It is only a matter of time: Greece’s day of reckoning will arrive and it will not be pretty for her people, despite all promised made by Tsipras and his radicals.
The derivatives leveraged to Greek default put the entire world economy at risk because of there size.
Basically you can think of derivatives as buying insurance on someone else’s house – you then have an incentive to burn it down so you can claim on the policy. There is much money to be made out of Greece failing and much pain for all of us whether or not we understand the counterparty risk triggered by derivatives levered up to the trillions that turn toxic as soon as the default occurs.
An option to buy a share is used in hedging? The right to buy should the share go up in price at a lower price. So what happens when your Leemen brothers or whatever bank that collapses? The option is worthless. Does that mean in future companies could implode purposefully to take down the market? And should we be investigating financial terrorism? Was 9-11 the start of a financial world war?
Probably true but that day of reckoning has absolutely nothing to do with what Greece has done nor what it’s trying to do but with what the predatory private banks have done.
Prior to the mid 1990s the government subsidised the supply side of housing ensuring everyone had somewhere to live.
From the mid 1990s the government began to shift to subsidies over to the demand side of housing. Selling state houses and introducing the Accommodation Supplement so those on low incomes could “choose” where to live.
Unlike HNZ housing which was only available to those disadvantaged in the housing market, the Accommodation Supplement was available to all those who met a cash asset test, and income test.
so, who still thinks that it’s a good idea that we send NZ troops in to fight ISIS with the Americans. Because now it turns out that the rise of ISIS was not only predicted by the Americans because it knew that its allies helped shepherd it along, ISIS (or an entity like it) was seen by the Americans as being helpful in sorting out Assad and in limiting Iranian influence in the area.
By the way, the US are experts at importing, training and arming militant Muslim extremists to take down whole governments. The Americans have been doing it since Soviet Afghanistan.
By the way, the US are experts at importing, training and arming militant Muslim extremists to take down whole governments. The Americans have been doing it since Soviet Afghanistan.
The CIA has publicly admitted for the first time that it was behind the notorious 1953 coup against Iran’s democratically elected prime minister Mohammad Mosaddeq, in documents that also show how the British government tried to block the release of information about its own involvement in his overthrow.
Just read this stomach churning piece on how the US engineered the “El Salvador” option to controlling the Sunni insurgency in Iraq in 2004. In essence, enabling Shia sectarian death squads and torture centres to suppress Sunni insurgents, driving a sectarian blood bath in Iraq which would take pressure off attacks on US forces. At the cost of tens of thousands of Iraqi lives a month.
I can’t Bomber believe actually accused The Standard as being “pompous”. That’s rich coming from Bomber who it appears won’t leave the house without wearing a mustard coloured v-neck and sport coat.
What’s not to like? The PM cosying up to his state propaganda machine, naming babies and probably delivering them next on live tv! Watching it gave me the feeling that some more dirty tricks are at play here.
I have a serious problem. Perhaps someone can help me. I listened to the RNZ political spot this morning and – apart from an innocuous bit of union bashing – I agreed with pretty much everything Matthew Hooten said. Do you think I should contact Mike Williams and ask him how he copes with the “I agree with Matt” condition?
In two early examples, nothing he (the speaker) says made a judgement on whether anything was right or wrong, so the door is left open for people to “agree” as long as they look at it all from their perspective, not the perspective of the political speaker.
e.g. (I’ll paraphrase loosely)
“McCully didn’t follow protocols…etc etc [description of transgressions]…”, well is that a good or bad thing and would you or the people you support use that “back door” process? Nothing is said on that point. The speaker says journalists say it is all ok, but the speaker says “I don’t think that’s right”. Does he mean the action was wrong, or does he mean the opinion of journalists was wrong, or does he mean he thinks the action was wrong, but it was the right thing to do to assure a particular end result? The implication is there, that a conclusive comment could be made, but none is made: good or bad, something to be condoned and encouraged, or not. The speaker doesn’t specifically say, so anyone who agrees with him is giving him the benefit of the doubt that he agrees with one side, their side, when he may not, and in effect is only agreeing with themselves.
“Journalists used to hunt in packs… some called it bullying, now they don’t….”
Is that good or bad? Bullying is emotive language. Bullying, we’re told, is “bad”, so they should’ve been stopped… is that what he was implying? Who or what actions is he justifying so emotively? Is the political speaker making a further attack on journalists, or lamenting the loss of collaboration between colleagues? Could be either. Was, or is, the political speaker involved with anything that might have created the environment that journalists can now only “hunt solo”, even if they should do, or want to do, otherwise? “Hunting in packs” is a statement of fact, obvious in it’s loaded meaning, but not relevence, so what would anyone be agreeing with when it is said?
There is no proof that anything the speaker says is linked to the any other statement or topic that follows, or that a consistent perspective is being used. Apply these examples to what was said in the panel discussion, and see how much agreement there is now.
I don’t care about the size of Martyn Bradbury’s ego and I don’t care about the eccentricities of his personality, but telling outright lies about the standard being a Labour party blog (one piece of evidence is that Slater thinks it is) is well beyond what is ok. I no longer consider Bradbury to be trustworthy to the left (for whatever my opinion is worth). This isn’t about the standard vs TDB (I read both), or lprent vs Bomber (really, who gives a shit), it’s about someone on the left telling actual lies about the left and doing it from a position of power and responsibility in a way that is going to undermine the left, and create confusion for anyone trying to make sense of Dirty Politics who hasn’t been following closely (including the media and bloggers who have influence, but also just general readers). That’s fucked. Very very fucked.
Bradbury: As I said above, The Standard was set up by the Labour Party, the original creation of it was as a Labour Party newsletter for christ’s sakes. It’s a Labour Party blog, that’s why Slater was trying to hack it, to attack the Labour Party.
You’re personal feelings about him, and your need to make comment about that, don’t help. My point is, the personality stuff is irrelevant, it just clouds the reall issues, in this instance, that he’s telling harmful lies (and probably doing so intentionally), and what that means for the left.
Agree with weka. Telling Bomber off for wearing the wrong clothes does nothing to help our position. I often find his personality pompous and annoying too, so what? Who cares? Do us a favour and make a grown up argument instead.
No, you weren’t. You were just going on about his personality, again (hint, it’s in the words blowhardy, pompous etc). You’ve yet to make a single comment on this today about an actual issue that isn’t about you disliking Bomber.
Sure, Weka, but in the context of what you were talking about – his utter contempt of the truth which makes him an arrogant blowhard.
The same as Slater’s utter contempt of truth makes him an arrogant blowhard….I’m sure you’ll have the same faux outrage against me defining Slater in those terms too.
As I said, I don’t care how you feel about them. I’m more interested in what Bradbury is doing. I don’t care if he’s a blowhard or not. You obviously think the important bit is his blowhardiness (or your feelings that he is). I think the important bit is the lie he is telling and what that means (and no, it doesn’t mean he is a blowhard, really who cares about that?)..
Actually the original newsletter was The Maoriland worker. It was not till the 1930’s that it changed it’s name to The Standard. The news sheet ceased publishing in the 1960’s. One last point – it was not started by the labour party, but by the Shears Union.
So yeah Weka, I do believe you are right in calling Boomer a liar on this one. He deliberately misrepresent The standard, not only as it presently stands, but historically as well.
1910 – Robert Ross invited by the FOL from Melbourne to edit the paper
1911 – Robert Hogg (later editor of New Zealand Truth) was Manager.[3]
1913 – Contributors Edward Hunter (Billy Banjo) and Harry Holland charged with sedition.[4]
1913–1918 Harry Holland appointed editor.[5][6]
1922 – Publisher John Glover prosecuted (unsuccessfully) for blasphemous libel. New Zealand’s only trial to date for blasphemy.[6][7]
1922 – The manager John Glover lent £100 interest free to Walter Nash.
1930s – Renamed to “the Standard”.
1960 – Ceased publication.[8]
Anyone want to put up something about the modern Standard on wikipedia? For that matter there doesn’t appear to be anything about the old Standard.
Hmm. In the interests of clarification, I posted the following over at TDB. I’m in moderation and don’t really expect the comment to become public.
‘The Standard’ has, and had, nothing to do with the Labour Party Martyn.
The Maoriland Worker, later called The Standard, was a leading New Zealand labour journal of the early 20th century.
It was launched in 1910 by the Shearers’ Union and was initially published monthly (Frank Langstone was involved).[1] It was soon taken over by the New Zealand Federation of Labour and became the official organ of the federation.[2]
The journal ceased publication in 1960. At the time it was called The Standard, and was published weekly.
Yes I agree weka. Deliberately telling a lie to sow misinformation and muddy the waters so that your pet project can be enhanced or seen to be better is low and dishonest. Bomber has bombed and friendly fire ain’t friendly especially when aimed – the martyr-dum of martyn.
Anyone else catch Key’s cringe appearance on breakfast this morning (A link to the vid for those who want it http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=11461572)
Funny, how in the midst of all the politcally shadiness being pushed at the moment, the prime minister gets to gleefully announce the pregnancy of a popular television presenter, while still ducking from anything resembling a robust interview. As woman around Pugh’s age I’ll say that this is sort of chit-chat you’d expect to have at a saturday brunch with the girls… not with the prime minister on national TV. To be fair Pugh seems pretty uncomfortable, while Key looks as happy as a kid who’s just managed to deliver his lines in the school play without stumbling (**looks out to mum and dad “Did i do good, you guys???”)
