If only she was as principled about the welfare of citizens more often rather than vote with national to sell state houses and prop up a regime that’s wilfully selling out our future generations ability to take care of themselves.
All for show in my view, cunning as her surname that one.
yep – selling state houses is shit – Fox can get worked up afterwards that no one is doing much when she, and they, voted for the not doing much – hypocrites and this is known.
Ahead of this weekend’s Democratic platform fight, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has once again taken aim at the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), skewering the corporate-friendly trade deal she says will allow for “open season on laws that make people safer.”
Warren makes the remarks about the 12-nation trade deal, which still needs Congressional approval, to progressive activists in a video released Thursday by social change network CREDO Action.
The deal, Warren says in the video, “isn’t about helping American workers set the rules. It’s about letting giant corporations rig the rules—on everything from patent protection to food safety standards —all to benefit themselves.”
Even in the drafting process industry representatives could exert influence—but there was no voice to represent American workers or consumers, she says. “A rigged process produces a rigged outcome,” she says.
I’m a bit sad that she has decided to campaign next to Hillary Clinton. Warren should have been the Democratic Party’s favoured Presidential candidate.
If Hillary Clinton chooses Elizabeth Warren for VP running mate, she will bring on board most of Bernie Sanders’ followers. But Elizabeth Warren’s video against the TPP means that Hillary will have to choose between the TPP or Warren.
If Clinton does pick Warren, it will be exceedingly difficult to pass the agreement, even during Congress’s lame-duck session. The Obama administration gained fast-track authority on the strength of Republican support. That support will likely dissolve if president-elect Trump is preparing to take office. Conversely, if the incoming Democratic vice-president is one of the nation’s leading opponents of the TPP, it’s hard to imagine that many congressional Democrats will feel comfortable changing sides.
Notably, the veepstakes’ other front-runner, Virginia senator Tim Kaine, was one of the 13 Senate Democrats to vote for fast-track last year.
“Could it really have been the legislature’s intention to remove from the internal workings of New Zealand’s principal piece of environmental legislation virtually all opportunities, both negative and positive, to consider the one environmental issue that adversely affects all others?”
“What’s worrying [about the record-breaking 2016] is that we are in unprecedented territory and we don’t really know what the consequences will be,” Bob Ward
Policy director at the London School of Economics’ Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.
Meanwhile here in New Zealand due to legislation banning any mention of climate change in resource management consent hearings two brand new coal mines are being started and one old shuttered coal mine is being reopened.
In 2004 the Labour Government amended the Resource Management Act to order that objections based on climate change must not be taken into account by Regional Councils when considering applications for a new coal mining operations at consent planning hearings.
As Geoffrey Palmer asks, is this the intent?
The evidence is so compelling and irrefutable, that if the case against climate change caused by burning fossil fuels was allowed to be raised at coal mine consent hearings, it would be very difficult for any coal company to gain a consent to begin a new mining operation in this country ever again.
Taking this statute out of our law books must be a priority. Allowing it to remain standing, is incompatible with New Zealand becoming a world leader in combating climate change.
If Andrew Little is serious about the commitment he gave at the Green Party AGM about making New Zealand a world leader on climate change then Little must make the repeal of this law one of his election campaign promises
This will be the real test of the sincerity of his statement made at the Green Party AGM to make New Zealand a world leader on climate change.
“This will be the real test of the sincerity of his statement made at the Green Party AGM…..”
Yes.
I too would like to see some real and sincere statements from Andrew Little to convince me that there is true commitment to the accord between Labour and the Greens.
This issue presents an ideal opportunity for Labour to acknowledge that we a living in different times….and that that particular statute has no place in the RMA in 2016.
When does this get to its first vote in Parliament?
Or have they not yet finished drafting the changes out of Select Committee?
A little challenge for its defenders: it is essentially a permissive law, rather than a policy-directive law. Isn’t it time that some of the Government Policy Statements shifted from regulatory instruments to actual law? eg water quality.
That would change the whole modus operandi of this law from permissive to directive.
We may not like that National is reforming the law, and I would oppose changing the principles of the Act. But Palmer should be less afraid to defend his baby and maybe accept it’s really time to give it a good wakeup.
Meanwhile here in New Zealand due to legislation banning any mention of climate change in resource management consent hearings…
So I’ve come across mention of this before. A member of ‘Oil Free Otago’ attended the resource hearings for Fonterra’s Canterbury coal fired drying plant and wrote a piece for the ODT.
In that piece she made passing reference of some illegality applying to her making any mention of global warming during that hearing. I meant to follow up on it and ask if it was a prohibition applying to her in a personal capacity, or whether it was something wider than that.
As I read it, it was meant to allow councils to take climate change into account when making decisions, but, if Jenny is correct, the opposite effect has occurred. An unintended consequence?
Fucking astonishing. Nothing unintended about it as far as I can see. (emphasis added)
70A Application to climate change of rules relating to discharge of greenhouse gases
Despite section 68(3), when making a rule to control the discharge into air of greenhouse gases under its functions under section 30(1)(d)(iv) or (f), a regional council must not have regard to the effects of such a discharge on climate change, except to the extent that the use and development of renewable energy enables a reduction in the discharge into air of greenhouse gases, either—
“(a) in absolute terms; or
“(b) relative to the use and development of non-renewable energy.
And 68.3 reads – “In making a rule, the regional council shall have regard to the actual or potential effect on the environment of activities, including, in particular, any adverse effect.”
So 70a over-rides 68.3 and shit that contributes to global warming gets a free pass.
The purpose section at the beginning suggests the change is intended to allow councils the ability to take it into account, but the actual wording says they can’t. I did a quick google and I can’t find anything that clarifies what is going on. It’s weird that it doesn’t seem to have been an issue for the Greens, Labour, Greenpeace etc for the last 12 years. There must be some piece of the puzzle missing.
The purpose (deleting the clause and para markers for the sake of readability)
The purpose of this Act is to amend the principal Act to require local authorities to plan for the effects of climate change; but not to consider the effects on climate change of discharges into air of greenhouse gases.
That’s pretty unequivocal…and insane. It’s an instruction to adapt, but specifically, to not mitigate.
Since the amendment was passed back in 2004 under a Labour led government that was at least nodding in the right direction as far as global warming goes, I can only guess it is as it is because of lobbying.
And since it was 2004, and we were all going to be getting serious about tackling global warming and what not, I guess Greenpeace and whoever might not have picked it as an issue at the time (under their radar).
The reason for this is because central government has decided that it has responsibility at a national level for managing emissions, but more pragmatically it has absolutely no trust in the competence of councils to deal with the issue. Look at the scientific ignorance numerous councils have shown over fluoridation as an example as to why.
The reason I didn’t put any link to the statute itself, is because to actually tease out the real world result of this law has been the result of several court battles.
In all these court hearings the judgement has always come down clearly on the side that the intent of the law is that climate change is unambiguously banned from being raised as an objection in consent hearings for new fossil fuel projects.
But these court battles have been “under the radar” in the sense that they have not been widely reported.
But anyone who has ever tried to raise climate change as reason for denying a permit for a new coal mine or fossil fuel power plant in their area will have come up against it.
Apart from Geoffrey Palmer’s rather dense treatise entitled “New Zealand’s defective law on climate change”
There have been several other legal comments on this law.
Despite being an “allegedly reputable law firm”, Chapman Tripp wrongly attributed this law change to the National Party, (well they might considering the extreme retrograde and right wing nature of this law), but it is not a slip that I would expect from a major law firm, National was not the government at the time this law was inserted into the RMA.
Buller Coal was granted consent by the Buller District and West Coast Regional Councils for the Escarpment Mine in August 2011 but West Coast ENT and Forest & Bird have appealed that decision. Solid Energy has an application before the councils now.
The decision
The case hinged around section 104E of the RMA. This was inserted as part of the 2004 amendments to the Act by the National Government and provides that, when considering an application to discharge greenhouse gases, a consent authority “must not have regard to the effects of such discharge on climate change” – except to the degree that the use and development of renewable energy would enable a reduction of greenhouse gases.
The Court dismissed arguments from West Coast ENT and Forest and Bird that climate change effects should be considered, saying:
“I consider, as I did in Greenpeace New Zealand Inc v Northland Regional Council, that the whole of the Amendment Act, but particularly section 3, point strongly to a finding that regulatory activity on the important topic of climate change is taken firmly away from regional government and made the subject of appropriate attention from time to time by central government by way of activity at a national level”.
Chapman Tripp comments
Chapman Tripp represented Buller Coal in these proceedings and welcomes the Court’s clear and consistent application of the law in this area.
