Bernie Sanders’ critique of Clinton is not that she’s cartoonishly corrupt in the Tammany Hall style, capable of being fully bought with a couple well-compensated speeches, but that she’s a creature of a fundamentally corrupt system, who comfortably operates within that system and accepts it as legitimate. Clinton has had trouble countering that critique because, well, it’s true. It’s not that she’s been bought, it’s that she bought in.
I think that sums it up well. I’d say that it applies a lot to the Labour Party caucus as well.
It is hard to know where to start with our child PM over the last week….
It seems his bullshit and wave, in the absence of self-direction, is merely winding up tighter and faster like a small child before bedtime…. faster and faster, smarter and smarmier, wave and wavier, round and around, and around again ……. fzzzztttt! Pop bang splatter in another soon-to-be moment of yuck and shit…
My goodness DTB…..that is spot on for a truth that circles. Everybody knows it’s there. How fortunate there’s a Bernie Sanders. To articulate what a healthy community is about.
WONDERING WHY MAINSTREAM MEDIA DOESN’T COVER TPP ?
“The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum….” Noam Chomsky
The TPP isn’t on that spectrum. That’s because 4 of the 6 corporations which control 90% of US media are known to be lobbying for the TPP.
– COMCAST, “the parent company of NBC and MSNBC, has a team of at least ten lobbyists seeking to influence the TPP on ‘International IP Protection.’” MSNBC recently cancelled The Ed Show ostensibly for running anti-TPP commentary: http://bit.ly/1DLN82j
– TIME WARNER INC., “the parent company of CNN, has at least four lobbyists working to influence the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal. Disclosures show the TW lobbying team has attempted to influence both Congress and the U.S. Trade Representative office on the deal.”
– TWENTY FIRST CENTURY FOX, “a subsidiary of News Corporation, the parent company of Fox News, has a team of three lobbyists working to influence the TPP.”
– DISNEY CORPORATION, “parent company of ABC News and Fusion, is lobbying on the TPP regarding intellectual property enforcement.”
“At least six original signatories have to have successfully ratified the agreement.
Those six signatories, between them, must represent 85 percent of the total GDP of the twelve originals signatories.
That last clause is important. The United States and Japan between them represent just shy of 80 percent of the GDP of the twelve original TPP signatories (specifically, the U.S. represents nearly 62 percent of TPP GDP and Japan accounts for 17 percent). Basically, the TPP can’t come into force if either of these states fail to ratify the agreement in their domestic legislatures because there would be no way for the remaining signatories to fulfill the 85 percent of GDP requirement (even if the United States and all states but Japan ratify, the eleven would stand at 83 percent of GDP).”
I think I read somewhere it needs to have at least Japan or the US to go ahead.
Edit: just saw you post.
Seems a bit ridiculous to be completely reliant on one country.
If the US didn’t sign, I’m sure the other countries would just get back around the table and sort out another deal.
There is going to be a free trade deal of some nature, including the US would be good but if they don’t want to be part of it, it’s their loss.
They will sign for geopolitical reason, to walk away allows China to fill the vacuum, the whole reason the U.S. got involved In the TPPA was to maintain thier relevance iin the Asia pacific
It needs to be ratified by at least 6 countries that add up to more than 85% of the combined GDP of the 12 signatories. Which in practice means Japan and the US both have to ratify before it can come into force.
Of course! Unlike the conformist politicians out there, who think signing a bad deal is good because other’s do so. Current politicians are too scared to stand on their own two feet and say NO to job losses, health increases, copywrite increases, environmental pollution, dishonouring treaty agreements, becoming tenants in our own country, being sued by corporations but not being able to sue corporations in the same bogus courts.
BOO to John Key and the National party!
Signed in a casino behind closed doors shows what a piece of crap it is!
The Herald reports this morning on a tragic motor accident near Te Kowhai with the two drivers dying as a result.
There is a long glowing profile (including a photo of this victim’s wife) on the success and “importance” of this victim.
“He was involved in a head on crash in his BMW with a 17 year old driving a Toyota Corolla.”
The feeling one gets as one reads the article is that it is probably the 17 year old’s fault. Certainly no reference in the article to the loss for his family, friends and community.
The report eventually indicates that the driver of the BMW was overtaking a truck when the accident occurred.
The story on the front page – I saw as walking along the main street this morning.
“NZ now safer for our kids
WHAT UTTER BULLSHIT*
I did not and will not link to the article – anyone with than more half their brain functioning will recognise it for what it is. Johnys in a bit of trouble so we had better publish a “puff piece” showing how good his gov’t is.
What can you expect the Herald is owned by Australians – an Australian fund manager and Rupert Murdoch. see below
APN News & Media Limited is an Australian and New Zealand[1] media company. Divisions include newspaper publishing, online publishing, broadcast radio and outdoor advertising in Australia and New Zealand. APN’s two largest shareholders are the Australian fund manager Allan Gray Australia[2] and Rupert Murdoch’s News Limited.[3] Irish company Independent News & Media and Denis O’Brien’s Baycliffe held an approximately 30% stake in the company before selling it in March 2015.[4]
Yep, saw that, and I’m waiting for our local rag to give out the name of the 17 year old killed by the BMW driver.
This is local.
We live on SH 39…a popular by pass between the North and the South West for trucks and cars. There are no passing lanes, and there are at least 40 bends that are posted 75km/hr.
But we live on that road…and every single time one of my kids heads off into town or to go to work I wonder if this is the day some fwit from Auckland in a beemer is going to take them out while trying to pass a truck. (google BMW accident SH 39)
One day I will film the near misses that happen outside our place on a holiday weekend or during the ski season.
You have to hunt for important stories hidden below nonsense about clickbait on ‘celebrities’,
‘Wall St stocks and oil have slumped again amidst growing talk of recession risk for both the US and the world.
In Friday trading (Saturday NZT), the Dow Jones fell 1.3 per cent, the Standard & Poor’s 500 1.9 per cent and the Nasdaq 3.3 per cent.
That took losses for the week to 3.1 per cent for the S&P 500 and 5.4 per cent for the Nasdaq.
In a world braced for a hard landing in China, the US recovery was meant to be coming to the rescue.
But Wall St’s dismal start to the year has sparked fears that it may have stalled and that the US Federal Reserve may have moved too soon to raise rates.
In New Zealand, the extended period of low dairy prices is the biggest concern. Last week, Fonterra cut its farmer payout forecast to $4.15 from $4.60 per kilo of milk solids. The next day, prices in the global dairy trade auction fell another 7.4 per cent.
ANZ economists responded by cutting their forecast for the payout to $3.95.
The average breakeven for most farmers is estimated at $5.40 per kg.
The Reserve Bank has indicated that it is likely to cut rates further this year if international conditions continue to weaken.
At this point that looks more likely than not.’
‘ANZ is forecasting a longer, deeper trough in dairy prices.
The bank has dropped its forecast price for milk solids this season by 30 cents to $3.95 a kilo.
It now “tentatively” expected a price of $5 a kilo in 2016-17, which is 50c to 75c less than it had previously been predicting.
Farmers would be losing about $1.50kg on their production over the two seasons, it said.’
Hunt – as in find something that is right out there in the open on the front home page?
Gee, don’t you think they would find somewhere a bit more ‘difficult’ than the front page to put it if they really didn’t want people to see it?
Like not publishing it at all for instance….
Yes Paul. One of the rare occasions I was moved to submit a comment there. I can guarantee the bulk of the comments were scathing… so many gaping holes in her arguments one hardly knew which to chose to comment on.
I’ve noted it’s happening more and more frequently on the MSM online outlets. They ask you to “have your say” and then don’t publish any of them. What about an OIA to find out what is going on or are they exempt.
” What about an OIA to find out what is going on or are they exempt.”
You can’t use the OIA. Official Information is only that held by the Government, in most of its many guises.
Our Government doesn’t own the Herald.
And even if it did own the Herald, it would likely be exempt, like Radio NZ.
Even some entities one would expect to be OIA-able are not, like primary health organisations, which get all their money from DHBs and MOH.
Paul (8) – NZH isn’t opening any comments to articles which might touch on FJK and his humiliation this week, through people power, with ordinary Kiwis fighting the signing of the odious TPPA.
Something to be said for digital media isn’t there? Yeah right!
Keep the masses ignorant, keeps them compliant and controllable by the despotic powers that be!
I’ve been around for almost seven decades and I’ve never known msm to be under such tight direct government control as it is now, not even in Muldoon’s time and that’s really saying something!
For some reason the NZH does not let any or hardly comments through during the weekend and I suspect that they have a shortage of Moderators on deck. The comments will appear slowly on Tuesday. The only exception seems to be comments to Sideswipe!
Lake Waikopiro, next to Lake Tutira, has been confirmed as having dangerous levels of cyanobacteria.
Hawke’s Bay Regional Council (HBRC) staff noticed people swimming at Lake Waikopiro this week and decided to take water samples. Results came back yesterday showing potentially toxic cyanobacteria was present above guideline safety levels, although below the levels of the larger Lake Tutira, which was reported in mid-January and remains unsafe.
HBRC has sent samples to the Cawthron Institute in Nelson, and is waiting on results of tests to assess if toxins have been released into the water or not.’
‘Trout dying in Tutira’s toxic water
Dozens of dead fish were found along the shores of Lake Tutira by the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council’s science monitoring team yesterday.
“We saw potentially over 100 pan-sized trout,” said Vicki Lyon, a water quality and ecology resource technician.
Prior to these latest deaths, the lake’s monitoring buoy recorded surface water temperatures approaching 33C — the warmest water ever recorded in the lake.
Phycocyanin levels, which indicate the presence of cyanobacteria, peaked at around the same time. Cyanobacteria is the toxin that led to the death of 4-year-old labrador Marley after she drank from the Tukituki River last month.’
Impossible.
As Andre says above
‘It needs to be ratified by at least 6 countries that add up to more than 85% of the combined GDP of the 12 signatories. Which in practice means Japan and the US both have to ratify before it can come into force.’
And hypothetically, a ‘TPPA like arrangement.’ would be a forced trade agreement not a free trade agreement, thereby limitIng NZ’s sovereignty and democracy. The only change would be a lesser amount of ISDS claims as the highly litigious US corporations would not be in the game.
the only winner in a TPPA like arrangement are the transnational corporations not any particular country…i.e the US is projecting 10s of thousand job losses
Who knows? It sounds more like a dickhead myth to me polmulgated by idiots in the media (few of whom appear to have looked at the TPPA in any depth) and David Farrar’s focus groups than anything else.
The only place I ever consistently hear that particular view (that all free trade is bad) is here, and even then only from a few people.
At work amongst all of the engineers, I don’t hear it. Generally they export and like free trade deals. But the ones I’ve talked to about it are deeply suspicious of this particular deal (the TPPA) because it doesn’t look like a free trade deal at all. It looks like the opposite.
In the political circles I still move in, most supported the China FTA albeit some pretty reluctantly, and virtually none of the same people support the TPPA.
My parents tend to be deeply suspicious of free trade deals. But they also tend towards admiring NZ First when they aren’t voting Labour. And they remember the aftermath of the depression when the fragile free trade systems collapsed causing untold misery.
I have to date supported all free trade deals from CER through WTO to the bilateral ones of recent decades. But the TPPA has less than a third of it about slightly freeing up trade. The rest is about restraining trade mostly for the benefit of specific interest groups.
It isn’t worth supporting because it looks to me like a PR fool just stuck a ‘Free Trade’ badge on it to make a dud deal full of advantages for interest groups to make it look better. It reminds me of the worst of the corn laws in what it tries to do. Or any pork barrel bill from the US congress.
//——
Tell me amongst the TPPA supporters would you say that the majority support it because of their religious economic beliefs? That anything with a sticker saying it “free trade” is good? Because that is the impression of get of the mindless fools that I have run across.
Many people have looked at the TPPA, found aspects that look to them to be highly flawed and detrimental, and therefore oppose getting into it. I’m one of them.
But when you get an ignorant bigot of a reporter shoving mic in front of you on a hot day while you are walking, it is kind of hard to explain that to the fool disrupting a protest.
