Interesting time to take a poll by the Herald about troops in Iraq.
Just before ANZAC Day.
Wonder why they thought they’d should take a poll to test opinion on Iraq at that time.
Wonder why they didn’t take this poll 2 months ago.
Guess the Herald relies on people neither wondering or thinking.
The problem I had reading that poll is the wording of the poll , like most polls they trap people into getting the result the poll gatherers want.
I think we should be doing something but I don’t think it should be sending a few trainers to keep us in with the yankss .
BNZ bank chief says there isn’t a housing bubble in Auckland..
Given the profits the BNZ make thanks to the housing debt in Auckland, that’s hardly a surprise.
Guess the Herald relies on people neither wondering or thinking.
Are Bell Investment Trust, the company that flew Key twice up to Kauri Cliffs by helicopter, the same company as this corporation with interests in mining?
The fact is that they are far more dangerous to us (and our grandchildren) than we are to them. When was the last time an ageing member of the public through an overweight MP and his Slugboy mate down a flight of stairs?
And that is why we need policy to be broadly set by referendum. Only then would we have a chance that the majority of people were not voting in basic self-interest.
Eileen Goodwin at the ODT has been good with her continuing coverage of the SDHB. Most recently with the food outsourcing, but previously with the ED nurse uniform biohazard (instead of being washed inhouse, the nurses are expected to take them home and wash uniforms themselves), and the degradation of the hospital (rain leaking into operating theatres, plans to close the physio pool etc). Usually she tries for balanced reporting (though my quotes tend to be selective):
The often vocal crowd applauded Mrs Gamble’s efforts, one saying ”thanks Mary” before they filed out of the room looking dejected and annoyed.
Other comments included ”enjoy the frozen food”, ”we will remember this at the next election” and ”shame”, and there were complaints about ”shutting down democracy”, and ”too much secrecy”…
Dr Chambers expressed concern the counterproposal could not be properly considered in the closed sessions with the union excluded and unable to answer questions.
Mr Butterfield warned Dr Chambers to be ”careful” as financial issues could not be openly discussed.
But this morning Goodwin allowed herself a more personal comment:
The SDHB appeared nonplussed by the public concern, and a lack of communication was acknowledged by chairman Joe Butterfield this week.
But while communication has been abysmal, it is doubtful the public would have bought the idea of the 15-year deal with a multinational corporation even if the board was upfront about the details…
The southern board arguably has the least to gain, and the most to lose, from the Compass contract.
It is furthest from where many meals will be prepared, and has little need for equipment investment in its kitchens.
Damage to the board’s brand and relationship with an increasingly disaffected public is arguably worth more than the projected savings from outsourcing…
Mr Butterfield warned at yesterday’s meeting the South could face years of cuts.
There is a sense of vacuum at the board, as no replacement has been named for the departing Mr Butterfield, whose retirement was confirmed in February…
It is not the time to alienate the public, and if the board had no choice in adopting the food proposal, as many suspect, it should have made that clear.
So I’m not sure how this information could be uncovered, perhaps an OIA request. If nothing else, I can stand up at the meeting during next year’s election for board members and ask each how they voted. My guess is that is was only; Gamble and Chambers against, possibly Thomson as he’s also on the DCC and must know that he’d be putting his re-election chances at risk if he was seen to be not listening to the public on such an issue.
This is all we have so far (from yesterday’s pre-meeting article), unless Goodwin asks followup questions:
Board members Dr Branko Sijnja and Neville Cook said they had not decided yet. Tim Ward, Kaye Crowther and Richard Thomson declined to discuss it.
Tuari Potiki, Tony Hill and chairman Joe Butterfield could not be contacted.
Sandra Cook does not permit direct contact from media.
Thanks. I’m just refreshing my memory about the board structure with an eye on the elections. An opportunity next year to do some publicity on these people I think.
7 elected members
Up to 4 appointed members
Chair and Deputy Chair appointed by the Minister of Health
I don’t know if you read my coverage of the meeting yesterday, I didn’t see any comments from you. It was obviously a done deal from the minute the board sat down, really from last December. How the chairman treated the petition once the bulk of the public had been cleared out was particularly galling:
I can’t do this, so just putting the idea out. I’d want to know under what conditions the Board is able to either exclude the public from a vote, or not tell the public who voted which way. They can exclude the public and media from parts of the meeting that affect commercial issues, but voting isn’t one of them.
So, yep, OIAs, and legal opinions about whether the board can be required to be more accountable to the public. And educating the public on how this all works. I bet most people don’t know the processes that they could be involved in.
(and sorry, I’m not up with what has already been organised in Dndn. Thanks for your work on this Pasupial, it’s getting this information out to the Southern area that is crucial).
This whole thing is bad enough, but let’s not forget that these people are basically telling us they are incompetent to run the SDHB within budget and so are having to do crazy shit like this contract.
That’s what’s in my mind thinking about next year’s election. We need public lobbying bodies that will put time and resource into educating the public about local body elections, who is standing and what their voting records are (ditto Regional Councils).
Interesting that the public were excluded from the vote – when I was a rep on a local society, the general understanding was the the commercial discussions could be made with public excluded but subsequent votes based on those discussions were made in public. It wasn’t usual to break down who voted which way in the minutes (unless a member requested), but the vote itself was publ;ic so anybody could see.
Dunno about the legality of secret voting in a public organisation, especially by the elected representatives, but it certainly defeats the purpose of having an election for them in the first place.
about the same time hospital food was required to make a profit.
and why is no-one in the house pushing hard to discover how Tony Ryall wasted about $400 million on his proposed master plan for health ? The rumour that it will just be absorbed as losses for ADHB beggars belief.
“The Government’s spent millions of taxpayer dollars kitting out a farm with top-of-the-line New Zealand equipment and hundreds of sheep to “compensate” a Saudi businessman.
ONE News has learned that the Government has spent $6 million air freighting 900 pregnant ewes and farming equipment to Hamood Al Ali Khalaf’s farm in Saudi Arabia.
According to Mr Al Ali Khalaf’s business partner, Sydney-based George Assaf, everything from the fencing to “the shed and the wool shed and the yards and the drafting machines, the weighing, the scales, you mention it, it’s all from New Zealand”.
Mr Assaf says the deal was done to “compensate” the pair over a six-year-old ban of live sheep exports in which they say they lost hundreds of millions of dollars.