The decision will allow coal mining companies like Buller Coal to proceed with their plans without the introduction into the consenting process of irrelevant arguments and evidence about the threat posed by climate change.
If New Zealand is to develop its mineral resource, investors need to have the confidence to invest.
Investors “need to have the confidence” to invest in fossil fuels.
Business As Usual needs to continue untrammeled by concerns about climate change.
This is the clear intent of section 104E of the Resource Management Act as emphasised and reinforced over several court cases.
Section 104E of the RMA is incompatible with New Zealand being a world leader on climate change.
My hope is that Andrew Little, in line with his promise that he made at the Green Party AGM to make New Zealand a world leader on climate change. Will announce that the Labour Party in government will repeal section 104E prohibiting climate change being raised as an objection to new fossil fuel projects.
Thanks for the explanation, Jenny. I agree entirely that it needs looking at and as I said upthread, I can’t believe more of a fuss hasn’t been made about it. Mind you, I can see the argument that this should be a central government issue, not one left just to the district councils to rule on.
However, I think this is not just an issue for the Labour party. This is something the Labour/Green alliance should be addressing. Improving that section of the Act could be a natural plank in their cooperative effort, IMO.
I can see the argument that this should be a central government issue, not one left just to the district councils to rule on. te reo putake
You are right, as it reads 104E was inserted into the RMA to ensure that central government keeps full control of climate change policy. The central government mechanism for doing that is the ETA.
Which like 104E is also the same as doing nothing. Since its inception the ETA has overseen a huge increase in Greenhouse gas emissions.
The establishment have learnt from the past. Nuclear Free Aotearoa was first achieved at the devolved council level, long before it ever became central government policy. Unlike central authority, councils are less remote and more open to democratic grass roots lobbying. (While Central authority is more susceptible and open to corporate lobbying.) This is one of the reasons that devolvement, Scottish Independence, Brexit, etc. have proved so popular. People seem to know instinctively that the more remote authority is, the less democratic control they have over it.
The Guardian today, ” How Hot Chinese Money is Making Vancouver Unliveable “. Same problems, empty houses, ridiculous prices and before the usual suspects complain of racism, amongst the most vocal opponents are the Chinese who have been there for decades.
So Chilcott says on the basis of the information and circumstances at the time Tony Blair was wrong in many ways to go to war and kill 100,000 Iraqis and 179 English soldiers.
But Tony Blair says on the basis of the information and circumstances at the time he would still make the same wrong decision..
I know……it’s boggling. The Non-Man Key said more or less the same thing………”Hindsight’s a wonderful thing………” It’s got nothing to do with hindsight. It’s got to do with having a core morality and not being a war criminal.
What a bastard is Blair. What a bastard is that effete Non-Man Key.
Simple thing the RBNZ could do to help control the investing side of the housing market – say that banks are only allowed to lend at their carded rates when signing interest-only loans for investors.
There has been various suggestions that interest-only be banned outright, which seems like a punitive over-reaction that could have unforeseen consequences. But this would be a very easy policy for the banks to implement. It represents another tightening of the screws against investors that would help to even the playing field. Note I’m not suggesting this instead of other proposals, but in addition to.
For example, at the moment the lowest 1 year rate from a mainstream bank is 4.25%, but it’s possible to get that discounted to 3.99% if you’re attractive enough to the bank.
This is what happens when you buy on price rather than quality. National, and to a lesser degree Labour, always buy on minimum price and maximum profits. This is why we have substandard housing and other failures throughout our society.
buying on price can be a big problem, as can not having or enforcing standards…..but the most mind blowing aspect is that after all the problems that have cost millions, time and still ending up with a product that doesn’t meet spec we have ordered more…..from the same manufacturer ……brilliant
They re not putting words into the FBI Directors mouth they are just analysing what he said.
—
The Director of the FBI, James Comey, seems to go out of his way to exonerate Clinton in his press conference (full text here), and yet somehow damn her at the same time – making some peculiar statements in the process. This (my emphasis):
“I should add here that we found no evidence that any of the additional work-related e-mails were intentionally deleted in an effort to conceal them.”
Is followed up by this (again, emphasis mine):
“It is also likely that there are other work-related e-mails that they did not produce to State and that we did not find elsewhere, and that are now gone because they deleted all e-mails they did not return to State, and the lawyers cleaned their devices in such a way as to preclude complete forensic recovery.”
These two statements seem contradictory to me. All the e-mails Clinton’s lawyers didn’t produce were deleted in such a way to “preclude forensic recovery”? And yet there’s “no evidence” of attempted concealment?
What’s not balanced is that the OffGuardian article only presents the bits that put Clinton in a bad light. It doesn’t present any of the reasons why the FBI recommended against charging Clinton.
Get serious, if Clinton had merely been a senior level manager in the State Department doing what she did, she would have been charged 6 months ago and made an example of.
You seen anything that says the State Department investigation has the power to be anything worse than just embarrassing for Clinton? As far as I can tell, it’s a civil matter so there’s no possibility of criminal charges or anything else with real teeth.
Main problems is it corrodes her claim to foreign policy experience, and may disqualify a number of staff favoured for the foreign policy desks.
Delicate balance:
she has to be humble to take the beats in media for constitutional propriety,
but State Department have to be sure they don’t get full scorched earth when she walks through the door.
I don’t see that it hits her claim to foreign policy experience. But it certainly reinforces that she’s DGAF about some things that she really should be careful about.
Yeah if the State Department throws everything at it the likes of Abedin may disappear under a bus, but Hillary’s network is big enough it won’t leave big holes.
Since one of the reasons claimed for Hillary to set up her own system was that the approved State systems were such a pain to use, I’m picking the State investigation outcome will be heavy on the “this is what State has learned it needs to improve” and light on condemnation of Hillary and associates. Which will fuel another few rounds of congressional investigations.
Holy shit, high security top secret information systems are a “pain to use.”
You don’t say.
Are there any other Federal Employees who now get to use that same excuse to commit felonies with sensitive/classified US GOV documents?
If Clinton gets nailed by this, then Bernie naturally becomes the Democratic Candidate, and the polls say that Bernie would smash Trump hands down in the general election.
I can’t believe the people still cheering for Clinton to come out on top in this scenario, especially when it is so clear that the Deep State is pulling every string it can to appoint Clinton to the Oval Office. FFS.
Clinton is a neocon, and will fill her White House with neocons like Samantha Powell and Victoria Nuland.
Taking their current brinksmanship against Russia and against China, will be the top of their agenda. As well as a full scale invasion of Syria by US/Saudi proxies.
Trump is far more interested in doing business with China and Russia, and bringing US forces home.
Yeah CV…….you’re losing it and you’re a pain in the arse frankly. I think you’d happily unleash Trump on us as a quid pro quo for Clinton being humiliated. Bugger it…….came home after a hefty day thought I’d just have a quick squiz at TS before dinner…….Oh No ! CV being a weird-arse.
Curious. (Can’t actually view the vid on this particular computer/browser btw)
Is the root of the insult that the guys are Welsh? That it was an insensitive and thoughtless pastiche? That a part of Maori culture has been appropriated by corporate sporting bodies, performed around the world in that context and, abroad at least, not understood beyond that sporting context?
If – and I suspect this is the case – a load of foreigners with no connection to NZ merely view the haka as some kind of blood stirring theatre of no cultural significance, then what’s the solution? Is there a solution?
Or in tune with 1001 other culturally insensitive bits of nonsense, is the only recourse to either quietly (or not so quietly) mutter what a pack of apparent wankers this that or the other group of people are to indulge in this or that kind of shit?
the solution is that these welshmen should be shown up as arseholes right around the world – just like someone who blackfaces, just like somewhiteone who uses a native american war whoop to try to insult someone of native american heritage.
why should some welsh fuckwits think they can do what they did – why? There is NO reason, NONE – apart from idiocy, bigotry, insensitivity, arrogance and fuckwittery.
Oh fuck. I managed to boot up another computer, watched it and then did a quick search to see how other media were reporting on it (and if they were reporting on it).
This is the moment Wales’ footballers performed a ferocious half-naked Haka during Euro 2016.
The brilliant footage shows the wonderful team bond the Welsh team formed during the greatest summer of their lives as they took the tournament in France by storm.
Over 1200 shares and only one comment. At least the comment, from the handle ‘thelongwhitecloud’ pointed out that it was “embarrassing, insulting and demeaning”
I’m not sure what a traditional welsh celebration entails but the idiots missed a great opportunity to put it on the world stage. I am very pleased that I have not resorted to insulting the welsh because of these individuals – I have deleted a number of sentences where my fingers started typing of their own volition!!!
