John Armstrong has made a full on attack against Russel Norman and the Greens in todays Herald.
Obviously the Greens are starting to worry the National Party’s number 1 PR man.
Norman needs to continue to attack National FULL ON, he has my support 100%. In fact the more Armstrong complains the better, it just provides a gauge on how affective his attacks actually are.
Despite the tight secrecy and media blackout that surrounded the Green Party AGM, details of what went on are starting to come out.
The new rules mean getting a remit on to the floor of the conference will be a logistical nightmare as all remits will require endorsement by two other branches, one of which must be in another region than that of the branch promoting the remit.
Branch remits will be subject to stricter vetting and potential redrafting by the party’s standing orders committee.
If a remit does not satisfy certain conditions, the committee can “suspend” it. If the remit reflects discontent with a wider issue, then it will be subject to a dispute procedure.
A copy of the committee’s proposals for changing the party’s standing orders which was obtained by the Weekend Herald acknowledges remits provide a “safety valve” if a sufficiently large number of members are disgruntled with some aspect of party operations.
But the report says it is possibly more important that unresolved issues between the party at large and a branch does not consume “valuable and finite time” at the party’s annual conference.
All of this has some members crying foul. There is concern that the rule changes will leave branches reduced to chores such as fundraising, leafletting and campaigning and having no input into how the party is run. Annual conferences will likewise become sterile affairs.
There is also suspicion that the effective blocking of a means of expressing dissent is motivated by the hierarchy’s fears the party’s wider and idealistic membership will find the necessary compromises of coalition too hard to stomach.
John Armstrong
If what Armstrong reports is true;
Then it seems that this conference saw a steep reduction in the Greens inner party democracy. With the right to veto membership remits or amend them out of all recognition by the top table, power has been concentrated with the leadership. As well as this, the increased and complex bureaucracy imposed to make branch remits harder to put in the first place, will put a further crimp on the members ability to influence the direction of their party.
In my estimation these new rules to restrict inner party democracy are much tougher than those in the Labour Party. And though I am not as familiar with the remit procedures of the other parties, possibly every other parliamentary party as well.
Business As Usual will not be upset by upstart political parties.
Is this the beginning of the end for the Green Party?
weka has posited here, that it is a natural progression for political parties to become more corrupted as they become more mainstream. (Probably because of their greater attraction for careerists). I would go further and say that it is actually, not a natural progression at all, but a time honoured but still conscious process that protects privilege and power for a minority of elitist self servers from the threat inherent in democracy to challenge both, Privilege and Power and elitism.
I’ve said before that I think it is possible that the GP will eventually compromise too far. That is the nature of politics – those on the edge, as their ideas becomes popular and as they influence the mainstreamthus become corrupted. The difference between you and I is that I just don’t see how that is anything other than inevitable
weka
I on the other hand argue that this degeneration is not inevitable at all.
But it seems the Green Party are determined not to learn from history and not resist the dilution of their inner party democracy, and their transformation into an autocratic top down traditional political organisation.
Personally I think this is a sad day for the Greens. And for our democracy in general. Not to mention the future of our civilisation, which could well hinge on whether leading political organisations can break away from the BAU model or not.
P.S. Suppressing inner party democracy has never succeeded in ending inner party political tensions. That they will break out into the open in some other form, and usually at the worst possible place and time is inevitable. The resulting inner party explosion/implosion, what ever form it takes, could well mark the end of the Green Party as a political force.
That you would take an article written by Armstrong of all people, as proof of the corruption of the GP, says alot about you Jenny.
I’d like to put my earlier comment in context. It’s not that the GP will inevitably become corrupt. It’s that parliament, as it is at this point in time, is a culture that demands certain behaviours. The very nature of the adversarial system is that it undermines creative solutions and co-operation. People who come into parliament as MPs (and I would guess this is true of staff too), have to adapt to the culture or they won’t fit in/be able to gain anything for their party. While I hope that the GP can influence that culture for the better, I’m not sure that it’s their job to transform it.
You look at people like Marilyn Waring, who got out early, and her contemporaries like Clark and Shipley, who stayed in. Waring once talked about what happened to women in parliament, the pressure to become something else. It was brutal. How do people survive that? Her contention was that some just get out, and those that stay get changed by the place. There is no way that Clark would have become PM if she hadn’t adapted in such a way as to be able to take power and use it.
Sad, but true. You can see manifestations of that brutality here on ts, where it tends to be cruelty, both to each other, and towards politicians. What this means is that only the tough survive, both here and in parliament. And thus we lose the more sensitive people who would probably bring much to the table.
Unless MPs are betraying their party, I think that we should be supporting them, and helping them find ways to survive the brutality as long as possible. They are doing us a service and should be acknowledged for that, not pilloried before they even get started (Jenny).
The Green Party IMHO are set on a well worn course for destruction. The question is: How will they avoid the fate of the Maori Party and the Alliance before them?
First off the Green Party could announce that they will not go into coalition with any government that approves the Denniston Coal Mine or Deep Sea Oil Drilling off our coasts.
Which would most likely mean they don’t get to be part of govt. I’m asking you how GP MPs could be part of a NZ govt and not be changed by the experience.
First off the Green Party could announce that they will not go into coalition with any government that approves the Denniston Coal Mine or Deep Sea Oil Drilling off our coasts.
Secondly give the Labour Party Confidence and Supply.
If the Labour Party still want to proceed with wrecking the environment, the Greens need to let them know that they are on their own.
Simple, clear, direct, principled. This will future proof the Green Party. As the coal and extreme oil schemes go sour.
I’m asking you how GP MPs could be part of a NZ govt and not be changed by the experience.
weka
This question answers itself. The Green Party cannot be part of a government committed to Deep Sea Oil Drilling, and mining Denniston. And not be changed.
Mr Armstrong tries a long bow, and drops the arrow on his foot.
Would like to see a more sober account of the Green Party’s remit changes. But even the way it’s told by Armstrong, it doesn’t amount to anything like the anti-democratic practices of Key’s government or Muldoon.
By all accounts, the motion to streamline the party’s antiquated remit system easily obtained the required 75 per cent backing to effect a change to the party’s standing orders.
So that means the vote was well over 75%?
And the “Green’s are thirsting for power”. …. who is using a less than measured tone there, Mr Armstrong, even as you blast Norman for the same, and ignore how much the right wing bloggers and Key use way less than measured tones when they launched the attack on the Greens?
It’s very unlikely that party members voted to reduce the voice of their branches while strengthening the power of centralised control. Not saying it didn’t happen; its far more likely Armstrong has the wrong end of the stick.
Would like to see a more sober account of the Green Party’s remit changes.
karol
Green Party Mt Eden branch convener Jeremy Hall said in the party newsletter Te Awa that there was irony to Greens’ holding a conference on democracy because its rule changes would make it near-impossible for branches to raise issues and participate in the internal democracy of the party.
He added: “It will turn branches simply into volunteer units to just do fundraising, leafletting and campaigning, where their input into how the party is run will no longer be welcome.”
The concerns came from a minority within the party – the remit was believed to have passed with around 80 per cent support.
Green Party members vote to curtail their democracy by 80%
80%?
80 percent support for a vote to limit inner party democracy. The sad thing about such votes, is that by their nature they can not be revisited.
But democracy is a funny thing, you suppress here, it pops up somewhere else, in some other form. Like that other great human impulse, it is as perennial as the grass.
And Armstrong is starting to come across a more than a little hysterical lately.
Now we just have to wait for the hysterical screeching of the Nats number one fan boy, Roughan.
I read it as Key and co, knowing they will most likely lose the election, fucking things up as much as they can, and leaving the cupboard bare, so the incoming Government can change as little as possible.
There is however also the imperative to deliver as much of the “commons” to their corporate funders as possible, before they get voted out to secure their retirement funding.
The feather bedded directorships and sinecures they expect to get, with the private sector, as a reward for stealing from tax payers and wage earners.
@kjt..re yr first paragraph..i don’t know if it is necessarily that..i think it is just them doing what they promised..
..(i mean..i mean..!..did the moronic component of that massive majority opposed to selling our power assets/means into foreign ownership..who voted for national..
..did they think key/national were just joshing when they promised to do just that..?
..how was that for an epic-disconnect..?..on the part of those asset-selling opposed/voting national moron-component..?)
..yr second paragraph i totally agree with..with labour as enmeshed in that corrupt revolving-door process as national..
..with the neo-lib/randite-apologist ex labour party president williams..being a textbook example of a revolving-door too many..
(if you doubt my assesment of williams..go to the radio new zealand archives..and pull up a couple of his recent appearances as .(wait for it!..)..a spokesperson for the left..(!)..)..(as someone else said:..’oh irony..!..thou art a harsh mistress..!’..)
..and looking back to the right-revolution..the then union uber-boss frantically/serially blinked..and just went and sat in the corner..as the right dismantled the welfare state/broke the union-movement..and he uttered not a whimper..
..(but he did do rather well out of it..like williams..seats on boards/honours etc..and both about as far from the shop-floor as you can get..)
..and the contrast with that union leader here of course is australia..
..where the union movement stood up and went ‘no yr fucken not..!’..
..(and what is the size of our wage-gap with aust..?…and growing..we are told..)
..that didn’t work out too well for us..did it..?..
..corruption takes many forms..it isn’t all envelopes stuffed with cash..slipped into pockets..
..our new zealand version is far more subtle..(sort of..)
Interesting how there is liitle by way of useful disucussion, which comes from the NZH, while its no surprise, its become very transparent, that all the NZH has to offer, is proarchial support for the owners, chosen governmnent!
Its rather sad, to see society demoted to such a low level of, *informative debate*
Its the ,confuse, contain, control tactics geared up to prevent people from piecing together cogent views, and the decisions/actions, which might then follow changing view formation.
It genuinely sadens me, this country is under such a ferocious attack, which is even more powerful incentive to stay vigilant, and up to speed.
Its the primary reason I stay in touch sites such as this, for the angles/perspectives which don’t see the light of day elsewhere.
yes, I reckon that the NZH/Armstrong/O Sullivan et al are very effective at creating a support base for National that would be better off voting Left. When you look at Slane’s cartoon on another post here it actually reflects the truth, but National’s support base is much larger than the very small/elite group that benefit from their policies.
Actually the real damage is done by Radio stations like the Edge who insinuate the consumer culture into the young, invite Key along as their best mate etc.
This is where the dumbing down of society is occurring.
Now we have cold war hysteria from Hooten about communists in the Greens. Its going to be one hell of an 18 months, with the Green party on the wrong end of it. Im pretty sure that Key might even try and ban them (like Australia did with their communist party in the 1950’s).
2014 is going to be an ugly election campaign. The neo-libs, god-botherers and RWNJs, along with the swivel-eyed loons are just getting warmed up.
Of course the very system that Dunne appears to have leaked a report on probably has records of Dunne’s emails but cannot release them because that would confirm what Dunne was trying to expose. Spy vs Spy here?
If Dunne was trying to expose anything, that would be a valid reason to do what he has done. He has admitted several times that he has no good reason for what eventuated. Honey trapped buffoon who has far too many skeletons in his closet, absolutely . . . Valiant warrior battling evil, not so much.
On thursday June 5 weka and Jenny went toe to toe on how far the Green Party should be prepared to compromise to gain seats in a Labour led cabinet.
So would you be happy if the GP went into govt and as part of that won an agreement from Labour to not mine Denniston?
weka
Weka, YES. Yes, I would. This would be a major concession from Labour. And major blow to the fossil fuel industry. Stopping Denniston would be a step forward in the war against climate change in this country. I would be overjoyed. I would be stunned if the Greens could win such a concession from the Labour Party.
Jenny
Can one of the Labour people here tell us if that would be a hard thing for Labour to give up?
weka
Yes, come on Labour Party people, tell us what you think.
How about you Colonial Viper? How about you R0B? Or maybe lprent?
Would any of you like to have a go at answering weka’s question?
Maybe even EDDIE might like to share his opinion with us?
Jenny
To date. Not one of the Labour Party people here, have chosen to give up their opinion on this question.
So I thought I would give them another opportunity .
Would any Labour Party People here, like to venture an answer to weka’s question?
Of course, an ominous silence could also count as an answer.
Pretty obvious in my opinion. *Maybe*. Especially in the euphoria of coalition talks post election.
If the Greens were willing to settle for a short term objective in lieu of something more substantive, then I think that Labour would happy to let them take the flak from the coasters. Labour MPs would undoubtedly prefer that Green MPs dissipated their political capital that way rather than in something more widespread like looking at the question of exploration and mining in conservation areas.
I’m not so sure the Greens membership would be that happy after spending decades to get MPs into cabinet to be that concerned with a single bauble rather than a policy shift.
Politics is the art of the possible and the careful use of painfully acquired political capital. I am pretty sure that was what was being discussed in the closed door sessions at the Greens conference last weekend.
Like the others, I am working during the week. Explaining politics 201 isn’t high on my priority queue.
I catch some of these older comments when I’m scanning for people talking to me. In this case the “lprent”.
Nice. I might have to quote that
You’re welcome to it. It is a paraphrase of something that I read or heard somewhere at some time. It is an accurate representation of the practice of politics.
One qualified maybe from lprent and a no-comment from Colonial Viper. It’s not looking good.
So how about you Te Reo Putake?
The question is; If the Green Party refuse to join any coalition which would approve the Denniston Coal Mine. Can you tell us, if that would be a hard thing for Labour to give up?
The discussion on The Nation over the International Transfer of Prisoners was interesting; NZ the only OECD country not a signatory, in fact, the parts of the world that are really only excluded Africa and parts of Asia in the main. It is not politically palatable it seems to have these folk repatriated to serve their sentences, particularly for those chasing the conservative vote as the cost to the tax-payer would be humungous; 850 serving time in Aus, just for starters; that would be around a Billion dollars for the first year for them to be imprisoned here.
Collins generalized that “they are drug dealers and rapists” (from the two featured) and that those in Aus had “lived all their lives there, paid there taxes there” blah blah. Aus keeps hitting NZ govt up about it. They are signatories http://www.ag.gov.au/Internationalrelations/Internationalcrimecooperationarrangements/TransferOfPrisoners/Pages/default.aspx
Some under-arm return for not providing social security measures to kiwis over there. 😉
Anyway, these tory Ministers may have professions to there name yet they sure appear thick!
Next, a critique of the rise of the ‘victim’ culture; like monetary compensation is a reinforcer.
😀
Phoebe Fletcher makes an excellent point today on the Daily Blog: the media storm around Dunne’s resignation is diverting big time from the extremely worrying changes to the GCSB legislation.
I don’t really care about speculation over whether Dunne has done a Clinton. It’s not like he was instagramming his penis like US Senator Anthony Weiner – from all accounts it seems like a couple of tweets and some emails. The more important issue is the legislation, and the potential impact Dunne’s demotion will have on the coalition government. I don’t have to agree with every single statement that comes out of a politician’s mouth to support them on issues of confluence. It seems extraordinary to me that Norman on behalf of the Greens is calling for the police to investigate – it would be better to let Peters lead that line of attack, given that he has continually complained about the level of secrecy around the Security Committee. At the end of the day, it is not about a soap opera, it is about our rights as citizens. And this needs to be the focus of the opposition, not continuing the blood bath for political points.