He says New Zealand was told “unless you fix that part of it, we won’t sign” the free trade deal between New Zealand and the Gulf States.
It’s said our treatment of the Saudi businessman is the reason the deal with the Gulf States has stalled.
Bribery
The offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of something of value for the purpose of influencing the action of an official in the discharge of his or her public or legal duties.The expectation of a particular voluntary action in return is what makes the difference between a bribe and a private demonstration of goodwill.
I think the Americans have a law against it, put in place after the Lockheed scandals. I’m not at all sure that it’s effective, but we do need to try to stop official bribery and corruption.
Makes me wonder:
1. How many other “aggrieved” businessman we appease. (Isn’t another word for this – extortion?”
2. Where do we find these extortion payments defined in the budget?
MMMMMmmm
The Taxpayers Union (see p 102-105 “Dirty Politics” by Nicky Hager ) has come out
against the Saudi handout
7 MAY 2015
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Taxpayers’ Union is demanding answers from the Government after One News revealed tonight that taxpayers flew 900 sheep on Singapore Airlines to Saudi Arabia and forked out $6 million to kit out a privately owned farm to “compensate” a Saudi businessman. Taxpayers’ Union Executive Director, Jordan Williams, says:
“Why on earth is the Government forking out for a business to leave New Zealand? The objective of a FTA is no excuse for a taxpayer handout to an individual businessman. If the businessman has a good case for compensation from our government, that process should be managed by lawyers, not politicians. A full explanation of the dispute should be made public.”
– See more at: http://livenews.co.nz/2015/05/07/mr-taxpayers-pay-to-relocate-hawkes-bay-farm-to-saudi-arabia/#sthash.I7SLKydg.dpuf
plus Matthew Hooton has an article in the NBR (behind paywall headed “Gulf Games Fail To Deliver”
“John Key’s dissembling over live sheep exports is a case study of why so many businesspeople have lost confidence in him.”
I heard Mr Hooton on NatRad the other day blaming the lack of the Gulf FTA on Helen Clark. He then went into further detail as to why this was the case.
Live sheep exports to Saudi were banned by Aus & NZ (under HC) after a ship carrying hundreds of sheep was refused entry and sailed about until such time as the sheep perished.
Soem time after this Hooton asserted that JK assured the Saudi ‘businessman’ that live sheep exports would resume.
Based on this assurance some $50 mil was ‘invested’ in NZ sheep farms by the saudi.
JK then reneged on the agreement to allow live sheep exports – 1 pissed off Saudi.
MH then mumbled that that perhaps HC wasn’t to blame and maybe it had something to do with someones ‘word’ being worth diddly…
On top of vile politics without ethic, it is horrific animal cruelty at the very least. TVOne News also announced many sheep had died shortly after arrival due to a bad storm. And let’s be clear, these were pregnant ewes. Hard to imagine the stresses for them enduring at least 20 hours in a Singapore Airlines jet at 38,000 feet. ( What? Yes. Maybe Air NZ didn’t want to touch the job ?)
And what kind of awful conditions will these poor animals be forced to endure for their whole lives, and then in to cruel death.
I didn’t think it was possible to think even less of Key than I did yesterday. Yet, lo, he sinks ever deeper.
Curiously, the clip with Heather du Plessis Allen reporting on the deaths of many of the pregnant ewes seems to be expurgated from the TVOne News website.
If Nathan Guy had chosen his words better, there would be no argument. So was he telling the truth, and hiding something, or attempting clumsy pre-emptive dialogue and making a mess of something simple? Without his utterance of “invested” there’d be no room for the suspicion of bribery.
“It’s said our treatment of the Saudi businessman is the reason the deal with the Gulf States has stalled.”
Is there something wrong with addressing old issues before moving forward in business, if the values of differing cultures are present? Even if the “compensation” was for a justifiable (animal cruelty, say) ban and had annoyed the Saudi businessman, it still wouldn’t have mattered. Want to do business? Have to play by a set of rules acceptable to the business partner. Can’t seriously be asking/expecting the Nats to become a divison of PETA or somesuch?
Is there something wrong with addressing old issues before moving forward in business, if the values of differing cultures are present?
What issues? If a single businessman is having issues because of something our government did then he can take it through the NZ courts. They don’t get to stop a trade deal between countries. The only thing that can be said about this is that one country was acting as an agent for a businessman which is pure corruption on their part and at which point NZ should have pulled out of the deal and not gifted millions of dollars to a businessman.
Ummm… during an election campaign by an independent election authority. Unless you are implying it isn’t independent. In which case why aren’t any of the Opposition parties up in arms about this?
If they are not independent as you imply then this is terrible news for democracy in New Zealand. The Opposition parties should be demanding an immediate restructure of our Electoral authorities to ensure that independence is reestablished. Strangely I haven’t heard a peep from them on this issue. Why do you think that is?
Like The Parnell Pony-Tail puller getting the police to frantically raid several media (The New Zealand Herald, Herald on Sunday, Herald Online, TV3, Television New Zealand, Radio New Zealand.etc) to get hold of a journalist’s recording of their stupid conversation. Wonder how much that state crackdown cost!
I imagine he has a Venezuela interrogation light in his mind, full on egg-frying laser strength, which softens to an ambient candlelight flicker when looking at our current government.
Gosman, everything looks harsh under bright light – and as all romantics know – everybody looks good with candles.
Which would give; Conservatives + LDs 326 seats out of a possible 650, barely enough to govern. Will have to see what the final results are, may even go down to recounts and overseas/ early votes.
[snap to Ron & P Ure]
Update:
The exit poll says the DUP are on course to get 8 seats. So, if they joined up with the Tories and the Lib Dems, that would take the figure to 334.
“It looks like it will be a depressing night across the UK for the workers of that great land.”
Maybe so but what’s more discouraging for those who wanted a change of government not winning on the night or winning on the night expecting change and then getting your hopes dashed with the same old cak from Westminster on high despite the change of government.
I’ve already seen 2 dairy support blocks up for grabs one under the urgent sale banner the other a mortgagee . With a $4 dollar advanced payout predicted for next season the trickle could become a flood.
“In his book, How to Speak Cat, veterinarian Dr Gary Weitzman has endeavoured to decipher just what a cat is saying with its meows, tail movements and purring.”
This interview might offer some insight into mass voter thinking. It’s a development scientist? or some term.