I care – you don’t – fair enough – just move on and don’t comment on what I’ve written or is that too complicated for you to understand? Jeeze some people…
Problem wherever theres no rules on foreign ownership of residential as theres trillions of chinese controlled funds looking for boltholes.
National have cynically ridden that with tax havens, no cgt and the chch rebuild to smudge the effect of their destructive behaviour across the economy, public service and industry.
I’ve commented several times on this on The Standard. I’ve seen it in Vancouver with my own eyes and read about it in the local papers there. Streets of houses empty and boarded up and rents going up and up.
It is a problem in cities around the Pacific rim.
Sydney is another case in point. However in Australia the station is under some sort of control with far more stringent rules wrt to overseas investors buying. The extra taxes imposed are not great but they do slow the market to some extent. Furthermore development is still going on even with a slight downturn. A 4×2 (4 bedroom 2 bath 2 garage houses are around $400,000) in the suburbs. Beginning teachers on $60+K salary. A couple can look to buy close to work. Why can’t NZ get it’s act together?
I was talking to some overseas students who are really upset about the institution they were attending not helping them to get jobs after their study. They also felt a lot of students were being exploited working below minimum wage and for more than the 20 hours they are legally allowed. It was pointed out to them that they have a student visa and there is no guarantee that they will get work or a work visa and presumably they have stated that they have resources to support themselves. However this is not the reality and these people are coming here to study in the hope they will get jobs and eventually permanent residence. Some of these students already had a bachelors degree in their own country and had taken on a lower level course in new Zealand. The primary purpose of their being here is not the education.
When listening to the frustration and disappointment these young people felt I thought this might not end well for any of us. Perhaps we need to get away from the idea of education as a marketable product and stop selling places to overseas students. Can’t see how the current system really benefits anyone. Of course there is a real benefit in scholarships which are given for academic excellence and help the transfer of ideas between countries. These students are well supported and they come to do a higher degree such as a Phd.
I agree Fairy Godmother, I have commented about this before on the Standard. Once upon a time students came here to better their education so they could return to their home countries and further enhance their home country with their acquired skills. Why are these students allowed to come here, extend their stay and try to gain residency here when their original intention was to come here for extended education. I once experienced a very young Asian girl win a house at auction and then phone her relatives in China to put the money in the bank for the house. This was a large 4 bedroomed home, and surely not for her, is this the way families can get in here if their offspring gain residency here.
Didn’t immigrants have to gain so many points and once upon a time it was so difficult to attain those points. It seems there are large loop holes in the system. Also didn’t the Reserve Bank just state that its not so much immigration that was the problem but that the system wasn’t being as selective in its criteria as it should be.
+100 Fairy Godmother, “get away from the idea of education as a marketable product and stop selling places to overseas students….
Of course there is a real benefit in scholarships which are given for academic excellence and help the transfer of ideas between countries. These students are well supported and they come to do a higher degree such as a Phd.”
It would certainly be interesting to know how much impact they’re having on the property market. Auckland alone received more than 65,000 international enrolments in 2015, that’s a huge number.
Congratulations to the Redcliffs community forcing the Minister of Education to overturn her decision to close their precious school. A deserved victory..but be alert for any hidden catches.
Shame that the poorer Philipstown community didn’t have the same money, expertise and influence to keep their school open. But hey! Who gives a toss about the Philipstown working class
Also a shame that just one person has the power to cause such stress in a community to pursue an ideological slogan . (‘Big is better’ might be OK for a DIY store but not community based schools).
I believe the Redcliffs polling booth was the only one in Port Hills electorate where the last vote count for National’s candidate was higher than that of the Labour candidate.
I wonder if they’ll stay loyal to National out of misguided gratitude.Or just short memories.
Redcliffs voters might well remember who fought to keep their school open – Their Labour MP, Ruth Dyson or the wannabee hiding quietly in the shadows?
After Brexit, Red Ukip prepares to take on Labour’s northern heartlands
(New Statesman) A few brief passages:
“Farage’s departure as leader might … lead to Ukip ratcheting up their attempts to displace the Labour Party in the north of England.
The referendum campaign again exposed the disconnect between Labour MPs and what was once called their core vote. While just 10 of Labour’s MPs supported leaving the EU, and 218 wanted to stay in, 37 per cent of Labour voters opted to leave.
Much more ominous for Labour is that their remain supporters were concentrated in relatively few seats – principally in London and Manchester. Of Labour’s current seats, 150 voted to leave the EU, and just 82 to remain. So on the biggest issue in British politics for a generation, two-thirds of Labour MPs had a dissident view to their constituents.
None of this will have passed Ukip by. Over the last five years, the party has attempted to redefine itself: ditching the reputation as the party of crusty retirees in the south, and replace it with an altogether more abrasive image
Ukip came second in 120 seats, 44 of which were held by Labour.
The rise of Ukip in the north is also the story of the rise of “Red Ukip”: a cocktail of anti-immigration and anti-elitism, with a social democratic tinge ……. At last year’s by-election, in Oldham West and Royton, Ukip circulated leaflets on “How Labour privatised the NHS: And How Ukip will save it, for you”
We could now be about to hear plenty more of this message. The two favourites to be Ukip’s next leader are Steven Woolfe and Paul Nuttall: two working-class men from the north who grew up in Labour-supporting households. Together, they have led Ukip’s surge into Labour territory.“
More on the potentially profound consequences of Brexit for UK Labour and the broader Party System (New Statesman)
(1) “Labour is the party most in line for some kind of split.
The new social cleavage runs clean through it. On one side are “heartland” Labour-voting Brexiteers, left behind by globalisation. On the other are liberal metropolitans of both the left and the centre (not just Corbyn and Corbynistas, but much of the wider Labour membership and parliamentary party too). What happens to the other parties – particularly the Conservatives and UKIP – depends to some extent on how Labour responds to its predicament. But whatever Labour does, we will see liberal, metropolitan Tories finding it hard to stick with their party in the new political landscape, and UKIP hoovering up both parties’ spoils.“
(2) The strange death of liberal politics
The world is changing in ways the British left cannot comprehend.
(A few passages from a long opinion piece)
“There are sure to be concerted efforts to resist the referendum’s message. The rise of the hydra-headed monster of populism; the diabolical machinations of tabloid newspapers; conflicts of interest between baby boomers and millennials; divisions between the English provinces and Wales on the one hand and Scotland, London and Northern Ireland on the other; Jeremy Corbyn’s lukewarm support for the Remain cause; the buyer’s remorse that has supposedly set in after Remain’s defeat – these already commonplace tales will be recycled incessantly during the coming weeks and months. None of them captures the magnitude of the upheaval that has occurred. When voters inflicted the biggest shock on the establishment since Churchill was ousted in 1945 they signalled the end of an era.
But those who think the vote can be overturned or ignored are telling us more about their own state of mind than developments in the real world. Like bedraggled courtiers fleeing Versailles after the French Revolution, they are unable to process the reversal that has occurred. Locked in a psychology of despair, anger and denial, they cannot help believing there will be a restoration of an order they believed was unshakeable …
… There will be no going back. The vote for Brexit demonstrates that the rules of politics have changed irreversibly. The stabilisation that seemed to have been achieved following the financial crisis was a sham. The lopsided type of capitalism that exists today is inherently unstable and cannot be democratically legitimated. The error of progressive thinkers in all the main parties was to imagine that the discontent of large sections of the population could be appeased by offering them what was at bottom a continuation of the status quo.
… “populism” is a term of abuse applied by establishment thinkers to people whose lives they have not troubled to understand. A revolt of the masses is under way, but it is one in which those who have shaped policies over the past twenty years are more remote from reality than the ordinary men and women at whom they like to sneer …
… Telling voters who were considering voting Leave that they were stupid, illiterate, xenophobic and racist was never going to be an effective way of persuading them to change their views. The litany of insults voiced by some leaders of the Remain campaign expressed their sentiments towards millions of ordinary people. It did not occur to these advanced minds that their contempt would be reciprocated.
Leading Labour figures have denied adamantly that the party’s stance on immigration is central to the collapse of its working-class base. It was a complex of issues to do with de-industrialisation, they repeat, that led to mass desertion by Labour voters. There is some force in this, but it is essentially a way of evading an inconvenient truth.