One of the key problems I have with free trade (in it’s general sense) is that it forces countries like NZ to be commodities exporters (let’s for sake of argument include tourism in that). In the world of post-carbon, Peak Oil and CC, that’s insane. Yes, we could shift to exporting things that worked within those constraints (and I hope we do), but I think the free trade culture itself promotes profit drive motives above everything else. Which means we should be regulating, and bang, there goes the free bit.
My past (and probable future) employment has been with companies that depend on international trade both for input materials and sale of finished goods. So I’m very much for removing barriers to international trade.
My problem with the TPPA is that the trade aspects of it look like a very thin veneer over the bulk of the agreement, which is mostly an expansion of corporate privilege and power.
Of the 11 countries involved in the TPPA, we already had agreements with
Australia
Brunei
Chile
Malaysia
Singapore
with the TPPA there’s these countries added to the mix
Canada
Japan
Mexico
Peru
Vietnam.
USA
Why would all the other countries we already have free trade agreements want to join up to an arrangement which is more about corporate privilege and power and less about free trade. ?
Why sign up to a deal which is worse than the deal that you’re currently in?
carrot and stick…..the corporates weild more power than national bodies…just as our esteemed(?) leaders say we can’t afford to be the odd one out so do the others…and that fear is played on …the reality is the transnationals need markets , stable and (reasonably) affluent ones at that….its about time the boot was on the other foot, way past time…..and the pricks need to start paying their way
Shows how much power our one multinational company has over our current government when for such tiny gains Fonterra still held MFAT’s balls in its hand.
didn’t do them any good though….they were monstered in the deal and got virtually nothing….Fonterra may be our only international player of any scale but they pale into insignificance compared to the overseas owned corporations
Why sign up to a deal which is worse than the deal that you’re currently in?
If you are in a job and earning okay with future hopes, wouldn’t you think more than twice about saying no to the boss?
Many workers have been forced by their employers to go away on weekend group-building exercises to weld them into a team and had to undertake meaningless activities on numbers of occasions, taking them away from their families, in their own supposedly personal free time. Why accept that deal?
The desire is to weld employees (client countries of the USA) into a conformist lot of yes-men and women. Those who don’t participate can expect to be marked as undesirable. All part of the precarious world where we live freely, under the threat of being left out of whatever. And even being in leaves you out of pocket, or advantage, or resources, or anything that big corporations might decide to denude you of. The Emperor’s Clothes perhaps?
I really don’t like speculating about other people’s motives, particularly on a topic as complex as this.
But in this case it looks to me like maybe the TPPA grew too big, and fear of the risks of being outside of the agreement became the dominant motive for staying in the agreement. Possibly coupled with fear of too much loss of face from pulling out on the part of individuals that had already invested a lot of political capital into the agreement.
a parting thought for you BM…..TPPA is like game of blackjack…the corporations are the dealer…the minimum bet is $1000……NZ has a stake of 2k, the other members increasingly more…..whos going to win?
not at all…but then there is no such animal as a completely free trade deal….it would require both (or all) parties to be equal in every way,
however, there are trade deals where the benefits for both parties outweigh the inevitable costs….TPPA is the complete antithesis of that
‘The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) includes special protections for corporations that offshore American jobs to low-wage countries. The TPP would not only replicate, but actually expand, the North American Free Trade Agreement’s (NAFTA) extraordinary privileges for firms that relocate abroad, and eliminate many of the usual risks that make firms think twice about moving to low-wage countries. The TPP’s offshoring incentives include a guaranteed minimum standard of treatment in the offshore venue and compensation for regulatory costs.
The NAFTA-style offshoring incentives that the TPP would expand have contributed to the net loss of more than 57,000 American manufacturing facilities and nearly 5 million U.S. manufacturing jobs – one out of every four – since NAFTA took effect. The U.S. Department of Labor lists millions of workers as specifically losing their jobs to offshoring and import competition since the Fast-Tracking of NAFTA, the World Trade Organization (WTO) and NAFTA expansion deals – and that is under just one narrow program that excludes many whose job loss is trade-related. Studies estimate that the U.S. economy could have supported 7 million more manufacturing jobs if not for the massive trade deficits that have accrued under current U.S. trade policy.’
(Reply to BM @ 10) There is more than one strand of thought in the USA. The people who oppose the TPPA there seem to have much the same concerns as those who oppose it here. What is of concern about the USA, here, there and elsewhere, are the ambitions of those aligned with the US corporations, the constraints they seek to impose on governments in order to lock in their own dominance, and subterfuge they have employed to do it.
This was a straightforward recount of events by a Hawkes Bay paper.
It is not an opinion piece.
As you appear a slavish supporter of the TPPA, negotiated by trade ministers with the input of 600 international corporations, can you explain why it’s good for NZ?
And remember it’s not a free trade deal.
So think of other reasons.
(subtitle courtesy of McFlock, with thanks)
A good point, Paul. TPPA is not a free trade deal at all, as has been stated many times. In fact, when you look at all the ‘free-trade’ deals this country has been involved in or part of, the benefits have yet to ‘trickle’ down to the man in the street, except for cheap Chinese junk in our hardware shops. Most of the benefits from free trade have been captured by the top 1%, with inequality growing to obscene proportions.
So maybe, just maybe, free-trade deals are not the panacea they are portrayed to be by their promoters. Perhaps we should be looking at ‘Fair’ trade deals.
Are you really saying globalisation and trade over last 50 years has not delivered higher standards of living and taken more people out of poverty than ever before. Show me a closed society that has been successful. Its a fact corporates now deliver by far the majority of our services and goods, it is no longer the state, thus trade is inevitable if you wish the nz economy to thrive Most of the fear about TPPA is fear of change which is understandable , ie we will loose what we have, this is not the case as with other trade deals the TPPA will over deliver on the positive side, companies and individuals will take advantage of it to the advantage of all that is not envisaged in current economic modelling
Tony Veitch (not the partner-bashing 3rd rate broadcaster) 12.1.1.1
Granted, the capitalist system has been successful – up to a point. Now, IMO, the balance has shifted too far in favour of large multi-national enterprises. Inequality is rampant, and poverty and underemployment is growing in New Zealand and worldwide. All the indications are that the corporate system is going to come crashing down – probably this year in an almighty market crash, or dismantled after the US elections (if Bernie wins).
The neoliberal nirvana has almost played out its time. It really is not a question of if but when it all comes tumbling down and, more importantly, what is going to replace it.
Tony Veitch (not the partner-bashing 3rd rate broadcaster) 12.1.1.2
Granted that capitalism has been successful, but only up to a point. IMO, the system is now all out of balance, with too much power being concentrated in the hands of too few. Inequality is rampant and middle class poverty is growing worldwide.
There will be a rebalancing, of that you can be certain. Probably this year, with a market slowdown of massive proportions, or maybe next year (if Bernie becomes president).
Perhaps then this country will be in a position to renegotiate the TPPA to make it a ‘fair’ trade agreement, instead of a corporate welfare agreement.
[r0b: there are a bunch of strange characters in your new name, causing your comments to go to moderation. Please delete and retype your name for your next comment…]
A constant theme on this site is the msm are full of the proverbial. the media push doom and gloom because it sells. Fact China is still growing at 6 pc per year as it recalibrate its economy and is very unlikely to implode, the U.S. is growing and unlikely to see recession, Europe appears to be over the worst of it and while growing slowly is growing Corporates are not necessarily seeing or agreeing with what the media like to portray What stats are you quoting poverty is growing world wide, this is clearly not the case, to the contrary millions of people have been taken out of poverty over the last 20 years, just look at Asia as an example.
Not hard to find information on the shrinking middle-class in USA – http://boingboing.net/2015/12/10/america-shrinking-middle-clas.html
Also, I lived in China for three years about a decade ago – and the disparity in wealth was shocking and extreme. And if you believe the ‘official’ stats on China – well, you’re gullible in the extreme.
[r0b: There are a lot of junk characters (possibly invisible) at the end of your new name. In your next comment please delete and retype your name, or your comments will keep going to moderation]
Thanks Dialey – that is a very good, very clear outline of the issue. It looks to me as if the people showing the most enthusiasm for this deal are the ones who think they will have a part to play in managing the power transfer or trumpeting the propaganda, which I guess is true in most cases of colonisation.
Some background reading for those who look at today’s turbulence in the world, and then think of the centuries of human development, thought and philosphy and wonder if any of it has ever reached our leaders, businesspeople and politicians and their and our parents who trained us in our prejudices and common goals.
Founded during the interwar period, the School consisted of dissidents who were at home neither in the existent capitalist, fascist, nor communist systems that had formed at the time. Many of these theorists believed that traditional theory could not adequately explain the turbulent and unexpected development of capitalist societies in the twentieth century. Critical of both capitalism and Soviet socialism, their writings pointed to the possibility of an alternative path to social development.
I wonder where those people ended up? Not a happy or popular position to adopt in early 20th century Germany. Reminds me of old song Something’s Got to Give.
When an irresistible force such as you
Meets an old immovable object like me
You can bet just as sure as you live
Something’s got to give…
Lyrics Freak
The people express their electoral will by giving the Opposition a massive constitutional majority.
The President then uses the outgoing assembly to load the Supreme Court with Pro-Socialist Judges.
The Supreme Court then dismisses 4 opposition legislators in order to reduce the opposition majority below the constitutional level.
The Supreme Court then appoints a pro-socialist majority to the Electoral C omission, despite Constitution stating that the Assembly should select the appointees, and that they should be non-partisan.
President then subverts the elected Assembly by ruling by decrees.
A question for the apologists here for the Venezuelan Socialists. Do you support these actions?
Lost sheep is simply highlighting that the society and economic system you aspire to has been tried many times and without fail ended up in abject failure and human misery
Yes: social democracy is the most successful political system that has ever been tried. Your flaccid attempts to smear say something about you and nothing whatsoever about your targets.
It’s worthless and tiresome and a perfect expression of everything the National Party represents.
Ropata, I am pointing out that the democratic will of the Venezuelan people is being subverted by their President. He is the one kicking them when they are down.
@OAB. Social Democracy is a very successful system, but we are talking about Venezuela, which has a Socialist system.
Socialism is one of the worst systems ever invented, as Venezuela is demonstrating.
Ropata, OAB, do you support the actions of the Venezuelan President I note above?
When did you stop pashing Augusto Pinochet’s corpse?
You see how this works? Shall we have a “debate” according to your witless point-scoring wank system? You seem to think you can demand answers of people, and I’m here to tell you that Pinochet pashers like you deserve jack shit.
How typical of a Pinochet pasher to hate a system that increases literacy and decreases child mortality. I guess literate healthy people are harder to abduct and torture to death.
Is that red herring rant meant to disguise the fact that, again, you are not willing to make an honest answer to a straightforward question OAB?
It’s very simple. Do you support the actions of the Venezuelan Socialist President?
Yes or no will do. Only take you a couple of seconds. Whats the problem?
It’s very simple: do you support throwing people out of helicopters into the sea? And when did you stop fucking your pet pig?
Is this witless pigfucker argument the best you can do, Pinochet-pasher?
Speaking of cancelling election results, ECAN. Do you support the anti-democratic actions of the NZ Prime Minister? You do, don’t you: so you’re in no position to be looking askance at Venezuela, because you support a government that appoints cronies, cancels elections, and can’t even get literacy and child mortality right. You poxy hypocrite.
Meanwhile, the NZ Left has lots in common with social democrats the world over, and you haven’t got an answer to that other than to support torturers.
You demand answers from people all day every day OAB. What is wrong with answering one or two yourself?
And in this case it would only take one word to confirm you do not support the authoritarian actions of a President subverting the democratic will of the people?
I have to admit, your refusal to so does lead me to suspect you actually support those actions, but are unwilling to be honest about it.
I must admit that that says something about you and nothing whatsoever about me, and if you haven’t worked out my opinion of authoritarians by now you’re inattentive as well as a massive hypocrite.
Oh, and don’t flatter yourself that this means I regard your opinions in this context as remotely credible. You supported Pinochet, after all.
My interest in Venezuela largely stems from my youthful vigorous opposition to Pinochet’s murderous regime.
See. I am happy to confirm my opposition.
Unlike yourself, who cannot bring yourself to confirm your opposition to the current President’s subversion of the democratic will of the Venezuelan people.