She is talking about a happiness curve where you are at the bottom around 40 and enjoy life more as they get older.
But also she talks about people’s attitudes during economic changes upwards. And also then downwards I think. She says that poor people in the USA no longer believe that working hard will be the basis of improving one’s life. However in Latin America, athey do amonst low and middle class. There might be something useful that explains the USA and it appears to me that people hang onto beliefs even when the reality around them indicate they are not correct in their thinking, that it is false.
Apparently it is uncertainty that is the main unhappiness factor. When people in the USA had counted their losses after the crash and knew how they stood, their happiness level went up to a similar level as before. That’s what I think she said! So deep analysis and renegotiating thinking.
She has written book – Happy Peasants and Miserable Millionaires.
The audio will come up soon. Below is the blurb.
10:05 The Happiness U-Curve – how middle age blues are cured by getting older
Carol GrahamCarol Graham researches what makes people happy, finding that the lowest times in peoples’ lives occurs when they are in their forties, but after that their life satisfaction improves. It’s called the happiness u-curve and it’s a pattern that’s repeated all over the world, no matter what the socio-economic conditions of the country. So why do people get unhappy in their forties, but then get happier in their fifties?
Carol Graham is a fellow at the Brookings Institution and a professor of public policy at the University of Maryland who has written several books about happiness, including one about the paradox of “happy peasants and miserable millionaires”.
Republican state Rep. David Simpson of Longview argues marijuana comes from God and therefore shouldn’t be banned by government. The tea party stalwart has repeatedly championed what he calls the “Christian case” for legalization.
At Ali Jones PR and Communications, “professional ethics” is our touchstone. We won’t waste your time or your money. We won’t play games and we know our stuff.
Mark Twain once said “Always do right – this will gratify some and astonish the rest.” He also said “If you have nothing to say, say nothing.”
She can talk the talk but walk…..?
She used to host a radio show in christchurch which was dropped in 2009, replaced with the network show, but then started again with someone else.
Buck proposed the concept at a housing taskforce meeting on homelessness last week. The issue went to the council’s communities, housing and economic development committee meeting on Thursday. The committee instructed staff to further investigate the plan and give a full report to the council on May 28. Jones did not want further information sought.
This is Jones. What a misanthropic harpy. How come she got elected to the Chch council to represent all the people in Christchurch? (From phil ure’s link) I get where Vicki is coming from, but this is not part of what we should do. It not our core business. This is not social housing. This is kids, this is drug addiction, this is families and criminality. There's a whole lot of stuff in here we should not be dealing with.
Welcome to the workers bash – coming some more from this government. Mind you it is the Talley’s Group – not know for being particularly nice human beings to begin with.
Strike kills leader who claimed Paris attack
Nasser bin Ali al-Ansi, shown in a social media video posted by the group.
A US operation has killed the senior Al Qaeda figure who issued a claim of responsibility for the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris, reports say.
I say WTF. I guess if its good enough for Israel, for Russia, then USA says it’f okay.
Ethics classes for finance sector
Commonwealth Bank (CBA) signage and ATM, Sydney, 2014.
Australia’s biggest banks have announced support for an overhaul of the financial planning sector, including mandatory exams and ethics classes.
Isn’t that sweet. All the little boys and girls with neat hair and clean nails on how to look good in public, and how to keep the govt surveillance out of your drawers.
Swede risk not flagged, group says
Swedes
A group investigating the deaths of Southland stock which ate herbicide-tolerant swedes last winter was never told there was a risk with the crop, it says.
The new super crop with enhanced whatisname and a chemical condom against the nasty spray that kills other plants has possible side effects. Who’d have thunk?
Farmer waits nervously for swaps payout
Farm
A man forced to sell his farm after losing millions in an interest rate deal is waiting to see how big an imminent payout is before deciding whether to fight on. (AUDIO)
Isn’t it a disgrace that National can’t even control the financial system here so that their supporters aren’t taken to the cleaners by overseas banks or mendacious finance houses with alluring insurance schemes against ruin from the financiers’ own outrageous market manipulations. Protection money it is called when the Mafia does it.
Fine, totally ignore another win for the little people over the tyranny of the Government.
In days of old there would be celebrations and dancing in the streets when a small group of already marginalised New Zealanders took a complaint of discrimination against the government…and won.
There would have been rioting in the streets when that hard fought battle got a bitter and evil response from the Government, which provoked
Then nearly two years on from that constitutional outrage, another win on the same issue.
Its very difficult to explain the “big picture” here in a way that those completely unfamiliar with the case could grasp.
But I’ll take the time to try.
The care of people with disabilities is funded by the Government under the auspices of the Public Health and Disability Act…a Labour piece of legislation if I recall correctly.
The government will fund disability supports to people over the age of eighteen….but only if families are unwilling or unable to.
There is no penalty for opting out to family members who do not provide the assessed care.
But those who do provide the necessary care, and are unable to work outside the home are severely and significantly impacted….unless, of course, you were one of the at least 272 family carers who were being paid….but that just complicates the issue…so we’ll move on.
So, who does provide the care to those who need it in the absence of willing and able family carers?
Companies with contracts with the Ministry of Health: Disability Support Services.
You may or may not remember these guys…..from various MSM reports of neglect, abuse, assaults and deaths at their hands.
Not all of them.
But enough to make a significant proportion of the disability community unwilling or unable to trust them. Enough of these compainies were unable to provide care for some with very high and complex needs, so family HAD to provide the care.
Hence, the Family Carers Case.
And decisions from the Human Rights Review Tribunal, the High Court (x2) and the Appeal Court (x2) saying that if the person is eligiable for government funded disabilitiy supports THEY HAVE THE RIGHT TO CHOOSE WHO PROVIDES THOSE SUPPORTS.
Sorry to shout…but …are you actually listening?
One of the potential outcomes of this case is to loosen the stranglehold of those contracted providers (some multinationals) on the $1.2 billion of government funding for MOH:DSS supports.
Some of these companies now have contracts with MSD, the DHBs and ACC.
Think about that for a minute…while the current incumbents are formulating a plan to privatise social services and child, youth and family services.
We are talking about a SHIT LOAD of taxpayer money up for tender to ….well….any company who cares to bid.
Like Compass. Or Serco.
Now….let’s think about the TPPA….an issue that Labour has yet to make any clear and unequivocal statements about….an issue that scares the shit out of any Kiwi that has given it more than a passing thought.