… Free movement of labour between countries with vastly different wage levels, working conditions and welfare benefits is a systemic threat to the job opportunities and living standards of Labour’s core supporters. Labour cannot admit this, because that would mean the EU is structured to make social democracy impossible. This used to be understood, not only on Labour’s Bennite left but also by Keynesian centrists such as Peter Shore and, more recently, Austin Mitchell. Today the fact goes almost unnoticed, except by those who have to suffer the consequences …
… Corbyn is not alone in passing over this conflict. So do his opponents, and this is one reason why it will be extremely difficult to reverse Labour’s slide. If Yvette Cooper, Andy Burnham or David Miliband had been leader, the referendum would still have ended badly for Labour. No doubt the campaign would have been handled better. But the message would have been the same – promises of European reform of European institutions have shown to be worthless. Labour’s heartlands were already melting away. A rerun in the north and Midlands of Labour’s collapse in Scotland is now a distinct possibility. Fear of this disaster is one reason Labour is unlikely to split. With over 40 per cent of the party’s voters opting for Leave, anyone who joined a new “modernising” party would be on a fast lane to oblivion. Only a radical shift from progressive orthodoxies on immigration and the EU can save Labour from swift and terminal decline. It is doubtful whether any future leader could enforce such a shift, as it would be opposed by most Labour MPs and by activists. Yet it is plainly what millions of Labour voters want.
(3) Four ways the anti-immigration vote won the referendum for Brexit:
Total control on immigration mattered more to voters than the single market.
“The historic outcome of the EU referendum coincided with a 10 point surge (between May and June) in people saying immigration is the biggest issue facing the country in Ipsos MORI’s Issues Index. And in the final two weeks before the polls opened, our Political Monitor showed that immigration ranked as the single biggest issue which would affect how the public voted in the referendum, overtaking the economy.
The Issues Index has seen concern about immigration steadily increase over recent years, and so it was already a central theme in the debate long before Nigel Farage revealed the now infamous Breaking Point poster.“
(4) I’m disappointed about Brexit – but the snobbery of some pro-EU protesters is hard to take
“Of all the brilliantly scathing lyrics on Pulp’s 1995 classic Different Class, my favourite has to be this line from “I Spy”: “Take your Year in Provence and shove it up your ass.”
Even if you’ve not read your Peter Mayle, you know exactly who the target is: a self-satisfied middle class that has mistaken educational privilege for intellectual and moral exceptionality, and is to be found using cultural tokens – the cottage in France, the wine from Tuscany, the opera tickets for Bayreuth – to state and restate their presumed superiority over the common masses.
I couldn’t get this lyric out of my head when looking at images of last Saturday’s anti-Brexit March for Europe in London.“
It did not occur to these advanced minds that their contempt would be reciprocated.
a self-satisfied middle class that has mistaken educational privilege for intellectual and moral exceptionality, and is to be found using cultural tokens – the cottage in France, the wine from Tuscany, the opera tickets for Bayreuth – to state and restate their presumed superiority over the common masses.
Yep, but the middle class has bought us Mendela and Kate Shepard. In fact most peaceful change throughout history is from middle class….
I know there is this discourse about glory to the uneducated worker but seriously, if you want to get rid of inequality it comes through education (not the cultural revolution style of glory and power to the ignorant and conformist).
Isn’t the idea of a social democracy to even everyone out, so we have a massive middle class, low poor and low rich communities…
And don’t forget NZ was settled by working class people who wanted a classless, fairer system they were escaping from Europe from (if we ignore the damage that does to indigenous people).
US had a massive refugee population after the 2nd world war which helped them as a nation push ideas.
My issue at present is that the migration National is spearheading, is based on a very different type of person, people who have made a lot of money by exploiting free trade cheap goods, having cheap workers, being plutocrats attracted by tax havens like status, ‘gold bricks’ banking and exploiting assets here and creating infrastructure offshore contracts, or just people who have no interest in NZ apart from to study a bogus course here, to get a passport which their agent told them to do.
Clearly I am generalising, but things are getting ridiculous in NZ, we really are becoming tenants, a banana republic and the unemployed in our own country, which Key seems to think is not a crisis.
Yep, but the middle class has bought us Mendela and Kate Shepard. In fact most peaceful change throughout history is from middle class….
From Trotter’s recent piece has already addressed your comment:
Chris Trotter: The middle class have become selfish survivalists
OPINION: What has happened to the New Zealand middle class? Why has the social strata that encompasses our best educated, most highly skilled, most entrepreneurial and financially literate citizens failed so miserably to respond to our nation’s needs?
When did the middle class relinquish the moral and civic leadership upon which its claims to social pre-eminence rested? How, and by whom, has the middle class been superseded?
Well I’m an optimist so I think that the middle class are grouping and about to strike in a series of freedom fighter style attacks from blogs to anti TPPA, to communities fighting to keep their school open…
Let’s be clear both Jane Kelsey are Bomber Bradbury are middle class…. and in my view nothing wrong with it! Maybe they feel self loathing at being white educated individuals but in my view, own your own identity – because you have to feel comfortable in your own skin to get others like you to join you in the change. If every five minutes you attack your own class you will not get the momentum you need. That’s part of Labour’s problem, they apologise for all the wrong things. (Pro war and Pro trade deals and then attack the middle class who vote for them in some sort of 19th century view of blue collar worker that does not vote for them and probably lost their job due to the Pro war and Pro trade deals) but against the above).
Maybe that is why certain so called leftie’s fear Hone Hawawira, he is the real deal as being both the ‘accepted mythical revolutionary’ and then (even more fearful) he is a real revolutionary.
Remember the revolutionaries that sought the biggest changes had policies of inclusion. Luther King etc. If we want to alter neoliberalism then they have to understand why people are against it…
As for Trotter “The middle class have become selfish survivalists’ – possibly due to the shock of Rogernomics and the lack of political choice…. again read the above, do you want to contribute to a revolution by being inclusive or just moan about why nobody will join you or have some sort of complicated criteria based on some fucked up insecurity?
As was explained to me, the vulnerable don’t normally have time or energy to get a revolution going, they are too busy surviving day to day… nothing left in the tank… so you will be waiting a looong time for them to join you have an exacting criteria…
Clearly I am generalising, but things are getting ridiculous in NZ, we really are becoming tenants, a banana republic and the unemployed in our own country, which Key seems to think is not a crisis.
It’s not a crisis for the rich and Key/National only govern for the rich. They really don’t give a shit about anybody else.
oh for love of mary, Bayreuth and Wagner are now a sign of the uppity middle class who is abusing the lower class? Really? Define Middle Class.
There are years of waiting lists to get tickets to the Bayreuth Wagner Spielfeste. However, one can enjoy Wagner at any of the other good Opera Houses in the World and that is where the middle class goes as does the lower class, the true Wagner Lover will go on the list and see what happens and the 0.01 % that is fucking it up for the rest of the world is invited.
If you have 15 minutes or so, this video is very interesting. Talking about the culture wars of the cold war, and the role of the CIA. There were some very smart people running the CIA in the post war era.
I just read Dr Deborah Russells comments on negative gearing for housing investments. Perhaps if politicians didnt have so many houses themselves, they might look at this seriously.
Surely, it would be as simple as Parliament saying (they are sovereign after all),
1) that if you claim a loss on a rental property, its an investment, so any income on sale is taxable
or
2) that you cant claim a loss on a rental property against other income (ringfence the loss till the property is sold)
I used to be an accountant in my earlier life, and I cant see that this is very hard to sort out.
I know we all like to see wrongs righted and apologies where apologies are due.
Not sure how judges are hired or fired but this judge needs to take a good, hard look at themselves and ask if they’re really up to the task of being a judge
Let me explain. On the balance of probabilities, Banks is a crook, therefore it stands to reason his wife’s word might be in question. Perfectly legitimate connection to make.
Someone committed perjury? That’s a serious allegation.
Meanwhile, it seems that Banks’ entire defense was that he didn’t know he was signing a false return because he didn’t read the bit of paper.
The overturned conviction was not for signing a false return. The return was false. It was for knowingly signing a false return. His defense was incompetence.
yeah – I don’t believe he was that incompetent by accident.
In some ways it got bogged down in this-lunch-vs-that-lunch argumentation, rather than the simple “are you fucking pulling my leg” test.
Tell that to Dotcom. bit of a double standard there… If you want to know why people are getting angry, it is because their governments are wasting unlimited time and resources persecuting various people who have stood up to them, (Dotcom, Assage, Snowdon), while secret deals mean that John Banks who is as guilty as hell in the public’s eyes gets off… with some US witness who suspiciously did not appear at the last trial…
The case focused on how he knew to split the cheque into two. What it should have focussed on is whether any reasonable person would have been unaware of two identical cheques that totalled to over the threshhold, or whether any reasonable person actually signs a legal declaration without reading it or knowing its contents.
As to your idea that people donate to politicians in exchange for direct influence with those politicians… well, the cabinet club springs to mind.
Actually James, Dotcom has not been convicted yet, apart from John Key finding him guilty. In fact the GCSB has been found guilty of illegally spying on him and seizing his assets.