I can only conclude you have a double standard. You do not object to authoritarianism when it is imposed in the name of Socialism.
You didn’t explicitly deny your support for Jorge Rafael Videla. I can only conclude that you want to throw your political opponents out of helicopters into the sea.
3 replies OAB? This one is weighing heavily on your conscience obviously.
And/or do you think that if you make enough replies it will hide your refusal to address a straightforward question honestly?
Seriously. I thought the policy on this site was that commenters should be willing to argue a point when reasonably requested to do so?
And I have observed YOU YOURSELF on numerous occasions demanding answers of others and (abusively) berating those you felt were not giving sufficiently open or honest answers to your questions. So on both those standards, what about your refusal to engage with a reasonable question eh?
My question to you was reasonable.
We have previously debated the subject at hand, and you entered this particular discussion voluntarily.
The material I referenced was factual.
It concerns questions that you and others on this site commonly debate (support for authoritarian governments).
I posed the question in a polite spirit of goodwill.
You evidently have plenty of time free to debate.
It is a question you could answer with 5 seconds effort. So on what grounds would you reasonably decline to address the point I raised?
Seriously, if the bar of ‘debate’ here is that commenters can simply ignore any point that challenges their position without justifying their refusal….what on earth is the value of ‘debate’ that occurs here?
If you were genuinely after my views on Venezuela, you’d read them and engage with the points I made
We had that discussion, and you know very well that you made no comment at all regarding the points I raise in 15 above.
Instead, you put words in my mouth and lie about my opinions.
As you refuse to clarify your opinion, I am forced to make assumptions about why that is, and what you might think.
It seems bizarre in the extreme that you complain about being mis-represented, but refuse to clarify your position!
It would just take one word. What possible issue is there with that?
No-one is forcing you to do anything. So the “possible issue” may be that your entire premise is a lie, characterised by sexual congress with porcine mammals.
Have you considered that? I had hoped that holding up a rhetorical mirror to your behaviour might give you a gargantuan clue. Apparently not.
One of your other prejudicial dishonesties was your description of people as “apologists”. You brought blank ammunition, and your powder’s wet.
My current assumption is that your unwillingness to indicate whether or not you support the authoritarian actions of the Venezuelan Government is because you do support them, but you know it would not be a good look at all to admit it.
If this is untrue, then just say ‘NO’.
I will be very happy to be corrected, and I will unreservedly withdraw my incorrect assumption.
If you do not, I will not ask you again. I will simply accept that this is the second time this week you have publicly exposed yourself as holding views you are not willing to admit to openly. Next time you have a problem with someone declining to debate your reasonable points, or accuse someone of a lack of honesty or transparency, I will remind you of this.
BTW, do you really think all that stuff about sex with animals enhances the validity of your arguments, or reflects well on you as a person? Let alone reflects well on this forum as a whole?
Why we can continue to treat Australia as our friend I do not know.
With “friends” like these who would want to be friendly with us?
The way Australia, particularly under the Dutton regime, has treated innocent asylum seekers, especially women and children, is indescribably inhumane and despicable.
Seems cruel but makes me wonder why our fire-fighters bother trying to help them. Have to remember there are many Australians also outraged by the actions of their backward leaders.
Have been wondering lately about what the age group bands are which write into this blog site. It seems to me that there could well be quite a lot of older folk (myself included at 70) who take an active interest in what is happening in our country – it may be me, but in my own experience there are many younger people who just show no interest in politics or current affairs at all – I have one of each, one who couldn’t care less and one who cares a lot. Is it because we probably are retired and have the time to muse and ponder and debate topics or is it just something else altogether. I know we grew up in the turbulent 60’s and were used to protesting and becoming passionate about being able to manage our own affairs – does that make our generation more active and vigilant or is it something else, maybe the preoccupation with iphones, electronic gaming etc which becomes an obsession quite often, shuts younger people off – shutting their ears off from the world. Mostly I see young people eyes glued to their phones walking down the street incommunicado to the world.
Just me wandering off in my own thoughts – but its a real problem for this country if kids are not being taught civics and modern history at school, not having conversations around the table at home about what’s going on in this country and not being able to get balanced debate in the MSM – it definitely will end up a dictatorship and the younger generations will be trapped in a nightmare police state with their eyes shut oblivious before they know it.
I’m 69 and suspect the average age here is fairly high 🙂
I think you’re right; youth is accustomed to immediate feedback and turn-over of ideas via internet and a range of media devices. The slow turning of the wheels of politics, endless discussion, sterile debate and the orchestrated response of MSM all comprise a major switch-off.
Until schools teach social and civic responsibility as mainstream subject the trend will continue. Its astonishing that the dangers facing our planet as well as our country are given no more than sanitised academic treatment.
My kids are both early 30 ‘s and have zero interest in or knowledge of politics.
It is my theory that people under 30 are more interested in the world than those between 30 and 45.
People born from 1967 onwards have no adult knowledge of the world prior to Rogernomics.
People born after 1990 have no adult knowledge of the world before the GFC, when it became apparent the neo-liberal world is not working.
It was heartening to see the large number of young adults involved in the Real Choice action shutting down Auckland from 9am Thurs. The earlier protests, eg in Dec 2012, seemed to have a noticeably lower percentage of youth IMO.
I am greatly encouraged at the growing political awareness of this age group and with the current use of technology, this could grow rapidly and exponentially. The flying dildo coverage went viral. Every young person in NZ will know what and why this happened, and it won’t be through the Herald.
The next step is to get other information through- maybe in a piecemeal fashion- in small byte-sized but riveting chunks. I am confident that this will happen now and that it will be initiated by young activists. The tide is turning.
Thank you all for responding – my two kids were born in the late 1970’s and were too young to experience Roger Douglas’ pain on the country. They haven’t had to take out student loans thanks to us but one kid is very aware of the unfairness around her. The other is a w…….. banker as much as I love her to bits and making huge money and is politically unaware.
I do think TMM’s comment about getting bite sized chunks of riveting information out to these kids so preoccupied with their hand pieces would be excellent. Kids seem to want everything instantly these days and its no thanks to us as we have provided that environment to them, so bite sized would be the right size for them. I personally don’t like bite sized as I like to ingest the whole chunk slowly – but that’s age I suppose.
Education is down the tubes and is deficit in its subject matter but that again is a Government agenda and what governments prefer, people dumbed down, the more ignorant and docile the better for them, but thanks it’s great that one can ponder and discuss thoughts on this blog site.
Most commenters on the Standard tend to be over 50 – I think stats put up by lprent at one stage showed that the most engaged readers (the ones who spend hours here) were older.
Facebook is particularly popular with those aged 30s and 40s (and a lot of discussions there are political), and a number of social media platforms are popular with those under 30.
The under 30s are interesting; the engaged are a minority, unfortunately, but they could be the most well informed and empowered perhaps of any generation at their life stage; they keenly evaluate information, read history, write engagingly, question assumptions, and stand up to authority. I’m pretty sceptical about claims it was ever that much better (but it has certainly been exacerbated by neoliberalism).
Younger people are more likely to work during the day which is less conducive to commenting during the hours that are busiest on the Standard.
but its a real problem for this country if kids are not being taught civics and modern history at school…
They are being taught those things in school. What they’re not seeing is active participation in the political process by their parents and contemporaries. They don’t see the good behaviour and so they don’t emulate it.
Some will be actively put off it by their own social group.
it definitely will end up a dictatorship and the younger generations will be trapped in a nightmare police state with their eyes shut oblivious before they know it.
The thing about police states is that they’ve always collapsed in one way or another. Revolution seems to be quite common.
in my 50s…my adult children are varyingly interested in politics although not in the involved activist sense…what is noticeable is their views tend to be further to the right than my own but that is in some sense unsurprising given the society they have grown up in, (one curious feature is their response to lay offs…they are quite indignant so theres hope for them yet.lol)…and they have never experienced recession in their living memory, so have no reference for when “the market economy” turns….there is no teacher like experience and I suspect they won’t have long to wait
We seem to have developed an almost pathological obsession with political polls. There always is one important election happening somewhere in the world, e.g. the US Presidential Elections, or locally, e.g. the Northland by-election or the Auckland mayoral election, and the 2017 General Election is, for some reason, never far from our minds.
Polls before elections influence voters’ behaviour. Some people like to vote for the anticipated winner. Polls can trigger or influence so-called strategic voting. This is sometimes called the Heisenberg Principle of Uncertainty, which means, in simple terms, that the measurement influences what’s being measured. (BTW this article Grading Teachers by the Test makes good arguments against performance-based incentives in education, one of which is based on the Heisenberg Principle of incentive design)
Polls are particularly popular with MSM and can lead to biased framing of a story or situation (‘headlines’). Usually, only the two largest parties or two main candidates (‘frontrunners’) get invited to the main televised debates; minor parties play second fiddle and small, new ‘protest’ parties get virtually no airtime. All based on polls, of course.
A much-loved ‘theory’ is that many polls are manipulated (‘rigged’). I believe that the reality is more concerning!
In New Zealand politics often resembles a The X Factor contest that is guided if not driven by popularity stakes – this includes the number of viewers watching the spectacle – and heavily influenced by focus group polling and other types of beta-testing and ‘test audiences’.
It is hard to escape the conclusion that New Zealand politicians, and particularly the current Government, make policies, laws, law amendments, and decisions in general that are at least partly (?) based on polls.
This sets up a fascinating feedback loop that goes under many different names and that may give the appearance of malicious manipulation. However, it is no other ‘manipulation’ than teaching to the test where the whole system, students and teachers alike, are focused on a metric that needs to be achieved. This is a special example of Campbell’s law. What all this means is that polls become less valid as an objective measurement of public opinion or ‘the will of the people’ if you like. Here’s another take on this. Obviously, trying to win a popularity contest is not a good strategy for governing a country – it is perverting the political process.
All this leads to a few important questions:
Quiz Question #1: why are most polls within earshot of the actual results?
Quiz Question #2: why do the polls hardly move from the ‘equilibrium’ bar a few fluctuations?
Quiz Question #3: what can be done to change the poll results?
Quiz Question #4: why do we pay so much attention to polls?
Quiz Question #5: how best to measure, represent and act on the will of the people besides that snapshot poll once every three years?
It is hard to escape the conclusion that New Zealand politicians, and particularly the current Government, make policies, laws, law amendments, and decisions in general that are at least partly (?) based on polls.
They will be to some degree but chances are they’re basing them more Focus groups. This will allow them to ask more detailed questions and get feedback from things like body language that can’t be measured in via online or telephone polling.
One thing about focus groups is that they don’t cover the range of the population that polls can cover and so the result is more biased. The other is that the results of the focus group can help massage the message to be more favourable. It can allow advertisers and political parties to direct the response.
Agreed, that’s why I used the word “pervert”, which conveys much of the contempt I hold for the current practices in NZ not to mention DP in all its gory.
Interesting!
Yes I remember the promise of quotas for local content. And interesting that Australia didn’t agree, and one only has to see the huge difference now between Aussie and NZ TV that is partly the result.
I have a feeling that that deal was done in secret so the incoming Labour govt had campaigned on quotas but didn’t know about the details of the agreement.
‘Debt, defaults, and devaluations: why this market crash is like nothing we’ve seen before
A pernicious cycle of collapsing commodities, corporate defaults, and currency wars loom over the global economy. Can anything stop it from unravelling?
A global recession is on the way. This truism of economics holds at any point in which the world is not in the grips of a contraction.
The real question is always when and how deep the upcoming downturn will be.
“The crash will come, but it would be nice if it came two years from now”, Thomas Thygesen, head of economics at SEB told over 200 commodity investors and analysts in London last month.
His audience was rapt with unusual attention. They could be forgiven for thinking the slump had not already arrived.
Commodity prices have crashed by two thirds since their peaks in 2014. Oil has borne the brunt of the sell-off, suffering the worst price collapse in modern history. Brent crude has fallen from $115 a barrel in the summer of 2014, to just $27.70 in mid-January.’
Very informative article regarding financial abuse by Kyle MacDonald particularly with regards to Govt funding of NGO’s and the control of community welfare programmes with respect to workers speaking out about problems within their sphere of expertise.