Prof Kelsey tells us about contracts with multinationals that would leave our government exposed to legal action if we exercise our democratic and sovereign right to pass laws and have policies that undermine the ‘return on investment’ of these companies.
Now, quietly, and under the radar of the Left, there has been a wee little battle going on, that if the Government had responded in a fair and reasonable manner, would have had the potential to cause a significant reduction in income for companies that the Government has contracts with.
Which I wonder is what the government hid from ALL of us in the Regulatory Impact Statement…you remember….the one with pages and pages of blanked out bits.
Think about that….the government passing legislation that removes people’s rights and casts them forever into the margins….and THEY HIDE THE REASONS WHY.
Labour could have dealt to this prior to the 2008 election. They did a Pontious Pilate and had it go to the HRRT.
They did verbally protest on the 17th May 2013….but, as yet, I have seen no public comment from any party since the release of this latest Appeal Court decsion.
Having the Appeal Court tell the Government they have passed legislation that is not fit for purpose….to put it mildly…should have at least got a publicised mention in the House.
Maybe if it had a ponytail attached?
Methinks there is more to this than immediately apparent.
I got pulled over in west Texas
so they could look inside my car
he said are you an american citizen
I said
yes sir
so far
they made sure I wasn’t smuggling
someone in from Mexico
someone willing to settle for america
’cause there’s nowhere else to go
Ani Difranco (also a contender for great living folk singer).
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NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent talking about the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s release of its first Emissions Reduction Plan;University of Otago Foreign Relations Professor and special guest Dr Karin von ...
Open access notablesImproving global temperature datasets to better account for non-uniform warming, Calvert, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society:To better account for spatial non-uniform trends in warming, a new GITD [global instrumental temperature dataset] was created that used maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) to combine the land surface ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Bennett, PhD Student, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University Last week, a drone delivery company called Wing (owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet) started operating in Melbourne. Some 250,000 residents in parts of the city’s eastern suburbs can now order food from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Foo, Lecturer, Physiotherapy, Monash University pikselstock/Shutterstock In the next 40 years in Australia, it’s predicted the number of Australians aged 65 and over will more than double, while the number of people aged 85 and over will more than triple. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katrina Grant, Research Associate, Power Institute for Arts and Visual Culture, University of Sydney Jonas Åkerström’s 1790 work, Session of the Accademia dell’Arcadia on August 17 1788.Nationalmuseum/Cecilia Heisser Ever wondered whether you’d have a better chance at winning an Olympic gold ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Jones, Program Lead, Food Governance, George Institute for Global Health wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock On Thursday, Australian and New Zealand food ministers at state, federal and national levels met to thrash out what’s next for health star ratings on packaged foods. Now, after ...
The Abuse in Care report found many Pacific survivors lost their connections to their culture and language, resulting in trauma that has been carried from generation to generation. ...
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Interesting time to take a poll by the Herald about troops in Iraq.
Just before ANZAC Day.
Wonder why they thought they’d should take a poll to test opinion on Iraq at that time.
Wonder why they didn’t take this poll 2 months ago.
Guess the Herald relies on people neither wondering or thinking.
The problem I had reading that poll is the wording of the poll , like most polls they trap people into getting the result the poll gatherers want.
I think we should be doing something but I don’t think it should be sending a few trainers to keep us in with the yankss .
BNZ bank chief says there isn’t a housing bubble in Auckland..
Given the profits the BNZ make thanks to the housing debt in Auckland, that’s hardly a surprise.
Guess the Herald relies on people neither wondering or thinking.
Are Bell Investment Trust, the company that flew Key twice up to Kauri Cliffs by helicopter, the same company as this corporation with interests in mining?
http://www.bellasset.com.au/unit-prices/global-equities/global-mining-investments-trust/
MP’s report receiving threats etc from the public. I wonder how many incidents of MP’s threatening the public, or fellow MP’s? A few come to mind…
The fact is that they are far more dangerous to us (and our grandchildren) than we are to them. When was the last time an ageing member of the public through an overweight MP and his Slugboy mate down a flight of stairs?
ever wondered why mp’s are against property-taxes..?
only seven of them don’t own properties..
..that cd well be a factor in their thinking..eh..?
It would be interesting to know how many own more then one.
most of them do…+ rentals/commercial-properties..
self-interest on a stick..
(details are in the list of mp’s pecuniary-interests – which was released yesterday..)
yet this morn the media are full of stories about how the poor-luvvies have been ‘threatened’ by disgruntled-punters..
(is that deliberate..?..the ‘threatening-news’ on the heels of the self-interest-list..?..to help cover their sorry arses..?)
Cheers they love trusts to I see
And that is why we need policy to be broadly set by referendum. Only then would we have a chance that the majority of people were not voting in basic self-interest.
Election result prediction from fivethirtyeight.com:update : LATEST:
http://fivethirtyeight.com/interactives/uk-general-election-predictions/
Eileen Goodwin at the ODT has been good with her continuing coverage of the SDHB. Most recently with the food outsourcing, but previously with the ED nurse uniform biohazard (instead of being washed inhouse, the nurses are expected to take them home and wash uniforms themselves), and the degradation of the hospital (rain leaking into operating theatres, plans to close the physio pool etc). Usually she tries for balanced reporting (though my quotes tend to be selective):
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/341514/hospital-decision-bitter-pill
But this morning Goodwin allowed herself a more personal comment:
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/341513/handling-food-services-pr-debacle
Does that mean we won’t know who voted which way?
Weka
Looking over the minutes of the April SDHB meeting supplied with the agenda for yesterday’s meeting; there doesn’t seem to be any breakdown of voting.
http://www.southerndhb.govt.nz/files/15533_2015050590054-1430773254.pdf
So I’m not sure how this information could be uncovered, perhaps an OIA request. If nothing else, I can stand up at the meeting during next year’s election for board members and ask each how they voted. My guess is that is was only; Gamble and Chambers against, possibly Thomson as he’s also on the DCC and must know that he’d be putting his re-election chances at risk if he was seen to be not listening to the public on such an issue.
This is all we have so far (from yesterday’s pre-meeting article), unless Goodwin asks followup questions:
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/341376/dhb-member-speaks-out-over-outsourcing-plan
Thanks. I’m just refreshing my memory about the board structure with an eye on the elections. An opportunity next year to do some publicity on these people I think.
