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.
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TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
Te Rangi e tu nei (The sky above us) Te Papa e takoto nei (The land beneath us) Tatou katoa te hunga ora (To us all the living) Tena koutou katoa (Greetings) ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
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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.