Indeed, the deflective glare is strong, the focus , hard as it is in this country, must remain on the legislation, because the *grid*, is tightening its grip!
People think little to nothing, about smart meters, the UFB roll out etc, but these are part of the *grid*, and even now, privacy/freedom are concepts, relegated to the history books, never to be seen again, if people don’t get involved.
It occurs to me the latest blog post by Farrar is an outstanding example of how the government use him to try and control the media naarative. Effectively, he is trying to frame how the whole story around the demise of Dunne is told by lazy and/or time pressed journalists by providing in a nice, easy digestible format a whole narrative of the winners and losers. Very cunning, and highlights the lack of a comparable blog on the left.
I would contend that The Standard itself is a blog comparable in influence to Kiwiblog, and further that; The Daily Blog is a rapidly emerging foil to WhaleOil (that there’s some long standing rivalry between Bradbury and Slater has long been evident; even on Tumeke – I imagine it goes back to uni days if not before). Personally, I don’t read either of the RWNJ blogs – life’s too short. Plus Kiwiblog just makes me feel manipulated (DPF is certainly good at what he does!), while WhaleOil makes me feel unclean (though I did have a glance over on Queen’s birthday weekend to savour the panic).
That MSM journalists take their cues from Farrar and Slater probably has more to do with; editorial policies and lack of; time and resources, than; inaccesability of alternate viewpoints on the net.
Was the Dunne/Vance imbroglio a “honey trap” ( to quote an old cold war term )? And shouldn’t the morality and ethics of that be discussed? Admittedly for Herald and Dominion journalists they are almost certainly really big words they would need to look up.
“The Independent
The A-list conspiracy: Did Hollywood tell Obama to take down internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom?
As the infamous file-sharing mogul fights US extradition, Steve Anderson hears his lawyer’s claims of a murky connection between Washington and the movie industry.”
In the UK they are seeing the implications of American big business being able to control politicians and the internet.
Corporate-Political influence in the US is really fubar. It is a broken system. It actively encourages companies to hire people whose only job is to stand in a queue and hold that place until the salaried lobbyist shows up to tell the pretzel-spined politicians exactly what they are doing with their votes that day. We have our problems in NZ but we are not quite that far gone and I like to think we can resist a whilst longer.
On The Nation just now we saw Winston Peters making another series of accusations – that the Dunne emails also contained leaks of other information apart from the GCSB report, and that because of the nature of the leak (effectively a top secret document with limited “eyes only” distribution) the government came under pressure from our ECHELON allies to find out who the potential spy was. Peters also was unequivocally able to state they contained personally embarassing stuff on Dunne. Of course, Peters could be bluffing, but in this case I think he has clearly seen the unedited emails. So, where did Peters get those?
Looks like the GCSB stitiched up Dunne to placate our allies concern over the leak, which raises yet more thorny questions about an agency that has clearly (Kim Dotcom, illegal spying, Dunne) gone rogue. Who is the master of this country, the GCSB (who can clearly access and leak anything about anyone who threatens their mana) or the politicians? Because at the moment, it looks like the spies are getting the politicians to dance to their tune.
I wonder what they said to John Key to ensure the Government Communications Security Bureau and Related Legislation Amendment Bill was to their liking?
PS I was astonished at how inept Rachel Smalley’s performance was. There was Winston Peters dangling all sorts of juicy tidbits – shadowy foreign pressure to find the leaker, additional sectet material being leaked – she relentless stuck to the pre-scripted panty-sniffing line about trying to find out if Dunne wanted to be a tampon, or something.
Sanctuary – The *presenters*, are simply there to ensure the narrative is controlled, and it is, by the producers.
No need to be astonished, this is what the MSM is designed to do, except that sadly its seems in NZ, we have plumbed even lower depths.
Smalley, not all that long ago had some promise, but over the past 3-6 months, she has become as debased, as the like of Corin Dann, and the other puppets!
The media repeat what they are told to write. Everyone with a modicum of curiosity and critical thinking cano see that.
You want evidence TC? Iraq and WMD.
My question to you.
Why are you such a relentless defender of the corporate elite?
But at least I don’t make completely erroneous statements about imaginary foes based purely on ill informed rhetoric gleaned from conspiracy sites and crank doctors.
But at least I don’t make completely erroneous statements about imaginary foes based purely on ill informed rhetoric gleaned from conspiracy sites and crank doctors.
TC, can you point to the conspiracy sites, which I personally , have linked to on here, you have a problem with.
If you can locate any such links, give your reasoning, why you have a problem, and try to avoid becoming a parody of your handle name, in the process, eh!
You can’t believe a thing you read in Murdoch’s rags. The Guardian, which has just started up in Oz, contains a lot less fantasy. According to Murdoch, they might as well save money and not even have the election because Abbott has already won in a landslide. I hope not, because while Gillard is about as left as Key, Abbott makes John Banks look balanced.
Colonel Viper . Thanks for that link to Andrew Nikifororuk on the characteristics of a Petro State.
Suddenly it all becomes explainable. With fracking and oil drilling in the offing in the Canterbury Basin both on land and at sea…. and the strange undemocratic manoeuverings of the National Government eg.
* extensive GCSB powers to spy on ordinary NZers,
* outlawing of environmental protest where it affects economic corporate activity( whether this be harmful for NZers environment or not),
* promotion of education dumbing down and no standards for charter schools ( undermining a fine NZ education tradition of egalitarian , high quality , state funded , secular education, which promotes critical thinking and scholarship for all)
* ousting of the democratically elected Environment Canterbury away from Cantabrians’ voting control and into the hands of National Government appointed commissioners.
* the prolonged state of emergency in Christchurch and power and control wrested away from the City Council and Christchurch residents.
All NZers should watch this video and be warned of what could be in store!
Interesting interviews on Radionz today. The last one was from Jaron Lanier who explains how he changed his mind about making the web accessible and free to all, as he now sees that the benefits of this are being scooped up by those with the biggest computers. And lots more of intelligent stuff.
He is great to listen to, a lively speaker and thinker and a great laugh. Still with a sense of humour, someone to treasure and pay attention to. http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/thiswayup
(Who Owns the Future – book)
Jaron Lanier radionz 1.40pm Sat 8/6
Lanier is a miserable whiney bore who is just pissy that the web has left him behind and his precious digital utopia never came about because people would rather watch porn and exchange recipies for meatloaf.
A free colostomy bag if you can spot what’s wrong with this sentence…
Breton Grove resident Marc Nicholas and his Priscilla Cres neighbour Gavin Forman were evacuated from their homes with their families when the slip struck at 4.30am last Saturday.
And at this point I have to say I’m not ‘highly confident’ about this claim:
Wellington City Council city networks manager Stavros Michael said he was “highly confident” the water main had nothing to do with the landslide. Council staff went to check reports of a leak on Friday night, and booked in to do the repairs on Saturday morning. A small hairline fracture was found then.
“There was no indication that the leak had been going for more than a matter of hours.”
I’m thinking that Mr Michael’s staff may have indeed found a hairline crack on the Friday night, but they’ve missed, or are covering up for something much larger. Much better for the man to have withheld comment until all the evidence was in. Because at this early stage such an unsupported claim just looks horribly self-serving.
I wouldn’t want my family to be evacuated in a landslip. The house we were in ?…sure, but damned if i’m gonna let a team suck the shit out of me and mine in an emergency.
mindfulness (or a wee dram). Better go “cook tea” now (before witnessing all the wasted human life (fatalities, local and international) on the box.).
Kind regards, bet it was a cold week down there too.
Daytime TV Review
Three Wise Men discuss “Relationship Woes”
Hands up all those who cannot abide Willie Jackson!
Okay, okay, but first I need to tell you something about a program he featured on the other day….
Good Morning, TV1, 9:10 a.m., Tuesday 4 June 2013 Relationship Woes, a Men’s Panel discussion featuring Wallace Chapman, Miles Davis and Willie Jackson
Trashy television has its charms. Take TV1’s ailing Good Morning program, for instance. Last year, host Jeanette Thomas got hypnotized on air, performed the haka, conducted an imaginary orchestra with a raw chicken, tried to seduce Tom Cruise and had a go at pole dancing. And all of that happened in just one morning’s episode. Over the years, one of the perverse highlights, or lowlights, for this writer, i.e. moi, was watching the perplexed, slightly hostile look on the dial of macho man Brendon Pongia as Steve Gray gave his movie reviews.
Despite all this top quality entertainment, however, Good Morning has been cursed with low ratings, and as a result it has been cut back this year from three hours to just one—from 9 to 10 o’clock.
Today the coiffured blond host, whose name I could not ascertain even after extensive hunting, introduced a semi-serious panel discussion, about Relationship Woes. The three “talents” chosen for the task were lovable and impish professional boy-man Wallace Chapman, professional cheeky cockney chappy Miles Davis, and professional cheeky Maori fulla Willie Jackson.
Here are the highlights…..
MILES DAVIS: You have to admit that ninety-nine per cent of the time the woman is the one in the right. WALLACE CHAPMAN: Yeah, but you don’t want to be a male doormat. MILES DAVIS:[accentuating the East End wide-boy accent] I’m no’ a doormat.
………
WILLIE JACKSON: Ya see, the problem with you Wallace is, it’s all academic, it’s all P.C. with you. You can’t solve relationships with an academic approach and it’s SHOCKING really. WALLACE CHAPMAN:[diffidently and sensitively] I-I-I-I… MILES DAVIS: Talk to us, Wozza! HOST: We’re going to continue our debate on relationships and the blame game with THESE GUYS, after THIS.
BLOND HOST: Well, we’re back with the Men’s Panel discussing Relationship Woes. Wallace, you were talking about your kayaking session.
Wallace Chapman embarks on a long and terribly dull story about going kayaking with his family. Nothing at all seems to have happened, but apparently it was very important for strengthening his family relationships. At least that’s what he reckons. After he finishes talking, there is a long awkward silence….
HOST: That’s it? WILLIE JACKSON: Terrible story. MILES DAVIS: Ha ha ha ha ha!
…….
Later on, Miles Davis talks about how it is possible to argue constructively with one’s wife or partner. This attempt at sensitivity is quickly scotched by Willie Jackson, who has no patience for such displays of SNAGgery….
WILLIE JACKSON: It just gets WORSE!!!! Next thing you’re into a PUNCH-UP!!!!!
Jackson’s main gig these days is the Radio Live program he hosts with the equally erudite John Tamihere. Several years ago, Willie and JT had dwarf-boxing impesario Dean Lonergan on to talk sensitively and learnedly on the subject of marital infidelity. Both Deano and JT made it clear that there was no excuse for violence against any woman, even if one came home one day midway through the afternoon to find her in bed with, say, half the ACT caucus. Willie Jackson, though, was having none of that P.C. nonsense. “If I found out that my missus was fooling around on me,” he said, with quiet sincerity, “I’d put a knife through her heart.”
This shocked even the crass and offensive Lonergan, who felt moved to remonstrate: “I think that’s going a bit far, mate.”
Willie didn’t back down an inch, however. “Nah, nah, nah—don’t give me THAT,” he said, without even a hint of his usual playfulness. “I would. I would put a knife through her heart. I WOULD.”
JT snorted sardonically and laughed, “You’re a mongrel, Willie, a mongrel.”
interestingly, I have an aquaintence (aquainted with his whanau as well) and he did take a tomahawk to the man, in bed with his wife; 4 years later, upon release, no wife. sigh, was getting muscle fatigue keeping my arm up.
sigh, I do have a volume or three of actual / factual stories to tell, I know, as many of us do; fortunately, or other wise, many of them are memorable, yet Robert Plant (another Rock god) advised to keep on rolling and resist writing a book…and I DO NOT YET OWN A WORKING COMPUTER OF MY OWN…yet when it does happen, it could be a lot worse than a hybrid of The Bone People and Tough Guys Don’t Dance with a little Child In Time wound in. 😉 yeeha!
“It’s all about defence! Y’ know, the All Blacks won the World Cup in 2011 because of their outstanding defence!”
—Ant Strachan, Radio Sport, 75 minutes into the New Zealand-France friendly, Saturday 8 June 2013
See also….
No. 17: Stephen Franks: “Peter has been such a level-headed, safe pair of hands.
No. 16: Phil Kafcaloudes: “Tony Abbott…hasn’t made any mistakes over the past eighteen months”
No. 15: Donald Rumsfeld: “I did not lie… Colin Powell did not lie.”
No. 14: Colin Powell: “a post-9/11 nexus between Iraq and terrorist organizations…connections are now emerging…”
No.13: Barack Obama: “Simply put, these strikes have saved lives.”
No. 12: U.K. Ministry of Defence: “Protecting the Afghan civilian population is one of ISAF and the UK’s top priorities.”
No. 11: Brendan O’Connor: “Australia’s approach to refugees is compassionate and generous.”
No. 10: Boris Johnson: “Londoners have… the best police in the world to look after us and keep us safe.”
No. 9: NewstalkZB PR dept: “News you NEED! Fast, fair, accurate!”
No. 8: Simon Bridges: “I don’t mean to duck the question”
No. 7: Nigel Morrison: “Quite frankly, they’ve been VERY tough.”
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-15052013/#comment-633295
No. 6: NZ Herald PR dept: “Congratulations—you’re reading New Zealand’s best newspaper.”
No. 5: Rawdon Christie: “…a FORMIDABLE replacement, it seems, is Claudette Hauiti.” http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-13052013/#comment-632594
No. 4: Willie and J.T.: “The X-Factor. Nah, nah, there’s some GREAT talent there!”
No. 3: John Key: “Yeah we hold MPs to a higher standard.”
No. 2: Colin Craig: “Oh, I have a GREAT sense of humour.”
No. 1: Barack Obama: “Margaret Thatcher was one of the great champions of freedom and liberty.”
I just hope that tomorrow (Sun) someone puts up an interesting enough post or two that we can stop talking about fluoridation and conspiracy theories :-/
In 1987, as a British Labour MP, I was elected to the Shadow Cabinet by my colleagues and was asked by the party leader to direct Labour’s campaign in the general election of that year. The election was to take place at the height of Mrs Thatcher’s dominance and we ...
National MP Nicola WillisHousing, which I would argue is a fundamental human right, has long been a problem in New Zealand. Not only do we have some of the most overpriced houses in the entire world, much of the housing stock is substandard and therefore affects not just people’s health ...
If the government has not lined up behind a "Yes" vote in this year's cannabis referendum the way some reformers would have liked, one entirely laudable thing it did do was commission some science around the public's choice.That science landed today, in the form of the report from an expert ...
Associate Professor Sara WaltonAt the heart of the discussion on opening up our borders is the dichotomy of health and the economy – both of which are actually intertwined, like many things with our economy, as this epidemic has shown.If we think about our country as a system, ...