7 elected members
Up to 4 appointed members
Chair and Deputy Chair appointed by the Minister of Health
http://www.southerndhb.govt.nz/pages/boardmembers/
Otago electees
Branko Sijnja (undedided)
Richard Thomson (refused to comment)
Mrs Mary Gamble (opposed and spoke out)
John Chambers (opposed and spoke out)
Otago appointees
Joe Butterfield (Chair) (could not be contacted. Tried to talk over Mary Gamble)
Tuari Potiki (Kāi Tahu, Ngāti Mamoe, Waitaha) (could not be contacted)
Southland electees
Tim Ward (Deputy Chair) (refused to comment)
Neville Cook (undecided)
Kay Crowther (refused to comment)
Southland appointees
Sandra Cook (Ngāi Tahu) (does not permit direct contact from media)
Tony Hill (could not be contacted)
Weka
I don’t know if you read my coverage of the meeting yesterday, I didn’t see any comments from you. It was obviously a done deal from the minute the board sat down, really from last December. How the chairman treated the petition once the bulk of the public had been cleared out was particularly galling:
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-07052015/#comment-1011228
Thanks, I hadn’t seen that.
Good to see the union considering legal action.
I can’t do this, so just putting the idea out. I’d want to know under what conditions the Board is able to either exclude the public from a vote, or not tell the public who voted which way. They can exclude the public and media from parts of the meeting that affect commercial issues, but voting isn’t one of them.
So, yep, OIAs, and legal opinions about whether the board can be required to be more accountable to the public. And educating the public on how this all works. I bet most people don’t know the processes that they could be involved in.
(and sorry, I’m not up with what has already been organised in Dndn. Thanks for your work on this Pasupial, it’s getting this information out to the Southern area that is crucial).
This whole thing is bad enough, but let’s not forget that these people are basically telling us they are incompetent to run the SDHB within budget and so are having to do crazy shit like this contract.
That’s what’s in my mind thinking about next year’s election. We need public lobbying bodies that will put time and resource into educating the public about local body elections, who is standing and what their voting records are (ditto Regional Councils).
Interesting that the public were excluded from the vote – when I was a rep on a local society, the general understanding was the the commercial discussions could be made with public excluded but subsequent votes based on those discussions were made in public. It wasn’t usual to break down who voted which way in the minutes (unless a member requested), but the vote itself was publ;ic so anybody could see.
Dunno about the legality of secret voting in a public organisation, especially by the elected representatives, but it certainly defeats the purpose of having an election for them in the first place.
Yep. And there is too much of this shit going in local bodies now. It’s an area of activism that is sorely lacking.
The ODT – still reporting the news because foreign rent seekers are out of the ownership equation.
When did hospitals start having ‘brands’?
about the same time hospital food was required to make a profit.
and why is no-one in the house pushing hard to discover how Tony Ryall wasted about $400 million on his proposed master plan for health ? The rumour that it will just be absorbed as losses for ADHB beggars belief.
“The Government’s spent millions of taxpayer dollars kitting out a farm with top-of-the-line New Zealand equipment and hundreds of sheep to “compensate” a Saudi businessman.
ONE News has learned that the Government has spent $6 million air freighting 900 pregnant ewes and farming equipment to Hamood Al Ali Khalaf’s farm in Saudi Arabia.
According to Mr Al Ali Khalaf’s business partner, Sydney-based George Assaf, everything from the fencing to “the shed and the wool shed and the yards and the drafting machines, the weighing, the scales, you mention it, it’s all from New Zealand”.
Mr Assaf says the deal was done to “compensate” the pair over a six-year-old ban of live sheep exports in which they say they lost hundreds of millions of dollars.
He says New Zealand was told “unless you fix that part of it, we won’t sign” the free trade deal between New Zealand and the Gulf States.
It’s said our treatment of the Saudi businessman is the reason the deal with the Gulf States has stalled.
New Zealand will receive no profit from the Saudi farm, which Mr Assaf claims is worth $80 million.”
http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/nz-government-gifts-6m-offended-saudi-businessman-6309101
This looks like bribery to me.
Meanwhile DHBs outsource hospital meals for small savings.
Bribery
The offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of something of value for the purpose of influencing the action of an official in the discharge of his or her public or legal duties.The expectation of a particular voluntary action in return is what makes the difference between a bribe and a private demonstration of goodwill.
http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/bribery
I think the Americans have a law against it, put in place after the Lockheed scandals. I’m not at all sure that it’s effective, but we do need to try to stop official bribery and corruption.
Makes me wonder:
1. How many other “aggrieved” businessman we appease. (Isn’t another word for this – extortion?”
2. Where do we find these extortion payments defined in the budget?
MMMMMmmm
The Taxpayers Union (see p 102-105 “Dirty Politics” by Nicky Hager ) has come out
against the Saudi handout
7 MAY 2015
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Taxpayers’ Union is demanding answers from the Government after One News revealed tonight that taxpayers flew 900 sheep on Singapore Airlines to Saudi Arabia and forked out $6 million to kit out a privately owned farm to “compensate” a Saudi businessman. Taxpayers’ Union Executive Director, Jordan Williams, says:
“Why on earth is the Government forking out for a business to leave New Zealand? The objective of a FTA is no excuse for a taxpayer handout to an individual businessman. If the businessman has a good case for compensation from our government, that process should be managed by lawyers, not politicians. A full explanation of the dispute should be made public.”
– See more at: http://livenews.co.nz/2015/05/07/mr-taxpayers-pay-to-relocate-hawkes-bay-farm-to-saudi-arabia/#sthash.I7SLKydg.dpuf
plus Matthew Hooton has an article in the NBR (behind paywall headed “Gulf Games Fail To Deliver”
“John Key’s dissembling over live sheep exports is a case study of why so many businesspeople have lost confidence in him.”
Sounds of metal on Whetstone?
“John Key’s dissembling over live sheep exports is a case study of why so many businesspeople have lost confidence in him.”
One thing people have never understood properly – John Key has never been a businessman. He has been a broker / ticket-clipper. Nothing more.
John Key has never been a businessman.
+111
Correct. JK is not a businessman. He’s a ticket-clipper and Yes-man for the rich.
I heard Mr Hooton on NatRad the other day blaming the lack of the Gulf FTA on Helen Clark. He then went into further detail as to why this was the case.
