said .
I went to see the Whano and tupuna it was a one in a hundred year event the new Carvings going up on Pokai Marae my hupu has a lot of Mana and the Whano have restored that with all the mahi they put into achiveing this great feat my Marae is right at the end of a long gravel road and it is thriving.
Mark and Amanda the shonky party deliberately set the welfare systems up so one has to do that to survive and that gives him easy targets to damage brown peoples mana whom needs the service the most big brother now sees all with the tec they have now .He most he gave millions to wealthy people in tax cuts and other subsides to rich irrigation farms down south and starved the reigns that have high Maori populations this phenomenon is steering US in the eyes heaps of money has poured into sports that the wealthy minority participate in these sports that are to expenses for the common person to participate in I will not name these sports if you look you will see it. Duncan you have a interview with one of those people who should retire himself and his views .Mark the only thing shonky did was line his hip pocket and his m8 and try to suppress brown people . Ana to kai Kia kaha ka kite ano
Newshub I had to jump through a few hoops to get this out my sky is in rain faves no reciption my computer x2 cannot get the standard site I have 2 use my old computer to get TV 3 livestreaming and use my Phone to put up this post I will always solve a problem that’s the Rooster way I have the Phoenix – – – –
That’s a tragedy the Broncos Canadian Ice hockey team condolences to all their families and friends.
What a beautiful Tui They are a beautiful bird we can thank The department of Conservation for all our wild life that are surviving this fast pase of industrialisation that mostly base the choices they make on money and not the long term survival of Papatuanukue and her Creations.
Its good having the Common wealth games on the Gold Coast OUR New Zealand stars yes they are all brilliant stars in
ECO MAORI Eyes will have alot of support.
Kia kaha Ka kite ano P.S its awesome to see OUR Pacific Island cousin winning medals to Kia kaha
I will be supporting The Crowd Goes Wild TV 4 Ana to kai P.S some people know which side there bread is butter on.
PIO Has more humor in his little toe than most of the new Comedians I have seen Ana to kai