I don’t know if its possible but Little and the green leaders should be trying to get on both channels for a casual chat once a week this is a new era.
TV3 have shown contempt for the viewer with JC’s demise and this slide will continue and show them just how crucial he was to the overall ratings of the 6-7.30 slot.
Experienced TV news folk know this but you have a banksta and a reality TV copy/paste queen calling the shots now or puling the trigger on a loaded gun they get handed, either way results the same.
weight loss and road cops either side of the news…..Classy !
“”I’d just like to thank you for coming to see me while I was in jail in Japan,” he wrote.
“You were the only journalist who came and though we couldn’t physically speak through the glass, the sign language that day helped alleviate my family’s fears and quell a lot of rumours surrounding the incident at the time.”
I’m no expert in the IT space so can someone tell me if these eye watering sums are reasonable or whether the NZ public are being taken to the cleaners.
With a couple of consulting partners supervising at $2500/hr, a few senior consultants on at $800/hr, and a team of recent graduate analysts charged out at $450/hr (all excl GST, and those are per person rates), you do the math…
Business transformation is a nebulous Term that can mean anything from one or more new IT systems to a reorganisation, new roles/redundancies etc etc so it can have large chunks that have nothing to do with technology
The IRD is a complex and difficult environment so the governance and security aspects are deep with change being slow and cumbersome, it’s also full of opinionated idiots who get to influence outcomes (I include ministers in this) with no experience in such a project.
vendors factor that in such as the involvement of 1 particular architect at a site meant any value was doubled before being given to the client as that’s the impact 1 person can have….imagine committees full of them.
CR’s point above also weighs in with alot of overhead required just to get basic stuff done.
Even if it were strictly IT software/hardware upgrades (it’s not), for a client the size of IRD it’s probably not too bad value. Remember the fuckup with novopay, and apply it to our entire tax system from PAYE to GST to company tax, and… eeep.
It’s a long-term project with phased implementation and an entire refit of the processes as well as the IT infrastructure, so it’s more than a few consultants knocking out some bullshit.
Upcoming Public Meeting in Auckland for concerned citizens and ratepayers who are opposed to MORE Auckland Council proposed rate$ increases!
WHEN: Wednesday 10 June 2015
TIME: 7.30 – 10pm
WHERE: Mt Eden War Memorial Hall
487 Dominion Rd, Balmoral
You can see by the range of speakers – the range of concern and opposition across the political spectrum!
(Please be advised that ALL political parties currently represented in Parliament were invited, as was Auckland Mayor Len Brown.)
_____________________________________________________________________________
PRESS RELEASE
RAY CALVER & DICK CUTHBERT
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ANOTHER SPEAKER ADDED TO LINE UP
The Auckland Rates Increases Public Meeting, taking place on Wednesday June 10, now has additional speakers to add to the line up. Ray Calver says
“We are delighted to be able to welcome Parmjeet Parma from the National Party and Hinurewa Te Hau from the Maori Party.
This brings the total number of speakers addressing the meeting up to 9.”
The confirmed speakers are now
· Stephen Berry – Affordable Auckland Mayoral candidate
· Cameron Brewer – Orakei Councillor
· Penny Bright – Mayoral candidate
· Jo Holmes – Auckland Ratepayer’s Alliance
· Damien Light – United Future
· Bill Raynor – Grey Power
· Parmjeet Parma – National MP
· David Seymour – Act Epsom MP
· Hinurewa Te Hau – Maori Party
“Following speeches, time will be put aside for audience members to either ask questions or give statements on how they believe we should proceed in opposing the rates increases. This will be followed by tea and coffee giving audience members an opportunity to talk with our speakers.”
The Auckland Rates Increases Public Meeting will take place from 7:30pm on June 10th at Mt. Eden War Memorial Hall, 487 Dominion Road.
Jerry Collins-balls
Just how bad can the commentary get?
The frenzy following the death of Jerry Collins hasn’t, on the whole, been as obscene or absurd as what we were subjected to for the visit of that coke-snorting, whore-pestering, peasant-smiting “playboy” beneficiary and scrounger a few weeks ago. Nevertheless, hapless “consumers” of the New Zealand media over the last three days have been exposed to some of the most bewildered, ignorant and unpleasant commentary to be found outside of an ACT Party policy or a Sensible Sentencing Trust klavern.
BEWILDERED…..
“It’s a travesty for the rugby world,” intoned a commentator during the Hurricanes-Highlanders game on Friday night. He meant to say “tragedy”, of course, but he was doing a rugby broadcast, where ignorance reigns supreme, so no one picked him up on it.
IGNORANT…..
On Saturday afternoon, Brendan Telfer interviewed Dominion Post rugby writer Toby Robson, who after a few gracious words about Jerry Collins, went on to spoil it by displaying a breathtaking level of sporting ignorance that hasn’t been heard on radio since the departure of Martin “Moron” Devlin….
BRENDAN TELFER: He was playing for a second division club.
TOBY ROBSON: Yeah, he’s been playing for a club called Narbonne. I don’t know what standard it would be, whether it’s club level or what it is….
It’s club level in France, of course, which is provincial level in New Zealand. But Robson appears not to know this, or indeed to know anything about French rugby—“a club called Narbonne”—which begs the question: Why is he allowed to write about the game?
UNPLEASANT…..
Anyone unwise or undiscriminating enough to be listening to RadioLIVE at 2:20 p.m. today (Monday June 8th) would have heard the host desperately making his case….
WILLIE JACKSON: [shouting passionately] Yeah he WAS! Jerry Collins was a ROLE MODEL!!
Now, when someone asserts something like that, with extreme truculence—other examples are: “Bruce Hutton had integrity beyond reproach” or “You KNOW me. I am a GOOD man” or “Never, ever would I ever knowingly sign a false electoral return”[1]—-he, or she (probably Michelle Boag) is almost always trying to cover up something unpleasant. The unpleasant truth about Jerry Collins is that, in spite of being a wonderful athlete and a genuinely nice guy, he did have another, more disturbing, side to him. While he neither brought death and disaster to anyone in Afghanistan nor launched into extended racist rants on radio, it is a fact that the last time he was in the news was when he was arrested in Japan for carrying knives. [2] Willie Jackson went on to express his extreme displeasure that Television One had dared to mention that unsavory incident on its Friday night coverage of the tragedy. “I sat there, getting angrier and angrier,” he raged to a caller.
Perhaps other Standardistas are able to furnish other examples of nonsense spoken about Jerry Collins.
[1]http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-09102014/#comment-907232 [2] Jackson once announced live on air that if his “missus” ever fooled around on him, he’d “put a knife through her heart”. Even his co-hosts, John “JT” Tamahere and Dean Lonergan, a gruesome twosome if ever there was a gruesome twosome, were appalled by that one.
A report on the status of human rights in New Zealand says serious fault lines are developing and that the country’s reputation as a global leader is at risk.
“A three-year study of the six major human rights treaties New Zealand has signed, shows we’re better at talking about human rights than walking the talk and implementing our promises made internationally,” says Auckland University of Technology’s Professor Judy McGregor, co-author of Fault lines: Human rights in New Zealand.
“The detailed research shows we’re slipping behind in areas such as child poverty, gender equality, systemic disadvantage of Māori, and the rights of disabled people to challenge the State.
“For example, we keep telling the United Nations we were the first to grant women the vote, but we still don’t have equal pay for women or pay equity for carers. Nor do we have adequate paid parental leave, and we continue to suffer completely unacceptable levels of violence against women. We say how good we are, but the reality is we’re in trouble.”
Funded by the New Zealand Law Foundation, Fault lines was written by Professor McGregor, human rights lawyer Sylvia Bell and Waikato University’s Professor Margaret Wilson. Each has significant practical experience of working in human rights.
URGENT ACTION NEEDED
The report suggests New Zealand needs to take urgent remedial action to retain its point of difference as a human rights leader. It is also critical of the level of understanding of Members of Parliament on human rights treaty obligations.
In addition, the report says New Zealanders’ strong belief that we are good at human rights has blinded us to the fact that we are falling behind other countries in implementing economic, social and cultural rights on the ground, despite our treaty obligations.
RECOMMENDATIONS
It suggests 13 recommendations to help New Zealand retain human rights leadership including a comprehensive rewrite of human rights legislation, a new parliamentary select committee to deal with human rights, and the urgent repeal of non-human rights compliant legislation to reinstate the rights of all New Zealanders to complain about discrimination.
The recommendations also suggest a new, more proactive role for the Māori Affairs Select Committee in monitoring New Zealand’s response to the United Nations about closing the inequality gaps. More New Zealanders should be nominated for significant UN human rights treaty bodies and journalists need better training in the reporting of treaty body reports which remain largely invisible to the public.
WHAT THE REPORT COVERS
New Zealand has ratified six international treaties covering political, civil, economic, social and cultural rights, racial discrimination and the rights of women, children and people with disabilities.
Fault lines, examines each of the treaties and New Zealand’s engagement in the Universal Periodic Review, an overview of human rights progress. The report is based on interviews in New Zealand and at the United Nations, case law, analysis of treaty body reports and personal observation.
Professor McGregor says the backing of the Law Foundation, which is New Zealand’s major funder of independent legal research, was critical to producing the report.
The report is online at Fault lines: Human rights in New Zealand.
Warnings about a corporate takeover of the dairy industry in New Zealand
Questions need to be asked about what happening to the dairy industry and the New Zealand economy.