Well, I guess that is Nationals next dream to control the judiciary, which they are alarmingly getting close to. They did have to get the Internet expert judge to step down so someone else got to hear the case. Apparently joking about the US is now a crime for NZ judges….
No it is not bullshit. The case which should have been bought by Hollywood in a civil case not by our dumbo government, has only got to the stage where NZ in a very dodgy unprecedented judgment has been allowed to extradite him to the US where he will stand trial. The dodgy extradition is being challenged. No conviction at all Naki Man. You need to stop believing John Key and his Hollywood buddies.
Even Sony lawyers thought what he was doing was not going to result in a conviction. You Tube do the same thing and won their case that file sharing is not illegal.
Banks’ entire defense was basically that yes, I committed a crime but not the one I’m charged with. Nyah, nyah, you’re too late to charge me for the actual crime I did. See the article from Andrew Geddis below.
So if Banks is an admitted crook, then it’s a reasonable inference that his close associates may be less than completely trustworthy. Like Muttonbird says.
“First of all, it means Banks did break the law when he filed his donations return. Under the Local Electoral Act (as it then stood), inadvertently filing a false return was an offence. It’s just that this particular offence had to be prosecuted within six months of the return being made – so Banks escaped liability for his actions on a technicality.”
Yes Andre and I just read the Geddis article which points out that Banks did break the Law but just escaped the charge because it was after the 6 months. The rest is detail but it is a bit rich for Banks to still claim innocence. Thanks for the link.
You know how the RWNJs keep telling us that we all want more cars and more roads? Yeah, well:
The question asked Aucklanders to indicate how strongly they support each of these options on a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 means “strongly oppose” and 10 means “strongly support”.
In the poll of 500 Aucklanders, we found extremely low support for a road-only crossing, with more opponents than supporters; 22% support, 37% neutral and 41% oppose.
The option with the next highest support was for a rail only crossing; 42% support, 29% neutral and 29% oppose.
Support for a crossing that is rail and road was by far the most popular option amongst Aucklanders. Almost two thirds (64%) said they would support a crossing that is rail and road, with 22% neutral or unsure and 14% opposed.
And political parties really need to take this on board:
Conventional wisdom among political pundits has been that a new road-only crossing to the Shore is a vote winner, but with only 22% support across Auckland, and 17% on the North Shore, that should be questioned.
What scam is National and Fletcher pulling? Are these vultures praying on the desperate UK migrants who are left fearful after the Brexit vote?
They are even putting out a call for expats living in NZ to contact their friends and relatives in the UK.
Fletcher heads to UK on big recruitment drive
“New Zealand’s biggest builder is off to London as it hunts for new staff to help fill vacancies in our building boom.
A massive surge in building work has prompted Fletcher Construction to kick off its latest recruitment drive with an event at New Zealand House in London on July 28, held in conjunction with Immigration New Zealand and a recruitment company.”
Quake rebuild delays drive workers out of Christchurch
"Tradesmen and builders are leaving Christchurch in frustation over a lack of work and continuing delays to the quake-hit city's reconstruction.
Although recruitment agencies continue to advertise overseas for qualified tradespeople to help with the devastated city's rebuild, local workers say there's not enough work to go around as it is."
Is what’s on offer ghost jobs? Not much is listed on the employment section on Fletcher’s website, and applications for graduates and interns is closed.
And since New Zealand already has a massive housing crisis that is about to burst, where will National/Fletcher house all these new migrants from their huge UK recruitment drive?
Where will these imported chinese workers live? Will they get to keep their passports / visas if there is an employment dispute? Will they fall under NZ Employment law? The questions are endless.
Actually is does not matter that they are chinese, or other nationality. where are these people once here supposed to live, we already are several thousand houses/flats/beds short?
We need training programmes and apprenticeships. It makes no sense to have all these unemployed youth and trades that need workers but then we don’t train. Is it really that much cheaper to import a fully grown adult with certain needs into a country to do a job then spending the cash on a local youth and train them from 15-16 onwards. By the time they are 19 they have learned a trade, earn a few dollars, are student debt free and have a trade. What the hell can kiwis not understand about this simple principe? Train your young ones. Teach ’em , learn ’em.
Yes agreed, Good questions that should and need to be asked. msm won’t do that though. National cut the funding to apprenticeships when they first came to power. This situation that we have now has been deliberately orchestrated from the outset, by the key National government.
Rob MacCulloch writes – Can’t remember the last book by a Kiwi author you read? Think the NZ government should spend less on the arts in favor of helping the homeless? If so, as far as Newsroom is concerned, you probably deserve to be called a cultural ignoramus ...
Eric Crampton writes – Grudges are bad. Better to move on. But it can be fun to keep a couple of really trivial ones, so you’re not tempted to have other ones. For example, because of the rootkit fiasco of 2005, no Sony products in our household. ...
A new report warns an estimated third of the adult population have unmet need for health care.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāHere’s the six key things I learned about Aotaroa’s political economy this week around housing, climate and poverty:Politics - Three opinion polls confirmed support for PM Christopher Luxon ...
Today is May the fourth. Which was just a regular day when my mother took me to see the newly released Star Wars at the Odeon in Rotorua. The queue was right around the corner. Some years later this day became known as Star Wars Day, the date being a ...
Buzz from the Beehive Much more media attention is being paid to something Winston Peters said about former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr than to a speech he delivered to the New Zealand China Council. One word is missing from the speech: AUKUS. But AUKUS loomed large in his considerations ...
Is the economy in another long stagnation? If so, why?This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be ...
The annual list of who's been bribing our politicians is out, and journalists will no doubt be poring over it to find the juiciest and dirtiest bribes. The government's fast-track invite list is likely to be a particular focus, and we already know of one company on the list which ...
In the weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Southern Israel I wrote about the possible 2nd, 3rd and even 4th order effects of the conflict. These included new fronts being opened in the West Bank (with Hamas), Golan … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is one of the oldest truisms that there is never a good time for MPs to get a pay rise. This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
By Stephen Wright and Stefan Armbruster of BenarNews Fiji’s ranking in a global press freedom index has jumped into the top tier of countries with free or mostly free media after its government last year repealed a draconian law that threatened journalists with prison for doing their jobs. Fiji’s improvement ...
We might be in Invercargill but all anyone can talk about is Gore. Specifically, Salford Street. That’s where three-year-old Lachlan Jones lived, south of the centre of town, between the A&P Showgrounds and the Mataura River. Roughly 1.2 km away from the single level home he lived in with his ...
MONDAY I lined up the latest round of civil servants from city hall against the wall, and signalled for the firing squad to drop their rifles. I stepped up onto a wooden crate to look at the office workers in the eye. But that didn’t feel right, so I found ...
Keen hiker and second-year MSc student Liam Hewson wears two hats when he’s in the great outdoors. “The scientist in me appreciates nature and goes, ‘Oh, there’s that thing and there’s another thing,’ but then the tramper and the outdoorsy person in me thinks, ‘Cool bush.’” Born and bred in ...
After a long and illustrious career as a goal kicker, Dan Carter’s favourite way to unwind is… kicking goals. Why can’t he get enough of it? And what it’s like to watch him do it for an hour straight? A semicircle of people wielding cameras and phones has formed in ...
Dame Susan Devoy takes us through her life in television, including late night ER debriefs, her proudest CTI moment and the show she watches in secret. Quite aside from her four world champion squash titles, Dame Susan Devoy will likely go down in history as one of the best Celebrity ...
Hera Lindsay Bird reveals the best places in Ōtepoti to score more for your apocalypse-prep book hoard.Sometimes I get the feeling I’ve been killed in a car crash, and this second half of my life is just the brain unspooling itself, like one of those episodes of a hospital ...
ThreeNow’s new murder mystery series takes us on a dark, damp journey into the Australian wilderness.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. High Country is ThreeNow’s new Australian eight-part crime drama, set in a remote part of the Victorian highlands. It tells ...
Introducing a new way to read The Spinoff every weekend. After nearly 10 years of being an online magazine, we’re finally embracing the weekend liftout. Despite our best efforts to convince you otherwise, writers and editors at The Spinoff don’t work weekend. It is through the sheer power of technology ...
Tip one: let yourself be nurtured by this big old man. Tip two: don’t ask him to adopt you. So, you’ve arrived at your first session with a new therapist. He tells you to make yourself comfortable and you opt for the tweed armchair, hoping it makes you look like ...
I didn’t know books could open you back up; that there were books that stayed with you, where reading was like a chemical event. I knew nothing.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.Not too long ago, I was listening to the American ...