Live sheep exports to Saudi were banned by Aus & NZ (under HC) after a ship carrying hundreds of sheep was refused entry and sailed about until such time as the sheep perished.
Soem time after this Hooton asserted that JK assured the Saudi ‘businessman’ that live sheep exports would resume.
Based on this assurance some $50 mil was ‘invested’ in NZ sheep farms by the saudi.
JK then reneged on the agreement to allow live sheep exports – 1 pissed off Saudi.
MH then mumbled that that perhaps HC wasn’t to blame and maybe it had something to do with someones ‘word’ being worth diddly…
Mr Hooton can fill in the detail
On top of vile politics without ethic, it is horrific animal cruelty at the very least. TVOne News also announced many sheep had died shortly after arrival due to a bad storm. And let’s be clear, these were pregnant ewes. Hard to imagine the stresses for them enduring at least 20 hours in a Singapore Airlines jet at 38,000 feet. ( What? Yes. Maybe Air NZ didn’t want to touch the job ?)
And what kind of awful conditions will these poor animals be forced to endure for their whole lives, and then in to cruel death.
I didn’t think it was possible to think even less of Key than I did yesterday. Yet, lo, he sinks ever deeper.
By whom and how was this signed off last year ?
Curiously, the clip with Heather du Plessis Allen reporting on the deaths of many of the pregnant ewes seems to be expurgated from the TVOne News website.
wtf
If Nathan Guy had chosen his words better, there would be no argument. So was he telling the truth, and hiding something, or attempting clumsy pre-emptive dialogue and making a mess of something simple? Without his utterance of “invested” there’d be no room for the suspicion of bribery.
“It’s said our treatment of the Saudi businessman is the reason the deal with the Gulf States has stalled.”
Is there something wrong with addressing old issues before moving forward in business, if the values of differing cultures are present? Even if the “compensation” was for a justifiable (animal cruelty, say) ban and had annoyed the Saudi businessman, it still wouldn’t have mattered. Want to do business? Have to play by a set of rules acceptable to the business partner. Can’t seriously be asking/expecting the Nats to become a divison of PETA or somesuch?
What issues? If a single businessman is having issues because of something our government did then he can take it through the NZ courts. They don’t get to stop a trade deal between countries. The only thing that can be said about this is that one country was acting as an agent for a businessman which is pure corruption on their part and at which point NZ should have pulled out of the deal and not gifted millions of dollars to a businessman.
The joys of State controlled TV under Socialism.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/05/venezuela-first-lady-maduro-tv-show
Isn’t this similar to what many of you leftists want to see more of in NZ?
you’re funny..!
Very funny Gossy, mind you, you thought they’d have a revolution over toilet paper – which I’m still giggling about.
I never stated they were going to have a revolution over toilet paper.
Please, read your posts – it was the apocalypse – the end is near stuff. Smacks, of talk of revolution to me.
I’ll tell you what isn’t a joke though. Cracking down of people making fun of the government.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2015/05/05/404443837/its-no-joke-venezuela-cracks-down-on-comedians
Like this here in NZ on ‘planet key’ track being banned eh
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11309749
Ummm… during an election campaign by an independent election authority. Unless you are implying it isn’t independent. In which case why aren’t any of the Opposition parties up in arms about this?
pinhead dancer
He can’t vto, he always slips off, he has a grip on the wrong handle.
But dear Gossy – the Electoral Commission was in error (so I wonder just how independent they are?) You can in fact read a very erudite and informed opinion on the judge’s ruling here:
http://pundit.co.nz/content/the-larks-on-the-wing-the-snails-on-the-thorn
If they are not independent as you imply then this is terrible news for democracy in New Zealand. The Opposition parties should be demanding an immediate restructure of our Electoral authorities to ensure that independence is reestablished. Strangely I haven’t heard a peep from them on this issue. Why do you think that is?
The level you operate at is dropping rapidly
Your comments about the ‘Greek Haircut’ should they return to a native currency were hilarious
See if you can work out what was missing from your thought pattern when you made that comment
Yes indeed Gos ol chum! Many of our so-called independent authorities are jammed packed with Party sympathizers. Hand picked and placed in positions where they can influence the decisions in favour of National’s objectives. Katherine Rich, Jackie Blue, Wayne Mapp,
http://norightturn.blogspot.co.nz/2012/02/daily-cronyism.html
http://norightturn.blogspot.co.nz/2014/10/an-unmanaged-conflict.html
http://norightturn.blogspot.co.nz/2014/10/cronyism-in-christchurch-ii.html
http://norightturn.blogspot.co.nz/2014/06/more-cronyism.html
http://norightturn.blogspot.co.nz/2014/03/more-cronyism.html
http://norightturn.blogspot.co.nz/2014/03/jobs-for-donors.html
oh! the list goes on and on! 🙁 and just the other day there were marches in the street and protests over a decision by a National sympathizer to ax the last remaining current affairs programme of any credibility.
One day the sheeple will awaken and realise that scumbags like you have stolen everything from them. Those who fail to learn from history will have to relive it. Another French Revolution is not too far into the future I fear.
Like The Parnell Pony-Tail puller getting the police to frantically raid several media (The New Zealand Herald, Herald on Sunday, Herald Online, TV3, Television New Zealand, Radio New Zealand.etc) to get hold of a journalist’s recording of their stupid conversation. Wonder how much that state crackdown cost!
He is… philu… he is.
I imagine he has a Venezuela interrogation light in his mind, full on egg-frying laser strength, which softens to an ambient candlelight flicker when looking at our current government.
Gosman, everything looks harsh under bright light – and as all romantics know – everybody looks good with candles.
OMG Based on exit polls Tories have increased their majority.
Early days, Ron, but still worrying! I blame the SNP 😉
Nah Its not SNP or anyone but Labour. They seem to have no idea how to appeal to the people. Personally I still think they had the wrong Miliband.
Nah, it’s the wannabe upper-class-twit-of-the-year types that think that the Tories represent their interests and keep voting for them.
Pointing fingers
Missing the point
exit polls show tories winning british election..
UK election exit polls not looking good:
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/blog/live/2015/may/07/election-2015-live-final-votes-cast-as-battle-for-power-looms
Which would give; Conservatives + LDs 326 seats out of a possible 650, barely enough to govern. Will have to see what the final results are, may even go down to recounts and overseas/ early votes.