Is New Zealand just a victim of low commodity prices and the collapse of the world economy or – as some suggest- is there a move of financial and banking interests to bankrupt New Zealand farmers so they are ripe for a takeover.
Do we have a Fifth Column of corporates and their representatives in politics who are acting, not in the national interest, but are, in fact, acting to sell New Zealand off – something we have witnessed in this country since 1984?
A week or so ago there was a revealing interview about the high debt levels of farmers and how many are being squeezed by low commodity prices.
Today there was an interesting item about a review in Fonterra, which is now mentioned as a low-achieving company like Solid Energy (throw under the bus by this government) before it.
Good points Penny ….and provocative questions …hope you are not correct re
“Do we have a Fifth Column of corporates and their representatives in politics who are acting, not in the national interest, but are, in fact, acting to sell New Zealand off – something we have witnessed in this country since 1984?…
Kathryn Ryan also did a good review of the issues today:
” As dairy farmers around the country tighten their belts in the face of continuing low milk prices, Fonterra has a major review of its business performance underway. The company has instituted what it calls a “performance improvement programme” called “Velocity”. Nine to Noon understands the dairy cooperative has has brought in external consultants McKinsey’s `Recovery and Transformation Services’ unit, which specialises in helping distressed companies, underperforming business units and in implementing large-scale restructuring and transformation. Jacqueline Rowarth is Professor of Agribusiness at Waikato University. Russell Macpherson is immediate past president of Federated Farmers, Southland. Fonterra shareholder and farmer, Will Wilson is an agricultural consultant, company director and part owner and director of several dairy farms.
Yeah, a Samoan mate with aiga connections who’s staying here at the moment asked me to check out his ‘in English’ Facebook tribute. I could. We got that down then he asked me to check out his tribute in Samoan. I couldn’t. How the fuck could I ? The Samoan tribute is special and not for this palagi to tamper with. So, so sad. I grieve with Porirua. Hope that wee girl if she endures finds comfort in knowing that she came from fineness.
Hope the NZRU see fit to agree to the All Blacks/Samoa Test in Apia being a memorial to Jerry. I’m sure the ABs themselves would love it. It’s so memorable when driving along the main road from Apia in near twilight to see supremely athletic youngsters darting, dummying, stepping, all over the village green which is peppered with lumps of volcanic rock ‘hurters’. And everyone laughing expellingly, rejoicing, completely into it.
Just watching The Gauche But Devilishly Cunning Everyman Fuck on Maori TV Native Affairs. The words “lawful” or “lawfullly” used used 4 or 5 times in the first 90 seconds. Like that’s all that matters, “at the end of the day”. Fuck proceeding with a view to the gross-society-twisting of being just “lawful”. Snake. If only by the effluxion of time ShonKey will be gone. Leaving our society seriously depleted. Thank you Michelle Boag and others. You don’t have to give a fuck. You can tra-la-la forever. Because you’ve never had to suffer the consequences of what you’ve done. You’ve actually profited from it for God’s Sake !
Forbes is brilliant. I win the big Powerball on Saturday…..her and Campbell. Somewhere, somehow. People with heart !
On a separate note entirely, the US air force’s new super-dooper does-everything-for-a-massive-cost multi-role cyber-wank jet is scheduled to take part in a combined services exercise. It can’t aim its gun and can only carry a couple of bombs, so I assume the pilots will yell “bang” as they fly over the area.
That’s what one and a half trillion gets ya, apparently.
People killin', people dyin'Children hurt, and you hear them cryin'Can you practice what you preach?And would you turn the other cheek?Father, father, father, help usSend some guidance from above'Cause people got me, got me questioningWhere is the love?Songwriters: will.i.am, Justin Timberlake, Taboo, apl.de.ap, Printz Board, Michael Fratantuno, George Pajon, Jr.Where ...
A Bully in a China Shop?It is a mystery what Donald Trump learned when he did his BA in economics at the University of Pennsylvania in the mid-1960s. The Ivy League college has a good economics reputation, but even had Trump been a top student – unlikely or he would ...
The conflict we can see echoing across the world is being imported directly into New Zealand by outside powers and monetary influences that we don't want in our politics. It makes our politics messy and confusing, but untangling the puppet strings can help make sense of how we got here.This ...
Questions1. The poem that offers the immortal words The boy stood on the burning deck is about what?a. Eskimo Nell’s younger brotherb. The Reichstag firec. One of Napoleon’s shipsd. Christopher Luxon’s first year as Prime Minister2. What happens to the boy in the poem?a. Goes on an absolute bender in ...
I decided not to bother listening to the Reserve Bank’s appearance at FEC yesterday morning. After all, the OCR decision had been much as expected and foreshadowed, the forecast tracks etc hadn’t changed much, and – with all due respect to some new FEC members – how searching was any ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedQuote of the day:Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published“Our primary duty, I believe, is to maintain our water, our lakes, our rivers in a form in nature that supports life, ecosystems, communities, and, indeed, it ...
NZ’s peaceful and historic Hikoi for Maori rights and bottom, London police arrest environmental protestorsPeaceful protesters around the world are being jailed for years for nothing more than turning up or planning a protestAusralian climate change protesters To continue to receive posts like this, consider becoming a free or paid ...
And mama said mmmmh, mmmmhWhy don't the newscasters cryWhen they read about people who dieAt least they could be decent enoughTo put just a tear in their eyesAnd mama saidIt's just make-believeYou can't believe everything you seeSo baby, close your eyes to the lullabiesOn the news tonightSongwriters: Jack Hody Johnson.The ...
Hi,With the United States of America currently going down in a giant ball of flames like the Hindenburg disaster, it seemed like a good idea to get on a blimp. That line is basically meaningless, but it sounded good in my head so I went with it as an opener. ...
(My apologies. The version sent earlier this morning had the audio of last week’s podcast attached. It was good, but not that good. I have now updated with this week’s podcast. This is my error and please accept my apologies.)The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with regular and special guests, including:, Helen Clark and on the week in geopolitics, including Donald Trump’s wrecking of the post-WW II politicial landscape; and, ...
Open access notables Long-lasting intense cut-off lows to become more frequent in the Northern Hemisphere, Mishra et al., Communications Earth & Environment:Cut-off Lows are slow-moving mid-latitude storms that are detached from the main westerly flow and are often harbingers of heavy and persistent rainfall. The assessment of Cut-off Lows ...
On Tuesday, the "Independent" Police Conduct Authority issued an extraordinary report, proposing a complete rewrite of protest law to enable the police to restrict public protests and ban them at a whim. While packaged with several complaints in an appendix, the focus of the "thematic review" was clearly the provision ...
Data released today by Statistics New Zealand showed the urgent problem facing Aotearoa New Zealand in tackling child poverty, said NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi Economist Craig Renney. “Child poverty is estimated by Stats NZ on three measures – before housing costs, after housing costs, and material poverty. All three central ...
It is almost never an (unconditionally) good thing if an official policy interest rate (in our case the OCR) is being adjusted in large bites, whether that is (for example) 175 basis points of cuts in the last six months or 375 basis points of increases in just twelve months ...
Here are your morning catch ups in health, workplace, environment and politics.And then later, amust read critical piece from No Right Turn on the government’s attempt to expand police powers follows. ENVIRONMENTNew Zealand's glaciers have shrunk by 29% since 2000: The grim news - published in scientific journal Nature ...
And when we first came hereWe were cold, and we were clearWith no colours in our skinUntil we let the spectrum inSay my nameAnd every colour illuminatesWe are shiningAnd we will never be afraid againSongwriters: Florence Leontine Mary Welch / Paul Epworth.“What did Gerry say?”To be honest, with multiple people ...
Long story short, I spoke to Core Logic Head of Research Nick Goodall & Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ) CEO Jen Baird for a 15 minute mini-Hoon last night after the Reserve Bank of New Zealandannounced it had cut the Official Cash Rate 50 bps to 3.75% ...
There is a widening fear in Wellington that the Cook Islands – China deal is in danger of becoming a foreign policy crisis. Foreign Minister Winston Peters yesterday delivered a blunt assessment of the situation saying that New Zealand wanted to reset and restate the formal parameters of the relationship ...
Good to see that this year, the New Zealand film societies are celebrating what would have been Sam Peckinpah’s 100th birthday with what they are calling “Peckinpah’s West” – a tribute consisting of screenings of The Wild Bunch and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. That’s where the good part ...
Tomorrow afternoon, if things go really really badly, I may find myself down to one eye. People who used to sneer at me on Twitter will no doubt say So what's changed? Nothing, that's what, you one-eyed lefty.I don’t mean to be dramatic, it’s just a routine bit of cataract ...
A few weeks ago an invitation dropped into my email inbox to attend a joint Treasury/Motu seminar on recent, rather major, changes that had apparently been made to the discount rates used by The Treasury to evaluate proposals from government agencies. It was all news to me, but when ...
All your life is Time magazineI read it tooWhat does it mean?PressureI'm sure you'll have some cosmic rationaleBut here you are with your faithAnd your Peter Pan adviceYou have no scars on your faceAnd you cannot handle pressureSongwriter: Billy Joel.Christopher Luxon is under pressure from all sides. The reviews are ...
After seeing yet-more-months of political debate and policy decisions to ‘go for growth’ by pulling the same old cheap migration and cheap tourism levers without nearly-enough infrastructure, or any attempt to address the same old lack of globally conventional tax incentives for investment, I thought it would be worth issuing ...