This is a re-post from Carbon Brief by Josh Gabbatiss This year will see the largest ever drop globally in both investment and consumer spending on energy as the coronavirus pandemic hits every major sector, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). The crisis is accelerating the shutdown of older fossil-fuelled ...
A short opinion piece – Friday 26th June 2020 Whilst our Government has treated many financial victims of the current Covid-19 virus with appropriate generosity, the same cannot be said for those of the two earlier “epidemics” in NZ. The “Covid-84” virus (also called “Rogernomics”) spread systemic greed, with the ...
Everyone deserves a a decent life. We know this is possible with a fairer approach to income support and tax Read the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand’s Poverty Action Plan here ...
After a long break, the government is back inserting secrecy clauses in legislation. This time its the Overseas Investment Amendment Bill (No 3), which in its clause allowing Ministers to exempt purchasers of farm land from the usual rules also allows them to exempt an exemption from the publication requirement: ...
Over the past two years the government has repeatedly delayed a scheme to put cameras on boats to monitor Mew Zealand's pervasively criminal fishing industry. But it turns out that the industry actually wants cameras: Three of the country's biggest seafood companies have broken ranks with the rest of the ...
Louise Delany (public health lawyer)Health and emergency laws have played a critical role in this country’s successful elimination of community transmission of the COVID-19 pandemic. This blog details key aspects of the legislation and comments on issues around testing, payments by incoming travellers for quarantine costs, and mask use. ...
I like Andrew Curry’s succinct and insightful futures blog The Next Wave. His most recent post is about social change. In particular, the decadal-long periods usually required for changes in values. He highlights a 2016 paper by Inglehart and Norris, who examined whether economic insecurity or a “cultural backlash” ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Stop making sense: why it's time to get emotional about climate changeThe science has been settled to the highest degree, so now ...
MONDAY JULY 6Washington (History, Sky 073, 7.30pm). The brilliant Doris Kearns Goodwin is the executive producer of this six-part series about America's first president. It combines interviews with live action and is narrated by Jeff Daniels. It's engaging, said Salon.TUESDAY JULY 7The ABC Murders (Prime, 8.30pm). Sarah Phelps has done incredible things with ...
I think we can all agree that the mainstream media in New Zealand has a very different set of rules for the right wing compared to the left. While Labour and Green Party politicians don’t seem to be able to fart without it becoming a sackable offence, National and Act ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, June 28 through Sat, July 4, 2020Editor's Choice'2040': A funny, entertaining, upbeat climate documentaryA timely Australian documentary takes a 'solutions' approach, with the filmmaker inspired by visions of ...
Racist National MP Hamish WalkerEven before Todd Muller's coup ousted Simon Bridges by a single vote, it was patently obvious that the National Party promotes and stands for white privilege. In fact they’ve always worked to ensure the discriminatory status quo in New Zealand doesn’t change.So it’s no surprise that ...
Dave HeatleyZero community transmission. Just a handful of active cases, all in quarantine. New Zealand is in an attractive situation, at least compared to much of the world. The situation could be robust and enduring – or it might be fragile, just one border incursion away from a “second ...
Is the consequence of the Simpson Report proposals for restructuring the health system poorer accountability to people? When in doubt, centralise‘ has been a persistent theme in New Zealand public policy throughout our history. The current government is no exception. Here are some examples. - The regional polytechs have been ...
I wrote earlier in the week about the Scientology front organisations Drug Free World and Drug Free Ambassadors and their quite prominent role in anti-cannabis reform "coalition" assembled by Family First and a newloca branch of the American prohibitionist organisation SAM.It turns out Family First aren't the only ones helping ...
Nik GreenMuch of the public debate about the response to the COVID-19 pandemic has focused on the extent to which government regulations have restricted personal and business activity.Oxford University Blavatnik School of Government Here in New Zealand, the question of when to change Alert Levels dominated the ...
Raising The Bar: Would that the Prime Minister and her colleagues would listen as intently to what the people – as opposed to the power elites – are saying as the Greens. Were they so disposed, the popular clamour for a transformational post-Covid reset would be loud in their ears. ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzDo you think the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown will slow or ...
A bit like a letter home. I have now been full-time at the University of Melbourne since 2019. Before that, I was 20 years at the University of Otago, Wellington. Indeed, I set up this very Public Health Expert Blog with Nick Wilson ten years ago. Now I am your ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections House Democrats have released a comprehensive report showing how – if they control the White House and both the Senate and the House of Representatives – they might move forward on climate change. Their “Climate Crisis Action Plan,” released June 30 by the ...
Not Ready: Todd Muller’s lack-lustre and self-contradictory performances offer conclusive proof that a political leader cannot be managed into competence. National’s new boss has Janet Wilson handling his media and Matthew Hooton writing his speeches. Both are highly professional political and public relations specialists, and Muller is lucky to have ...
Unfortunately, due to a medical emergency, I have landed in hospital so am not able to do a current update on the NZ blog statistics. Let’s hope I can get back to this in good time. ...
It started as a family story, about a step-father who went out one night to break into an embassy in Wadestown, Wellington. John Daniell wanted to understand what his family had been part of when his mother and then step-father work for New Zealand’s Security Intelligence. He wanted to know ...
The Greens have shaken up the election campaign with the announcement of their radical poverty and action plan to reform welfare provision and introduce a new wealth tax for millionaires. It’s a big-thinking, controversial policy and has generated a lot of disagreement over how radical it is, whether it could ...
My house is currently supplied electricity by Meridian. As soon as I can change I will because Meridian spilled water to hike electricity prices. They got consumers to spend an extra $80 million on power unnecessarily. Clever them. The Electricity Authority has called their behaviour an “undesirable trading situation”, or ...
When Jacinda Ardern unexpectedly became the Labour Party leader shortly before the 2017 general election, she promised to lead a government of transformation. After nearly three years occupying the Treasury benches, health professionals working in public hospitals have been keenly waiting for transformational progress, including in the capacity and quality ...
Last night, One News ran a follow-up story to its Colmar Brunton poll results on the cannabis referendum, headed here as Government accuses big American anti-cannabis group of interfering in NZ politics.In truth it wasn't just the government: Justice minister Andrew Little, National's Shane Reti and the Greens' Chloe Swarbrick ...
When the government refused to put cameras on fishing boats to ensure fishers obeyed the law, Fisheries Minister Stuart Nash claimed that coalition partner NZ First (which has received large donations from the fishing industry) was not responsible for the decision. He has repeated that claim repeatedly since then. But ...
Heroic Evasions: Labour needs to be unequivocal in its communications with the electorate. Either it has a plan to prevent their fellow New Zealanders from falling off the economic cliff, or it doesn’t. Either it has a fiscal policy equal to the task of funding that plan, or it hasn’t. ...
Prof John Potter*Elimination has been an effective strategy for New Zealand in the management of the COVID-19 pandemic virus (SARS-CoV-2). Most other countries have not pursued this goal and are ignoring the opportunity even now. SARS-CoV-2 is not manageable by the influenza playbook; its longer incubation period makes tracing ...
This is a re-post from Weather Underground by Bob HensonAbove: This rainbow appears unusually low in the sky because it has formed early in the afternoon, rather than toward sunset. For a rainbow to form, water droplets must be present in the air in front of an observer ...
On Monday, Todd Muller gave an important speech to the Wellington Chamber of Commerce, He spoke firmly about his belief in the need for foreign investment, for the public sector to partner with the private sector rather than boss it around and, crucially, demanded the government deliver a clear strategy ...
Todd Muller's first act on become party leader was to appoint an all-white front bench. This understandably raised eyebrows, so he is now apparently reconsidering caucus and list rankings. Which is obviously necessary, but there's still the underlying problem: National doesn't have a lot of Māori MP's. And the reason ...
Meridian energy has been caught manipulating the electricity market for fun and profit: Meridian Energy pushed up power prices by unnecessary spilling water from its south dams in December that could have been used for generation, the Electricity Authority has ruled in a preliminary decision. The authority said the ...
When the Christchurch murderer pleaded guilty to 51 counts of murder and a number of other violent assault charges a few months ago, he effectively closed the door on what the public will know about the lead up to and commission of the event. His plea means that no evidence ...
Daphna Whitmore The Philippines is enduring one of the longest lockdowns in the world. For President Duterte the lockdown provides an opportunity to garner more powers and to push through a brazen assault on human rights. A new law called the Anti-Terror Bill has been passed under urgency and it ...
Hearing the Prime Minister castigate the Warehouse for laying off 1,000 workers after receiving $52 million in wage subsidies reminds me of the fabled frog who agreed to carry a scorpion across a river. The scorpion stings the frog halfway across, dooming both to drown. The frog cries “Why on ...
Prof Nick Wilson, Dr Amanda Kvalsvig, Prof Michael BakerCompared with other OECD countries NZ is a stand-out success story by ending community transmission of COVID-19. While there have been some well-publicised recent deficiencies (eg, quarantine organisation), there has still been no evidence of community transmission for many weeks. Nevertheless, ...
It’s June 30th, marked as Asteroid Day by many people of an astronomical bent around the globe. On this date in 1908, early in the morning in a remote part of central Siberia, the sky fell in. Well, not literally. What happened is a substantially-sized lump of cosmic detritus ...
There really is not much about Paula Bennett concerning her career trajectory, the policies she promoted, and most importantly, the socio-economic effect this had upon New Zealand (and particularly the most vulnerable in this, our oft-cited “egalitarian” society of this country) that can be said now that hasn’t already been ...
Don Franks Poverty, inequality – really – aren’t politicians paid to sort that stuff ? Why can’t they just get it together and come up with something fair and sensible? A cold rainy 2020 morning, a headline showed promise. “Green Party’s $8b plan would guarantee an income of $325 a ...
A guest repost by Climate Science Legal Defense Fund (CSLDF) staff attorney Augusta Wilson. Fundraising is not the objective of this article but readers may wish to know that CSLDF is currently conducting a summer fundraiser to support defense of research scientists and research integrity from anti-science interference by politicians and industrial interests. The COVID-19 pandemic ...
Helloy… My name is Todd Muller and I am the leader of the National Party of New Zealand. Many people come up to me on the street and ask me who I am. I’m often walking through Tauranga, or in a mall in suburban Auckland, or maybe even a farmers’ ...
The US state of Mississippi has finally voted to remove the Confederate emblem from its state flag. Good. Its appalling that it was put there in the first place, but even more appalling that it took so long to remove it. Its basicly as if a German Länder still had ...
No one could have predicted when David Seymour’s End of Life Choice Bill was passed by Parliament last November that the referendum required to bring the legislation into force would be held against the backdrop of a deadly global pandemic. Since then, the mounting tally of casualties around the world ...
Paul GoldsmithYou can often tell just how effective a progressive policy proposal will be by how much the right wing criticise it. The more socially beneficial, the more vitriolic and unhinged they seem to become.That was the case when the Green Party announced their Poverty Action Plan yesterday. The response ...
Back at the beginning of April, when we had much else on our minds, I wrote this post urging some caution in interpreting the results of the latest Horizon poll, conducted in February, on voting intentions in this year's cannabis referendum, which was paid for by Helius Therapeutics.I wrote that ...
Over the weekend the Greens made their first election policy announcement, and promised transformational change: a more progressive tax system, with new rates applying to incomes of $100,000 and $150,000; a new wealth tax on net wealth over $1 million; and a guaranteed minimum income to eliminate poverty. Its bold, ...
Story of the Week... El Niño/La Niña Update... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Global Warming Is Melting Our Sense of Time Satellite image of smoke from active fires burning near the ...
. . Plague town? There are two things right now in Aotearoa New Zealand that are guaranteed to piss people off. Firstly, it’s National playing silly-bugger politics with the covid-19 pandemic. This cost Simon Bridges his job as National’s Leader. Lately, Michael Woodhouse has been playing fast and loose with ...
Tertiary fees in New Zealand versus Australia: Fees Are Important, but not as Important as Financing In Australia, the Education Minister Dan Tehan has proposed an overhaul of the existing higher education funding system to offer 39,000 additional study places by 2023 and 100,000 by 2030. The proposal has been ...
The latest opinion poll forecasts a landslide win by Jacinda Ardern’s Labour Party, but when taken alongside other polling, it illustrates New Zealand politics remains volatile and the contest is still very open. According to the Colmar Brunton poll published by TVNZ last night, Labour would easily romp back ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, June 21 through Sat, June 27, 2020Editor's ChoiceFacebook creates fact-checking exemption for climate deniers Facebook is "aiding and abetting the spread of climate misinformation,” said Robert Brulle, an ...
The images and reports delivered to us by the world’s media leave us in no doubt that the rest of the world is still in the grip of a coronavirus pandemic that shows no signs of slackening, but is actually uncontrolled and picking up pace in many countries; and even ...
Minister of Health - David ClarkIf you follow politics at all in New Zealand, David Clark is likely a name you’re a bit familiar with. The current Minister of Health is perhaps the most disliked Member of Parliament at the moment, which amongst very stiff competition is really saying something. ...
SUNDAY JUNE 28Beat the Chasers (TVNZ 1, 8.30pm). Judging by the tweets, which is probably a bad idea, over lockdown, all of New Zealand found itself in front of The Chase every night at 5pm. It is a brilliant fomat: hardly anyone wins any money ...
SATURDAY JUNE 27Banksy and the Rise of Outlaw Art (Sky Arts, Sky 017, 8.00pm). There was graffiti before Banksy, but perhaps his pungent political messages hit home a bit harder. Anyways, a doco about his influence on street art featuring a bunch of cool people.SUNDAY JUNE 28Beat the Chasers (TVNZ 1, ...
We have been assailed by Fox News-style headlines, lurid stories of “a breach!”. An almost nuclear level disaster on the horizon scream, “Fiasco!” here, “Hero to Zero!” there… Oh quick, panic everyone!This has fueled an unbelievably stupid environment of panic among some, and spurred useless, counterproductive political ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters A massive dust storm formed over the Sahara Desert last week and invaded the Caribbean over the June 20-21 weekend, bringing dangerous levels of air pollution and low visibility to the islands. The dust is accompanied by a large amount ...
Will the Covid Crisis lead to a dramatic redirection for New Zealand and the World? A hinge in history occurs where the past and present are connected but they point in different directions. Big hinges are rare but crucial in the development of humankind. Not in Narrow Seas identifies six. ...
Mark Patterson MP, Spokesperson for Primary Industry New Zealand First is supporting calls by hunters and the New Zealand Tahr Foundation (NZTF) to halt a large scale cull of Himalayan Tahr by the Department of Conservation in National Parks. The calls are supported by a 40,000 strong petition and the ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First New Zealand First leader Winston Peters today scoffed at suggestions that a team of six political operatives have been dispatched to New Zealand to assist his campaign. ‘As President Ronald Reagan once said, ‘there they go again.’ ‘The clickbait journos can’t ...
New Zealand First is pleased to announce Jenny Marcroft as the party’s election 2020 candidate for the Auckland Central electorate. Jenny spent years working in Auckland Central, having spent a vast proportion of her broadcasting career there. She says she, "knows the place and knows the people." Ms Marcroft says ...