[snap to Ron & P Ure]
Update:
the guru of polling.. nate silver..calls it thus:
CON 297, LAB 253, SNP 56, LD 19.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2015-32633099
Hartd luck guys
Time will tell Gosman. The poll seems way out compared to other polls.
Which probably tells us more about the pre-election polls then anything.
It looks like it will be a depressing night across the UK for the workers of that great land.
“It looks like it will be a depressing night across the UK for the workers of that great land.”
Maybe so but what’s more discouraging for those who wanted a change of government not winning on the night or winning on the night expecting change and then getting your hopes dashed with the same old cak from Westminster on high despite the change of government.
It has been pretty accurate in the past
http://www.may2015.com/featured/election-2015-what-is-the-exit-poll-and-how-does-it-work/
Hard luck for who? By all means enlighten me as to why I should give a flying continental about an election on the other side of the world?
YouGov Exit Poll:
CON – 284
LAB – 263
SNP – 48
LDEM – 31
UKIP – 2
GRN – 1
Narrow majority for Tory/Lib Dem/DUP if it holds.
Looks like a switch from Lib Dem to the Con Jobs has caused a unpredicted swing back to the Tories.
The Poms are suckers for punishment!
TRP
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/blog/live/2015/may/07/election-2015-live-final-votes-cast-as-battle-for-power-looms#block-554bd76de4b03ec20bdf8b30
Cheers for the clarification, pasupial.
A likely low turnout < 60%. Obviously things aren't tough enough for the masses.
Just to lighten the mood
Clarke and Dawe.
Thanks, very funny as always.
Thanks for that Adam.
Just like house prices, the farming sector has its head in the clouds as well….
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/agribusiness/68327503/median-price-for-all-farms-up-to-28000-a-hectare
talk about baloney
completely unsustainable
spectacular splattery explosion imminent in the property sector
I’ve already seen 2 dairy support blocks up for grabs one under the urgent sale banner the other a mortgagee . With a $4 dollar advanced payout predicted for next season the trickle could become a flood.
How to speak to a cat
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/201753567/how-to-speak-cat
“In his book, How to Speak Cat, veterinarian Dr Gary Weitzman has endeavoured to decipher just what a cat is saying with its meows, tail movements and purring.”
What’s it saying when the little bugger jumps out from under the couch and sinks its teeth into you’re foot. 🙂
Playtime.
The games Afoot?
lol…Big Game Hunting!…you are mine!…bagged your foot…now for a mauling…
This interview might offer some insight into mass voter thinking. It’s a development scientist? or some term.
She is talking about a happiness curve where you are at the bottom around 40 and enjoy life more as they get older.
But also she talks about people’s attitudes during economic changes upwards. And also then downwards I think. She says that poor people in the USA no longer believe that working hard will be the basis of improving one’s life. However in Latin America, athey do amonst low and middle class. There might be something useful that explains the USA and it appears to me that people hang onto beliefs even when the reality around them indicate they are not correct in their thinking, that it is false.
Apparently it is uncertainty that is the main unhappiness factor. When people in the USA had counted their losses after the crash and knew how they stood, their happiness level went up to a similar level as before. That’s what I think she said! So deep analysis and renegotiating thinking.
She has written book – Happy Peasants and Miserable Millionaires.
The audio will come up soon. Below is the blurb.
10:05 The Happiness U-Curve – how middle age blues are cured by getting older
Carol GrahamCarol Graham researches what makes people happy, finding that the lowest times in peoples’ lives occurs when they are in their forties, but after that their life satisfaction improves. It’s called the happiness u-curve and it’s a pattern that’s repeated all over the world, no matter what the socio-economic conditions of the country. So why do people get unhappy in their forties, but then get happier in their fifties?
Carol Graham is a fellow at the Brookings Institution and a professor of public policy at the University of Maryland who has written several books about happiness, including one about the paradox of “happy peasants and miserable millionaires”.
heh
Republican state Rep. David Simpson of Longview argues marijuana comes from God and therefore shouldn’t be banned by government. The tea party stalwart has repeatedly championed what he calls the “Christian case” for legalization.
http://www.click2houston.com/news/texas-house-committee-oks-full-marijuana-legalization-bill/32861194
That argument could be run for everything, couldn’t it? For both good shit and bad shit.
It amazes me how humans have got as far as we have
this hideous/vile/uncaring rightwing-trout is also a panellist on the mora show..
..where she comes across as all of the above – with thick as a fucken brick thrown in for good measure…
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/68347499/ali-jones-homeless-people-not-christchurch-city-councils-problem
Bio on Ali Jones –
At Ali Jones PR and Communications, “professional ethics” is our touchstone. We won’t waste your time or your money. We won’t play games and we know our stuff.
Mark Twain once said “Always do right – this will gratify some and astonish the rest.” He also said “If you have nothing to say, say nothing.”
She can talk the talk but walk…..?
She used to host a radio show in christchurch which was dropped in 2009, replaced with the network show, but then started again with someone else.
Buck proposed the concept at a housing taskforce meeting on homelessness last week. The issue went to the council’s communities, housing and economic development committee meeting on Thursday. The committee instructed staff to further investigate the plan and give a full report to the council on May 28. Jones did not want further information sought.
This is Jones. What a misanthropic harpy. How come she got elected to the Chch council to represent all the people in Christchurch? (From phil ure’s link)
I get where Vicki is coming from, but this is not part of what we should do. It not our core business. This is not social housing. This is kids, this is drug addiction, this is families and criminality. There's a whole lot of stuff in here we should not be dealing with.
Seeking MP’s support puts job at risk?
http://www.3news.co.nz/tvshows/campbelllive/tauranga-woman-warned-over-contacting-local-mp-2015050419#axzz3Z9SSgW6J
Welcome to the workers bash – coming some more from this government. Mind you it is the Talley’s Group – not know for being particularly nice human beings to begin with.
Radionz news
Strike kills leader who claimed Paris attack
Nasser bin Ali al-Ansi, shown in a social media video posted by the group.
A US operation has killed the senior Al Qaeda figure who issued a claim of responsibility for the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris, reports say.
I say WTF. I guess if its good enough for Israel, for Russia, then USA says it’f okay.
Ethics classes for finance sector
Commonwealth Bank (CBA) signage and ATM, Sydney, 2014.
Australia’s biggest banks have announced support for an overhaul of the financial planning sector, including mandatory exams and ethics classes.