The plans for the buildings that will replace the downtown carpark have been publicly notified giving us the first detailed glance at what is proposed for one of the biggest and best development sites in the city centre. The council agreed to sell the site to Precinct Properties for $122 ...
With the Reserve Bank expected today to return the Official Cash Rate to where it was in mid-2022 comes a measure of how much of a psychological impact the rate has. Federated Farmers has published its latest six-monthly farm confidence survey, which shows that profit expectations have fallen and risen ...
Kiwis Disallowed From Waiting Lists Based on Arbitrary MeasuresWellington hospital are now rejecting patients from specialist waiting lists due to BMI (body mass index).This article from Rachel Thomas for The Post says it all (emphasis mine):A group of Porirua GPs are sounding alarm bells after patients with body mass indexes ...
The Prime Minister says he's really comfortable with us not knowing the reoffending rate for his boot camp programme.They asked him for it at yesterday’s press conference, and he said, nah, not telling, have to respect people's privacy.Okay I'll bite. Let's say they release this information to us:The rate of ...
Warning 1: There is a Nazi theme at the end of this article related to the disabled community. Warning 2: This article could be boring!One day, last year, I excitedly opened up a Substack post that was about how to fight back, and the answer at the end was disappointing ...
This may be rhetorical but here goes: did any of you invest in the $Libra memecoin endorsed and backed by Argentine president and darling of the global Right Javier Milei (who admitted to being paid a fee for his promotion of the token)? You know, the one that soared above ...
Last week various of the great and good of New Zealand economics and public policy trooped off to Hamilton (of all places) for the annual Waikato Economics Forum, one of the successful marketing drives of university’s Vice-Chancellor. My interest was in the speeches delivered by the Minister of Finance and ...
The Prime Minister says the Government would be open to sending peacekeepers to Ukraine if a ceasefire was reached. The government has announced a $30 million spend on tourism infrastructure and biodiversity projects, including $11m spent to improve popular visitor sites and further $19m towards biodiversity efforts. A New Zealand-born ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler “But what about when the sun doesn't shine?!” Ah yes, the energy debate’s equivalent of “The Earth is flat!” Every time someone mentions solar or wind power, some self-proclaimed energy expert emerges from the woodwork to drop this supposedly devastating truth bomb: ...
This post by Nicolas Reid was originally published on Linked in. It is republished here with permission.In this article I look into data on how well the rail network serve New Zealanders, and how many people might be able to travel by train… if we ran more than a ...
Hi,Before we get into Hayden Donnell’s new column about how yes, Donald Trump is definitely the Antichrist, I wanted to touch on something feral that happened in New Zealand last week.Members of Destiny Church pushed and punched their way into an Auckland library, apparently angry it was part of Pride ...
Despite delays, logjams and overcrowding in our emergency departments, funding constraints are limiting the numbers of nurses and doctors being trained. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Tuesday, February 18 are:A NZ Herald investigation ...
Now that the US has ripped up the Atlantic alliance, Europe is more vulnerable now than at any time since the mid-1930s. Apparently, Europe and Ukraine itself will not have a seat at the table in the talks between US President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin that will ...
Olivia and Noah and Hana are going to the library!It is fun to go to the library. It has books and songs and mat time and people who smile at you and say, Hello Olivia, what have you been doing this morning?The library is more fun than the mall. At ...
New World Orders: The challenge facing Christopher Luxon and Chris Hipkins is how to keep their small and vulnerable nation safe and stable in a world whose economic and political climate the forty-seventh American president is changing so profoundly.IT IS, SURELY, the ultimate Millennial revenge fantasy. Calling senior Baby-Boomer and Gen-X ...
“This might surprise you, Laurie, but I reckon Trump’s putting on a bloody impressive performance.”“GOODNESS ME, HANNAH, just look at all those Valentine’s Day cards!”“Occupational hazard, Laurie, the more beer I serve, the more my customers declare their undying love!”“Crikey! I had no idea business was so good.” Laurie squinted ...
In 2005, Labour repealed the long-standing principle of birthright citizenship in Aotearoa. Why? As with everything else Labour does, it all came down to austerity: "foreign mothers" were supposedly "coming to this country to give birth", and this was "put[ting] pressure on hospitals". Then-Immigration Minister George Hawkins explicitly gave this ...
And I just hope that you can forgive usBut everything must goAnd if you need an explanation, nationThen everything must goSongwriters: James Dean Bradfield / Sean Anthony Moore / Nicholas Allen Jones.Today, I’d like to talk about a couple of things that happened over the weekend:Brian Tamaki’s Library Invasion and ...
New reporting highlights how Brooke van Velden refuses to meet with the CTU but is happy to meet with fringe Australian-based unions. Van Velden is pursuing reckless changes to undermine the personal grievance system against the advice of her own officials. Engineering New Zealand are saying that hundreds of engineers ...
The NZCTU strongly supports the Employment Relations (Employee Remuneration Disclosure) Amendment Bill. This Bill represents a positive step towards addressing serious issues around unlawful disparities in pay by protecting workers’ rights to discuss their pay and conditions. This Bill also provides welcome support for helping tackle the prevalent gender and ...
Years of hard work finally paid off last week as the country’s biggest and most important transport project, the City Rail Link reached a major milestone with the first test train making its way slowly though the tunnels for the first time. This is a fantastic achievement and it is ...
Engineers are pleading for the Government to free up funds to restart stalled projects. File Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Monday, February 17 are:Engineering New Zealand CEO Richard Templer said yesterday hundreds of ...
It’s one of New Zealand’s great sustaining myths: the spirit of ANZAC, our mates across the ditch, the spirit of Earl’s Court, Antipodeans united against the world. It is also a myth; it is not reality. That much was clear from a series of speakers, including a former Australian Prime ...
Many people have been unsatisfied for years that things have not improved for them, some as individuals, many more however because their families are clearly putting in more work, for less money – and certainly far less purchase on society. This general discontent has grown exponentially since the GFC. ...
A listing of 34 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, February 9, 2025 thru Sat, February 15, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
The Salvation Army’s State of the Nation report shows worsening food poverty and housing shortages mean more than 400,000 people now need welfare support, the highest level since the 1990s. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and ...
You're just too too obscure for meOh you don't really get through to meAnd there's no need for you to talk that wayIs there any less pessimistic things to say?Songwriters: Graeme DownesToday, I thought we’d take a look at some of the most cringe-inducing moments from last week, but don’t ...
Please note: I’ve delayed my “What can we do?” article for this video.The video above shows Destiny Church members assaulting staff and librarians as they pushed through to a room of terrified parents and young children.It was posted to social media last night.But if you read Sinead Boucher’s Stuff, you ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is sea level rise exaggerated? Sea levels are rising at an accelerating rate, not stagnating or decreasing. Warming global temperatures cause land ice ...
Here is a scenario, but first a historical parallel. Hitler and the Nazis could well have accomplished everything that they wanted to do within German borders, including exterminating Jews, so long as they confined their ambitious to Germany itself. After all, the world pretty much sat and watched as the ...
I’ve spent the last couple of days in Hamilton covering Waikato University’s annual NZ Economics Forum, where (arguably) three of the most influential people in our political economy right now laid out their thinking in major speeches about the size and role of Government, their views on for spending, tax ...
Simeon Brown’s Ideology BentSimeon Brown once told Kiwis he tries to represent his deep sense of faith by interacting “with integrity”.“It’s important that there’s Christians in Parliament…and from my perspective, it’s great to be a Christian in Parliament and to bring that perspective to [laws, conversations and policies].”And with ...
Severe geological and financial earthquakes are inevitable. We just don’t know how soon and how they will play out. Are we putting the right effort into preparing for them?Every decade or so the international economy has a major financial crisis. We cannot predict exactly when or exactly how it will ...
Questions1. How did Old Mate Grabaseat describe his soon-to-be-Deputy-PM’s letter to police advocating for Philip Polkinghorne?a.Ill-advisedb.A perfect letterc.A letter that will live in infamyd.He had me at hello2. What did Seymour say in response?a.What’s ill-advised is commenting when you don’t know all the facts and ...
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi President Richard Wagstaff has called on OJI Fibre Solutions to work with the government, unions, and the community before closing the Kinleith Paper Mill. “OJI has today announced 230 job losses in what will be a devastating blow for the community. OJI needs to work with ...
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi President Richard Wagstaff is sounding the alarm about the latest attack on workers from Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Brooke van Velden, who is ignoring her own officials to pursue reckless changes that would completely undermine the personal grievance system. “Brooke van Velden’s changes will ...
Hi,When I started writing Webworm in 2020, I wrote a lot about the conspiracy theories that were suddenly invading our Twitter timelines and Facebook feeds. Four years ago a reader, John, left this feedback under one of my essays:It’s a never ending labyrinth of lunacy which, as you have pointed ...
And if you said this life ain't good enoughI would give my world to lift you upI could change my life to better suit your moodBecause you're so smoothAnd it's just like the ocean under the moonOh, it's the same as the emotion that I get from youYou got the ...
Aotearoa remains the minority’s birthright, New Zealand the majority’s possession. WAITANGI DAY commentary see-saws manically between the warmly positive and the coldly negative. Many New Zealanders consider this a good thing. They point to the unexamined patriotism of July Fourth and Bastille Day celebrations, and applaud the fact that the ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with regular and special guests, including: and on the week in geopolitics, including the latest from Donald Trump’s administration over Gaza and Ukraine; on the ...