New Zealanders deserve healthy rivers and lakes that are safe to swim in - but they have been getting worse for decades. That's why, with our latest announcement, we're investing in projects that will help clean up our rivers and lakes and restore them to health, within a generation. ...
This week we moved into the second half of 2020 - and our Government delivered another week of big changes and major progress for New Zealanders. Read below for a wrap of the key things moments from the week - from extending paid parental leave, to making major investments in ...
The Green Party has opposed the COVID-19 Recovery Fast-track Consenting Bill which shortcuts normal consenting processes under the Resource Management Act (RMA), reduces public participation and narrows environmental considerations. ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister of Regional Economic Development A regional freight hub for the lower North Island will be built just northeast of Palmerston North, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones has announced. The Government is investing $40 million through the Provincial Growth Fund to designate and buy land and design ...
Green Party Co-leader Marama Davidson is calling for the introduction of a Guaranteed Minimum Income to lift hundreds of thousands of people out of poverty and prevent more families entering into further debt with the Ministry of Social Development. ...
There has been renewed focus on New Zealand First acting as a handbrake on the Government after our decision to not support Auckland light rail. We are a handbrake for bad ideas, that istrue, but our track record since 2017 has seen New Zealand First constructively also serve as an ...
Mark Patterson MP, New Zealand First List MP New Zealand First’s Fair Residency for Superannuation Bill passed its First Reading in Parliament today. The Bill makes a significant change to NZ Super by raising the minimum residency requirement from 10 to 20 years, after age 20. “Currently, a migrant of ...
Darroch Ball MP, Spokesperson for Law and Order A New Zealand First member’s bill in the name of Darroch Ball introducing a six-month minimum prison sentence for assaults on first responders has passed its second reading in Parliament. The new offence of "injuring a first responder or corrections officer with ...
Fletcher Tabuteau MP, Deputy Leader of New Zealand First New Zealand First welcomes the launch of the new Criminal Cases Review Commission, gifted with the name from Waikato-Tainui - Te Kāhui Tātari Ture, announced in Hamilton today by Justice Minister Andrew Little. “New Zealand First has long believed in and ...
The Green Party is celebrating over $800m in new funding for green projects, which will get people into jobs while solving New Zealand’s long-term challenges. ...
Mark Patterson MP, Spokesperson for Primary Industries New Zealand First is appalled that Meridian seems to have been unnecessarily spilling water from its dams to drive up its profits."While New Zealanders have been coming together in some of our darkest hours, we don’t expect power gentailers to waste water and ...
We wrapped up the first half of 2020 with a busy month, taking additional steps to support New Zealanders as we continue with our economic recovery. We rolled out targeted packages to support key industries like tourism and construction, helped create jobs in the environmental and agriculture sectors, and set ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Infrastructure Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones has welcomed the appointment of Maurice Davis and his deep infrastructure and construction experience to the board of the Infrastructure Commission. Mr Davis (Ngāti Maniapoto), is the seventh and final appointment to the board led by former Reserve Bank Governor ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First New Zealand’s click bait journalism is taking a turn for the worse, with yet another example of sensationalist, wilful-misrepresentation of the facts. “New Zealand First has worked constructively with its Coalition partner on hundreds of pieces of legislation and policy, and ...
The Green Party is today unveiling its Poverty Action Plan, which includes a Guaranteed Minimum Income to ensure people have enough to live with dignity. ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister Fletcher Tabuteau MP, Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development The Rotorua Museum redevelopment and Whakarewarewa and Tokorangi Forest projects will be accelerated thanks to a $2.09 million Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) boost, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher ...
This week, we rolled out the next steps of our recovery plan, with new infrastructure investment, extra support for tourism operators, and a new programme to get Kiwis into agriculture careers. The global economic consequences of COVID-19 will continue to be a challenge, but we have a detailed plan to ...
Jenny Marcroft MP, Spokesperson for Health New Zealand First welcomes the passage of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission Bill through its final reading in Parliament today fulfilling a coalition agreement commitment. “This is an important step in saving the lives of New Zealanders and delivers a key coalition commitment ...
Whakatāne has been given a $2.5 million boost to speed up previously funded projects and create more than 450 jobs in the next decade. Of those, the equivalent of 160 full-time jobs could be delivered in the next six weeks. Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters is in town to make ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister Fletcher Tabuteau MP, Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is investing $2.5 million to accelerate three infrastructure projects in Whakatāne, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau announced today. “This package is about ...
Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones is throwing his weight behind a bid by the Auckland Council to fast-track the more than doubling of the city's water allowance from the Waikato River. And he's coming out strongly against anyone who plans on getting in the way of this campaign. "It is my ...
The Green Party is thrilled to see changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that mean consents for large projects can be declined if they will have significant climate change implications that are inconsistent with the Zero Carbon Act and Aotearoa New Zealand’s Paris Agreement obligations. ...
Hon Ron Mark, Minister of Defence The Royal New Zealand Navy’s new ship, Aotearoa, set sail for New Zealand on 10 June from the Republic of Korea, and is due to arrive in Auckland tomorrow, announced Minister of Defence Ron Mark. “Aotearoa is the Royal New Zealand Navy’s new fleet ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Racing Racing Minister Winston Peters has today welcomed the Racing Industry Bill passing its third reading, creating the legislative framework for revitalising the racing industry while limiting the need for future government intervention. “For too long our domestic racing industry has ...
The Green Party has today put forward an amendment to the Electoral (Registration of Sentenced Prisoners) Amendment Bill to ensure all people in prisons can vote in general elections. ...
The Green Party welcomes the decision to not proceed with Public Public Investment (PPI) delivery of Auckland’s light rail project and to instead run the process through the public service. ...
Hon Ron Mark, New Zealand First List MP based in the Wairarapa New Zealand First List MP Hon Ron Mark welcomes the announcement of Provincial Growth Funding investment of $1.4 million to help secure the Wairarapa’s water supply. The funding boost will allow the Greater Wellington Regional Council (GWRC), and ...
New Zealand First list MP Mark Patterson has been selected to represent the party in the newly formed Taieri electorate at the upcoming election. Mr Patterson, his wife Jude and two daughters farm sheep and beef at Lawrence and Waitahuna. He previously stood in the Clutha-Southland electorate however boundary changes ...
Hon Shane Jones, Associate Minister for State Owned Enterprises A new ‘super depot’ to be built for NZ Post in Wellington will create around 350 jobs during construction, Associate Minister for State Owned Enterprises Shane Jones says. Shane Jones today attended a ground-breaking and blessing ceremony for the parcel-processing depot ...
Our strong economic management prior to COVID-19 - with surpluses, low debt and near-record-low unemployment - put us in a good position to weather the impact of the virus and start to rebuild our economy much earlier than many other countries.Now we're putting our plan to recover and rebuild ...
Darroch Ball MP, New Zealand First Spokesperson for Law and Order Recently released Police fleeing driver statistics have shown yet another increase in incidents with another record-high in the latest quarter. “This new quarterly record-high is the latest in a string of record-high numbers since 2014. The data shows incidents ...
New Zealand First MP Fletcher Tabuteau is pleased to be confirmed today as the party’s candidate for the Rotorua electorate. Speaking at the Rotorua AGM for New Zealand First, Mr Tabuteau said this is an election that is incredibly important for the people of Rotorua. “The founding principles of New ...
The Human Rights Commission’s PRISM report on the issues impacting people based on their sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and sex characteristics (SOGIESC) provides an excellent programme of work for future governments to follow, say the Greens. ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters said the trans-Tasman bubble had not been jeopardised after aborder botch-upresulted in New Zealand having two active cases of COVID-19. On Friday, Mr Peters told RNZ's Morning Report he had heard from Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison that borders for trans-Tasman travel would open by ...
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters said today he was pleased the army was now running the quarantine and isolation process - up until now it has been the Ministry of Health. Peters told Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking that the army knew how to introduce and follow protocols and instil discipline. ...
The Government is making immediate short-term changes to visa settings to support temporary migrants already onshore in New Zealand and their employers, while also ensuring New Zealanders needing work are prioritised, Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says. We are: Extending temporary work visas due to expire by the end of 2020 ...
Professor Peter Skelton CNZM has been appointed as Chief Freshwater Commissioner and Alternate Environment Court Judge Craig James Thompson as Deputy Chief Freshwater Commissioner for the newly established Freshwater Planning Process (FPP). Environment Minister David Parker today also announced the appointment of Chief Environment Court Judge Laurie Newhook as the ...
Auckland Queen’s Counsel Neil Campbell has been appointed a Judge of the High Court, Attorney‑General David Parker announced today. Justice Campbell graduated with a BCom and LLB (Hons) from the University of Auckland in 1992. He spent two years with Bell Gully Buddle Weir in Auckland before travelling to the United ...
The Associate Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration, Poto Williams, is seeking feedback on a proposal to better enable the development and operation of commercial film and video facilities in Christchurch. The Proposal, developed by Regenerate Christchurch in response to a request from Christchurch City Council, asks that powers under section ...
The Government has launched a bold plan to boost primary sector export earnings by $44 billion over the next decade, while protecting the environment and growing jobs. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern today released Fit for a Better World – Accelerating our Economic Potential, a 10-year roadmap to unlock greater value ...
A new approach to prevent family harm that encourages greater collaboration across government and community groups is being celebrated at the opening of a new facility in Auckland. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern today opened the Multi-Disciplinary Family Harm Prevention Hub Te Taanga Manawa in Lambie Road in Manukau. The facility ...
The Government has released a major new report on the options for relocating the Port of Auckland’s freight operations while deferring any decision on the issue. “That decision needs to be informed by policy analysis that is still to be completed. As a result it will be up to a ...
The history of Rāpaki is being restored through the inclusion of te reo in thirteen official place names on Te Pātaka-o-Rākaihautū / Banks Peninsula and around Lyttelton Harbour/Whakaraupō, the Minister for Land Information, Eugenie Sage, announced today. “I am pleased to approve the proposals from Te Hapū o Ngāti ...
Bookings for seats on Air New Zealand flights into New Zealand will be managed in the short term to ensure the Government is able to safely place New Zealanders arriving home into a managed isolation or quarantine facility, says Housing Minister Megan Woods. “Last week Air Commodore Darryn Webb and I ...
Grant Robertson has today announced the first major release of funding from the $265 million Sport Recovery Package announced at Budget 2020. “Today we’re setting out how $80 million will be invested, with $54 million of that over the 2020/2021 financial year for organisations from community level through to elite ...
The Government is maintaining current levy rates for the next 2 years, as part of a set of changes to help ease the financial pressures of COVID-19 providing certainty for businesses and New Zealanders, ACC Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says. “New Zealanders and businesses are facing unprecedented financial pressures as a ...
Small businesses are getting greater certainty about access to finance with an extension to the interest-free cashflow loan scheme to the end of the year. The Small Business Cashflow Loan Scheme has already been extended once, to 24 July. Revenue and Small Business Minister Stuart Nash says it will be ...
A package of 23 projects across the country will clean up waterways and deliver over 2000 jobs Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Environment Minister David Parker announced today. The $162 million dollar package will see 22 water clean-up projects put forward by local councils receiving $62 million and the Kaipara ...
Tena koutou katoa Nga tangata whenua o tenei rohe o Pōneke, tena koutou Nau mai, haere mai ki te hui a tau mo te roopu reipa Ko tatou! Ko to tatou mana! Ko to tatou kaupapa kei te kokiri whakamua Tena koutou, tena koutou, tena tatou katoa Welcome. I ...
The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is investing $1.5 million to ensure QE Health in Rotorua can proceed with its world class health service and save 75 existing jobs, Under Secretary for Regional Economic Development, Fletcher Tabuteau announced today. The PGF funding announced today is in addition to the $8 million ...
A new programme, which sets a firm course for the Building and Construction sector to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, has been announced by the Minister for Building and Construction Jenny Salesa. “A significant amount of New Zealand’s carbon emissions come from the building and construction sector. If we’re serious ...
The Provincial Growth Fund is investing more than $7.5 million in Northland ventures to combat the economic impact of the COVID-19 virus, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones have announced. The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) investment is going to the Northern Adventure Experience and ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Education Minister Chris Hipkins today announced significant funding for Auckland’s Northcote College as part of the first wave of a new nationwide school redevelopment programme to upgrade schools over the next 10 years. The $48.5 million project brings the total investment in Northcote College to ...
The Government has opened an urgent response fund to support schools and early learning services to get children and young people back on track after the Covid-19 lockdown. “While we are seeing improvements in attendance under Alert Level 1 Ministry of Education data shows that attendance rates in our schools ...
The law to boost the economic recovery from the impact of COVID-19 by speeding up resource consenting on selected projects has passed its second and third readings in the House today. “Accelerating nationwide projects and activities by government, iwi and the private sector will help deliver faster economic recovery and ...
Five port-related projects in Whanganui will receive a $26.75 million Provincial Growth Fund investment to support local economic recovery and create new opportunities for growth, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This is a significant investment that will support the redevelopment of the Whanganui Port, a project governed ...
Whanganui’s Sarjeant Gallery will receive an investment of up to $12 million administered by the Provincial Growth Fund to support its redevelopment, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. The project is included in a $3 billion infrastructure pipeline announced by Finance Minister Grant Robertson and Shane Jones yesterday. ...
The Provincial Growth Fund is investing nearly $2.5 million into three Te Ara Mahi programmes to support Manawatū-Whanganui jobseekers and employees to quickly train and upskill, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. “Up to 154 local people will be supported into employment within the first year by these ...
This morning I have formally tendered my resignation as Minister of Health, which was accepted by the Prime Minister. Serving as Minister of Health has been an absolute privilege – particularly through these extraordinary last few months. It’s no secret that Health is a challenging portfolio. I have given ...
Scholarships for 57 early-career agricultural emissions scientists from 20 developing countries is another example of New Zealand’s international leadership in primary sector sustainability, says Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor. Mr O’Connor, announcing the scholarships today, says hundreds of applications were received for this fourth round of the CLIFF-GRADS programme (Climate, Food ...
A project to help rejuvenate the Horowhenua town of Foxton will receive a Provincial Growth Fund investment of $3.86 million, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This funding for the Foxton Regeneration project will be used to make the well-known holiday town even more attractive for visitors and ...
Moa bones and other sub-fossil remains of extinct species are set to have improved protection with proposals to prevent the trade in extinct species announced the Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage today. “We have lost too many of our native species, but these lost species, such as moa, remain an ...
The Government’s free and healthy school lunches programme moves south for the first time creating jobs for around 30 people in Otago and Southland. “Eighteen schools with 3000 students are joining the programme – 11 have already begun serving lunches, and seven are preparing to start during Term 3. This is ...
Thousands of Kiwi jobs and investment in New Zealand productions will be protected through a screen sector support package announced today by Associate Minister for Arts Culture and Heritage Carmel Sepuloni, Minister for Economic Development Phil Twyford and Minister for Broadcasting Kris Faafoi. The package also includes investment in broadcasting ...