Former Olympic swimmer James Magnussen has already started training for the Enhanced games, though says he won’t start taking performance enhancing substances until about nine months out from the competition. The Australian world champion was the first athlete to be announced by Enhanced, but he says the organisation has had ...
Everyone thinks he’s dead. Every day they expect his body to be washed up along the coast. Most likely up Karitane way, the way the tide’s running. But nobody’ll be too surprised if his body’s never found. Even in death he wouldn’t have wished for such attention. He would have ...
Council members voted 21 to 4 in favour of Ahluwalia returning to the Laucala campus following a much-awaited meeting in Vanuatu this week. It comes as USP and its two unions — the Association of the University of the South Pacific Staff (AUSPS) and the Administration and Support Staff Union ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicola Henry, Professor & Australian Research Council Future Fellow, Social and Global Studies Centre, RMIT University Shutterstock Following an emergency meeting of the National Cabinet this week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced a raft of measures to tackle the problem ...
Analysis - A poll showing the opposition is more popular than the government raises questions, politicians go through their 'trial by pay rise' and a Green MP loses her cool in the debating chamber. ...
The entire stretch of Tokomaru Bay on the East Coast will be subject to a joint customary marine title for two hapū, and extending up to four miles out to sea. A High Court judge has found the two groups, who during the case settled a dispute over boundaries for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Hall, Lecturer, Media & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University A longstanding feud between TikTok and Universal Music Group seems to have finally reached an end, with both parties signing a deal that will see Universal-backed music returned to the social media ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Siobhan O’Dean, Postdoctoral Research Associate, The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use, University of Sydney After several highly publicised alleged murders of women in Australia, the Albanese government this week pledged more than A$925 million over five years ...
Political parties have now fully disclosed the donations they received last year - with National getting more than double the cash of any other party. ...
A Pacific regionalism expert has called out New Zealand's Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters for withholding information from the public on AUKUS military pact. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard de Grijs, Professor of Astrophysics, Macquarie University Bruno Scramgnon/Pexels All systems are “go” for tonight’s launch of China’s next step in a carefully planned lunar exploration program. Placed on top of a powerful Long March 5 rocket, the Chang’e 6 ...
National returned a massive donation the day after a Newsroom story linked the donors to a property being investigated for operating unlawfully as a migrant workers’ hostel. The party’s 2023 donation filings, released on Friday, show it returned a $200,000 donation from Buen Holdings on August 23. That was the ...
Pacific Media Watch New Zealand has slumped to an unprecedented 19th place in the annual Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index survey released today on World Press Freedom Day — May 3. This was a drop of six places from 13th last year when it slipped out of its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joshua Black, Political Historian and Administrator Officer, Australian Historical Association, Australian National University Australia has had its fair share of public record-keeping controversies in recent years. Some have been mere farce, as in the case of two formerly government-owned filing cabinets (containing ...
Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL), a United Nations-affiliated organization dedicated to fostering peace through civilian-led initiatives, has issued a statement in response to the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran. ...
A poem by Tessa Keenan, from AUP New Poets 10. Mātou These days we are a photograph; one of a farm strewn with cows that used to be bright harakeke or swamp. The kids point at it and say the sun sits behind a smudge (left by someone at Christmas); ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (Faber & Faber, $25)The masterful Irish writer ...
Marriage and civil union statistics record the number of marriages and civil unions registered in New Zealand each year, and divorce statistics record the number of divorces granted in New Zealand each year. Key facts Marriages and civil unions In ...
Marriage and civil union statistics record the number of marriages and civil unions registered in New Zealand each year, and divorce statistics record the number of divorces granted in New Zealand each year. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lennon Y.C. Chang, Associate Professor of Cyber Risk and Policy, Deakin University Taiwan stands out as a beacon of democracy, innovation and resilience in an increasingly autocratic region. But this is under growing threat. In recent years, China has used a variety ...
In this excerpt from her new memoir, Dame Susan Devoy remembers her turn as star contestant on the 2022 season of Celebrity Treasure Island. The most anxious time of every day was pre-elimination, when you knew this could be your final day on the show. I felt such contradictory emotions, ...
A week that began in triumph ended in an all-too-familiar disaster for the Green Party. Duncan Greive asks if there’s something in the mission that breaks its best and brightest. A long, strange week for the Green party began with a fantastic poll result. On one level this is hardly ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Vanuatu’s former prime minister and opposition MP Ishmael Kalsakau has stepped down — just two days after he confirmed he was the rightful opposition leader. Kalsakau, MP for Port Vila, confirmed to ABC’s Pacific Beat, and the Vanuatu Daily Post on Thursday that he ...
What’s to blame for the coalition’s choppy start? Six months in, and the mojo meter is in the doldrums. A new poll would put National out of power and sees its leader, Chris Luxon, sliding in popularity. How much is it about policy, how much coalition management and a perception ...
The striking report goes far beyond the proposed repeal of the Oranga Tamariki Act’s Treaty of Waitangi provision, and its impact should be felt far beyond the unique circumstances of the claim it addresses. Earlier this week, the Waitangi Tribunal released an interim report on the government’s proposed repeal of ...
The world has been experiencing a productivity slowdown, from which New Zealand has not been exempt. COVID-19 temporarily boosted labour productivity, but more recently, productivity has retreated. The overall trend since 2007 has been one of slow productivity ...
What’s more wasteful than spending $315k on syrup and machine maintenance? Trying to drum up a controversy about it.Cast your mind back to the pre-pandemic idylls of 2019. A “rat” was a disgusting rodent and not a self-administered plague test; the sixth Labour government was in power; and the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Fitz-Gibbon, Professor of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts, Monash University, Monash University Ken stocker/Shutterstock In the wake of numerous killings of women allegedly by men’s violence in 2024, thousands of Australians have joined rallies across the country to demand action ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Henry Cutler, Professor and Director, Macquarie University Centre for the Health Economy, Macquarie University Oleg Ivanov IL/Shutterstock Waiting times for public hospital elective surgery have been in the news ahead of this year’s federal budget. That’s the type of non-emergency surgery ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Konstantine Panegyres, McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellow, Historical and Philosophical Studies, The University of Melbourne Amna Artist/Shutterstock One of the earliest descriptions of someone with cancer comes from the fourth century BC. Satyrus, tyrant of the city of Heracleia on the Black Sea, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Rose, Professor of Sustainable Future Transport, University of Sydney LanaElcova/Shutterstock Electric vehicles are often seen as the panacea to cutting emissions – and air pollution – from transport. Is this view correct? Yes – but only once uptake accelerates. Despite the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Giselle Natassia Woodley, Researcher and Phd Candidate, Edith Cowan University There is widespread agreement Australia needs to do better when it comes to gender-based violence. Anger and frustration at the numbers of women being killed saw national rallies over the weekend and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Graham, Lecturer in Economics, University of Sydney Mark and Anna Photography/Shutterstock As home ownership moves further out of reach for many Australians, “rentvesting” is being touted as a lifesaver. Rentvesting is the practice of renting one property to live ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sukhmani Khorana, Associate Professor, Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture, UNSW Sydney Netflix The new season of Heartbreak High is garnering mixed reviews. Critics are writing about the racy story lines, comparing it to other coming-of-age series about teenage relationships and ...
Bob Carr intends to launch legal action against Winston Peters and Julie Anne Genter is facing a second allegation of bullying. Both sucked the air out of an announcement on education, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in ...
In 1995, Sally Clark went out on her own in a bold and unorthodox attempt to join an illustrious group of equestrian riders conquering the world. In the days of glovebox road maps, brick cell phones, and the hit song How Bizarre, Clark refused to follow Sir Mark Todd, Blyth ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Beaglehole, Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Otago niphon/Getty Images The number of people accessing medication for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in Aotearoa New Zealand increased significantly between 2006 and 2022. But the disorder is still under-diagnosed and ...
To celebrate the start of New Zealand music month, we look back at the best local tuneage that managed to weasel its way into Hollywood productions. There’s nothing quite like the thrilling zap of recognition when New Zealand weasels its way into a glamorous Hollywood production. Crack open a Tui ...
People trust other people more than institutions. So how can the media gain that trust through journalists without losing what’s important about the institution? Anna Rawhiti-Connell reflects on two years of curating the news for The Bulletin.Amonth ago, armed cops descended on my neighbourhood as calls to “lock your ...
Opinion: PFAS – per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances – are a class of thousands of man-made chemicals used widely in everyday consumer items such as textiles, packaging, and cookware, popular for their water, grease and stain-repellent properties. However, the very properties that make PFAS so attractive to manufacturers are also what ...