Up until now, the prevailing coalition view of public servants was that there were simply too many of them. But yesterday the new Public Service Commissioner, handpicked by the Luxon Government, said it was not so much numbers but what they did and the value they produced that mattered. Sir ...
The Golden Age There has been long-standing recognition that New Zealand First has an unrivalled reputation for delivering for our older New Zealanders. This remains true, and is reflected in our coalition agreement. While we know there is much that we can and will do in this space, it is ...
Labour Te Atatū MP Phil Twyford has written to the charities regulator asking that Destiny Church charities be struck off in the wake of last weekend’s violence by Destiny followers in his electorate. ...
Bills by Labour MPs to remove rules around sale of alcohol on public holidays, and for Crown entities to adopt Māori names have been drawn from the Members’ Bill Ballot. ...
The Government is falling even further behind its promised target of 500 new police officers, now with 72 fewer police officers than when National took office. ...
This morning’s Stats NZ child poverty statistics should act as a wake-up call for the government: with no movement in child poverty rates since June 2023, it’s time to make the wellbeing of our tamariki a political priority. ...
Green Party Co-Leader Marama Davidson’s Consumer Guarantees Right to Repair Amendment Bill has passed its first reading in Parliament this evening. ...
“The ACT Party can’t be bothered putting an MP on one of the Justice subcommittees hearing submissions on their own Treaty Principles Bill,” Labour Justice Spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
The Government’s newly announced funding for biodiversity and tourism of $30-million over three years is a small fraction of what is required for conservation in this country. ...
The Government's sudden cancellation of the tertiary education funding increase is a reckless move that risks widespread job losses and service reductions across New Zealand's universities. ...
National’s cuts to disability support funding and freezing of new residential placements has resulted in significant mental health decline for intellectually disabled people. ...
The hundreds of jobs lost needlessly as a result of the Kinleith Mill paper production closure will have a devastating impact on the Tokoroa community - something that could have easily been avoided. ...
Today Te Pāti Māori MP for Te Tai Tokerau, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, released her members bill that will see the return of tamariki and mokopuna Māori from state care back to te iwi Māori. This bill will establish an independent authority that asserts and protects the rights promised in He Whakaputanga ...
The Whangarei District Council being forced to fluoridate their local water supply is facing a despotic Soviet-era disgrace. This is not a matter of being pro-fluoride or anti-fluoride. It is a matter of what New Zealanders see and value as democracy in our country. Individual democratically elected Councillors are not ...
Nicola Willis’ latest supermarket announcement is painfully weak with no new ideas, no real plan, and no relief for Kiwis struggling with rising grocery costs. ...
Half of Pacific children sometimes going without food is just one of many heartbreaking lowlights in the Salvation Army’s annual State of the Nation report. ...
The Salvation Army’s State of the Nation report is a bleak indictment on the failure of Government to take steps to end poverty, with those on benefits, including their children, hit hardest. ...
New Zealand First has today introduced a Member’s Bill which would restore decision-making power to local communities regarding the fluoridation of drinking water. The ‘Fluoridation (Referendum) Legislation Bill’ seeks to repeal the Health (Fluoridation of Drinking Water) Amendment Act 2021 that granted centralised authority to the Direct General of Health ...
New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill aimed at preventing banks from refusing their services to businesses because of the current “Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Framework”. “This Bill ensures fairness and prevents ESG standards from perpetuating woke ideology in the banking sector being driven by unelected, globalist, climate ...
Erica Stanford has reached peak shortsightedness if today’s announcement is anything to go by, picking apart immigration settings piece by piece to the detriment of the New Zealand economy. ...
Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. The intention was to establish a colony with the cession of sovereignty to the Crown, ...
Te Whatu Ora Chief Executive Margie Apa leaving her job four months early is another symptom of this government’s failure to deliver healthcare for New Zealanders. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Prime Minister to show leadership and be unequivocal about Aotearoa New Zealand’s opposition to a proposal by the US President to remove Palestinians from Gaza. ...
The latest unemployment figures reveal that job losses are hitting Māori and Pacific people especially hard, with Māori unemployment reaching a staggering 9.7% for the December 2024 quarter and Pasifika unemployment reaching 10.5%. ...
Waitangi 2025: Waitangi Day must be community and not politically driven - Shane Jones Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. ...
Report by Dr David Robie – Café Pacific. – OPEN LETTER: By Hassan Abo Qamar Dear Mr Trump, I am writing to you as a Palestinian and a survivor of genocide, who was born and raised in Gaza — a city of love and resilience. I have read your ...
Pacific Media Watch One of the leading Middle East’s leading political and media analysts, Marwan Bishara, has accused President Donald Trump of applying a doctrine of ‘strategic coercion” and “economic blackmail” in his approach to the Gaza ceasefire. Bishara, senior political analyst of the Doha-based Al Jazeera global television network, ...
THE PRIME MINISTERWell look what I would like to say to you about the Man Up protest against a Pride event at an Auckland library on Saturday is that they went too far. You know, at the end of the day, let’s be honest, they went just a bit too ...
In a remarkable last-minute twist, the young immigrant mother at the heart of Fractured, Melanie Reid’s groundbreaking podcast on a case involving a baby’s injuries, has had her deportation order cancelled.Just days before she was set to be removed from the country, Associate Immigration Minister Chris Penk intervened, cancelling the deportation ...
Near-complete darkness. A savage shape to the hills. No words. Corinne presses the accelerator down, the road twisting and ducking before her. “We don’t have to go,” she says again, to Lizzie, in the passenger seat.Soon, the tarseal will turn to gravel, and the road will slip and slide like a ...
This podcast contains discussion about sexual assaultThe protest by Destiny Church at an Auckland Pride event has revisited a rhetoric that many in the rainbow community thought was dead and buried.Much of the response from the general public has been a lashing out against Bishop Brian Tamaki’s ManUp gang.Josiah Pasikale ...
Madeleine Chapman reflects on the week that was. This week has felt a lot like 2017. Remember when every other day there was a report of some guy saying something massively, comically, sexist (or worse, just being a flat-out abuser with few professional repercussions) and then out The Spinoff would ...
Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy is the fourth and final film in the series and gives our Bridge the fairytale ending she really, fucking deserves. It’s been 23 years since Bridget Jones’ Diary delivered one of the most iconic single gals in all of cinema (and literature). The world ...
The Junior Taskmaster host takes us through her life in television, from bingeing school holiday sitcoms to making Starstruck. In many ways, Rose Matafeo has been preparing for her role on Junior Taskmaster all her life. Not just because she is the daughter of a teacher, but because she has ...
On the lonely pain of miscarriage. It was my second pregnancy. I already had an 18-month-old toddler. We’d gone through anguish to have her. My daughter’s coming to being had started with a health hiccup that became an alarming question mark. The question had changed. It was no longer the ...
The Pacific profiles series shines a light on Pacific people in Aotearoa doing interesting and important work in their communities, as nominated by members of the public. Today, Symone Tafuna’i.All photos by Geoffery Matautia.Symone Tafuna’i does it all. At only 25, she is a champion sprinter, a sports ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jack K. Clegg, Professor of Inorganic Chemistry, The University of Queensland A thin crystal is bent elastically when pressed with a metal probe. UQ/QUT We are all familiar with elastic materials – just think of a rubber band which can return ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Changlong Wang, Research fellow in Civil and Environmental Engineering, Monash University D.Alimkin, Shutterstock Hydrogen was once sold as a universal climate fix — a clean, green wonder fuel for cars, homes, power grids and even global export. But reality has cooled ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hunter Bennett, Lecturer in Exercise Science, University of South Australia gpointstudio/Shutterstock Imagine you have just finished a workout. Your legs are like jelly, your lungs are burning and you just want to collapse on the couch. But instead, you pick yourself ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mia Schaumberg, Associate Professor in Physiology, School of Health, University of the Sunshine Coast You may have noticed that changes in weight are sometimes accompanied by changes in your period. But what does one really have to do with the other? ...
For too long, political and cultural ideologies have held our public service captive, fostering an environment of self-censorship and removing a vital tool for error correction: freedom of speech. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anna M. Kotarba-Morley, Senior Lecturer in Museum and Curatorial Studies / Research Fellow, University of Adelaide Wikimedia/The Conversation Archaeologists in Egypt have made an exciting discovery: the tomb of Pharaoh Thutmose II, a ruler who has long been overshadowed by his ...
The new chair of the Electoral Commission (EC) says he has full confidence in the preparation for the next election, and guidance for selecting polling booth locations is being reviewed. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By William Partlett, Associate Professor of Public Law, The University of Melbourne A month in, and it is clear even to conservatives that US President Donald Trump is attempting to fundamentally reshape the role of the American president. Trump and his supporters ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jessica Herrington, Futures Specialist, School of Cybernetics, Australian National University Thirty-four artworks created with artificial intelligence (AI) have gone up for sale at Christie’s in New York, in the famed auction house’s first collection dedicated to AI art. Christie’s says the collection ...
By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk As French Minister for Overseas Manuel Valls lands in New Caledonia tomorrow to pursue talks on its political future, the situation on the ground has again gained tension over the past few days. The local political spectrum is deeply divided between ...
The Defence Minister says she has not been entirely taken by surprise by the US's pivot away from security backstop to Europe towards the Indopacific. ...
A new poem by Kim Cope Tait. Not Waving But Dying The day we moved in to the house on the peninsula I stood before the picture window that faces the harbour. Oh, I said, I’m going to die here. It wasn’t macabre, no fantail arrived. And I wasn’t afraid. ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins (Hay House, $32) Wildly varying reviews over on the wild west ...