The Government has established a new $10 million fund for the domestic events sector to help save jobs and protect incomes as it recovers from the impacts of COVID-19, Minister of Economic Development Phil Twyford announced today. This funding from Budget 2020 follows talks with the event sector designed to ...
The Government has taken another step in its commitment to making sure New Zealanders get a fairer deal at the petrol pump with the introduction of legislation to improve competition in the retail fuel market, says Energy and Resources Minister Megan Woods. “The fuel market study that this Government ordered ...
New Zealand has joined a global initiative that aims to enable all countries to access a safe and effective Covid-19 vaccine, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters announced today. The COVAX Facility was recently launched by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. The Alliance includes the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the World Bank ...
From today new legislation takes effect to both restore the right to legal representation at the start of a Care of Children (CoCA) dispute in the Family Court, and allow parties to those proceedings to access legal aid where eligible. During a visit to the Family Court in Auckland today, ...
Home-based early childhood education (ECE) subsidised by the government will transition to a fully qualified workforce by 2025 to ensure better and more consistent quality, Education Minister Chris Hipkins announced today. “Quality early learning helps provide children with a strong foundation for their future,” Chris Hipkins said. From 1 January ...
The new Criminal Cases Review Commission | Te Kāhui Tātari Ture (CCRC) has started work and can now independently investigate claimed miscarriages of justice. “Even though we have appeal rights and safeguards against unsafe convictions, from time to time our justice system does get things wrong. The design of the ...
E ngā mana, e ngā reo, e ngā karangatanga maha, tēnā koutou Ki a koutou Te Āti Awa, Taranaki Whānui, Ngāti Toa Rangatira, ngā mana whenua o te rohe nei, tēnā koutou Ko Te Whare Wānanga o Aotearoa ki ngā take o te Ao (NZIIA), Ko te Rōpū Tohu Tono ...
The Government’s increase to paid parental leave kicks in today with another 4 weeks taking New Zealand up to a full 6 months (26 weeks, up from 22 weeks) leave for new parents, and the maximum weekly payment will increase by $20pw, Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says. ...
A new package of infrastructure investments will help kick-start the post-COVID rebuild by creating more than 20,000 jobs and unlocking more than $5 billion of projects up and down New Zealand. Finance Minister Grant Robertson and Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones today outlined how the $3 billion infrastructure fund in the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters today expressed the New Zealand Government’s deep disappointment at the passage by China’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee of a national security law for Hong Kong. “New Zealand has consistently emphasised its serious concern about the imposition of this legislation on Hong Kong without inclusive ...
More jobs and more family time with newborns are the centrepiece of a suite of Government initiatives coming into effect today. July 1 is a milestone day for the Government as a host of key policies take effect, demonstrating the critical areas where progress has been made. “The Coalition Government ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Scandal for MP after leaking confidential Covid data, new bookings for return to country put on hold, and Islamic Women’s Council release evidence of being ignored.We now know exactly how the leak of private information of all active Covid-19 patients happened. National ...
Opinion: While the investigation into the security of patient data may still find the Government wanting, a rookie National MP’s spectacular own goal has put the opposition in the firing line, writes Laura Walters Political gameplay 101: If you're trying to highlight that another political party shouldn't be trusted with ...
A new survey supports fundamental changes to the country's criminal justice system, but a parallel study shows many still believe in a punitive system, Laura Walters reports A new survey suggests strong support amongst Kiwis for fundamental changes in the resourcing and funding of the criminal justice system, as well as a ...
The Covid-19 lockdown has only confirmed how vital New Zealand’s early childhood sector is to the future of this country. Now is the time to bed in a systemic policy infrastructure to support resilient children, write three experts. The Early Learning Action Plan (ELAP), released in December 2019, was barely ...
Picked as a star by one of the great women golfers of all time, Wellington teenager Darae Chung is preparing herself mentally and physically to play overseas again. When 16-year-old Darae Chung travels around the country – and eventually around the globe again – playing golf, she will have the ...
He has been in the job less than a week, but new Health Minister Chris Hipkins is already making his presence felt on some critical Covid-19 issues, Sam Sachdeva writes When it was revealed Chris Hipkins would replace David Clark as Health Minister, some observers wondered whether the role may stretch him ...
Matteo Di Maio takes a look at New Zealand’s most expensive rare books. Anah Dunsheath from Rare Books in Auckland knows how you ought to take an old book off the shelf, and how you ought not to. Novices will just pull the book out by the top of its ...
The incoming government needs to wake up and have a critical look at the child protection monster that is Oranga Tamariki, writes Dr Ian Hyslop There is always risk of a chronic disconnect between the policy and operational arms of public service organisations. This risk is particularly acute in excessively ...
The genetic secrets of New Zealand’s predatory 'lion' have been revealed with the mapping of the stoat genome, and there's hope better, kinder ways of getting rid of the introduced killing machines might be found A stoat’s spleen, liquid nitrogen, supercomputers, and 18 months of international effort has led to the mapping ...
Auckland 'move the port' studies have averaged out to at least two per year over the last decade with almost every one of them throwing out a different option or result. ...
The Covid-19 pandemic made us see the value of a life. Now the Team of Five Million needs to take that lesson and open its eyes to the value of the lives of Maori, Pasifika and People of Colour, writes Karamia Muller. This year, 2020, is asking everyone: What is ...
Power Play - Todd Muller is dreaming if he thinks saying no comment will wash after his MP leaked the private details of Covid-19 patients to the media. ...
The leak, we discovered last night, was the work of a first-term MP and a veteran National Party operator. What does it mean for the pair, and for the party, asks Ben Thomas.The latest whodunit in New Zealand politics was solved last night in a flurry of releases, as National’s ...
The Government wants to accelerate improvements to production and sustainability on the land to almost double export earnings in a decade. But big change will be needed, Tim Murphy reports. ...
Methamphetamine - or P - is now here to stay. But addicts of the destructive drug are so ashamed, they will wait up to 10 years to get help. In 2001, William Bell murdered three people in a meth-fuelled rampage at the Mt Wellington RSA in Auckland. He was ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mary-Louise McLaws, Professor of Epidemiology Healthcare Infection and Infectious Diseases Control, UNSW From midnight Wednesday, all of Metropolitan Melbourne and Mitchell Shire will return to Stage 3 lockdown for six weeks. There are only four reasons for residents to leave their homes: ...
After the Spinoff recounted Leave.EU heads telling Britain’s Daily Telegraph they had ‘dispatched’ a team to Auckland to work with NZ First, the party leader issued a deeply curious statement.The day began with news that the “bad boys of Brexit” were back and they were coming to New Zealand.The Daily ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Vaz, Senior Lecturer, Department of Banking and Finance, Monash University The reimposition of stage 3 restrictions on metropolitan Melbourne is, as Victorian premier Daniel Andrews says, a matter of life or death. That’s also true for small businesses. A further six ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By C Raina MacIntyre, Professor of Global Biosecurity, NHMRC Principal Research Fellow, Head, Biosecurity Program, Kirby Institute, UNSW After early success in suppressing COVID-19, we are facing a resurgence in Victoria, which is threatening disease control for the whole country. Outbreaks in northwestern ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin, 6 July 2020 Three Citizenships The concept of ‘citizenship’ has both general and specific meanings. Keith Rankin. The most specific and familiar I call passport citizenship. A passport citizen of a country is a person holding a passport for that country, or with unambiguous entitlement to ...
Minister of Health and State Services Chris Hipkins says he is disappointed the leak of Covid-19 patient details involved politicians, but he does not want to prejudice the investigation. ...
New Zealand First MP Shane Jones is rejecting accusations he influenced the outcome of a report saying Ports of Auckland should shift to Northland. ...
Wellington’s newspaper, The Dominion-Post, gave it to its readers straight: “I’m no saviour”—Ardern rejects saintly status”. But would the crowd of 500 attending Labour’s Congress have believed it? They had stamped and cheered when, in opening the event, Peter Samuel Jackson (no, not the film director) had said: “We have ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Victorian government will lock down all metropolitan Melbourne for six weeks from Wednesday night, as a new wave of the coronavirus takes hold in the city. The lockdown will also cover the Mitchell Shire, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hassan Vally, Associate Professor, La Trobe University As the world continues to grapple with the coronavirus pandemic, one question that keeps coming up is whether COVID-19 can be transmitted through the air. In fact, 239 scientists in 32 countries have written an ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Victorian government will lock down all metropolitan Melbourne for six weeks from Wednesday night, as a new wave of the coronavirus takes hold in the city. The lockdown will also cover the Mitchell Shire, ...
Transport Minister and senior Labour MP Phil Twyford has joined forces with his former colleague and now Auckland Mayor Phil Goff against New Zealand First and the party's push to move the port north. ...
The admissions by Walker and veteran spin doctor Michelle Boag follow the government’s announcement yesterday of a sweeping inquiry to find the source of the leak.National MP Hamish Walker has disclosed that he engineered a privacy breach over the weekend when he purposefully released the personal details of Covid-19 patients ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Philip Russo, Associate Professor, Director Cabrini Monash University Department of Nursing Research, Monash University Metropolitan Melbourne and the shire of Mitchell will returned to Stage 3 stay-at-home restrictions as of midnight Wednesday, Premier Daniel Andrews has announced, after 191 new cases were ...
A National MP has outed himself as the source of media reports about a confidential Covid-19 patient data breach National's Clutha-Southland MP Hamish Walker has confessed to sharing the private information of Covid-19 patients with media, after the Government launched a high-powered inquiry to determine the source of the data breach. ...
"I have spoken to National Party Leader Todd Muller and informed him that I passed to members of the media, by email, information containing Covid-19 patient details that was given to me by a source." ...
I have spoken to National Party Leader Todd Muller and informed him that I passed to members of the media, by email, information containing Covid-19 patient details that was given to me by a source. I did this to expose the Government’s shortcomings ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jeff Borland, Professor of Economics, University of Melbourne When a recession hits, no group of workers is immune. But some are harder hit than others. The latest labour market figures are giving us a good idea of who is being hardest hit ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Felicity Wilcox, Lecturer in Music and Sound Design, University of Technology Sydney Prolific composer Ennio Morricone has died in Rome at the age of 91. From his origins in Italian radio, Morricone became renowned internationally as a groundbreaking film composer. Composing over ...
One of the "bad boys of Brexit" who believes in political campaigns that are blunt and edgy has been hired to help with NZ First's election campaign, a UK newspaper is reporting. ...
Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance spokesperson Jo Holmes says: “Auckland Council has released a statement to media boasting that, based on submissions to the Emergency Budget, a majority of Aucklanders support its rates increase. What the Council fails ...
The Islamic Women’s Council of New Zealand said it repeatedly warned the government an attack like that on March 15 last year was possible. Today, it released the evidence.Within days of the March 15 mosque attacks, while the names of the dead were still being recorded, Anjum Rahman of the ...
In the 90s, the so-called information superhighway was more of a dirt road. Now it’s a multi-lane motorway. Vodafone NZ’s Sharina Nisha explains the technology that makes it all possible.They used to call it the information superhighway. Back in the heady days of the 1990s, the term was used to ...
Air New Zealand are temporarily suspending new international bookings to New Zealand to ensure that all arrivals can be accommodated in a managed isolation or quarantine facility. But as more countries open their borders to foreigners, including Kiwis, ...
Greenpeace says the newly released Government plan for the Primary Sector is a missed opportunity to build back better. The plan Fit for a Better World - Accelerating our Economic Potential , was released by Jacinda Ardern on Tuesday. It aims to map ...
Organisations representing a cross section of New Zealand industries are alarmed that no decision has been made on the fate of thousands of temporary workers with visas about to expire. ...
After three decades in existence, Tautai Contemporary Pacific Arts Trust has launched its own gallery on Auckland’s Karangahape Road.The first thing that hits you entering Tautai Gallery’s inaugural exhibition, Moana Legacy, is the range of works on show. On one huge wall is a mural of black humanoid crocodiles on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sue McIntyre, Honorary Professor, Australian National University Last week we learned woody vegetation in New South Wales is being cleared at more than double the rate of the previous decade – and agriculture was responsible for more than half the destruction. Farming ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Chongyi Feng, Associate Professor in China Studies, University of Technology Sydney Chinese law professor Xu Zhangrun, who completed his PhD at the University of Melbourne, has become the latest high-profile critic of President Xi Jinping to be silenced for his views. It’s ...
If you’ve ever wondered what influencers have to offer to the world, look no further than Simone Anderson’s new recipe book So Delish!, which will revolutionise the way you put things on plates and in freezers.You know what I’m tired of? Professional cooks publishing cookbooks. Boring. If I ever fancy ...
The Electoral Commission has confirmed that the 'Aroha' posters of Jacinda Ardern, promoted by artists Weston Frizzell and advertiser Phantom Billstickers, does indeed constitute a party advertisement for the Labour Party. This judgment comes after ...
The Primary Land Users Group (PLUG) representing a cross-section of forestry, dairy, horticulture and dry-stock land-users has called out the Green Party, asking how they can reconcile their desire for legal cannabis with the negative environmental ...
Latest from the Beehive Readers are increasingly being introduced to Te Reo by a government which eschews prosaic names that simply and functionally reflect an agency’ purpose – such as Ministry of Forestry. Consistent with the discarding of plain English, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has opened a Multi-Disciplinary Family Harm ...
Mau Whenua statement on Nicky Hager Investigative Report - The long, sorry saga of Shelly Bay – Published Saturday 4th of July 2020 Hirini Jenkins-Mepham Chair of the Mau Whenua group opposing Port Nicholson Block Trustees land sales said “Nicky ...
Forest & Bird welcomes a new sustainable vision for the primary sector, but says it needs to be backed up with strong rules, meaningful support, and a change of attitude from industry laggards. The Government has released a report outlining ...
Rather than MPs rushing to regulate vaping in the last few days of this Parliamentary term, the bill’s many complexities should be debated after the General Election, says Nancy Loucas, co-director of Aotearoa Vapers Community Advocacy (AVCA). Parliament ...
The Islamic Women’s Council of New Zealand will share parts 1 and 2 of the submission we presented to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Christchurch Mosque Attacks. The aim is to ensure New Zealand is fully informed about the efforts IWCNZ took prior ...
Irrigation New Zealand is greatly encouraged by the fact that the Government has today recognised the “transformational opportunity” water storage provides for New Zealand as part of our post-Covid economic recovery. Water storage was acknowledged ...
The Taxpayers’ Union cannot believe that New Zealand First is importing foreign political consultants, presumably because no New Zealanders are suitable, or perhaps willing, for NZ First campaign roles. Union spokesperson Jordan Williams says: “Winston ...
Retailers upset by the Government’s blinkered restrictions on vaping products say they feel shut out and ignored given the outcome of the select committee process. New Zealand Association of Convenience Stores (NZACS) Executive Director, Dave Hooker, ...
The MakeItLegal campaign has today welcomed the website on cannabis legalisation from the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor. “It is essential that people have reliable and factual information to help them decide how to vote in the cannabis ...
Responding to National MP Nicola Willis’s statement that National was wrong to sell so much state housing, New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says: “What a weak capitulation to left-wing ideology.” “Selling a state house ...