Today the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, at a ceremony at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma physics in Greifswald in Germany, pressed a button that caused a two-megawatt pulse of microwave radiation to heat hydrogen gas to 80 million degrees for a quarter of a second.
No, she was not setting off some new kind of hydrogen bomb. She was inaguriating the fusion reactor Wendelstein 7-X, the world’s largest stellarator, by generating its first hydrogen plasma.
I missed this John Key said “I had a speech I was going to deliver at Waitangi this morning, which we actually decided to rewrite in the middle of this week this week (sic) which was really quite factual but reasonably straight forward – rebutting basically every single point that had been made by (sic) single person who had been opposed to the TPP.” – there’s still time for this speech, maybe a post on The Standard? (I am assuming he’s saying “rebutting basically every single point that had been made by (b) single person who had been opposed to the TPP
Buzz from the Beehive Transport Minister Simeon Brown dutifully issued advice to all road users to keep safe on our roads during the Easter weekend. He encouraged them to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. ...
Oliver Hartwich writes – New Zealanders recently learned about a new feature film. It will be about former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern – and taxpayers will subsidise it to the tune of NZ$800,000. Ardern had nothing personally to do with either the film or the subsidy. But her government’s ...
TL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above that was recorded yesterday afternoon above between and The Kākā’s climate correspondent : An independent review panel into the emergency response to Cyclone Gabrielle in Hawkes Bayconcluded “that ...
There are now only a few days left to give feedback on the Draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) on Land Transport 2024-34 (see our earlier post this week on GPS submission guides). As we’ve reported, the GPS is a disaster for Local Government, so we were particularly interested to hear ...
Willis has pledged to go ahead with the debt-funded tax cuts, despite growing opposition from her own supporters worried about appearing fiscally irresponsible. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for ...
Open access notables A survey of interventions to actively conserve the frozen North, van Wijngaarden et al., Climatic Change:The frozen elements of the high North are thawing as the region warms much faster than the global mean. The dangers of sea level rise due to melting glacier ice, increased ...
Bryce Edwards writes – New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure. The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On ...
In 2015, then-Prime Minister John Key announced plans for a huge ocean sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands, banning fishing and mining from 15% of Aotearoa's EEZ. It was bold, it was ambitious, and it suggested that National might actually care about the environment. Except they fucked it up: Key failed ...
1. Who has just been given the accolade New Zealander of the Year?a. The Kokakob. The Cook Strait Ferryc. Fair God. Dr Jim Salinger 2. Which of these is an affront to decent society?a. Dame Edna Everageb. Mrs Doubtfire c. Dr. Frank-N-Furterd. Brian 3. Who is Penny Simmonds?a. The aspiring actress in Big ...
New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure.The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On the face of it, the court found ...
Buzz from the Beehive Waves of rain are set to lash much of the North Island during Easter Weekend as a low-pressure system forms east of New Zealand, according to a weather forecast published in the past day or so. Niwa was warning of a “moisture-laden” long weekend, with rain expected ...
Look around us…Nicola Willis’ promises of balancing the books, of cutting spending without reducing services, and of delivering game changing tax cuts are disappearing before her eyes.Everyday we see stories of violent crime ending in horrific injuries, or worse. The cost of living worsens, whereas the PM claimed renters would ...
TL;DR: My top six news of note on the morning of Thursday, March 28 include:The Government will have to borrow between $10 billion to $15 billion more than previously expected in order to make up for a slowing economy and to pay for $14.9 billion of tax cuts, according to ...
This story by Naveena Sadasivam and Kate Yoder was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. The long-awaited jobs board for the American Climate Corps, promised early in the Biden administration, will open next month, according to details shared exclusively ...
Should landlords be able to deduct the interest on the loans they take out to bankroll their property speculation? The US Senate Budget Committee and Bloomberg News don’t think this is a good idea, for reasons set out below. Regardless, our coalition government has been burning through a ton of ...
Treasury’s first report on the economy since the change of government presents a damning indictment of Labour’s economic management. The problem for National is that it is so damning that logically, coupled with a rapidly slowing economy, Finance Minister Nicola Willis should respond to it by postponing or even cancelling ...
Budget tensions are becoming evident within the Coalition Government. Winston Peters made numerous political points in his speech to the NZF annual conference. But the attack on his own government’s fiscal policies raised issues of substance. ‘Today in the Sunday Star Times, journalist and former advisor to the Labour ...
Buzz from the Beehive The media – sure enough – have been binging on Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ release of the Budget Policy Statement and a statement headed Government announces Budget priorities This assures us – or rather, this parrots the Luxon team mantra – that the Budget “will deliver ...
The Ides of March brought me COVID followed by a bereavement. No wonder they tell you to be careful of them.I’m home now and have resumed the interrupted recuperation. Very much looking forward to getting back to regular things. Meanwhile, some thoughts…OneThis new Prime Minister guy just keeps getting more dire. ...
News that the Chinese ATP 40 cyber-hacking unit penetrated parliamentary internet networks in 2021 has renewed concerns about the PRC’s malign intentions in Aotearoa. But is the hack that significant given the length of time that has passed since its … Continue reading → ...
When Parliament passed the Intelligence and security Act in 2017, they assured us all that it was full of safeguards. Any intrusive surveillance of New Zealanders would be subject to a "triple lock", requiring the approval of the Minister and (supposedly independent) Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, as well as post-facto ...
Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing. Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – It’s becoming increasingly apparent that many perceive free speech to have become the preserve of the politically right wing, the religiously conservative, the libertarian fringe, the anti-trans, the anti-Māori and…. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you don’t like and don’t ...
Don Brash writes – As everybody who is not blind and deaf is aware, there is a huge political preoccupation with climate change at the moment, a widespread (though by no means unanimous) belief that global temperatures are rising mainly as a result of the greenhouse gases created ...
TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, March 27 include:Chris Bishop laid out his vision for filling Aotearoa-NZ’s $100 billion infrastructure deficit in a speech yesterday, emphasising user pays and private funding, but failed to say how to achieve bipartisanship on population, public borrowing and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The cruelty of short-term memory loss is that each time you ask where she is, you get the fresh shock and grief of the news. That was Dad's day yesterday.Comfortingly, it seems to be less so today. Last night he looked crumpled, today he seems more settled. There's a card ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
Opposition MPs and unions are criticising a proposal by New Zealand’s Ministry of Pacific Peoples to cut staff by 40 percent. The country’s largest trade union — The Public Service Association — says the ministry has informed staff that it is looking to shed 63 of 156 positions. Opposition MPs ...
A poem by Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook 2024 featured poet Carin Smeaton. Daughtr of the 90s when she gets promoted to usherette a baby blu eel carries her all the way up to mothership she’s hovering high she lets the underaged in to see keanu reeves she lets the only lonely ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand. My earlier article – Can ‘Good’ be the Greater Evil? – looked at the issue of how wars should end, and how Good versus Evil ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 AMMA by Saraid de Silva (Moa Press, $38)A stunning debut novel reviewed by Brannavan ...
From Steve Martin to Ricky Stanicky, a pick’n’mix of things worth watching and listening to this long weekend. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. If you’re at a loss for something to occupy yourself with this Easter, don’t panic: The Spinoff’s got ...
Jesus had dinner with his 12 disciples right before he died. Noted historian Madeleine Chapman finds out who really deserved to be there.First published in 2018 but let’s be honest, the subject is timeless. As you sit on your couch this Easter Sunday, eating a chocolate egg you know ...
The newly-promoted Northern League club is on a mission to return to the National League for the first time in two decades. Plenty about domestic football in New Zealand has changed in that time – but the sense that this amateur competition is not an entirely level playing field remains. ...
NONFICTION 1 BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin Random House, $40) “It’s official,” wrote Dann nine days ago in the Herald, where he works as business editor at large, “we’re in recession.” Yeah, great. He delivered the bad stats: “GDP fell 0.1 percent in the December 2023 quarter, compared with ...
Comment: Every year on February 2, a dozen men in tuxedos and top hats approach the burrow of a groundhog in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania and entice the beaver-like rodent to emerge and predict the weather. If the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, sees its own shadow when it is summoned, legend ...
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Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? – Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia Even in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems there’s one luxury most Australians won’t sacrifice – their daily cup of coffee. Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have ...
Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a consent to suck the valuable metals vanadium and titanium from the Taranaki seafloor, as it apparently wagers on the Government’s new fast-track process. It had spent two-and-a-half days putting its case to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision-making committee, at ...
Contrary to the Associate Minister of Education’s claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxon’s fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
Kiwis Against Seabed mining today slammed Australian owned would-be seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for abandoning its application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight. The company ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Attwell, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Months after COVID vaccines were introduced in 2021, governments and private organisations mandated them for various groups. Health and aged care workers were among the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dzurak, Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak, CEO and Founder of Diraq, UNSW Sydney Diraq For decades, the pursuit of quantum computing has struggled with the need for extremely low temperatures, mere fractions of a degree above absolute zero (0 Kelvin or ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne A national Essential poll, conducted March 20–24 from a sample of 1,150, gave the Coalition a 50–44 lead including undecided, a reversal ...
The Taxpayers’ Union has today made a formal request under the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information () for information held about how New Zealand Members of Parliament are spending taxpayer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Nelson, Honorary Principal Fellow, The University of Melbourne A Byzantine depiction of the Eucharist in Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv.Jacek555/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA A nasty quarrel arose in the 11th century over what kind of bread should be used in holy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Hesp, Professor, Flinders University Patrick Hesp In some parts of Australia, coastal dunes are retreating from the ocean at an alarming rate, as waves carve up the beach and wind blows the sand inland. But coastal communities are largely ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Heemsbergen, Senior Lecturer, Digital, Political, Media, Deakin University With an impressive 60% of the US smartphone market, Apple is undeniably big, but not a clear monopoly. Yet, years of innovation by Apple have effectively given the company its own exclusive ...
Whether you’re facing layoffs or are just an emotional junior staffer, it’s always a good idea to scout out a good crying place before you need it. It’s an incredibly hard time for Wellington. Across the city, thousands of public servants are hearing tough news about redundancies and layoffs. Government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Miller-Jones, Professor, Curtin University Nuclear explosions on a neutron star feed its jets. Danielle Futselaar and Nathalie Degenaar, Anton Pannekoek Institute, University of Amsterdam, CC BY-SA How fast can a neutron star drive powerful jets into space? The answer, it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology Sydney Earlier this week, independent MP Andrew Wilkie accused the AFL of conducting “off the books” illicit drug testing to identify players using substances of abuse, then inappropriately withdrawing them from matches ...
The Government’s announcement that it will scrap plans for a vast marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands is ‘shameful’ and will make it impossible for Aotearoa New Zealand to meet its international commitments, says the World Wide Fund for Nature ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland Shutterstock The federal government has bowed to pressure from the car industry, announcing it will relax proposed emissions rules for utes and vans and delay enforcement of the new standards ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suzanne Rutland, Professor Emerita, University of Sydney In his latest book, Jewish Life in Medieval Spain, Jonathan Ray focuses on the tumult of the 14th century in Spain – a time of the plague, civil strife and war between the two largest ...
While creating a slate of world-class shows, Whakaata Māori also developed a generation of world-class creatives. Television is an odd word. It mixes the Ancient Greek and Latin languages, and its most literal meaning is “far-off sight”. In the contemporary and living language of te reo Māori, “whakaata” as a ...
Yesterday the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. This significant step and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza prompted an urgent debate in the New Zealand Parliament. Leader ...
The Government’s decision to reduce access to continuous glucose monitors (CGM) not only threatens the lives of children with type 1 diabetes and increases the potential for ‘Dead in Bed’ syndrome, but also threatens the health of their parents an ...
Apples are available year-round, but the wide variety on offer involves intensive scientific research – and large-scale commercialisation. What’s beautiful, red, sweet and crunchy? Tony Martin’s favourite kind of apple: Sassy. The CEO of apple and pear breeding organisation Prevar, Martin’s fondness for Sassy represents professional success as well as ...
Family violence specialist service Shine is calling on employers to stop asking for proof of domestic violence in order for employees to access domestic violence leave. The call comes five years after the introduction of the Domestic Violence ...