RNZ Pacific Fijian Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka’s announcement this week that the island nation will open a diplomatic mission in Jerusalem has been labelled “an act of aggression” by Palestine. On Tuesday, the Fiji government revealed that Cabinet had decided to locate its consulate in Jerusalem, which remains at the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Graeme Austin, Chair of Private Law, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington Getty Images Not that long ago, the term “deepfake” wasn’t in most people’s vocabularies. Now, it is not only commonplace, but is also the focus of intense ...
Tara Ward welcomes back to the only show on TV that’ll have you captivated watching grass grow. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. From the moment Hyundai Country Calendar returned to our screens last Sunday night, I was transfixed. The opening shot ...
Alex Casey rewatches Georgie Girl, the 2001 documentary about how Georgina Beyer conquered ‘redneck’ smalltown Aotearoa. There’s that Mr Rogers quote that does the rounds on social media whenever anything bad happens: “when I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say ...
Open letter from Alexis Tsipras
http://www.primeminister.gov.gr/english/2015/05/31/prime-minister-alexis-tsipras-article-at-le-monde-newspaper-europe-at-crossroads/
It is only a matter of time: Greece’s day of reckoning will arrive and it will not be pretty for her people, despite all promised made by Tsipras and his radicals.
The derivatives leveraged to Greek default put the entire world economy at risk because of there size.
Basically you can think of derivatives as buying insurance on someone else’s house – you then have an incentive to burn it down so you can claim on the policy. There is much money to be made out of Greece failing and much pain for all of us whether or not we understand the counterparty risk triggered by derivatives levered up to the trillions that turn toxic as soon as the default occurs.
An option to buy a share is used in hedging? The right to buy should the share go up in price at a lower price. So what happens when your Leemen brothers or whatever bank that collapses? The option is worthless. Does that mean in future companies could implode purposefully to take down the market? And should we be investigating financial terrorism? Was 9-11 the start of a financial world war?
Probably true but that day of reckoning has absolutely nothing to do with what Greece has done nor what it’s trying to do but with what the predatory private banks have done.
Prior to the mid 1990s the government subsidised the supply side of housing ensuring everyone had somewhere to live.
From the mid 1990s the government began to shift to subsidies over to the demand side of housing. Selling state houses and introducing the Accommodation Supplement so those on low incomes could “choose” where to live.
Unlike HNZ housing which was only available to those disadvantaged in the housing market, the Accommodation Supplement was available to all those who met a cash asset test, and income test.
Does USA really want to get rid of ISIS?…Makes you wonder why we are involved in this USA led war
By Robert Fisk of ‘The Independent’
‘Isis slaughter in the sacred Syrian city of Palmyra: The survivors’ stories’
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/isis-slaughter-in-the-sacred-syrian-city-of-palmyra-the-survivors-stories-10297989.html
The US (and Israel) really really want to get rid of Assad. That’s their first priority.
Considering that the US created ISIS – probably not.
so, who still thinks that it’s a good idea that we send NZ troops in to fight ISIS with the Americans. Because now it turns out that the rise of ISIS was not only predicted by the Americans because it knew that its allies helped shepherd it along, ISIS (or an entity like it) was seen by the Americans as being helpful in sorting out Assad and in limiting Iranian influence in the area.
By the way, the US are experts at importing, training and arming militant Muslim extremists to take down whole governments. The Americans have been doing it since Soviet Afghanistan.
I think many people’s eyes glaze over at this point, because haven’t we been here before, many many times.
Since before then:
The US cannot be trusted as it is a rogue nation.
Just read this stomach churning piece on how the US engineered the “El Salvador” option to controlling the Sunni insurgency in Iraq in 2004. In essence, enabling Shia sectarian death squads and torture centres to suppress Sunni insurgents, driving a sectarian blood bath in Iraq which would take pressure off attacks on US forces. At the cost of tens of thousands of Iraqi lives a month.
The US is a brutal and cruel imperial master.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/mar/06/el-salvador-iraq-police-squads-washington
I can’t Bomber believe actually accused The Standard as being “pompous”. That’s rich coming from Bomber who it appears won’t leave the house without wearing a mustard coloured v-neck and sport coat.
what are you on about?
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2015/06/06/compare-how-long-slaters-complaint-gets-investigated-to-investigations-against-him/
In the comments Bradbury accuses the standard of being “pompous”
What’s pompous is his constant deletion of comments that challenge his bullshit, so that he can always have the last word. I’d never do that. Fact!
Giving bans for the weakest of reasonings is the exact same tactic
it’s authoritarian and it’s turned the tone of discussion to shit.
right. Because that’s the most important thing going on that thread/post
Just thought Bomber’s complete lack of self awareness was amusing.
Wow – just bloody pathetic wow. http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/tv-radio/69178668/tvnz-breakfast-presenter-ali-pugh-announces-she-is-five-months-pregnant
And, then of course there’s the Woman’s Weekly puff piece on Judith Collins. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11461426
What’s not to like? The PM cosying up to his state propaganda machine, naming babies and probably delivering them next on live tv! Watching it gave me the feeling that some more dirty tricks are at play here.
CERA staff “leaving in droves”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/69033570/Cera-staff-leaving-in-droves
Dear Standardistas,
I have a serious problem. Perhaps someone can help me. I listened to the RNZ political spot this morning and – apart from an innocuous bit of union bashing – I agreed with pretty much everything Matthew Hooten said. Do you think I should contact Mike Williams and ask him how he copes with the “I agree with Matt” condition?
signed
Worried.
Anne, it’s the first rule of propaganda. Repeat the lie, never change the message, and people will come to agree with you…………………
Actually, he was being quite reasonable today. So, perhaps I haven’t caught the propaganda disease.
Stopped Clock and all that
Sheepgate. Even Matthew can see how bad it is ///
Leaving aside any personal comment on who M.Hooten might be or his political orientations, let’s look at the style of his rhetoric:
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/201757498/political-commentators-mike-williams-and-matthew-hooton
In two early examples, nothing he (the speaker) says made a judgement on whether anything was right or wrong, so the door is left open for people to “agree” as long as they look at it all from their perspective, not the perspective of the political speaker.
e.g. (I’ll paraphrase loosely)
“McCully didn’t follow protocols…etc etc [description of transgressions]…”, well is that a good or bad thing and would you or the people you support use that “back door” process? Nothing is said on that point. The speaker says journalists say it is all ok, but the speaker says “I don’t think that’s right”. Does he mean the action was wrong, or does he mean the opinion of journalists was wrong, or does he mean he thinks the action was wrong, but it was the right thing to do to assure a particular end result? The implication is there, that a conclusive comment could be made, but none is made: good or bad, something to be condoned and encouraged, or not. The speaker doesn’t specifically say, so anyone who agrees with him is giving him the benefit of the doubt that he agrees with one side, their side, when he may not, and in effect is only agreeing with themselves.
“Journalists used to hunt in packs… some called it bullying, now they don’t….”
Is that good or bad? Bullying is emotive language. Bullying, we’re told, is “bad”, so they should’ve been stopped… is that what he was implying? Who or what actions is he justifying so emotively? Is the political speaker making a further attack on journalists, or lamenting the loss of collaboration between colleagues? Could be either. Was, or is, the political speaker involved with anything that might have created the environment that journalists can now only “hunt solo”, even if they should do, or want to do, otherwise? “Hunting in packs” is a statement of fact, obvious in it’s loaded meaning, but not relevence, so what would anyone be agreeing with when it is said?
There is no proof that anything the speaker says is linked to the any other statement or topic that follows, or that a consistent perspective is being used. Apply these examples to what was said in the panel discussion, and see how much agreement there is now.
It’s part of why Hooton is good at his job, sometimes he’s actually reasonable and makes sense.
103 years later – these cartoons perfectly predicted the impact of Wall St and the big banks on US popular democracy
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-06-07/thats-uncanny-102-years-later-wall-street-turned-out-just-man-predicted
The image representing trusts in this picture looks remarkably like this.
Wow.
I don’t care about the size of Martyn Bradbury’s ego and I don’t care about the eccentricities of his personality, but telling outright lies about the standard being a Labour party blog (one piece of evidence is that Slater thinks it is) is well beyond what is ok. I no longer consider Bradbury to be trustworthy to the left (for whatever my opinion is worth). This isn’t about the standard vs TDB (I read both), or lprent vs Bomber (really, who gives a shit), it’s about someone on the left telling actual lies about the left and doing it from a position of power and responsibility in a way that is going to undermine the left, and create confusion for anyone trying to make sense of Dirty Politics who hasn’t been following closely (including the media and bloggers who have influence, but also just general readers). That’s fucked. Very very fucked.
Bradbury: As I said above, The Standard was set up by the Labour Party, the original creation of it was as a Labour Party newsletter for christ’s sakes. It’s a Labour Party blog, that’s why Slater was trying to hack it, to attack the Labour Party.
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2015/06/06/compare-how-long-slaters-complaint-gets-investigated-to-investigations-against-him/#comment-289059
It’s Bomber. What did you expect?
You’re personal feelings about him, and your need to make comment about that, don’t help. My point is, the personality stuff is irrelevant, it just clouds the reall issues, in this instance, that he’s telling harmful lies (and probably doing so intentionally), and what that means for the left.