The Islamic Women’s Council of New Zealand are sharing parts 1 and 2 of the submission we presented to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Christchurch Mosque Attacks. The aim is to ensure New Zealand is fully informed about the efforts IWCNZ took prior ...
An interesting tale of international diplomacy has emerged over NZ’s decision to turn next year’s round of APEC meetings – including the leaders’ summit – into a virtual event. NZ had to fight off a determined bid by the 2020 host, Malaysia, which hoped it could have its hosting rights ...
Members of New Zealand’s Indian community rallied in Auckland on Sunday to raise awareness about threats to their homeland’s democracy from the rise of right-wing Hindu nationalism. As the world’s second-most populous nation grapples with a burgeoning pandemic and deepening political and social division, about 25 protesters gathered in Auckland’s Aotea ...
CEAC applauds professor Mike Joy as NZ’s leading environmental ecologists tireless efforts to enlighten ‘successive Governments’ over the pollution of our waterways and promoting best practice paths of cleaning up of our waterways over successive ...
Almost 170 years ago, Māori political processes were interrupted and displaced by a new, enforced electoral system. Researcher Jo Waitoa dispels the myth that voter turnout and political participation are the same thing. Read more of the The Spinoff’s Election 2020 coverage here.Māori political participation has a long and enduring tradition ...
After previously stonewalling inquiries on the matter, Leave.EU ‘bad boy’ Arron Banks has told a UK newspaper he is sending a team to New Zealand to work on Winston Peters’ NZ First campaign. Justin Giovannetti reports. New Zealand First has hired a crew of political operators from one of the most ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simon Campbell, Senior research fellow and ARC Future Fellow, Monash University Lithium is used in everything from medication to mobile phone batteries, but where does it come from? We know it is mined here on Earth, but where it is created in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Janak Rogers, Associate Lecturer, Broadcast Journalism, RMIT University The case for a more diverse and representative media should be clear by now – it’s been made time and time again. But it’s instructive to take stock every now and then. Over the ...
Open mike 08/06/2013 
In 1987, as a British Labour MP, I was elected to the Shadow Cabinet by my colleagues and was asked by the party leader to direct Labour’s campaign in the general election of that year. The election was to take place at the height of Mrs Thatcher’s dominance and we ...16 hours ago
16 hours ago
If the government has not lined up behind a "Yes" vote in this year's cannabis referendum the way some reformers would have liked, one entirely laudable thing it did do was commission some science around the public's choice.That science landed today, in the form of the report from an expert ...16 hours ago
Almost two years ago, the government announced that it might take a look at OIA reform. After an attempt to do it in secret, they finally asked for public submissions, then summarised them for the Minister, who... sat on them for nine months. But today, after an almost two year ...19 hours ago
Associate Professor Sara Walton At the heart of the discussion on opening up our borders is the dichotomy of health and the economy – both of which are actually intertwined, like many things with our economy, as this epidemic has shown. If we think about our country as a system, ...21 hours ago
This is a re-post from Carbon Brief by Josh Gabbatiss This year will see the largest ever drop globally in both investment and consumer spending on energy as the coronavirus pandemic hits every major sector, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). The crisis is accelerating the shutdown of older fossil-fuelled ...1 day ago
...1 day ago
Today’s content Labour Party Thomas Manch (Stuff): It might be ‘team’ Labour, but there’s little doubt about who’s the skipper, and ‘saviour’ Audrey Young (Herald): No ordinary Labour speech by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern (paywalled) Sam Sachdeva (Newsroom): Ardern asks NZ to move her towards a second term Richard Harman (Politik): Labour’s red glow Justin ...2 days ago
Is the consequence of the Simpson Report proposals for restructuring the health system poorer accountability to people? When in doubt, centralise‘ has been a persistent theme in New Zealand public policy throughout our history. The current government is no exception. Here are some examples. - The regional polytechs have been ...4 days ago
5 days ago
Unfortunately, due to a medical emergency, I have landed in hospital so am not able to do a current update on the NZ blog statistics. Let’s hope I can get back to this in good time. ...6 days ago
When the Christchurch murderer pleaded guilty to 51 counts of murder and a number of other violent assault charges a few months ago, he effectively closed the door on what the public will know about the lead up to and commission of the event. His plea means that no evidence ...1 week ago
Daphna Whitmore The Philippines is enduring one of the longest lockdowns in the world. For President Duterte the lockdown provides an opportunity to garner more powers and to push through a brazen assault on human rights. A new law called the Anti-Terror Bill has been passed under urgency and it ...1 week ago
There really is not much about Paula Bennett concerning her career trajectory, the policies she promoted, and most importantly, the socio-economic effect this had upon New Zealand (and particularly the most vulnerable in this, our oft-cited “egalitarian” society of this country) that can be said now that hasn’t already been ...1 week ago
Helloy… My name is Todd Muller and I am the leader of the National Party of New Zealand. Many people come up to me on the street and ask me who I am. I’m often walking through Tauranga, or in a mall in suburban Auckland, or maybe even a farmers’ ...1 week ago
. . Plague town? There are two things right now in Aotearoa New Zealand that are guaranteed to piss people off. Firstly, it’s National playing silly-bugger politics with the covid-19 pandemic. This cost Simon Bridges his job as National’s Leader. Lately, Michael Woodhouse has been playing fast and loose with ...1 week ago
Tertiary fees in New Zealand versus Australia: Fees Are Important, but not as Important as Financing In Australia, the Education Minister Dan Tehan has proposed an overhaul of the existing higher education funding system to offer 39,000 additional study places by 2023 and 100,000 by 2030. The proposal has been ...1 week ago
We have been assailed by Fox News-style headlines, lurid stories of “a breach!”. An almost nuclear level disaster on the horizon scream, “Fiasco!” here, “Hero to Zero!” there… Oh quick, panic everyone! This has fueled an unbelievably stupid environment of panic among some, and spurred useless, counterproductive political ...2 weeks ago
Mark Patterson MP, Spokesperson for Primary Industry New Zealand First is supporting calls by hunters and the New Zealand Tahr Foundation (NZTF) to halt a large scale cull of Himalayan Tahr by the Department of Conservation in National Parks. The calls are supported by a 40,000 strong petition and the ...15 hours ago
New Zealanders deserve healthy rivers and lakes that are safe to swim in - but they have been getting worse for decades. That's why, with our latest announcement, we're investing in projects that will help clean up our rivers and lakes and restore them to health, within a generation. ...3 days ago
The Green Party has opposed the COVID-19 Recovery Fast-track Consenting Bill which shortcuts normal consenting processes under the Resource Management Act (RMA), reduces public participation and narrows environmental considerations. ...5 days ago
The Government is making immediate short-term changes to visa settings to support temporary migrants already onshore in New Zealand and their employers, while also ensuring New Zealanders needing work are prioritised, Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says. We are: Extending temporary work visas due to expire by the end of 2020 ...13 hours ago
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Scandal for MP after leaking confidential Covid data, new bookings for return to country put on hold, and Islamic Women’s Council release evidence of being ignored.We now know exactly how the leak of private information of all active Covid-19 patients happened. National ...7 mins ago
Opinion: While the investigation into the security of patient data may still find the Government wanting, a rookie National MP’s spectacular own goal has put the opposition in the firing line, writes Laura Walters Political gameplay 101: If you're trying to highlight that another political party shouldn't be trusted with ...43 mins ago
A new survey supports fundamental changes to the country's criminal justice system, but a parallel study shows many still believe in a punitive system, Laura Walters reports A new survey suggests strong support amongst Kiwis for fundamental changes in the resourcing and funding of the criminal justice system, as well as a ...45 mins ago
The Covid-19 lockdown has only confirmed how vital New Zealand’s early childhood sector is to the future of this country. Now is the time to bed in a systemic policy infrastructure to support resilient children, write three experts. The Early Learning Action Plan (ELAP), released in December 2019, was barely ...1 hour ago
Picked as a star by one of the great women golfers of all time, Wellington teenager Darae Chung is preparing herself mentally and physically to play overseas again. When 16-year-old Darae Chung travels around the country – and eventually around the globe again – playing golf, she will have the ...1 hour ago
He has been in the job less than a week, but new Health Minister Chris Hipkins is already making his presence felt on some critical Covid-19 issues, Sam Sachdeva writes When it was revealed Chris Hipkins would replace David Clark as Health Minister, some observers wondered whether the role may stretch him ...1 hour ago
Matteo Di Maio takes a look at New Zealand’s most expensive rare books. Anah Dunsheath from Rare Books in Auckland knows how you ought to take an old book off the shelf, and how you ought not to. Novices will just pull the book out by the top of its ...1 hour ago
The incoming government needs to wake up and have a critical look at the child protection monster that is Oranga Tamariki, writes Dr Ian Hyslop There is always risk of a chronic disconnect between the policy and operational arms of public service organisations. This risk is particularly acute in excessively ...1 hour ago
The genetic secrets of New Zealand’s predatory 'lion' have been revealed with the mapping of the stoat genome, and there's hope better, kinder ways of getting rid of the introduced killing machines might be found A stoat’s spleen, liquid nitrogen, supercomputers, and 18 months of international effort has led to the mapping ...1 hour ago
Auckland 'move the port' studies have averaged out to at least two per year over the last decade with almost every one of them throwing out a different option or result. ...1 hour ago
The Covid-19 pandemic made us see the value of a life. Now the Team of Five Million needs to take that lesson and open its eyes to the value of the lives of Maori, Pasifika and People of Colour, writes Karamia Muller. This year, 2020, is asking everyone: What is ...1 hour ago
Power Play - Todd Muller is dreaming if he thinks saying no comment will wash after his MP leaked the private details of Covid-19 patients to the media. ...1 hour ago
The Government wants to accelerate improvements to production and sustainability on the land to almost double export earnings in a decade. But big change will be needed, Tim Murphy reports. ...2 hours ago
Methamphetamine - or P - is now here to stay. But addicts of the destructive drug are so ashamed, they will wait up to 10 years to get help. In 2001, William Bell murdered three people in a meth-fuelled rampage at the Mt Wellington RSA in Auckland. He was ...2 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mary-Louise McLaws, Professor of Epidemiology Healthcare Infection and Infectious Diseases Control, UNSW From midnight Wednesday, all of Metropolitan Melbourne and Mitchell Shire will return to Stage 3 lockdown for six weeks. There are only four reasons for residents to leave their homes: ...7 hours ago
Wellington’s newspaper, The Dominion-Post, gave it to its readers straight: “I’m no saviour”—Ardern rejects saintly status”. But would the crowd of 500 attending Labour’s Congress have believed it? They had stamped and cheered when, in opening the event, Peter Samuel Jackson (no, not the film director) had said: “We have ...12 hours ago
...12 hours ago
A National MP has outed himself as the source of media reports about a confidential Covid-19 patient data breach National's Clutha-Southland MP Hamish Walker has confessed to sharing the private information of Covid-19 patients with media, after the Government launched a high-powered inquiry to determine the source of the data breach. ...13 hours ago
Far from becoming a more centrist, mainstream force, the Greens have instead come up with a "bonkers" tax policy, says Oliver Hartwich ...15 hours ago
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http://i.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/politics/6810936/Lawyer-named-Shearers-chief-of-staff
Fired. Shearer has fired Roberson’s plant in his office. Cameron was ‘gone by lunchtime ‘ yesterday.
Has Shearer finally worked out that his real enemy is poorly polling Wellington central mp?
“Has Shearer finally worked out that his real enemy is poor polling Welington central mp?”
Nope. His real enemy is his own incompetence as a political leader.
He needs to Fire himself.
Maybe a sex scandal can be arranged?
Where did you get this bit of news from ? I can’t find it on Scoop, Herald, Dom Post – so please elucidate.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10889121
John Armstrong has made a full on attack against Russel Norman and the Greens in todays Herald.
Obviously the Greens are starting to worry the National Party’s number 1 PR man.
Norman needs to continue to attack National FULL ON, he has my support 100%. In fact the more Armstrong complains the better, it just provides a gauge on how affective his attacks actually are.
+1
The Green Party Conference will not be televised
Despite the tight secrecy and media blackout that surrounded the Green Party AGM, details of what went on are starting to come out.
If what Armstrong reports is true;
Then it seems that this conference saw a steep reduction in the Greens inner party democracy. With the right to veto membership remits or amend them out of all recognition by the top table, power has been concentrated with the leadership. As well as this, the increased and complex bureaucracy imposed to make branch remits harder to put in the first place, will put a further crimp on the members ability to influence the direction of their party.
In my estimation these new rules to restrict inner party democracy are much tougher than those in the Labour Party. And though I am not as familiar with the remit procedures of the other parties, possibly every other parliamentary party as well.
Business As Usual will not be upset by upstart political parties.
Is this the beginning of the end for the Green Party?
weka has posited here, that it is a natural progression for political parties to become more corrupted as they become more mainstream. (Probably because of their greater attraction for careerists). I would go further and say that it is actually, not a natural progression at all, but a time honoured but still conscious process that protects privilege and power for a minority of elitist self servers from the threat inherent in democracy to challenge both, Privilege and Power and elitism.
I on the other hand argue that this degeneration is not inevitable at all.
But it seems the Green Party are determined not to learn from history and not resist the dilution of their inner party democracy, and their transformation into an autocratic top down traditional political organisation.
Personally I think this is a sad day for the Greens. And for our democracy in general. Not to mention the future of our civilisation, which could well hinge on whether leading political organisations can break away from the BAU model or not.
P.S. Suppressing inner party democracy has never succeeded in ending inner party political tensions. That they will break out into the open in some other form, and usually at the worst possible place and time is inevitable. The resulting inner party explosion/implosion, what ever form it takes, could well mark the end of the Green Party as a political force.
Game set and match for the establishment.
That you would take an article written by Armstrong of all people, as proof of the corruption of the GP, says alot about you Jenny.
I’d like to put my earlier comment in context. It’s not that the GP will inevitably become corrupt. It’s that parliament, as it is at this point in time, is a culture that demands certain behaviours. The very nature of the adversarial system is that it undermines creative solutions and co-operation. People who come into parliament as MPs (and I would guess this is true of staff too), have to adapt to the culture or they won’t fit in/be able to gain anything for their party. While I hope that the GP can influence that culture for the better, I’m not sure that it’s their job to transform it.
You look at people like Marilyn Waring, who got out early, and her contemporaries like Clark and Shipley, who stayed in. Waring once talked about what happened to women in parliament, the pressure to become something else. It was brutal. How do people survive that? Her contention was that some just get out, and those that stay get changed by the place. There is no way that Clark would have become PM if she hadn’t adapted in such a way as to be able to take power and use it.
Sad, but true. You can see manifestations of that brutality here on ts, where it tends to be cruelty, both to each other, and towards politicians. What this means is that only the tough survive, both here and in parliament. And thus we lose the more sensitive people who would probably bring much to the table.
Unless MPs are betraying their party, I think that we should be supporting them, and helping them find ways to survive the brutality as long as possible. They are doing us a service and should be acknowledged for that, not pilloried before they even get started (Jenny).