The Deputy Chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee is calling for public submissions on the Budget Policy Statement 2024. The Budget Policy Statement 2024 (BPS) sets out the Government's priorities for the 2024 Budget. It explains the approach ...
Brutal government spending cuts that will see the size of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples slashed by 40% will hit Pasifika communities hard, the PSA says. The Ministry has told staff that it is seeking voluntary redundancies, and to redeploy and reassign ...
I live with five people I mostly love, but our different ideas about generosity are starting to really irk me.Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,This is a bit of a random one but here goes. I’m 22 and work an OK job (OK meaning I get paid ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maria Nicholas, Senior Lecturer in Language and Literacy Education, Deakin University Earlier this month, the New South Wales government announced it would roll out programs for gifted students in every public school in the state. This comes amid concerns gifted school ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Rudge, Law lecturer, University of Sydney Massachusetts General Hospital In a world first, we heard last week that US surgeons had transplanted a kidney from a gene-edited pig into a living human. News reports said the procedure was a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tombs, Howard Paterson Chair of Theology and Public Issues, University of Otago The 5th-century Maskell panel showing Jesus in a loincloth.British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA When Jesus is shown on the cross, he is almost always depicted wearing a loincloth around ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University Shutterstock When you think about a red object, you might picture a red carpet, or the massive ruby in the Queen’s crown. Indeed, Western monarchies and marketing from brands such ...
COMMENTARY:Jewish Voice for Peace The UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza on Monday — and for the first time since the beginning of the Israeli military’s genocide of Palestinians, the United States abstained rather than vetoing it. Security Council resolutions are legally binding, ...
Asia Pacific Report A New Zealand investigative journalist and author says the US spy system hosted by the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) appears to be a controversial intelligence system used in global capture-kill operations. Writing a commentary for RNZ News today, Nicky Hager, author of Secret Power, a 1996 ...
While Nicola Willis wouldn’t give any details on its size, she said a package of tax cuts is definitely still coming in this year’s budget, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming the investigation into the Department of Internal Affairs after it was revealed that the Department’s Chief Executive personally reached out to expedite a DJs passport application. Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns ...
Finance minister Nicola Willis delivers her first budget statement, and unwittingly helps Joel MacManus save his relationship. Nicola Willis strode into the Beehive Theatrette. Around me, on the green foldout seats, were the country’s top business and political journalists. They were all here to see her announce the Budget Policy ...
Twenty years ago today, Māori Television launched after much controversy. Jamie Tahana looks back on its survival and impact across two decades. Chad Chambers stepped onto the stage, the brim of his cap casting a shadow across his face. His smile beamed as bright as his white freezing works gumboots, ...
Tauranga, Rotorua, Wellsford, Onehunga, Westhaven marina – Gavin Strawhan walks the meanish streets of New Zealand in his entertaining debut novel The Call, almost sure to roar into the number 1 position on the Nielsen bestseller chart, its front cover bearing a rave from somebody: “A really good and genuinely ...
Ohhhhh young people; is it really the end of marriage, capitalism, and God?
And would that be so bad?
http://www.salon.com/2016/02/06/this_is_the_end_of_marriage_capitalism_and_god_finally/
Hillary Clinton: “Name one time I changed due to Wall Street money.”
Elizabeth Warren: OK, allow me.
http://usuncut.com/politics/elizabeth-warren-tells-how-wall-street-changed-hillary-clinton/
– See more at: http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2016/02/07/the-daily-blog-open-mic-sunday-7th-february-2016/#sthash.Y3SLA2mq.dpuf
Hillary Clinton Has a Henry Kissinger Problem
I think that sums it up well. I’d say that it applies a lot to the Labour Party caucus as well.
It is hard to know where to start with our child PM over the last week….
It seems his bullshit and wave, in the absence of self-direction, is merely winding up tighter and faster like a small child before bedtime…. faster and faster, smarter and smarmier, wave and wavier, round and around, and around again ……. fzzzztttt! Pop bang splatter in another soon-to-be moment of yuck and shit…
Very mature insight there. Like a toddler waking up grumpy and not sure why
My goodness DTB…..that is spot on for a truth that circles. Everybody knows it’s there. How fortunate there’s a Bernie Sanders. To articulate what a healthy community is about.
WONDERING WHY MAINSTREAM MEDIA DOESN’T COVER TPP ?
“The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum….” Noam Chomsky
The TPP isn’t on that spectrum. That’s because 4 of the 6 corporations which control 90% of US media are known to be lobbying for the TPP.
– COMCAST, “the parent company of NBC and MSNBC, has a team of at least ten lobbyists seeking to influence the TPP on ‘International IP Protection.’” MSNBC recently cancelled The Ed Show ostensibly for running anti-TPP commentary: http://bit.ly/1DLN82j
– TIME WARNER INC., “the parent company of CNN, has at least four lobbyists working to influence the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal. Disclosures show the TW lobbying team has attempted to influence both Congress and the U.S. Trade Representative office on the deal.”
– TWENTY FIRST CENTURY FOX, “a subsidiary of News Corporation, the parent company of Fox News, has a team of three lobbyists working to influence the TPP.”
– DISNEY CORPORATION, “parent company of ABC News and Fusion, is lobbying on the TPP regarding intellectual property enforcement.”
Media Matters Report:
http://www.republicreport.org/2014/tpp-media-companies/
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These 6 Corporations Control 90% Of The Media In America
http://read.bi/1g44Y8R
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#StopTPP #FlushtheTPP
If the US didn’t sign, but the TPPA still went ahead with the other 11 countries, would you be happy with that arrangement?
It can’t go ahead without the US.
Why not?
for the document to be implemented it requires the ratification of the US and Japan
“At least six original signatories have to have successfully ratified the agreement.
Those six signatories, between them, must represent 85 percent of the total GDP of the twelve originals signatories.
That last clause is important. The United States and Japan between them represent just shy of 80 percent of the GDP of the twelve original TPP signatories (specifically, the U.S. represents nearly 62 percent of TPP GDP and Japan accounts for 17 percent). Basically, the TPP can’t come into force if either of these states fail to ratify the agreement in their domestic legislatures because there would be no way for the remaining signatories to fulfill the 85 percent of GDP requirement (even if the United States and all states but Japan ratify, the eleven would stand at 83 percent of GDP).”
http://thediplomat.com/2015/10/heres-what-needs-to-happen-in-order-for-the-trans-pacific-partnership-to-become-binding/
It that US or Japan, or do both need to sign up?
I think I read somewhere it needs to have at least Japan or the US to go ahead.
Edit: just saw you post.
Seems a bit ridiculous to be completely reliant on one country.
If the US didn’t sign, I’m sure the other countries would just get back around the table and sort out another deal.
There is going to be a free trade deal of some nature, including the US would be good but if they don’t want to be part of it, it’s their loss.
both .see link,
They will sign for geopolitical reason, to walk away allows China to fill the vacuum, the whole reason the U.S. got involved In the TPPA was to maintain thier relevance iin the Asia pacific
It needs to be ratified by at least 6 countries that add up to more than 85% of the combined GDP of the 12 signatories. Which in practice means Japan and the US both have to ratify before it can come into force.
Of course! Unlike the conformist politicians out there, who think signing a bad deal is good because other’s do so. Current politicians are too scared to stand on their own two feet and say NO to job losses, health increases, copywrite increases, environmental pollution, dishonouring treaty agreements, becoming tenants in our own country, being sued by corporations but not being able to sue corporations in the same bogus courts.
BOO to John Key and the National party!
Signed in a casino behind closed doors shows what a piece of crap it is!
A very good article on TPPA by Bill Rosenberg
is a good concise appraisal, but will be dismissed by the proponents due to the authors background
The Herald reports this morning on a tragic motor accident near Te Kowhai with the two drivers dying as a result.
There is a long glowing profile (including a photo of this victim’s wife) on the success and “importance” of this victim.
“He was involved in a head on crash in his BMW with a 17 year old driving a Toyota Corolla.”
The feeling one gets as one reads the article is that it is probably the 17 year old’s fault. Certainly no reference in the article to the loss for his family, friends and community.
The report eventually indicates that the driver of the BMW was overtaking a truck when the accident occurred.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11585960
Dreadful reporting by the Herald
One rather gets the feeling they published it because of who his wife was.
That really is bloody awful reporting as you say.
The item has just been updated, and a little clearer now. Still got to read the whole thing to find out the circumstances though.
Homicides and Car Accidents are far more important than the TPPA?
Homicides and Car Accidents are far more important than the TPPA?
Be fair.
Murder and car accidents are lower in their estimation than Beyonce singing at the Superbowl.
More of the same from granny.
The story on the front page – I saw as walking along the main street this morning.
“NZ now safer for our kids
WHAT UTTER BULLSHIT*
I did not and will not link to the article – anyone with than more half their brain functioning will recognise it for what it is. Johnys in a bit of trouble so we had better publish a “puff piece” showing how good his gov’t is.
I call the article bullshit for very obvious reasons:
a. When for a growing number of children the car is their home
b.A child is admitted to a New Zealand hospital every second day with injuries arising from either assault, neglect or maltreatment,
c. need I go on?
Thank you Herald for spoiling my day.
*my apologies for shouting but that is what I felt like doing at the time I read the headline
What can you expect the Herald is owned by Australians – an Australian fund manager and Rupert Murdoch. see below
APN News & Media Limited is an Australian and New Zealand[1] media company. Divisions include newspaper publishing, online publishing, broadcast radio and outdoor advertising in Australia and New Zealand. APN’s two largest shareholders are the Australian fund manager Allan Gray Australia[2] and Rupert Murdoch’s News Limited.[3] Irish company Independent News & Media and Denis O’Brien’s Baycliffe held an approximately 30% stake in the company before selling it in March 2015.[4]
Yep, saw that, and I’m waiting for our local rag to give out the name of the 17 year old killed by the BMW driver.
This is local.
We live on SH 39…a popular by pass between the North and the South West for trucks and cars. There are no passing lanes, and there are at least 40 bends that are posted 75km/hr.
But we live on that road…and every single time one of my kids heads off into town or to go to work I wonder if this is the day some fwit from Auckland in a beemer is going to take them out while trying to pass a truck. (google BMW accident SH 39)
One day I will film the near misses that happen outside our place on a holiday weekend or during the ski season.
Slow the fuck down for god’s sakes.
Be patient.
Typical worshipping of the rich that we get from conservatives. We saw the same when that business person killed the 15 yo that was tagging his fence.
You have to hunt for important stories hidden below nonsense about clickbait on ‘celebrities’,
‘Wall St stocks and oil have slumped again amidst growing talk of recession risk for both the US and the world.
In Friday trading (Saturday NZT), the Dow Jones fell 1.3 per cent, the Standard & Poor’s 500 1.9 per cent and the Nasdaq 3.3 per cent.
That took losses for the week to 3.1 per cent for the S&P 500 and 5.4 per cent for the Nasdaq.
In a world braced for a hard landing in China, the US recovery was meant to be coming to the rescue.
But Wall St’s dismal start to the year has sparked fears that it may have stalled and that the US Federal Reserve may have moved too soon to raise rates.
In New Zealand, the extended period of low dairy prices is the biggest concern. Last week, Fonterra cut its farmer payout forecast to $4.15 from $4.60 per kilo of milk solids. The next day, prices in the global dairy trade auction fell another 7.4 per cent.
ANZ economists responded by cutting their forecast for the payout to $3.95.
The average breakeven for most farmers is estimated at $5.40 per kg.
The Reserve Bank has indicated that it is likely to cut rates further this year if international conditions continue to weaken.
At this point that looks more likely than not.’
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11585955
‘ANZ is forecasting a longer, deeper trough in dairy prices.
The bank has dropped its forecast price for milk solids this season by 30 cents to $3.95 a kilo.
It now “tentatively” expected a price of $5 a kilo in 2016-17, which is 50c to 75c less than it had previously been predicting.
Farmers would be losing about $1.50kg on their production over the two seasons, it said.’
Tough times ahead.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/76628607/anz-forecasts-more-pain-for-dairy-farmers
You have to hunt for important stories
Hunt – as in find something that is right out there in the open on the front home page?