My personal feelings about him are driven by exactly this sort of blowhardy, bullshit, pompous idiocy.
I don’t care. Your continual focus on personality is a distraction.
So far as I can tell you are the only one getting distracted.
That rolling eyes icon distracts from the real issues here, Weka.
Agree with weka. Telling Bomber off for wearing the wrong clothes does nothing to help our position. I often find his personality pompous and annoying too, so what? Who cares? Do us a favour and make a grown up argument instead.
“My personal feelings about him are driven by exactly this sort of blowhardy, bullshit, pompous idiocy.”
^You see here I was actually agreeing with Weka.
My attempt at humour re: Bombers fashion sense was supposed to understood in that context…an attempt at humour…
No, you weren’t. You were just going on about his personality, again (hint, it’s in the words blowhardy, pompous etc). You’ve yet to make a single comment on this today about an actual issue that isn’t about you disliking Bomber.
Sure, Weka, but in the context of what you were talking about – his utter contempt of the truth which makes him an arrogant blowhard.
The same as Slater’s utter contempt of truth makes him an arrogant blowhard….I’m sure you’ll have the same faux outrage against me defining Slater in those terms too.
As I said, I don’t care how you feel about them. I’m more interested in what Bradbury is doing. I don’t care if he’s a blowhard or not. You obviously think the important bit is his blowhardiness (or your feelings that he is). I think the important bit is the lie he is telling and what that means (and no, it doesn’t mean he is a blowhard, really who cares about that?)..
I get that you can’t tell the difference.
Actually the original newsletter was The Maoriland worker. It was not till the 1930’s that it changed it’s name to The Standard. The news sheet ceased publishing in the 1960’s. One last point – it was not started by the labour party, but by the Shears Union.
So yeah Weka, I do believe you are right in calling Boomer a liar on this one. He deliberately misrepresent The standard, not only as it presently stands, but historically as well.
NIce to see someone remembers the important details
A link for those interested
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maoriland_Worker
1910 – Robert Ross invited by the FOL from Melbourne to edit the paper
1911 – Robert Hogg (later editor of New Zealand Truth) was Manager.[3]
1913 – Contributors Edward Hunter (Billy Banjo) and Harry Holland charged with sedition.[4]
1913–1918 Harry Holland appointed editor.[5][6]
1922 – Publisher John Glover prosecuted (unsuccessfully) for blasphemous libel. New Zealand’s only trial to date for blasphemy.[6][7]
1922 – The manager John Glover lent £100 interest free to Walter Nash.
1930s – Renamed to “the Standard”.
1960 – Ceased publication.[8]
Anyone want to put up something about the modern Standard on wikipedia? For that matter there doesn’t appear to be anything about the old Standard.
Hmm. In the interests of clarification, I posted the following over at TDB. I’m in moderation and don’t really expect the comment to become public.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maoriland_Worker
Yes I agree weka. Deliberately telling a lie to sow misinformation and muddy the waters so that your pet project can be enhanced or seen to be better is low and dishonest. Bomber has bombed and friendly fire ain’t friendly especially when aimed – the martyr-dum of martyn.
Anyone else catch Key’s cringe appearance on breakfast this morning (A link to the vid for those who want it http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=11461572)
Funny, how in the midst of all the politcally shadiness being pushed at the moment, the prime minister gets to gleefully announce the pregnancy of a popular television presenter, while still ducking from anything resembling a robust interview. As woman around Pugh’s age I’ll say that this is sort of chit-chat you’d expect to have at a saturday brunch with the girls… not with the prime minister on national TV. To be fair Pugh seems pretty uncomfortable, while Key looks as happy as a kid who’s just managed to deliver his lines in the school play without stumbling (**looks out to mum and dad “Did i do good, you guys???”)
pathetic infotainment …surely a NZ Prime Minister has more important things to talk about…I cant imagine Norm Kirk doing that
Nor Helen Clark, chooky. I always got the feeling she hated sucking up to the ‘soft’ media.
I don’t know if its possible but Little and the green leaders should be trying to get on both channels for a casual chat once a week this is a new era.
yes Helen Clark is a professional
Hopefully the pregnant presenter was smart enough not to have a pony tail for Key to indulge in his trichophilic gratification.
Ah, the ‘always impartial’ Gower. http://www.radiolive.co.nz/AUDIO-Labour-election-report-reveals-a-party-rotten-to-the-core—Paddy-Gower/tabid/506/articleID/84007/Default.aspx
TV3 programming decisions going from bad to worse it seems, and still waiting for the fall out of dropping Campbell to kick in.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/tv-radio/69201129/shortened-tv3-news-suffers-ratings-slump
TV3 have shown contempt for the viewer with JC’s demise and this slide will continue and show them just how crucial he was to the overall ratings of the 6-7.30 slot.
Experienced TV news folk know this but you have a banksta and a reality TV copy/paste queen calling the shots now or puling the trigger on a loaded gun they get handed, either way results the same.
weight loss and road cops either side of the news…..Classy !
http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/jerry-collins-emotional-letter-john-campbell-you-were-only-journo-visited-me-in-jail-6333961
“”I’d just like to thank you for coming to see me while I was in jail in Japan,” he wrote.
“You were the only journalist who came and though we couldn’t physically speak through the glass, the sign language that day helped alleviate my family’s fears and quell a lot of rumours surrounding the incident at the time.”
as reported by TVNZ.
good that TV3 losing viewers
Where is this open mike I am in Auckland
I’m no expert in the IT space so can someone tell me if these eye watering sums are reasonable or whether the NZ public are being taken to the cleaners.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/69181626/inland-revenue-picks-us-firm-for-technology-overhaul
With a couple of consulting partners supervising at $2500/hr, a few senior consultants on at $800/hr, and a team of recent graduate analysts charged out at $450/hr (all excl GST, and those are per person rates), you do the math…
Business transformation is a nebulous Term that can mean anything from one or more new IT systems to a reorganisation, new roles/redundancies etc etc so it can have large chunks that have nothing to do with technology
The IRD is a complex and difficult environment so the governance and security aspects are deep with change being slow and cumbersome, it’s also full of opinionated idiots who get to influence outcomes (I include ministers in this) with no experience in such a project.
vendors factor that in such as the involvement of 1 particular architect at a site meant any value was doubled before being given to the client as that’s the impact 1 person can have….imagine committees full of them.
CR’s point above also weighs in with alot of overhead required just to get basic stuff done.
Even if it were strictly IT software/hardware upgrades (it’s not), for a client the size of IRD it’s probably not too bad value. Remember the fuckup with novopay, and apply it to our entire tax system from PAYE to GST to company tax, and… eeep.
It’s a long-term project with phased implementation and an entire refit of the processes as well as the IT infrastructure, so it’s more than a few consultants knocking out some bullshit.
FYI folks!
Upcoming Public Meeting in Auckland for concerned citizens and ratepayers who are opposed to MORE Auckland Council proposed rate$ increases!
WHEN: Wednesday 10 June 2015
TIME: 7.30 – 10pm
WHERE: Mt Eden War Memorial Hall
487 Dominion Rd, Balmoral
You can see by the range of speakers – the range of concern and opposition across the political spectrum!
(Please be advised that ALL political parties currently represented in Parliament were invited, as was Auckland Mayor Len Brown.)
_____________________________________________________________________________
PRESS RELEASE
RAY CALVER & DICK CUTHBERT
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ANOTHER SPEAKER ADDED TO LINE UP
The Auckland Rates Increases Public Meeting, taking place on Wednesday June 10, now has additional speakers to add to the line up. Ray Calver says
“We are delighted to be able to welcome Parmjeet Parma from the National Party and Hinurewa Te Hau from the Maori Party.
This brings the total number of speakers addressing the meeting up to 9.”
The confirmed speakers are now
· Stephen Berry – Affordable Auckland Mayoral candidate
· Cameron Brewer – Orakei Councillor
· Penny Bright – Mayoral candidate
· Jo Holmes – Auckland Ratepayer’s Alliance
· Damien Light – United Future
· Bill Raynor – Grey Power
· Parmjeet Parma – National MP
· David Seymour – Act Epsom MP
· Hinurewa Te Hau – Maori Party
“Following speeches, time will be put aside for audience members to either ask questions or give statements on how they believe we should proceed in opposing the rates increases. This will be followed by tea and coffee giving audience members an opportunity to talk with our speakers.”
The Auckland Rates Increases Public Meeting will take place from 7:30pm on June 10th at Mt. Eden War Memorial Hall, 487 Dominion Road.
Ends
________________________________________________________________________________
Penny Bright
http://www.pennybright4mayor.org.nz
good to see you are on the case Penny
Penny there are 8 right wingers on stage …
Jerry Collins-balls
Just how bad can the commentary get?
The frenzy following the death of Jerry Collins hasn’t, on the whole, been as obscene or absurd as what we were subjected to for the visit of that coke-snorting, whore-pestering, peasant-smiting “playboy” beneficiary and scrounger a few weeks ago. Nevertheless, hapless “consumers” of the New Zealand media over the last three days have been exposed to some of the most bewildered, ignorant and unpleasant commentary to be found outside of an ACT Party policy or a Sensible Sentencing Trust klavern.
BEWILDERED…..
“It’s a travesty for the rugby world,” intoned a commentator during the Hurricanes-Highlanders game on Friday night. He meant to say “tragedy”, of course, but he was doing a rugby broadcast, where ignorance reigns supreme, so no one picked him up on it.
IGNORANT…..