“I on the other hand argue that this degeneration is not inevitable at all.”
So tell use Jenny, how you think it can be avoided. Please give specific examples that work in the real world, not just your ideals.
The Green Party IMHO are set on a well worn course for destruction. The question is: How will they avoid the fate of the Maori Party and the Alliance before them?
First off the Green Party could announce that they will not go into coalition with any government that approves the Denniston Coal Mine or Deep Sea Oil Drilling off our coasts.
Which would most likely mean they don’t get to be part of govt. I’m asking you how GP MPs could be part of a NZ govt and not be changed by the experience.
First off the Green Party could announce that they will not go into coalition with any government that approves the Denniston Coal Mine or Deep Sea Oil Drilling off our coasts.
Secondly give the Labour Party Confidence and Supply.
If the Labour Party still want to proceed with wrecking the environment, the Greens need to let them know that they are on their own.
Simple, clear, direct, principled. This will future proof the Green Party. As the coal and extreme oil schemes go sour.
This question answers itself. The Green Party cannot be part of a government committed to Deep Sea Oil Drilling, and mining Denniston. And not be changed.
It’s happening already.
Mr Armstrong tries a long bow, and drops the arrow on his foot.
Would like to see a more sober account of the Green Party’s remit changes. But even the way it’s told by Armstrong, it doesn’t amount to anything like the anti-democratic practices of Key’s government or Muldoon.
So that means the vote was well over 75%?
And the “Green’s are thirsting for power”. …. who is using a less than measured tone there, Mr Armstrong, even as you blast Norman for the same, and ignore how much the right wing bloggers and Key use way less than measured tones when they launched the attack on the Greens?
The bleeting coming from Armstrong and others over Norman calling Key , Muldoon , could end up biting the right in the bum.
In over egging the situation , they’ve raise the bar , or at least drawn attention to the language used by politicians,
This could have a stifling effect on Key , who relies heavily on put downs, and negative name calling etc.
It’s very unlikely that party members voted to reduce the voice of their branches while strengthening the power of centralised control. Not saying it didn’t happen; its far more likely Armstrong has the wrong end of the stick.
GP members here: please confirm.
http://whoar.co.nz/2013/green-party-central-strips-away-power-from-green-party-branches-as-party-hierachy-tighten-their-control-pre-coalition-ed-but-hey-they-are-only-formalising-already-de-facto-means-of-control/
(excerpt:..”..so what will be changed..?..
..when it has always been thus in the green party..
..this is only formalising those de-facto power-realities..
..and as for party conferences being hotbeds of political/ideas-debate..?
..back then they were tightly controlled top-down-exercises..(with (now mp) delahunty being the enforcer of that control..)
..as with most/(all?) political conferences…the green party ones were also exercises in agenda-control/suppressing any dissent/idea-challenges..”)
..this is just an exercise in formalising the de-facto..
phillip ure..
Green Party members vote to curtail their democracy by 80%
80%?
80 percent support for a vote to limit inner party democracy. The sad thing about such votes, is that by their nature they can not be revisited.
But democracy is a funny thing, you suppress here, it pops up somewhere else, in some other form. Like that other great human impulse, it is as perennial as the grass.
And Armstrong is starting to come across a more than a little hysterical lately.
Now we just have to wait for the hysterical screeching of the Nats number one fan boy, Roughan.
Roughan represents the pits of print journalism in this country.
o’sullivan is also getting more and more ‘reds-under-beds!’ hysterical..
..her defence of key as not being muldoonist (published today) is to point at norman and go ‘nyah nyah..!..you are too..!’..
..the right seems to be getting more and more jangled..
..and what a stinking/corrupt govt this has become..
..dunne..and banks..
..and national/key knowing they probably won’t get back in again..
..are going gangbusters..
..stitching together all the dirty-deals they can..
..and key must be torn two ways at the moment..
..he is so bored/over it all..he must be dreading the long grind from now to election-time..
..he must want to go..
..but the other force is all that unfinished (privatisation/union-busting) business..
..which they have to cram /ram through between now and the next election..
..and tho’ that business-imperative is strong..
..i don’t think key is up personally for it all..
..a long/slow grind..to destination failure…
..that isn’t how key sees himself rolling..
..so those two pressures are grinding on key like clashing tectonic-plates..
..something’s gotta give..
..so i would still prepare for an early election..
..with maybe key not being there for that..
..phillip ure..
I read it as Key and co, knowing they will most likely lose the election, fucking things up as much as they can, and leaving the cupboard bare, so the incoming Government can change as little as possible.
There is however also the imperative to deliver as much of the “commons” to their corporate funders as possible, before they get voted out to secure their retirement funding.
The feather bedded directorships and sinecures they expect to get, with the private sector, as a reward for stealing from tax payers and wage earners.
Yep.
@kjt..re yr first paragraph..i don’t know if it is necessarily that..i think it is just them doing what they promised..
..(i mean..i mean..!..did the moronic component of that massive majority opposed to selling our power assets/means into foreign ownership..who voted for national..
..did they think key/national were just joshing when they promised to do just that..?
..how was that for an epic-disconnect..?..on the part of those asset-selling opposed/voting national moron-component..?)
..yr second paragraph i totally agree with..with labour as enmeshed in that corrupt revolving-door process as national..
..with the neo-lib/randite-apologist ex labour party president williams..being a textbook example of a revolving-door too many..
(if you doubt my assesment of williams..go to the radio new zealand archives..and pull up a couple of his recent appearances as .(wait for it!..)..a spokesperson for the left..(!)..)..(as someone else said:..’oh irony..!..thou art a harsh mistress..!’..)
..and looking back to the right-revolution..the then union uber-boss frantically/serially blinked..and just went and sat in the corner..as the right dismantled the welfare state/broke the union-movement..and he uttered not a whimper..
..(but he did do rather well out of it..like williams..seats on boards/honours etc..and both about as far from the shop-floor as you can get..)
..and the contrast with that union leader here of course is australia..
..where the union movement stood up and went ‘no yr fucken not..!’..
..(and what is the size of our wage-gap with aust..?…and growing..we are told..)
..that didn’t work out too well for us..did it..?..
..corruption takes many forms..it isn’t all envelopes stuffed with cash..slipped into pockets..
..our new zealand version is far more subtle..(sort of..)
..phillip ure..
+1
.. re williams
.. (completely, totally, utterly)
Scared, dogmatic, confused old man!
Interesting how there is liitle by way of useful disucussion, which comes from the NZH, while its no surprise, its become very transparent, that all the NZH has to offer, is proarchial support for the owners, chosen governmnent!
Its rather sad, to see society demoted to such a low level of, *informative debate*
Interesting also in how Armstrong is following the Lusk plan to pick up on and circulate propaganda begun on right wing blogs.
Very true, Karol.
Its the ,confuse, contain, control tactics geared up to prevent people from piecing together cogent views, and the decisions/actions, which might then follow changing view formation.
It genuinely sadens me, this country is under such a ferocious attack, which is even more powerful incentive to stay vigilant, and up to speed.
Its the primary reason I stay in touch sites such as this, for the angles/perspectives which don’t see the light of day elsewhere.
+1 Muzza
yes, I reckon that the NZH/Armstrong/O Sullivan et al are very effective at creating a support base for National that would be better off voting Left. When you look at Slane’s cartoon on another post here it actually reflects the truth, but National’s support base is much larger than the very small/elite group that benefit from their policies.
Actually the real damage is done by Radio stations like the Edge who insinuate the consumer culture into the young, invite Key along as their best mate etc.
This is where the dumbing down of society is occurring.
Probably a crosby textor strategy…
doesn’t match this though:
(^=^)
Get Hauraki and some Revolution Rock;
and Rebel Waltz
Maybe someone paid Lusk to pay him.
Now we have cold war hysteria from Hooten about communists in the Greens. Its going to be one hell of an 18 months, with the Green party on the wrong end of it. Im pretty sure that Key might even try and ban them (like Australia did with their communist party in the 1950’s).
2014 is going to be an ugly election campaign. The neo-libs, god-botherers and RWNJs, along with the swivel-eyed loons are just getting warmed up.
Of course the very system that Dunne appears to have leaked a report on probably has records of Dunne’s emails but cannot release them because that would confirm what Dunne was trying to expose. Spy vs Spy here?
I’m inclined to agree with your theory Logie.
Dunne has been played. His vulnerability and vanity has been used to make him impotent!
The spy boys needed a fall guy, a distraction from the past screw ups and probably a third driver that has yet to appear.
Winston is probably being played too, amd perhaps a bit knowlingly…. He is always for sale.
And where has Shearer and Labour been in all this? AWOL
Robertson on TV this morning repeated “if I was Prime Minister” three times. What a fucking boffoon.
Are you being serious? You didn’t mean Ross Robertson by any chance?
Ross Robertson was able to build his electorate and party vote. Definitely not to be confused with the Wellington Central “Robertson”.
Possibly. But I also heard that there were fewer than 100 members in his electorate. Don’t know if that is accurate though.
If Dunne was trying to expose anything, that would be a valid reason to do what he has done. He has admitted several times that he has no good reason for what eventuated. Honey trapped buffoon who has far too many skeletons in his closet, absolutely . . . Valiant warrior battling evil, not so much.
On thursday June 5 weka and Jenny went toe to toe on how far the Green Party should be prepared to compromise to gain seats in a Labour led cabinet.
Pretty obvious in my opinion. *Maybe*. Especially in the euphoria of coalition talks post election.
If the Greens were willing to settle for a short term objective in lieu of something more substantive, then I think that Labour would happy to let them take the flak from the coasters. Labour MPs would undoubtedly prefer that Green MPs dissipated their political capital that way rather than in something more widespread like looking at the question of exploration and mining in conservation areas.
I’m not so sure the Greens membership would be that happy after spending decades to get MPs into cabinet to be that concerned with a single bauble rather than a policy shift.
Politics is the art of the possible and the careful use of painfully acquired political capital. I am pretty sure that was what was being discussed in the closed door sessions at the Greens conference last weekend.
Like the others, I am working during the week. Explaining politics 201 isn’t high on my priority queue.
So it is a *Maybe* from lprent.
Any other takers?
What do you think CV?
“Like the others, I am working during the week. Explaining politics 201 isn’t high on my priority queue.”
I just assumed that by the time the conversation got to that point, no-one else was reading.
“Politics is the art of the possible and the careful use of painfully acquired political capital.”
Nice. I might have to quote that.
I catch some of these older comments when I’m scanning for people talking to me. In this case the “lprent”.
You’re welcome to it. It is a paraphrase of something that I read or heard somewhere at some time. It is an accurate representation of the practice of politics.
How’s your pissing into the tent strategy working out Jenny?
Anyway: when it comes to issues of Labour coalition agreements, I don’t deal in hypotheticals.
One qualified maybe from lprent and a no-comment from Colonial Viper. It’s not looking good.
So how about you Te Reo Putake?
The question is; If the Green Party refuse to join any coalition which would approve the Denniston Coal Mine. Can you tell us, if that would be a hard thing for Labour to give up?
You’re not part of the Greens. You’re not part of Labour.
You have a real issue with being a self righteous and indignant busybody telling everyone else what they should be doing.
The discussion on The Nation over the International Transfer of Prisoners was interesting; NZ the only OECD country not a signatory, in fact, the parts of the world that are really only excluded Africa and parts of Asia in the main. It is not politically palatable it seems to have these folk repatriated to serve their sentences, particularly for those chasing the conservative vote as the cost to the tax-payer would be humungous; 850 serving time in Aus, just for starters; that would be around a Billion dollars for the first year for them to be imprisoned here.
Collins generalized that “they are drug dealers and rapists” (from the two featured) and that those in Aus had “lived all their lives there, paid there taxes there” blah blah. Aus keeps hitting NZ govt up about it. They are signatories
http://www.ag.gov.au/Internationalrelations/Internationalcrimecooperationarrangements/TransferOfPrisoners/Pages/default.aspx
Some under-arm return for not providing social security measures to kiwis over there. 😉
Anyway, these tory Ministers may have professions to there name yet they sure appear thick!
Next, a critique of the rise of the ‘victim’ culture; like monetary compensation is a reinforcer.
😀
NZ politicians, in general, have a super shit and 50 year outdated approach to Corrections.
“If the Green Party refuse to join any coalition which would approve the Denniston Coal Mine”
Wow, you really don’t get what a coalition is do you. Do you honestly think it’s about the GP throwing down demands?
Phoebe Fletcher makes an excellent point today on the Daily Blog: the media storm around Dunne’s resignation is diverting big time from the extremely worrying changes to the GCSB legislation.
Indeed, the deflective glare is strong, the focus , hard as it is in this country, must remain on the legislation, because the *grid*, is tightening its grip!
People think little to nothing, about smart meters, the UFB roll out etc, but these are part of the *grid*, and even now, privacy/freedom are concepts, relegated to the history books, never to be seen again, if people don’t get involved.
Agree about the GP. They’re at risk of overplaying their hand here.
There was some speculation on ts yesterday about why had Dunne actually resigned. Maybe this is it, he’s the diversion.
It occurs to me the latest blog post by Farrar is an outstanding example of how the government use him to try and control the media naarative. Effectively, he is trying to frame how the whole story around the demise of Dunne is told by lazy and/or time pressed journalists by providing in a nice, easy digestible format a whole narrative of the winners and losers. Very cunning, and highlights the lack of a comparable blog on the left.
I would contend that The Standard itself is a blog comparable in influence to Kiwiblog, and further that; The Daily Blog is a rapidly emerging foil to WhaleOil (that there’s some long standing rivalry between Bradbury and Slater has long been evident; even on Tumeke – I imagine it goes back to uni days if not before). Personally, I don’t read either of the RWNJ blogs – life’s too short. Plus Kiwiblog just makes me feel manipulated (DPF is certainly good at what he does!), while WhaleOil makes me feel unclean (though I did have a glance over on Queen’s birthday weekend to savour the panic).
That MSM journalists take their cues from Farrar and Slater probably has more to do with; editorial policies and lack of; time and resources, than; inaccesability of alternate viewpoints on the net.
Was the Dunne/Vance imbroglio a “honey trap” ( to quote an old cold war term )? And shouldn’t the morality and ethics of that be discussed? Admittedly for Herald and Dominion journalists they are almost certainly really big words they would need to look up.
No. An old guy with an unrequited woody for a younger woman does not constitute a “honey trap”.
Millhouse noted this last night.
In the UK they are seeing the implications of American big business being able to control politicians and the internet.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/the-alist-conspiracy-did-hollywood-tell-obama-to-take-down-internet-entrepreneur-kim-dotcom-8648426.html
Corporate-Political influence in the US is really fubar. It is a broken system. It actively encourages companies to hire people whose only job is to stand in a queue and hold that place until the salaried lobbyist shows up to tell the pretzel-spined politicians exactly what they are doing with their votes that day. We have our problems in NZ but we are not quite that far gone and I like to think we can resist a whilst longer.