Gee, don’t you think they would find somewhere a bit more ‘difficult’ than the front page to put it if they really didn’t want people to see it?
Like not publishing it at all for instance….
I was looking online.
I see the NZ Herald are not publishing any of the comments to du Plessis’s disgraceful article. Wonder why?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11585760
Yes Paul. One of the rare occasions I was moved to submit a comment there. I can guarantee the bulk of the comments were scathing… so many gaping holes in her arguments one hardly knew which to chose to comment on.
I’ve noted it’s happening more and more frequently on the MSM online outlets. They ask you to “have your say” and then don’t publish any of them. What about an OIA to find out what is going on or are they exempt.
Maybe the solution is to phone up Garner on his dreadful talk back show.
And ask if he’s read the tpp legal files.
” What about an OIA to find out what is going on or are they exempt.”
You can’t use the OIA. Official Information is only that held by the Government, in most of its many guises.
Our Government doesn’t own the Herald.
I suspect that was the point. The fact that private business can’t be held to account.
Our Government doesn’t own the Herald.
In theory – NO.
In practice – YES
And even if it did own the Herald, it would likely be exempt, like Radio NZ.
Even some entities one would expect to be OIA-able are not, like primary health organisations, which get all their money from DHBs and MOH.
I suggest because mainly personal rants and bile from the same twisted people
Paul (8) – NZH isn’t opening any comments to articles which might touch on FJK and his humiliation this week, through people power, with ordinary Kiwis fighting the signing of the odious TPPA.
Audrey Young’s latest piece for instance is inviting comments, but still not open for debate. That’s from being published on Waitangi Day.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11585424
Something to be said for digital media isn’t there? Yeah right!
Keep the masses ignorant, keeps them compliant and controllable by the despotic powers that be!
I’ve been around for almost seven decades and I’ve never known msm to be under such tight direct government control as it is now, not even in Muldoon’s time and that’s really saying something!
For some reason the NZH does not let any or hardly comments through during the weekend and I suspect that they have a shortage of Moderators on deck. The comments will appear slowly on Tuesday. The only exception seems to be comments to Sideswipe!
Clean Green New Zealand
‘Toxins now found in smaller lake
Lake Waikopiro, next to Lake Tutira, has been confirmed as having dangerous levels of cyanobacteria.
Hawke’s Bay Regional Council (HBRC) staff noticed people swimming at Lake Waikopiro this week and decided to take water samples. Results came back yesterday showing potentially toxic cyanobacteria was present above guideline safety levels, although below the levels of the larger Lake Tutira, which was reported in mid-January and remains unsafe.
HBRC has sent samples to the Cawthron Institute in Nelson, and is waiting on results of tests to assess if toxins have been released into the water or not.’
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503462&objectid=11585905
‘Trout dying in Tutira’s toxic water
Dozens of dead fish were found along the shores of Lake Tutira by the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council’s science monitoring team yesterday.
“We saw potentially over 100 pan-sized trout,” said Vicki Lyon, a water quality and ecology resource technician.
Prior to these latest deaths, the lake’s monitoring buoy recorded surface water temperatures approaching 33C — the warmest water ever recorded in the lake.
Phycocyanin levels, which indicate the presence of cyanobacteria, peaked at around the same time. Cyanobacteria is the toxin that led to the death of 4-year-old labrador Marley after she drank from the Tukituki River last month.’
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503462&objectid=11582290
I really hope water is going to be big election issue in 2017.
Is it farming or cc/ high temps causing this. ?
Both. Some viscious circles going on too.
Would the left be happy if a TPPA like arrangement went ahead, but the USA wasn’t part of it?
Impossible.
As Andre says above
‘It needs to be ratified by at least 6 countries that add up to more than 85% of the combined GDP of the 12 signatories. Which in practice means Japan and the US both have to ratify before it can come into force.’
And hypothetically, a ‘TPPA like arrangement.’ would be a forced trade agreement not a free trade agreement, thereby limitIng NZ’s sovereignty and democracy. The only change would be a lesser amount of ISDS claims as the highly litigious US corporations would not be in the game.
the only winner in a TPPA like arrangement are the transnational corporations not any particular country…i.e the US is projecting 10s of thousand job losses
So, there should be no free trade deals?
Is that the position of the TPP protesters, all free trade is bad?
You’re asking for a single opinion from a mass movement? Are you a complete nut?
It is like asking National party members what their opinion is about their organisation’s institutional racism. You get all sorts of responses.
Ok, would you say that’s the majority view?
what do you mean by ‘free trade deal’? See how that works? What lynn said.
Who knows? It sounds more like a dickhead myth to me polmulgated by idiots in the media (few of whom appear to have looked at the TPPA in any depth) and David Farrar’s focus groups than anything else.
The only place I ever consistently hear that particular view (that all free trade is bad) is here, and even then only from a few people.
At work amongst all of the engineers, I don’t hear it. Generally they export and like free trade deals. But the ones I’ve talked to about it are deeply suspicious of this particular deal (the TPPA) because it doesn’t look like a free trade deal at all. It looks like the opposite.
In the political circles I still move in, most supported the China FTA albeit some pretty reluctantly, and virtually none of the same people support the TPPA.
My parents tend to be deeply suspicious of free trade deals. But they also tend towards admiring NZ First when they aren’t voting Labour. And they remember the aftermath of the depression when the fragile free trade systems collapsed causing untold misery.
I have to date supported all free trade deals from CER through WTO to the bilateral ones of recent decades. But the TPPA has less than a third of it about slightly freeing up trade. The rest is about restraining trade mostly for the benefit of specific interest groups.
It isn’t worth supporting because it looks to me like a PR fool just stuck a ‘Free Trade’ badge on it to make a dud deal full of advantages for interest groups to make it look better. It reminds me of the worst of the corn laws in what it tries to do. Or any pork barrel bill from the US congress.
//——
Tell me amongst the TPPA supporters would you say that the majority support it because of their religious economic beliefs? That anything with a sticker saying it “free trade” is good? Because that is the impression of get of the mindless fools that I have run across.
Many people have looked at the TPPA, found aspects that look to them to be highly flawed and detrimental, and therefore oppose getting into it. I’m one of them.
But when you get an ignorant bigot of a reporter shoving mic in front of you on a hot day while you are walking, it is kind of hard to explain that to the fool disrupting a protest.
TPPA looks more like an MAI reboot.
One of the key problems I have with free trade (in it’s general sense) is that it forces countries like NZ to be commodities exporters (let’s for sake of argument include tourism in that). In the world of post-carbon, Peak Oil and CC, that’s insane. Yes, we could shift to exporting things that worked within those constraints (and I hope we do), but I think the free trade culture itself promotes profit drive motives above everything else. Which means we should be regulating, and bang, there goes the free bit.
It ain’t a Free Trade Agreement it is completely the opposite – False Advertising by the NACT’s?
The TPP isn’t a free trade deal.
The TPPA is not a free trade deal.
It’s a forced trade deal.
My past (and probable future) employment has been with companies that depend on international trade both for input materials and sale of finished goods. So I’m very much for removing barriers to international trade.
My problem with the TPPA is that the trade aspects of it look like a very thin veneer over the bulk of the agreement, which is mostly an expansion of corporate privilege and power.
I was just looking at our free trade agreements
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_free_trade_agreements
Of the 11 countries involved in the TPPA, we already had agreements with
Australia
Brunei
Chile
Malaysia
Singapore
with the TPPA there’s these countries added to the mix
Canada
Japan
Mexico
Peru
Vietnam.
USA
Why would all the other countries we already have free trade agreements want to join up to an arrangement which is more about corporate privilege and power and less about free trade. ?
Why sign up to a deal which is worse than the deal that you’re currently in?
carrot and stick…..the corporates weild more power than national bodies…just as our esteemed(?) leaders say we can’t afford to be the odd one out so do the others…and that fear is played on …the reality is the transnationals need markets , stable and (reasonably) affluent ones at that….its about time the boot was on the other foot, way past time…..and the pricks need to start paying their way
So, is it just the USA corporates causing all the issues or is this corporate shenanigans across all the countries involved in the TPP.?
think you know the answer to that….take a look at the ISDS cases
Shows how much power our one multinational company has over our current government when for such tiny gains Fonterra still held MFAT’s balls in its hand.
didn’t do them any good though….they were monstered in the deal and got virtually nothing….Fonterra may be our only international player of any scale but they pale into insignificance compared to the overseas owned corporations
totally.
Fonterra are pulling New Zealand down every day.
They simply haven’t learnt how to do more than be driven by the margins of their Asset Management Plans.
I’d like to see a policy platform from an opposition party review its monopoly act.
Why sign up to a deal which is worse than the deal that you’re currently in?
If you are in a job and earning okay with future hopes, wouldn’t you think more than twice about saying no to the boss?
Many workers have been forced by their employers to go away on weekend group-building exercises to weld them into a team and had to undertake meaningless activities on numbers of occasions, taking them away from their families, in their own supposedly personal free time. Why accept that deal?
The desire is to weld employees (client countries of the USA) into a conformist lot of yes-men and women. Those who don’t participate can expect to be marked as undesirable. All part of the precarious world where we live freely, under the threat of being left out of whatever. And even being in leaves you out of pocket, or advantage, or resources, or anything that big corporations might decide to denude you of. The Emperor’s Clothes perhaps?
I really don’t like speculating about other people’s motives, particularly on a topic as complex as this.
But in this case it looks to me like maybe the TPPA grew too big, and fear of the risks of being outside of the agreement became the dominant motive for staying in the agreement. Possibly coupled with fear of too much loss of face from pulling out on the part of individuals that had already invested a lot of political capital into the agreement.
a parting thought for you BM…..TPPA is like game of blackjack…the corporations are the dealer…the minimum bet is $1000……NZ has a stake of 2k, the other members increasingly more…..whos going to win?
not at all…but then there is no such animal as a completely free trade deal….it would require both (or all) parties to be equal in every way,
however, there are trade deals where the benefits for both parties outweigh the inevitable costs….TPPA is the complete antithesis of that
‘The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) includes special protections for corporations that offshore American jobs to low-wage countries. The TPP would not only replicate, but actually expand, the North American Free Trade Agreement’s (NAFTA) extraordinary privileges for firms that relocate abroad, and eliminate many of the usual risks that make firms think twice about moving to low-wage countries. The TPP’s offshoring incentives include a guaranteed minimum standard of treatment in the offshore venue and compensation for regulatory costs.
The NAFTA-style offshoring incentives that the TPP would expand have contributed to the net loss of more than 57,000 American manufacturing facilities and nearly 5 million U.S. manufacturing jobs – one out of every four – since NAFTA took effect. The U.S. Department of Labor lists millions of workers as specifically losing their jobs to offshoring and import competition since the Fast-Tracking of NAFTA, the World Trade Organization (WTO) and NAFTA expansion deals – and that is under just one narrow program that excludes many whose job loss is trade-related. Studies estimate that the U.S. economy could have supported 7 million more manufacturing jobs if not for the massive trade deficits that have accrued under current U.S. trade policy.’
http://www.citizen.org/Page.aspx?pid=6475
How the Trans-Pacific Partnership Threatens America’s Recent Manufacturing Resurgence
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/10/trans-pacific-partnership-tpp-manufacturing/409591/
See my response here.
(Reply to BM @ 10) There is more than one strand of thought in the USA. The people who oppose the TPPA there seem to have much the same concerns as those who oppose it here. What is of concern about the USA, here, there and elsewhere, are the ambitions of those aligned with the US corporations, the constraints they seek to impose on governments in order to lock in their own dominance, and subterfuge they have employed to do it.
Not me. The whole things bloody stupid and is designed only to make the rich richer. It does nothing for the other 99%.
1000 marched against the TPP in Hastings
Huge turnout in the Bay on a working day.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503462&objectid=11584749
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today/news/video.cfm?c_id=1503462&gal_cid=1503462&gallery_id=157532
More evidence of the Herald suppressing Anti TPPA stories Paul? /sarc
This was a straightforward recount of events by a Hawkes Bay paper.
It is not an opinion piece.
As you appear a slavish supporter of the TPPA, negotiated by trade ministers with the input of 600 international corporations, can you explain why it’s good for NZ?