On Saturday afternoon, Brendan Telfer interviewed Dominion Post rugby writer Toby Robson, who after a few gracious words about Jerry Collins, went on to spoil it by displaying a breathtaking level of sporting ignorance that hasn’t been heard on radio since the departure of Martin “Moron” Devlin….
BRENDAN TELFER: He was playing for a second division club.
TOBY ROBSON: Yeah, he’s been playing for a club called Narbonne. I don’t know what standard it would be, whether it’s club level or what it is….
It’s club level in France, of course, which is provincial level in New Zealand. But Robson appears not to know this, or indeed to know anything about French rugby—“a club called Narbonne”—which begs the question: Why is he allowed to write about the game?
UNPLEASANT…..
Anyone unwise or undiscriminating enough to be listening to RadioLIVE at 2:20 p.m. today (Monday June 8th) would have heard the host desperately making his case….
WILLIE JACKSON: [shouting passionately] Yeah he WAS! Jerry Collins was a ROLE MODEL!!
Now, when someone asserts something like that, with extreme truculence—other examples are: “Bruce Hutton had integrity beyond reproach” or “You KNOW me. I am a GOOD man” or “Never, ever would I ever knowingly sign a false electoral return”[1]—-he, or she (probably Michelle Boag) is almost always trying to cover up something unpleasant. The unpleasant truth about Jerry Collins is that, in spite of being a wonderful athlete and a genuinely nice guy, he did have another, more disturbing, side to him. While he neither brought death and disaster to anyone in Afghanistan nor launched into extended racist rants on radio, it is a fact that the last time he was in the news was when he was arrested in Japan for carrying knives. [2] Willie Jackson went on to express his extreme displeasure that Television One had dared to mention that unsavory incident on its Friday night coverage of the tragedy. “I sat there, getting angrier and angrier,” he raged to a caller.
Perhaps other Standardistas are able to furnish other examples of nonsense spoken about Jerry Collins.
[1] http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-09102014/#comment-907232
[2] Jackson once announced live on air that if his “missus” ever fooled around on him, he’d “put a knife through her heart”. Even his co-hosts, John “JT” Tamahere and Dean Lonergan, a gruesome twosome if ever there was a gruesome twosome, were appalled by that one.
Thanks morissey, definitely not missing much by not listening but appreciate your diligent summaries none the less.
Seen this?
http://www.aut.ac.nz/midyear-pg/story2?utm_source=outbrain&utm_medium=article2&utm_content=headline1&utm_campaign=midyearPG-2015
NEW ZEALAND’S HUMAN RIGHTS REPUTATION AT RISK
A report on the status of human rights in New Zealand says serious fault lines are developing and that the country’s reputation as a global leader is at risk.
“A three-year study of the six major human rights treaties New Zealand has signed, shows we’re better at talking about human rights than walking the talk and implementing our promises made internationally,” says Auckland University of Technology’s Professor Judy McGregor, co-author of Fault lines: Human rights in New Zealand.
“The detailed research shows we’re slipping behind in areas such as child poverty, gender equality, systemic disadvantage of Māori, and the rights of disabled people to challenge the State.
“For example, we keep telling the United Nations we were the first to grant women the vote, but we still don’t have equal pay for women or pay equity for carers. Nor do we have adequate paid parental leave, and we continue to suffer completely unacceptable levels of violence against women. We say how good we are, but the reality is we’re in trouble.”
Funded by the New Zealand Law Foundation, Fault lines was written by Professor McGregor, human rights lawyer Sylvia Bell and Waikato University’s Professor Margaret Wilson. Each has significant practical experience of working in human rights.
URGENT ACTION NEEDED
The report suggests New Zealand needs to take urgent remedial action to retain its point of difference as a human rights leader. It is also critical of the level of understanding of Members of Parliament on human rights treaty obligations.
In addition, the report says New Zealanders’ strong belief that we are good at human rights has blinded us to the fact that we are falling behind other countries in implementing economic, social and cultural rights on the ground, despite our treaty obligations.
RECOMMENDATIONS
It suggests 13 recommendations to help New Zealand retain human rights leadership including a comprehensive rewrite of human rights legislation, a new parliamentary select committee to deal with human rights, and the urgent repeal of non-human rights compliant legislation to reinstate the rights of all New Zealanders to complain about discrimination.
The recommendations also suggest a new, more proactive role for the Māori Affairs Select Committee in monitoring New Zealand’s response to the United Nations about closing the inequality gaps. More New Zealanders should be nominated for significant UN human rights treaty bodies and journalists need better training in the reporting of treaty body reports which remain largely invisible to the public.
WHAT THE REPORT COVERS
New Zealand has ratified six international treaties covering political, civil, economic, social and cultural rights, racial discrimination and the rights of women, children and people with disabilities.
Fault lines, examines each of the treaties and New Zealand’s engagement in the Universal Periodic Review, an overview of human rights progress. The report is based on interviews in New Zealand and at the United Nations, case law, analysis of treaty body reports and personal observation.
Professor McGregor says the backing of the Law Foundation, which is New Zealand’s major funder of independent legal research, was critical to producing the report.
The report is online at Fault lines: Human rights in New Zealand.
To WHOM exactly are NZ Dairy farmers indebted?
http://robinwestenra.blogspot.co.nz/2015/06/warnings-about-corporate-takeover-of.html
Monday, 8 June 2015
Warnings about a corporate takeover of the dairy industry in New Zealand
Questions need to be asked about what happening to the dairy industry and the New Zealand economy.
Is New Zealand just a victim of low commodity prices and the collapse of the world economy or – as some suggest- is there a move of financial and banking interests to bankrupt New Zealand farmers so they are ripe for a takeover.
Do we have a Fifth Column of corporates and their representatives in politics who are acting, not in the national interest, but are, in fact, acting to sell New Zealand off – something we have witnessed in this country since 1984?
A week or so ago there was a revealing interview about the high debt levels of farmers and how many are being squeezed by low commodity prices.
Today there was an interesting item about a review in Fonterra, which is now mentioned as a low-achieving company like Solid Energy (throw under the bus by this government) before it.
Fonterra “transformation” review underway …..
___________________________________________________________________________________
Anyone got some current stats which show the banking and financial interests who are poised to profit from NZ dairy farmers going ‘belly up’?
Penny Bright
http://www.pennybright4mayor.org.nz
Good points Penny ….and provocative questions …hope you are not correct re
“Do we have a Fifth Column of corporates and their representatives in politics who are acting, not in the national interest, but are, in fact, acting to sell New Zealand off – something we have witnessed in this country since 1984?…
Kathryn Ryan also did a good review of the issues today:
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/201757487/fonterra-transformation-review-underway
” As dairy farmers around the country tighten their belts in the face of continuing low milk prices, Fonterra has a major review of its business performance underway. The company has instituted what it calls a “performance improvement programme” called “Velocity”. Nine to Noon understands the dairy cooperative has has brought in external consultants McKinsey’s `Recovery and Transformation Services’ unit, which specialises in helping distressed companies, underperforming business units and in implementing large-scale restructuring and transformation. Jacqueline Rowarth is Professor of Agribusiness at Waikato University. Russell Macpherson is immediate past president of Federated Farmers, Southland. Fonterra shareholder and farmer, Will Wilson is an agricultural consultant, company director and part owner and director of several dairy farms.
Why no-one should vote for the Australian Labor Party
http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/?p=31107
Much of which also applies to the NZ Labour party.
RIP Jerry and Alana
Yeah, a Samoan mate with aiga connections who’s staying here at the moment asked me to check out his ‘in English’ Facebook tribute. I could. We got that down then he asked me to check out his tribute in Samoan. I couldn’t. How the fuck could I ? The Samoan tribute is special and not for this palagi to tamper with. So, so sad. I grieve with Porirua. Hope that wee girl if she endures finds comfort in knowing that she came from fineness.
Hope the NZRU see fit to agree to the All Blacks/Samoa Test in Apia being a memorial to Jerry. I’m sure the ABs themselves would love it. It’s so memorable when driving along the main road from Apia in near twilight to see supremely athletic youngsters darting, dummying, stepping, all over the village green which is peppered with lumps of volcanic rock ‘hurters’. And everyone laughing expellingly, rejoicing, completely into it.
Fa’a Samoa !
Just watching The Gauche But Devilishly Cunning Everyman Fuck on Maori TV Native Affairs. The words “lawful” or “lawfullly” used used 4 or 5 times in the first 90 seconds. Like that’s all that matters, “at the end of the day”. Fuck proceeding with a view to the gross-society-twisting of being just “lawful”. Snake. If only by the effluxion of time ShonKey will be gone. Leaving our society seriously depleted. Thank you Michelle Boag and others. You don’t have to give a fuck. You can tra-la-la forever. Because you’ve never had to suffer the consequences of what you’ve done. You’ve actually profited from it for God’s Sake !
Forbes is brilliant. I win the big Powerball on Saturday…..her and Campbell. Somewhere, somehow. People with heart !
I did love the way she had the prick looking nervous though , not many can do that.
hmm, I’m almost tempted to watch.
do
National goes on about things being legal and lawful because they know that they legalise immoral actions.
On a separate note entirely, the US air force’s new super-dooper does-everything-for-a-massive-cost multi-role cyber-wank jet is scheduled to take part in a combined services exercise. It can’t aim its gun and can only carry a couple of bombs, so I assume the pilots will yell “bang” as they fly over the area.
That’s what one and a half trillion gets ya, apparently.