On The Nation just now we saw Winston Peters making another series of accusations – that the Dunne emails also contained leaks of other information apart from the GCSB report, and that because of the nature of the leak (effectively a top secret document with limited “eyes only” distribution) the government came under pressure from our ECHELON allies to find out who the potential spy was. Peters also was unequivocally able to state they contained personally embarassing stuff on Dunne. Of course, Peters could be bluffing, but in this case I think he has clearly seen the unedited emails. So, where did Peters get those?
Looks like the GCSB stitiched up Dunne to placate our allies concern over the leak, which raises yet more thorny questions about an agency that has clearly (Kim Dotcom, illegal spying, Dunne) gone rogue. Who is the master of this country, the GCSB (who can clearly access and leak anything about anyone who threatens their mana) or the politicians? Because at the moment, it looks like the spies are getting the politicians to dance to their tune.
I wonder what they said to John Key to ensure the Government Communications Security Bureau and Related Legislation Amendment Bill was to their liking?
PS I was astonished at how inept Rachel Smalley’s performance was. There was Winston Peters dangling all sorts of juicy tidbits – shadowy foreign pressure to find the leaker, additional sectet material being leaked – she relentless stuck to the pre-scripted panty-sniffing line about trying to find out if Dunne wanted to be a tampon, or something.
Sanctuary – The *presenters*, are simply there to ensure the narrative is controlled, and it is, by the producers.
No need to be astonished, this is what the MSM is designed to do, except that sadly its seems in NZ, we have plumbed even lower depths.
Smalley, not all that long ago had some promise, but over the past 3-6 months, she has become as debased, as the like of Corin Dann, and the other puppets!
Muzza – All fucking talk no fucking facts.
The media repeat what they are told to write. Everyone with a modicum of curiosity and critical thinking cano see that.
You want evidence TC? Iraq and WMD.
My question to you.
Why are you such a relentless defender of the corporate elite?
“My question to you.
Why are you such a relentless defender of the corporate elite?”
Sorry to answer a question with a question but “Huh?”
“Everyone with a modicum of curiosity and critical thinking cano see that.”
Critical thinking =/= believing anything based purely on your say so.
Facts, references, cites and evidence. Please provide,
The media copied the story told them about Iraq having WMD
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/3036750/ns/msnbc-documentaries/vp/50736581
Can be sourced in multiple places………
Why do you defend the elite?
Pointing out stupid conspiracy fallacies =/= Defending the elite
If you look at your posts that is not what you do on this site…….
But at least I don’t make completely erroneous statements about imaginary foes based purely on ill informed rhetoric gleaned from conspiracy sites and crank doctors.
Is that, really how you see yourself bro?
“Is that, really how you see yourself bro?”
No, it’s how I see you.
TC, can you point to the conspiracy sites, which I personally , have linked to on here, you have a problem with.
If you can locate any such links, give your reasoning, why you have a problem, and try to avoid becoming a parody of your handle name, in the process, eh!
Think you can manage all that?
Hey muzza,
facts?
TC – You making it personal now bro?
So agressive, and angry sounding, you taking anything to manage it?
I’d suggest avoiding alcohol!
It’s just my Morgellons acting up again.
Things are getting interesting across the Tasman Ditch ..
“Rudd blitz begins as host of Labor MPs back a national tour”
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/rudd-blitz-begins-as-host-of-labor-mps-back-a-national-tour/story-fnii5s3y-1226659596090
and
http://news.google.com.au/news/rtc?ncl=dpBheRHTARv3I4MW21X_3qszqa4GM&topic=h&ar=1370645967
You can’t believe a thing you read in Murdoch’s rags. The Guardian, which has just started up in Oz, contains a lot less fantasy. According to Murdoch, they might as well save money and not even have the election because Abbott has already won in a landslide. I hope not, because while Gillard is about as left as Key, Abbott makes John Banks look balanced.
Yeah, but who’s laughing right now ?
http://www.smh.com.au/national/rudd-backers-frolic-as-pm-loses-her-grip-20130607-2nviv.html
Probably Gina Stoneheart, at anyone who thinks the Fairfax media isn’t just a crude big mining propaganda bulletin.
Did I get it right?
.. and in Ye Olde Countrie
http://conservativehome.blogs.com/platform/2013/06/lord-ashcroft-we-cant-afford-to-waste-another-six-months.html
Canada: undemocratic political behaviour of a petrostate
Colonel Viper . Thanks for that link to Andrew Nikifororuk on the characteristics of a Petro State.
Suddenly it all becomes explainable. With fracking and oil drilling in the offing in the Canterbury Basin both on land and at sea…. and the strange undemocratic manoeuverings of the National Government eg.
* extensive GCSB powers to spy on ordinary NZers,
* outlawing of environmental protest where it affects economic corporate activity( whether this be harmful for NZers environment or not),
* promotion of education dumbing down and no standards for charter schools ( undermining a fine NZ education tradition of egalitarian , high quality , state funded , secular education, which promotes critical thinking and scholarship for all)
* ousting of the democratically elected Environment Canterbury away from Cantabrians’ voting control and into the hands of National Government appointed commissioners.
* the prolonged state of emergency in Christchurch and power and control wrested away from the City Council and Christchurch residents.
All NZers should watch this video and be warned of what could be in store!
see more on Petrostates in the ‘Slane sums up’ thread.
Interesting interviews on Radionz today. The last one was from Jaron Lanier who explains how he changed his mind about making the web accessible and free to all, as he now sees that the benefits of this are being scooped up by those with the biggest computers. And lots more of intelligent stuff.
He is great to listen to, a lively speaker and thinker and a great laugh. Still with a sense of humour, someone to treasure and pay attention to.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/thiswayup
(Who Owns the Future – book)
Jaron Lanier radionz 1.40pm Sat 8/6
Lanier is a miserable whiney bore who is just pissy that the web has left him behind and his precious digital utopia never came about because people would rather watch porn and exchange recipies for meatloaf.
he makes shitty tunes too.
Excellent Gingerbread recipe;
-cream butter and sugar
-add 1 egg
-add molasses
-add flour, baking soda, salt
-add cloves, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, grated lemon.
Mix
Chill
Roll into a log on gladwrap (or generic).
Bake at 180 Degrees celsius, 15-20 minutes.
😀
A free colostomy bag if you can spot what’s wrong with this sentence…
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/8771257/Slip-victims-Where-did-the-water-come-from
Neighbours with different street names, but looking on map it appears they are on a corner.
or, the article attributes wrong houses to these residents i.e. : Gavin Formans’ house is in Breton Gr.
If I’m correct, you can keep the bag.
I feel for the family without insurance in this very sad event.
Sadly, and indicative of shitty journalistic standards…but no
the clue is in the bag 🙂
And at this point I have to say I’m not ‘highly confident’ about this claim:
I’m thinking that Mr Michael’s staff may have indeed found a hairline crack on the Friday night, but they’ve missed, or are covering up for something much larger. Much better for the man to have withheld comment until all the evidence was in. Because at this early stage such an unsupported claim just looks horribly self-serving.
I concur…
Oh for an Oxford comma or two
I wouldn’t want my family to be evacuated in a landslip. The house we were in ?…sure, but damned if i’m gonna let a team suck the shit out of me and mine in an emergency.
another example of the lack of subeditors.
Hay, Clover, name-checked your worthy self in the ‘Slane sums up’ thread. Bah, Hmmm.
-Bug
good cartoon, but the comments seem to be a bit earnest for my current mood.
Weekend Blues (Sunday afternoon on Bay FM). 😀
nah – more enjoying a quiet day without too much thought. Busy week.
mindfulness (or a wee dram). Better go “cook tea” now (before witnessing all the wasted human life (fatalities, local and international) on the box.).
Kind regards, bet it was a cold week down there too.
Daytime TV Review
Three Wise Men discuss “Relationship Woes”
Hands up all those who cannot abide Willie Jackson!
Okay, okay, but first I need to tell you something about a program he featured on the other day….
Good Morning, TV1, 9:10 a.m., Tuesday 4 June 2013
Relationship Woes, a Men’s Panel discussion featuring Wallace Chapman, Miles Davis and Willie Jackson
Trashy television has its charms. Take TV1’s ailing Good Morning program, for instance. Last year, host Jeanette Thomas got hypnotized on air, performed the haka, conducted an imaginary orchestra with a raw chicken, tried to seduce Tom Cruise and had a go at pole dancing. And all of that happened in just one morning’s episode. Over the years, one of the perverse highlights, or lowlights, for this writer, i.e. moi, was watching the perplexed, slightly hostile look on the dial of macho man Brendon Pongia as Steve Gray gave his movie reviews.
Despite all this top quality entertainment, however, Good Morning has been cursed with low ratings, and as a result it has been cut back this year from three hours to just one—from 9 to 10 o’clock.
Today the coiffured blond host, whose name I could not ascertain even after extensive hunting, introduced a semi-serious panel discussion, about Relationship Woes. The three “talents” chosen for the task were lovable and impish professional boy-man Wallace Chapman, professional cheeky cockney chappy Miles Davis, and professional cheeky Maori fulla Willie Jackson.
Here are the highlights…..
MILES DAVIS: You have to admit that ninety-nine per cent of the time the woman is the one in the right.
WALLACE CHAPMAN: Yeah, but you don’t want to be a male doormat.
MILES DAVIS: [accentuating the East End wide-boy accent] I’m no’ a doormat.
………
WILLIE JACKSON: Ya see, the problem with you Wallace is, it’s all academic, it’s all P.C. with you. You can’t solve relationships with an academic approach and it’s SHOCKING really.
WALLACE CHAPMAN: [diffidently and sensitively] I-I-I-I…
MILES DAVIS: Talk to us, Wozza!
HOST: We’re going to continue our debate on relationships and the blame game with THESE GUYS, after THIS.
……….
Shark Steam Mop advert….
WOMAN: What?!!??!? Nine ninety-nine?!!!!??!?? You’ve gone MAD!!!!
MAN: I’ve gone C-R-R-RAAAZY!
……….
BLOND HOST: Well, we’re back with the Men’s Panel discussing Relationship Woes. Wallace, you were talking about your kayaking session.
Wallace Chapman embarks on a long and terribly dull story about going kayaking with his family. Nothing at all seems to have happened, but apparently it was very important for strengthening his family relationships. At least that’s what he reckons. After he finishes talking, there is a long awkward silence….
HOST: That’s it?
WILLIE JACKSON: Terrible story.
MILES DAVIS: Ha ha ha ha ha!
…….
Later on, Miles Davis talks about how it is possible to argue constructively with one’s wife or partner. This attempt at sensitivity is quickly scotched by Willie Jackson, who has no patience for such displays of SNAGgery….
WILLIE JACKSON: It just gets WORSE!!!! Next thing you’re into a PUNCH-UP!!!!!
Jackson’s main gig these days is the Radio Live program he hosts with the equally erudite John Tamihere. Several years ago, Willie and JT had dwarf-boxing impesario Dean Lonergan on to talk sensitively and learnedly on the subject of marital infidelity. Both Deano and JT made it clear that there was no excuse for violence against any woman, even if one came home one day midway through the afternoon to find her in bed with, say, half the ACT caucus. Willie Jackson, though, was having none of that P.C. nonsense. “If I found out that my missus was fooling around on me,” he said, with quiet sincerity, “I’d put a knife through her heart.”
This shocked even the crass and offensive Lonergan, who felt moved to remonstrate: “I think that’s going a bit far, mate.”
Willie didn’t back down an inch, however. “Nah, nah, nah—don’t give me THAT,” he said, without even a hint of his usual playfulness. “I would. I would put a knife through her heart. I WOULD.”
JT snorted sardonically and laughed, “You’re a mongrel, Willie, a mongrel.”
All right, you can put your hands down now.
interestingly, I have an aquaintence (aquainted with his whanau as well) and he did take a tomahawk to the man, in bed with his wife; 4 years later, upon release, no wife. sigh, was getting muscle fatigue keeping my arm up.
Blinking hell, ghostrider! Can you spin that out into a dramatic reconstruction for us? It sounds like a riveting story.
sigh, I do have a volume or three of actual / factual stories to tell, I know, as many of us do; fortunately, or other wise, many of them are memorable, yet Robert Plant (another Rock god) advised to keep on rolling and resist writing a book…and I DO NOT YET OWN A WORKING COMPUTER OF MY OWN…yet when it does happen, it could be a lot worse than a hybrid of The Bone People and Tough Guys Don’t Dance with a little Child In Time wound in. 😉 yeeha!
Al-Qaeda, and post-Assad Syria
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10889164
and from the Business desk;
the diluting of the Infant Formula brand
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10889176
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business-editors-picks/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501981&objectid=10889015 (greed cannot help itself. a New Image? Don’t think so Murry).
“Farming the Elderly”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10889082
(retirement eats capital).
Chocolate Aeroplane 😉 wings
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10889079
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10889128
(price-fixing).
Fonterra share, unit prices, shake-up.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/agriculture/news/article.cfm?c_id=16&objectid=10888777
(spilt milk).
LIARS OF OUR TIME
No. 18: Ant Strachan
“It’s all about defence! Y’ know, the All Blacks won the World Cup in 2011 because of their outstanding defence!”
—Ant Strachan, Radio Sport, 75 minutes into the New Zealand-France friendly, Saturday 8 June 2013
See also….
No. 17: Stephen Franks: “Peter has been such a level-headed, safe pair of hands.
No. 16: Phil Kafcaloudes: “Tony Abbott…hasn’t made any mistakes over the past eighteen months”
No. 15: Donald Rumsfeld: “I did not lie… Colin Powell did not lie.”
No. 14: Colin Powell: “a post-9/11 nexus between Iraq and terrorist organizations…connections are now emerging…”
No.13: Barack Obama: “Simply put, these strikes have saved lives.”
No. 12: U.K. Ministry of Defence: “Protecting the Afghan civilian population is one of ISAF and the UK’s top priorities.”
No. 11: Brendan O’Connor: “Australia’s approach to refugees is compassionate and generous.”
No. 10: Boris Johnson: “Londoners have… the best police in the world to look after us and keep us safe.”
No. 9: NewstalkZB PR dept: “News you NEED! Fast, fair, accurate!”
No. 8: Simon Bridges: “I don’t mean to duck the question”
No. 7: Nigel Morrison: “Quite frankly, they’ve been VERY tough.”
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-15052013/#comment-633295
No. 6: NZ Herald PR dept: “Congratulations—you’re reading New Zealand’s best newspaper.”
No. 5: Rawdon Christie: “…a FORMIDABLE replacement, it seems, is Claudette Hauiti.” http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-13052013/#comment-632594
No. 4: Willie and J.T.: “The X-Factor. Nah, nah, there’s some GREAT talent there!”
No. 3: John Key: “Yeah we hold MPs to a higher standard.”
No. 2: Colin Craig: “Oh, I have a GREAT sense of humour.”
No. 1: Barack Obama: “Margaret Thatcher was one of the great champions of freedom and liberty.”
I just hope that tomorrow (Sun) someone puts up an interesting enough post or two that we can stop talking about fluoridation and conspiracy theories :-/