NONFICTION 1 The Last Secret Agent by Pippa Latour & Jude Dobson (Allen & Unwin, $37.99)’ This is the hottest book in New Zealand, number one with a bullet in its first week, selling more than any overseas title, and demand is so huge that it’s already been reprinted. A ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A,DIV,A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Friday 3 May appeared first on Newsroom. ...
A warning – suicide is discussed in this podcast New Zealand’s own long-running soap Shortland Street doesn’t hesitate to kill off its much-loved characters. But would TVNZ dare to kill off our favourite soap? That’s the fear as times get tough in television – even though it’s been pointed out ...
Another day in John Key’s neo-liberal nightmare.
We have become a cruel, greedy, uncaring and selfish nation under his wretched leadership.
Uncaring, greedy.
Andrew King of the NZ Property Investors Federation.
Pretending that property investors care about homelessness on RNZ this morning in an attempt to say there should not be new restrictions on them.
‘Tenants could be worse off if Reserve Bank targets investors’
Listen to his weasel words here……….
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/201807481
These spokesmen of greed, misery, exploitation and death don’t seem to have any problems getting themselves on our air waves……
Money talks.
If only she was as principled about the welfare of citizens more often rather than vote with national to sell state houses and prop up a regime that’s wilfully selling out our future generations ability to take care of themselves.
All for show in my view, cunning as her surname that one.
yep – selling state houses is shit – Fox can get worked up afterwards that no one is doing much when she, and they, voted for the not doing much – hypocrites and this is known.
+100 tc
Yep. No pussy footing there! And she is totally right to call out the unscrupulous death harbinger.
New video by Elizabeth Warren opposing TPP.
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/07/07/its-about-letting-giant-corporations-rig-rules-warren-skewers-tpp
I’m a bit sad that she has decided to campaign next to Hillary Clinton. Warren should have been the Democratic Party’s favoured Presidential candidate.
+100…or she should have supported Sanders
If Hillary Clinton chooses Elizabeth Warren for VP running mate, she will bring on board most of Bernie Sanders’ followers. But Elizabeth Warren’s video against the TPP means that Hillary will have to choose between the TPP or Warren.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/07/clinton-picks-warren-the-tpp-is-dead.html
Meanwhile here in New Zealand due to legislation banning any mention of climate change in resource management consent hearings two brand new coal mines are being started and one old shuttered coal mine is being reopened.
https://coalactionnetworkaotearoa.wordpress.com/2016/03/13/amid-nz-coal-mine-closures-layoffs-do-we-need-two-new-mines/#more-18665
https://coalactionnetworkaotearoa.wordpress.com/2016/06/28/auckland-coal-action-activists-carry-out-waikato-coal-mine-inspection-leave-climate-message/
In 2004 the Labour Government amended the Resource Management Act to order that objections based on climate change must not be taken into account by Regional Councils when considering applications for a new coal mining operations at consent planning hearings.
As Geoffrey Palmer asks, is this the intent?
The evidence is so compelling and irrefutable, that if the case against climate change caused by burning fossil fuels was allowed to be raised at coal mine consent hearings, it would be very difficult for any coal company to gain a consent to begin a new mining operation in this country ever again.
Taking this statute out of our law books must be a priority. Allowing it to remain standing, is incompatible with New Zealand becoming a world leader in combating climate change.
If Andrew Little is serious about the commitment he gave at the Green Party AGM about making New Zealand a world leader on climate change then Little must make the repeal of this law one of his election campaign promises
This will be the real test of the sincerity of his statement made at the Green Party AGM to make New Zealand a world leader on climate change.
http://www.greenpeace.org/new-zealand/en/blog/5-reasons-why-the-world-needs-a-moratorium-on/blog/56221/
“If Andrew Little is serious….”
“This will be the real test of the sincerity of his statement made at the Green Party AGM…..”
Yes.
I too would like to see some real and sincere statements from Andrew Little to convince me that there is true commitment to the accord between Labour and the Greens.
This issue presents an ideal opportunity for Labour to acknowledge that we a living in different times….and that that particular statute has no place in the RMA in 2016.
Thanks Jenny for bringing this to our attention.
When does this get to its first vote in Parliament?
Or have they not yet finished drafting the changes out of Select Committee?
A little challenge for its defenders: it is essentially a permissive law, rather than a policy-directive law. Isn’t it time that some of the Government Policy Statements shifted from regulatory instruments to actual law? eg water quality.
That would change the whole modus operandi of this law from permissive to directive.
We may not like that National is reforming the law, and I would oppose changing the principles of the Act. But Palmer should be less afraid to defend his baby and maybe accept it’s really time to give it a good wakeup.
So I’ve come across mention of this before. A member of ‘Oil Free Otago’ attended the resource hearings for Fonterra’s Canterbury coal fired drying plant and wrote a piece for the ODT.
In that piece she made passing reference of some illegality applying to her making any mention of global warming during that hearing. I meant to follow up on it and ask if it was a prohibition applying to her in a personal capacity, or whether it was something wider than that.
This legislation – can you link to it?
http://www.legislation.co.nz/act/public/2004/0002/latest/DLM237584.html#DLM238104
As I read it, it was meant to allow councils to take climate change into account when making decisions, but, if Jenny is correct, the opposite effect has occurred. An unintended consequence?
Fucking astonishing. Nothing unintended about it as far as I can see. (emphasis added)
And 68.3 reads – “In making a rule, the regional council shall have regard to the actual or potential effect on the environment of activities, including, in particular, any adverse effect.”
So 70a over-rides 68.3 and shit that contributes to global warming gets a free pass.
The purpose section at the beginning suggests the change is intended to allow councils the ability to take it into account, but the actual wording says they can’t. I did a quick google and I can’t find anything that clarifies what is going on. It’s weird that it doesn’t seem to have been an issue for the Greens, Labour, Greenpeace etc for the last 12 years. There must be some piece of the puzzle missing.
The only Green thing about the environment court legislation, is the money!
The purpose (deleting the clause and para markers for the sake of readability)
The purpose of this Act is to amend the principal Act to require local authorities to plan for the effects of climate change; but not to consider the effects on climate change of discharges into air of greenhouse gases.
That’s pretty unequivocal…and insane. It’s an instruction to adapt, but specifically, to not mitigate.
Since the amendment was passed back in 2004 under a Labour led government that was at least nodding in the right direction as far as global warming goes, I can only guess it is as it is because of lobbying.
And since it was 2004, and we were all going to be getting serious about tackling global warming and what not, I guess Greenpeace and whoever might not have picked it as an issue at the time (under their radar).
It sure as fuck’s an issue now though.
The reason for this is because central government has decided that it has responsibility at a national level for managing emissions, but more pragmatically it has absolutely no trust in the competence of councils to deal with the issue. Look at the scientific ignorance numerous councils have shown over fluoridation as an example as to why.
The reason I didn’t put any link to the statute itself, is because to actually tease out the real world result of this law has been the result of several court battles.
In all these court hearings the judgement has always come down clearly on the side that the intent of the law is that climate change is unambiguously banned from being raised as an objection in consent hearings for new fossil fuel projects.
But these court battles have been “under the radar” in the sense that they have not been widely reported.
But anyone who has ever tried to raise climate change as reason for denying a permit for a new coal mine or fossil fuel power plant in their area will have come up against it.
Apart from Geoffrey Palmer’s rather dense treatise entitled “New Zealand’s defective law on climate change”
There have been several other legal comments on this law.
Despite being an “allegedly reputable law firm”, Chapman Tripp wrongly attributed this law change to the National Party, (well they might considering the extreme retrograde and right wing nature of this law), but it is not a slip that I would expect from a major law firm, National was not the government at the time this law was inserted into the RMA.
Investors “need to have the confidence” to invest in fossil fuels.
Business As Usual needs to continue untrammeled by concerns about climate change.
This is the clear intent of section 104E of the Resource Management Act as emphasised and reinforced over several court cases.
Section 104E of the RMA is incompatible with New Zealand being a world leader on climate change.
My hope is that Andrew Little, in line with his promise that he made at the Green Party AGM to make New Zealand a world leader on climate change. Will announce that the Labour Party in government will repeal section 104E prohibiting climate change being raised as an objection to new fossil fuel projects.
Thanks for the explanation, Jenny. I agree entirely that it needs looking at and as I said upthread, I can’t believe more of a fuss hasn’t been made about it. Mind you, I can see the argument that this should be a central government issue, not one left just to the district councils to rule on.
However, I think this is not just an issue for the Labour party. This is something the Labour/Green alliance should be addressing. Improving that section of the Act could be a natural plank in their cooperative effort, IMO.
You are right, as it reads 104E was inserted into the RMA to ensure that central government keeps full control of climate change policy. The central government mechanism for doing that is the ETA.