And remember it’s not a free trade deal.
So think of other reasons.
Maybe we need a post to demonstrate the TPP Is not a free trade deal.
(subtitle courtesy of McFlock, with thanks)
A good point, Paul. TPPA is not a free trade deal at all, as has been stated many times. In fact, when you look at all the ‘free-trade’ deals this country has been involved in or part of, the benefits have yet to ‘trickle’ down to the man in the street, except for cheap Chinese junk in our hardware shops. Most of the benefits from free trade have been captured by the top 1%, with inequality growing to obscene proportions.
So maybe, just maybe, free-trade deals are not the panacea they are portrayed to be by their promoters. Perhaps we should be looking at ‘Fair’ trade deals.
[lprent: 🙂 ]
Are you really saying globalisation and trade over last 50 years has not delivered higher standards of living and taken more people out of poverty than ever before. Show me a closed society that has been successful. Its a fact corporates now deliver by far the majority of our services and goods, it is no longer the state, thus trade is inevitable if you wish the nz economy to thrive Most of the fear about TPPA is fear of change which is understandable , ie we will loose what we have, this is not the case as with other trade deals the TPPA will over deliver on the positive side, companies and individuals will take advantage of it to the advantage of all that is not envisaged in current economic modelling
Granted, the capitalist system has been successful – up to a point. Now, IMO, the balance has shifted too far in favour of large multi-national enterprises. Inequality is rampant, and poverty and underemployment is growing in New Zealand and worldwide. All the indications are that the corporate system is going to come crashing down – probably this year in an almighty market crash, or dismantled after the US elections (if Bernie wins).
The neoliberal nirvana has almost played out its time. It really is not a question of if but when it all comes tumbling down and, more importantly, what is going to replace it.
Granted that capitalism has been successful, but only up to a point. IMO, the system is now all out of balance, with too much power being concentrated in the hands of too few. Inequality is rampant and middle class poverty is growing worldwide.
There will be a rebalancing, of that you can be certain. Probably this year, with a market slowdown of massive proportions, or maybe next year (if Bernie becomes president).
Perhaps then this country will be in a position to renegotiate the TPPA to make it a ‘fair’ trade agreement, instead of a corporate welfare agreement.
[r0b: there are a bunch of strange characters in your new name, causing your comments to go to moderation. Please delete and retype your name for your next comment…]
A constant theme on this site is the msm are full of the proverbial. the media push doom and gloom because it sells. Fact China is still growing at 6 pc per year as it recalibrate its economy and is very unlikely to implode, the U.S. is growing and unlikely to see recession, Europe appears to be over the worst of it and while growing slowly is growing Corporates are not necessarily seeing or agreeing with what the media like to portray What stats are you quoting poverty is growing world wide, this is clearly not the case, to the contrary millions of people have been taken out of poverty over the last 20 years, just look at Asia as an example.
http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2016/01/what-oxfam-wont-tell-you-about-capitalism-and-poverty/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2015/12/19/its-not-capitalism-that-causes-poverty-its-the-lack-of-it/#2715e4857a0b2c617f301b8b
Not hard to find information on the shrinking middle-class in USA – http://boingboing.net/2015/12/10/america-shrinking-middle-clas.html
Also, I lived in China for three years about a decade ago – and the disparity in wealth was shocking and extreme. And if you believe the ‘official’ stats on China – well, you’re gullible in the extreme.
[r0b: There are a lot of junk characters (possibly invisible) at the end of your new name. In your next comment please delete and retype your name, or your comments will keep going to moderation]
Awesome, love your new handle 🙂 Definitely clarifies things and educates at the same time.
ha ha, good solution Tony.
A colonial gal’s view of TPPA, protests, Te Tiriti, and the media coverage – my latest blog post: http://abrainydeal.me/2016/02/08/tpp-is-the-new-imperialism/
Great write-up, democracy is indeed in the process of colonisation and conquest by corporations, but that is by manufactured consent of the governed
Related cartoon…
Thanks Dialey – that is a very good, very clear outline of the issue. It looks to me as if the people showing the most enthusiasm for this deal are the ones who think they will have a part to play in managing the power transfer or trumpeting the propaganda, which I guess is true in most cases of colonisation.
Some background reading for those who look at today’s turbulence in the world, and then think of the centuries of human development, thought and philosphy and wonder if any of it has ever reached our leaders, businesspeople and politicians and their and our parents who trained us in our prejudices and common goals.
This I thought was interesting. The Frankfurt School Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankfurt_School
I wonder where those people ended up? Not a happy or popular position to adopt in early 20th century Germany. Reminds me of old song Something’s Got to Give.
When an irresistible force such as you
Meets an old immovable object like me
You can bet just as sure as you live
Something’s got to give…
Lyrics Freak
Frank Sinatra’s version – some light relief?
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNoEGTZzaAE
The people express their electoral will by giving the Opposition a massive constitutional majority.
The President then uses the outgoing assembly to load the Supreme Court with Pro-Socialist Judges.
The Supreme Court then dismisses 4 opposition legislators in order to reduce the opposition majority below the constitutional level.
The Supreme Court then appoints a pro-socialist majority to the Electoral C omission, despite Constitution stating that the Assembly should select the appointees, and that they should be non-partisan.
President then subverts the elected Assembly by ruling by decrees.
A question for the apologists here for the Venezuelan Socialists. Do you support these actions?
Why do you continue to kick the Venezuelan people while they are down?
Is politics just a game to you?
Lost sheep is simply highlighting that the society and economic system you aspire to has been tried many times and without fail ended up in abject failure and human misery
Norway, you tiresome fuckwit.
Really OAB a monolistic society up to its knees in oil and on europes door step
Can you list the successes and failures
Angry little puppy today
Yes: social democracy is the most successful political system that has ever been tried. Your flaccid attempts to smear say something about you and nothing whatsoever about your targets.
It’s worthless and tiresome and a perfect expression of everything the National Party represents.
Your response is a slogan, not a list 😀
Your allegation is a smear, motivated by hate, which has left you so twisted by bias you can’t even find a list of social democracies.
Another OAB cut and paste when challenged 😀
no your stupidity has been exposed and smacked down yet again, yet you lack the basic comprehension skills to argue the point properly
That’s funny, coming from someone whose fatuous smears are copied directly from Gosman.
Ropata, I am pointing out that the democratic will of the Venezuelan people is being subverted by their President. He is the one kicking them when they are down.
@OAB. Social Democracy is a very successful system, but we are talking about Venezuela, which has a Socialist system.
Socialism is one of the worst systems ever invented, as Venezuela is demonstrating.
Ropata, OAB, do you support the actions of the Venezuelan President I note above?
When did you stop pashing Augusto Pinochet’s corpse?
You see how this works? Shall we have a “debate” according to your witless point-scoring wank system? You seem to think you can demand answers of people, and I’m here to tell you that Pinochet pashers like you deserve jack shit.
How typical of a Pinochet pasher to hate a system that increases literacy and decreases child mortality. I guess literate healthy people are harder to abduct and torture to death.
Is that red herring rant meant to disguise the fact that, again, you are not willing to make an honest answer to a straightforward question OAB?
It’s very simple. Do you support the actions of the Venezuelan Socialist President?
Yes or no will do. Only take you a couple of seconds. Whats the problem?
It’s very simple: do you support throwing people out of helicopters into the sea? And when did you stop fucking your pet pig?
Is this witless pigfucker argument the best you can do, Pinochet-pasher?
Speaking of cancelling election results, ECAN. Do you support the anti-democratic actions of the NZ Prime Minister? You do, don’t you: so you’re in no position to be looking askance at Venezuela, because you support a government that appoints cronies, cancels elections, and can’t even get literacy and child mortality right. You poxy hypocrite.
Meanwhile, the NZ Left has lots in common with social democrats the world over, and you haven’t got an answer to that other than to support torturers.
Is that a yes or is it a no?
Would only take you a couple of seconds to answer honestly. What is the problem?
Oh. Silly me. I guess the answer is honestly. That’s sooooo difficult….
I’ve got nothing to say to a Pinochet pashing, election cancelling torture lover like you.
You demand answers from people all day every day OAB. What is wrong with answering one or two yourself?
And in this case it would only take one word to confirm you do not support the authoritarian actions of a President subverting the democratic will of the people?
I have to admit, your refusal to so does lead me to suspect you actually support those actions, but are unwilling to be honest about it.
I must admit that that says something about you and nothing whatsoever about me, and if you haven’t worked out my opinion of authoritarians by now you’re inattentive as well as a massive hypocrite.
Oh, and don’t flatter yourself that this means I regard your opinions in this context as remotely credible. You supported Pinochet, after all.
My interest in Venezuela largely stems from my youthful vigorous opposition to Pinochet’s murderous regime.
See. I am happy to confirm my opposition.
Unlike yourself, who cannot bring yourself to confirm your opposition to the current President’s subversion of the democratic will of the Venezuelan people.
I can only conclude you have a double standard. You do not object to authoritarianism when it is imposed in the name of Socialism.
You didn’t explicitly deny your support for Jorge Rafael Videla. I can only conclude that you want to throw your political opponents out of helicopters into the sea.
PS: What are you whining about: I told you a debate according to your witless point-scoring wank system was a waste of time.
I mean, do you know that what you’re doing is called a “pigfucker” argument? Or are you ignorant of that too? Nah, you fuck pigs.
…my youthful vigorous opposition to Pinochet’s murderous regime…
Now that’s an interesting admission. What made you switch to Pinochet’s side?
3 replies OAB? This one is weighing heavily on your conscience obviously.
And/or do you think that if you make enough replies it will hide your refusal to address a straightforward question honestly?
Seriously. I thought the policy on this site was that commenters should be willing to argue a point when reasonably requested to do so?
And I have observed YOU YOURSELF on numerous occasions demanding answers of others and (abusively) berating those you felt were not giving sufficiently open or honest answers to your questions.
So on both those standards, what about your refusal to engage with a reasonable question eh?
My question to you was reasonable.
We have previously debated the subject at hand, and you entered this particular discussion voluntarily.
The material I referenced was factual.
It concerns questions that you and others on this site commonly debate (support for authoritarian governments).
I posed the question in a polite spirit of goodwill.
You evidently have plenty of time free to debate.
It is a question you could answer with 5 seconds effort.
So on what grounds would you reasonably decline to address the point I raised?
Seriously, if the bar of ‘debate’ here is that commenters can simply ignore any point that challenges their position without justifying their refusal….what on earth is the value of ‘debate’ that occurs here?
If you can’t honestly acknowledge the basic point about pig-fucker arguments, what use are you?
If you were genuinely after my views on Venezuela, you’d read them and engage with the points I made.
Instead, you put words in my mouth and lie about my opinions. You rancid dishonest shitheel.
Now go fuck your pet pig.
Oh, and by your own admission, you support torture. You used to oppose it, and then you changed sides.
Why was that?
If you were genuinely after my views on Venezuela, you’d read them and engage with the points I made
We had that discussion, and you know very well that you made no comment at all regarding the points I raise in 15 above.
Instead, you put words in my mouth and lie about my opinions.
As you refuse to clarify your opinion, I am forced to make assumptions about why that is, and what you might think.
It seems bizarre in the extreme that you complain about being mis-represented, but refuse to clarify your position!
It would just take one word. What possible issue is there with that?
I am forced to make assumptions…
What possible issue is there with that?
No-one is forcing you to do anything. So the “possible issue” may be that your entire premise is a lie, characterised by sexual congress with porcine mammals.
Have you considered that? I had hoped that holding up a rhetorical mirror to your behaviour might give you a gargantuan clue. Apparently not.
One of your other prejudicial dishonesties was your description of people as “apologists”. You brought blank ammunition, and your powder’s wet.
My current assumption is that your unwillingness to indicate whether or not you support the authoritarian actions of the Venezuelan Government is because you do support them, but you know it would not be a good look at all to admit it.
If this is untrue, then just say ‘NO’.
I will be very happy to be corrected, and I will unreservedly withdraw my incorrect assumption.
If you do not, I will not ask you again. I will simply accept that this is the second time this week you have publicly exposed yourself as holding views you are not willing to admit to openly. Next time you have a problem with someone declining to debate your reasonable points, or accuse someone of a lack of honesty or transparency, I will remind you of this.