Isn’t that sweet. All the little boys and girls with neat hair and clean nails on how to look good in public, and how to keep the govt surveillance out of your drawers.
Swede risk not flagged, group says
Swedes
A group investigating the deaths of Southland stock which ate herbicide-tolerant swedes last winter was never told there was a risk with the crop, it says.
The new super crop with enhanced whatisname and a chemical condom against the nasty spray that kills other plants has possible side effects. Who’d have thunk?
Farmer waits nervously for swaps payout
Farm
A man forced to sell his farm after losing millions in an interest rate deal is waiting to see how big an imminent payout is before deciding whether to fight on. (AUDIO)
Isn’t it a disgrace that National can’t even control the financial system here so that their supporters aren’t taken to the cleaners by overseas banks or mendacious finance houses with alluring insurance schemes against ruin from the financiers’ own outrageous market manipulations. Protection money it is called when the Mafia does it.
new bill makes it really easy for john key to get legal-pot at his holiday-compound in hawaii..
http://whoar.co.nz/2015/bill-makes-it-easier-for-john-key-to-get-legal-pot-when-at-his-holiday-compound-in-hawaii/
A few days ago I posted this…. http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-05052015/#comment-1010262 …to zero response.
Fine, totally ignore another win for the little people over the tyranny of the Government.
In days of old there would be celebrations and dancing in the streets when a small group of already marginalised New Zealanders took a complaint of discrimination against the government…and won.
There would have been rioting in the streets when that hard fought battle got a bitter and evil response from the Government, which provoked
this….http://pundit.co.nz/content/i-think-national-just-broke-our-constitution
Then nearly two years on from that constitutional outrage, another win on the same issue.
Its very difficult to explain the “big picture” here in a way that those completely unfamiliar with the case could grasp.
But I’ll take the time to try.
The care of people with disabilities is funded by the Government under the auspices of the Public Health and Disability Act…a Labour piece of legislation if I recall correctly.
The government will fund disability supports to people over the age of eighteen….but only if families are unwilling or unable to.
There is no penalty for opting out to family members who do not provide the assessed care.
But those who do provide the necessary care, and are unable to work outside the home are severely and significantly impacted….unless, of course, you were one of the at least 272 family carers who were being paid….but that just complicates the issue…so we’ll move on.
So, who does provide the care to those who need it in the absence of willing and able family carers?
Companies with contracts with the Ministry of Health: Disability Support Services.
You may or may not remember these guys…..from various MSM reports of neglect, abuse, assaults and deaths at their hands.
Not all of them.
But enough to make a significant proportion of the disability community unwilling or unable to trust them. Enough of these compainies were unable to provide care for some with very high and complex needs, so family HAD to provide the care.
Hence, the Family Carers Case.
And decisions from the Human Rights Review Tribunal, the High Court (x2) and the Appeal Court (x2) saying that if the person is eligiable for government funded disabilitiy supports THEY HAVE THE RIGHT TO CHOOSE WHO PROVIDES THOSE SUPPORTS.
Sorry to shout…but …are you actually listening?
One of the potential outcomes of this case is to loosen the stranglehold of those contracted providers (some multinationals) on the $1.2 billion of government funding for MOH:DSS supports.
Some of these companies now have contracts with MSD, the DHBs and ACC.
Think about that for a minute…while the current incumbents are formulating a plan to privatise social services and child, youth and family services.
We are talking about a SHIT LOAD of taxpayer money up for tender to ….well….any company who cares to bid.
Like Compass. Or Serco.
Now….let’s think about the TPPA….an issue that Labour has yet to make any clear and unequivocal statements about….an issue that scares the shit out of any Kiwi that has given it more than a passing thought.
Prof Kelsey tells us about contracts with multinationals that would leave our government exposed to legal action if we exercise our democratic and sovereign right to pass laws and have policies that undermine the ‘return on investment’ of these companies.
Now, quietly, and under the radar of the Left, there has been a wee little battle going on, that if the Government had responded in a fair and reasonable manner, would have had the potential to cause a significant reduction in income for companies that the Government has contracts with.
Which I wonder is what the government hid from ALL of us in the Regulatory Impact Statement…you remember….the one with pages and pages of blanked out bits.
Think about that….the government passing legislation that removes people’s rights and casts them forever into the margins….and THEY HIDE THE REASONS WHY.
Rant over.
Laws – good people don’t need them, and the bad people will just change them to suit themselves.
Rosemary McDonald +100…scarey
…where is the New Zealand Labour Party on this?!….they should be jumping up and down!
Labour could have dealt to this prior to the 2008 election. They did a Pontious Pilate and had it go to the HRRT.
They did verbally protest on the 17th May 2013….but, as yet, I have seen no public comment from any party since the release of this latest Appeal Court decsion.
Having the Appeal Court tell the Government they have passed legislation that is not fit for purpose….to put it mildly…should have at least got a publicised mention in the House.
Maybe if it had a ponytail attached?
Methinks there is more to this than immediately apparent.
Jill Sobule – greatest living folk singer?
Great take on USA politics
Ani Difranco (also a contender for great living folk singer).
Key & Peele
Where there ain’t no pain, ain’t no sorrow
heads-up..!
don’t even think of taking the piss out of trp for his election-prediction..
..he’ll ban yr arse..
You did note the tags, didn’t you?
Odd Miliband
Ed Miliband trying not to touch a Scottish person
Ed Miliband trying to understand human emotion
Ed Miliband trying to shake hands with people
Ed Miliband looking at his fingers
and best of all
Ed Miliband trying to look natural
no..where are/were they..?
..and..yr point..?
The post was a piss take – the accompanying video sort of gave it away.
Categories: elections, labour, social media lolz, uk politics
i never watched the video..
..and i am not such a completist – that i read ‘categories’…(my bad!)
(does ‘social media lolz’ signify that a whole post is ‘a piss-take’..?..i must remember that..)
..so i have to admit – i took it at face-value..
..and in fact..going on the pre-election polling..
..like many others – i also thought lab/snp had it sewed up..
..and thought that if trp was guilty of anything..
..it was premature-triumphalism..
..silly/unobservant me..!..eh..?
i was in the habit of watching prime news..and then 3 news..
..but no more..
..as any significant content on prime is repeated on 3 news a few minutes later – word for fucken word..
..they really are trying to play us for fucken fools..
..but no more..