BTW, do you really think all that stuff about sex with animals enhances the validity of your arguments, or reflects well on you as a person? Let alone reflects well on this forum as a whole?
National appoints their friends and relations to Boards and important positions all the time
Do you support this?
Why we can continue to treat Australia as our friend I do not know.
With “friends” like these who would want to be friendly with us?
The way Australia, particularly under the Dutton regime, has treated innocent asylum seekers, especially women and children, is indescribably inhumane and despicable.
+1
Seems cruel but makes me wonder why our fire-fighters bother trying to help them. Have to remember there are many Australians also outraged by the actions of their backward leaders.
Have been wondering lately about what the age group bands are which write into this blog site. It seems to me that there could well be quite a lot of older folk (myself included at 70) who take an active interest in what is happening in our country – it may be me, but in my own experience there are many younger people who just show no interest in politics or current affairs at all – I have one of each, one who couldn’t care less and one who cares a lot. Is it because we probably are retired and have the time to muse and ponder and debate topics or is it just something else altogether. I know we grew up in the turbulent 60’s and were used to protesting and becoming passionate about being able to manage our own affairs – does that make our generation more active and vigilant or is it something else, maybe the preoccupation with iphones, electronic gaming etc which becomes an obsession quite often, shuts younger people off – shutting their ears off from the world. Mostly I see young people eyes glued to their phones walking down the street incommunicado to the world.
Just me wandering off in my own thoughts – but its a real problem for this country if kids are not being taught civics and modern history at school, not having conversations around the table at home about what’s going on in this country and not being able to get balanced debate in the MSM – it definitely will end up a dictatorship and the younger generations will be trapped in a nightmare police state with their eyes shut oblivious before they know it.
I’m 69 and suspect the average age here is fairly high 🙂
I think you’re right; youth is accustomed to immediate feedback and turn-over of ideas via internet and a range of media devices. The slow turning of the wheels of politics, endless discussion, sterile debate and the orchestrated response of MSM all comprise a major switch-off.
Until schools teach social and civic responsibility as mainstream subject the trend will continue. Its astonishing that the dangers facing our planet as well as our country are given no more than sanitised academic treatment.
My kids are both early 30 ‘s and have zero interest in or knowledge of politics.
It is my theory that people under 30 are more interested in the world than those between 30 and 45.
People born from 1967 onwards have no adult knowledge of the world prior to Rogernomics.
People born after 1990 have no adult knowledge of the world before the GFC, when it became apparent the neo-liberal world is not working.
It was heartening to see the large number of young adults involved in the Real Choice action shutting down Auckland from 9am Thurs. The earlier protests, eg in Dec 2012, seemed to have a noticeably lower percentage of youth IMO.
I am greatly encouraged at the growing political awareness of this age group and with the current use of technology, this could grow rapidly and exponentially. The flying dildo coverage went viral. Every young person in NZ will know what and why this happened, and it won’t be through the Herald.
The next step is to get other information through- maybe in a piecemeal fashion- in small byte-sized but riveting chunks. I am confident that this will happen now and that it will be initiated by young activists. The tide is turning.
Thank you all for responding – my two kids were born in the late 1970’s and were too young to experience Roger Douglas’ pain on the country. They haven’t had to take out student loans thanks to us but one kid is very aware of the unfairness around her. The other is a w…….. banker as much as I love her to bits and making huge money and is politically unaware.
I do think TMM’s comment about getting bite sized chunks of riveting information out to these kids so preoccupied with their hand pieces would be excellent. Kids seem to want everything instantly these days and its no thanks to us as we have provided that environment to them, so bite sized would be the right size for them. I personally don’t like bite sized as I like to ingest the whole chunk slowly – but that’s age I suppose.
Education is down the tubes and is deficit in its subject matter but that again is a Government agenda and what governments prefer, people dumbed down, the more ignorant and docile the better for them, but thanks it’s great that one can ponder and discuss thoughts on this blog site.
It is the 35- 50 group who are the generation who believe the koolaid about trickle down etc,
I’m 36 and have never believed it – it didn’t work in the 1800s, or any time since!
Yes, the tide is turning.
Far more people now know abut the TPPA and know about the fact our government can be sued by overseas corporations.
Most commenters on the Standard tend to be over 50 – I think stats put up by lprent at one stage showed that the most engaged readers (the ones who spend hours here) were older.
Facebook is particularly popular with those aged 30s and 40s (and a lot of discussions there are political), and a number of social media platforms are popular with those under 30.
The under 30s are interesting; the engaged are a minority, unfortunately, but they could be the most well informed and empowered perhaps of any generation at their life stage; they keenly evaluate information, read history, write engagingly, question assumptions, and stand up to authority. I’m pretty sceptical about claims it was ever that much better (but it has certainly been exacerbated by neoliberalism).
Younger people are more likely to work during the day which is less conducive to commenting during the hours that are busiest on the Standard.
They are being taught those things in school. What they’re not seeing is active participation in the political process by their parents and contemporaries. They don’t see the good behaviour and so they don’t emulate it.
Some will be actively put off it by their own social group.
The thing about police states is that they’ve always collapsed in one way or another. Revolution seems to be quite common.
in my 50s…my adult children are varyingly interested in politics although not in the involved activist sense…what is noticeable is their views tend to be further to the right than my own but that is in some sense unsurprising given the society they have grown up in, (one curious feature is their response to lay offs…they are quite indignant so theres hope for them yet.lol)…and they have never experienced recession in their living memory, so have no reference for when “the market economy” turns….there is no teacher like experience and I suspect they won’t have long to wait
Polls pervert the political process
We seem to have developed an almost pathological obsession with political polls. There always is one important election happening somewhere in the world, e.g. the US Presidential Elections, or locally, e.g. the Northland by-election or the Auckland mayoral election, and the 2017 General Election is, for some reason, never far from our minds.
Polls before elections influence voters’ behaviour. Some people like to vote for the anticipated winner. Polls can trigger or influence so-called strategic voting. This is sometimes called the Heisenberg Principle of Uncertainty, which means, in simple terms, that the measurement influences what’s being measured. (BTW this article Grading Teachers by the Test makes good arguments against performance-based incentives in education, one of which is based on the Heisenberg Principle of incentive design)
Polls are particularly popular with MSM and can lead to biased framing of a story or situation (‘headlines’). Usually, only the two largest parties or two main candidates (‘frontrunners’) get invited to the main televised debates; minor parties play second fiddle and small, new ‘protest’ parties get virtually no airtime. All based on polls, of course.
A much-loved ‘theory’ is that many polls are manipulated (‘rigged’). I believe that the reality is more concerning!
In New Zealand politics often resembles a The X Factor contest that is guided if not driven by popularity stakes – this includes the number of viewers watching the spectacle – and heavily influenced by focus group polling and other types of beta-testing and ‘test audiences’.
It is hard to escape the conclusion that New Zealand politicians, and particularly the current Government, make policies, laws, law amendments, and decisions in general that are at least partly (?) based on polls.
This sets up a fascinating feedback loop that goes under many different names and that may give the appearance of malicious manipulation. However, it is no other ‘manipulation’ than teaching to the test where the whole system, students and teachers alike, are focused on a metric that needs to be achieved. This is a special example of Campbell’s law. What all this means is that polls become less valid as an objective measurement of public opinion or ‘the will of the people’ if you like. Here’s another take on this. Obviously, trying to win a popularity contest is not a good strategy for governing a country – it is perverting the political process.
All this leads to a few important questions:
Quiz Question #1: why are most polls within earshot of the actual results?
Quiz Question #2: why do the polls hardly move from the ‘equilibrium’ bar a few fluctuations?
Quiz Question #3: what can be done to change the poll results?
Quiz Question #4: why do we pay so much attention to polls?
Quiz Question #5: how best to measure, represent and act on the will of the people besides that snapshot poll once every three years?
PS This is a very long (!) but very good (!!) recent read in The New Yorker Politics and the New Machine – What the turn from polls to data science means for democracy.
yep, turning elections into an entertainment spectacle sells more ads on TV
too bad for democracy!
They will be to some degree but chances are they’re basing them more Focus groups. This will allow them to ask more detailed questions and get feedback from things like body language that can’t be measured in via online or telephone polling.
One thing about focus groups is that they don’t cover the range of the population that polls can cover and so the result is more biased. The other is that the results of the focus group can help massage the message to be more favourable. It can allow advertisers and political parties to direct the response.
Advertising truly is psychopathic.
Agreed, that’s why I used the word “pervert”, which conveys much of the contempt I hold for the current practices in NZ not to mention DP in all its gory.
So, what can be done about it?
The Ram’s packed up his shit and the Monkey’’s taking over so a belated Happy Chinese New Year to all.
NZ has been previously affected by Investor State Disputes Settlement.
Interesting!
Yes I remember the promise of quotas for local content. And interesting that Australia didn’t agree, and one only has to see the huge difference now between Aussie and NZ TV that is partly the result.
I have a feeling that that deal was done in secret so the incoming Labour govt had campaigned on quotas but didn’t know about the details of the agreement.
Further evidence of the oncoming crash.
‘Debt, defaults, and devaluations: why this market crash is like nothing we’ve seen before
A pernicious cycle of collapsing commodities, corporate defaults, and currency wars loom over the global economy. Can anything stop it from unravelling?
A global recession is on the way. This truism of economics holds at any point in which the world is not in the grips of a contraction.
The real question is always when and how deep the upcoming downturn will be.
“The crash will come, but it would be nice if it came two years from now”, Thomas Thygesen, head of economics at SEB told over 200 commodity investors and analysts in London last month.
His audience was rapt with unusual attention. They could be forgiven for thinking the slump had not already arrived.
Commodity prices have crashed by two thirds since their peaks in 2014. Oil has borne the brunt of the sell-off, suffering the worst price collapse in modern history. Brent crude has fallen from $115 a barrel in the summer of 2014, to just $27.70 in mid-January.’
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/12138466/when-is-the-next-financial-crash-coming-oil-prices-markets-recession.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/12144135/The-world-economy-is-shaky-and-funny-money-wont-fix-it.html
“As shares slide, investors are scrambling to get their hands on safe-haven assets such as German government debt today.
And that has driven the yield, or interest rate, on German bunds into deeper negative territory.”
http://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2016/feb/08/uk-business-confidence-falls-global-recession-fears-markets-business-live
a house of cards
This is the Pharma Terrorist Shkreli at a congressional hearing.
http://www.newyorker.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Borowitz-Shkreli-Congress-1200.jpg
Steven Joyce as an arrogant young man smirking ?
I’ll see you and raise you nine obnoxious Shkreli faces.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/martin-shkreli-faces_us_56b388d7e4b01d80b2456139
heh
Jemaine Clement Verified account
@AJemaineClement
Hey @rooshv @Cernovich
This poll might be the first time you guys win something!
https://twitter.com/AJemaineClement/status/696522819807551488
Very informative article regarding financial abuse by Kyle MacDonald particularly with regards to Govt funding of NGO’s and the control of community welfare programmes with respect to workers speaking out about problems within their sphere of expertise.
The Wendelstein 7-X has been fired up.
Today the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, at a ceremony at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma physics in Greifswald in Germany, pressed a button that caused a two-megawatt pulse of microwave radiation to heat hydrogen gas to 80 million degrees for a quarter of a second.
No, she was not setting off some new kind of hydrogen bomb. She was inaguriating the fusion reactor Wendelstein 7-X, the world’s largest stellarator, by generating its first hydrogen plasma.
http://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/energy/nuclear/wendelstein-7x-really-starts-up
(previously on TS)
http://thestandard.org.nz/daily-review-14122015/#comment-1108632
I missed this John Key said “I had a speech I was going to deliver at Waitangi this morning, which we actually decided to rewrite in the middle of this week this week (sic) which was really quite factual but reasonably straight forward – rebutting basically every single point that had been made by (sic) single person who had been opposed to the TPP.” – there’s still time for this speech, maybe a post on The Standard? (I am assuming he’s saying “rebutting basically every single point that had been made by (b) single person who had been opposed to the TPP
Japan’s Top-Economist debunks TPP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0sxoQBUFz0