Which like 104E is also the same as doing nothing. Since its inception the ETA has overseen a huge increase in Greenhouse gas emissions.
http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/snapshots-of-nz/nz-progress-indicators/home/environmental/greenhouse-gas-emissions.aspx
The ETA in practice has proven to be worse than doing nothing.
The ETA and section 104E fit together, both preventing any practical and measurable cuts in Greenhouse gas emissions.
Which is why the Green Party want the ETA repealed as well.
:http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/10108920/Greens-launch-climate-change-policy
P.S.
The establishment have learnt from the past. Nuclear Free Aotearoa was first achieved at the devolved council level, long before it ever became central government policy. Unlike central authority, councils are less remote and more open to democratic grass roots lobbying. (While Central authority is more susceptible and open to corporate lobbying.) This is one of the reasons that devolvement, Scottish Independence, Brexit, etc. have proved so popular. People seem to know instinctively that the more remote authority is, the less democratic control they have over it.
The Guardian today, ” How Hot Chinese Money is Making Vancouver Unliveable “. Same problems, empty houses, ridiculous prices and before the usual suspects complain of racism, amongst the most vocal opponents are the Chinese who have been there for decades.
Like my Aunt.
Says there are too many Chinese immigrants in Auckland.
She was born in Hong Kong.
So Chilcott says on the basis of the information and circumstances at the time Tony Blair was wrong in many ways to go to war and kill 100,000 Iraqis and 179 English soldiers.
But Tony Blair says on the basis of the information and circumstances at the time he would still make the same wrong decision..
that is psychopathic
key is the exact same
I know……it’s boggling. The Non-Man Key said more or less the same thing………”Hindsight’s a wonderful thing………” It’s got nothing to do with hindsight. It’s got to do with having a core morality and not being a war criminal.
What a bastard is Blair. What a bastard is that effete Non-Man Key.
Simple thing the RBNZ could do to help control the investing side of the housing market – say that banks are only allowed to lend at their carded rates when signing interest-only loans for investors.
There has been various suggestions that interest-only be banned outright, which seems like a punitive over-reaction that could have unforeseen consequences. But this would be a very easy policy for the banks to implement. It represents another tightening of the screws against investors that would help to even the playing field. Note I’m not suggesting this instead of other proposals, but in addition to.
For example, at the moment the lowest 1 year rate from a mainstream bank is 4.25%, but it’s possible to get that discounted to 3.99% if you’re attractive enough to the bank.
The Standard’s Dog and Lemon Guide
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/201807499/details-on-kiwirail's-latest-asbestos-woes-revealed
Buy Chinese! Buy more Chinese! Then make Kiwis sort out the mess!
This is what happens when you buy on price rather than quality. National, and to a lesser degree Labour, always buy on minimum price and maximum profits. This is why we have substandard housing and other failures throughout our society.
buying on price can be a big problem, as can not having or enforcing standards…..but the most mind blowing aspect is that after all the problems that have cost millions, time and still ending up with a product that doesn’t meet spec we have ordered more…..from the same manufacturer ……brilliant
Well that’s a new one…
https://off-guardian.org/2016/07/07/clinton-e-mail-scandal-deconstructing-the-fbis-report/
As long as you don’t INTEND to break the law…
It beggers belief (to me anyway) that country like the USA can only come up with Clinton v Bush
@ Puckish Rogue, 30 years of Charter schools, legal lobbyists and neoliberalism….
plus, you are what you eat….all that GM and monsanto crops, lead in the water and so forth…
?
Oh PR ????????????? Are you truly Pauline Hanson “Please explain…….” or are you just being a sneery wanker ?
For a view that’s closer to balanced…
http://www.vox.com/2016/7/7/12118052/clinton-email-hearing-house-comey
What is unbalanced about the OffGuardian article?
They re not putting words into the FBI Directors mouth they are just analysing what he said.
—
The Director of the FBI, James Comey, seems to go out of his way to exonerate Clinton in his press conference (full text here), and yet somehow damn her at the same time – making some peculiar statements in the process. This (my emphasis):
“I should add here that we found no evidence that any of the additional work-related e-mails were intentionally deleted in an effort to conceal them.”
Is followed up by this (again, emphasis mine):
“It is also likely that there are other work-related e-mails that they did not produce to State and that we did not find elsewhere, and that are now gone because they deleted all e-mails they did not return to State, and the lawyers cleaned their devices in such a way as to preclude complete forensic recovery.”
These two statements seem contradictory to me. All the e-mails Clinton’s lawyers didn’t produce were deleted in such a way to “preclude forensic recovery”? And yet there’s “no evidence” of attempted concealment?
What’s not balanced is that the OffGuardian article only presents the bits that put Clinton in a bad light. It doesn’t present any of the reasons why the FBI recommended against charging Clinton.
Get serious, if Clinton had merely been a senior level manager in the State Department doing what she did, she would have been charged 6 months ago and made an example of.
37 years jail is the going rate for leakers.
Chelsea Manning.
And how does our Key fit in with our law when he deletes all his texts?
State Department investigation now underway.
Clinton isn’t out of the woods on this.
You seen anything that says the State Department investigation has the power to be anything worse than just embarrassing for Clinton? As far as I can tell, it’s a civil matter so there’s no possibility of criminal charges or anything else with real teeth.
You can be stripped of your security clearance, prevented from working for the Federal Government ever again, and placed on a no-fly list.
Main problems is it corrodes her claim to foreign policy experience, and may disqualify a number of staff favoured for the foreign policy desks.
Delicate balance:
she has to be humble to take the beats in media for constitutional propriety,
but State Department have to be sure they don’t get full scorched earth when she walks through the door.
Trump is going to have a field day with this every single TV debate.
Oh CV…….Trump?…….you mean your daddy ?
Killary and her associates have caused a massive national security breach through her deliberate mishandling of classified information.
Trump is going to take this to the end zone over and over and over again.
I don’t see that it hits her claim to foreign policy experience. But it certainly reinforces that she’s DGAF about some things that she really should be careful about.
Yeah if the State Department throws everything at it the likes of Abedin may disappear under a bus, but Hillary’s network is big enough it won’t leave big holes.
Since one of the reasons claimed for Hillary to set up her own system was that the approved State systems were such a pain to use, I’m picking the State investigation outcome will be heavy on the “this is what State has learned it needs to improve” and light on condemnation of Hillary and associates. Which will fuel another few rounds of congressional investigations.
Holy shit, high security top secret information systems are a “pain to use.”
You don’t say.
Are there any other Federal Employees who now get to use that same excuse to commit felonies with sensitive/classified US GOV documents?
If Clinton gets nailed by this, then Bernie naturally becomes the Democratic Candidate, and the polls say that Bernie would smash Trump hands down in the general election.
I can’t believe the people still cheering for Clinton to come out on top in this scenario, especially when it is so clear that the Deep State is pulling every string it can to appoint Clinton to the Oval Office. FFS.
As opposed to trump, who might end up starting WW3.
Which is the exact inverse of the truth.
Clinton is a neocon, and will fill her White House with neocons like Samantha Powell and Victoria Nuland.
Taking their current brinksmanship against Russia and against China, will be the top of their agenda. As well as a full scale invasion of Syria by US/Saudi proxies.
Trump is far more interested in doing business with China and Russia, and bringing US forces home.
no, he’s cool with overseas deployment, he just doesn’t want to tell anyone about it.
And as soon as nuclear proliferation is out of the bottle (like he wants), shit gets much worse.
I’m under no illusions that the Deep State holds far more power than the Oval Office.
lol so you’re relying on the “deep state” to stop him before he blows up the world? Awesome.
Yeah CV…….you’re losing it and you’re a pain in the arse frankly. I think you’d happily unleash Trump on us as a quid pro quo for Clinton being humiliated. Bugger it…….came home after a hefty day thought I’d just have a quick squiz at TS before dinner…….Oh No ! CV being a weird-arse.
Why should Māori have to put up with this shit.
The welsh should be ashamed of these disgraceful, racist and insulting players.
I hope they lose everything.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11670766
Curious. (Can’t actually view the vid on this particular computer/browser btw)
Is the root of the insult that the guys are Welsh? That it was an insensitive and thoughtless pastiche? That a part of Maori culture has been appropriated by corporate sporting bodies, performed around the world in that context and, abroad at least, not understood beyond that sporting context?
If – and I suspect this is the case – a load of foreigners with no connection to NZ merely view the haka as some kind of blood stirring theatre of no cultural significance, then what’s the solution? Is there a solution?
Or in tune with 1001 other culturally insensitive bits of nonsense, is the only recourse to either quietly (or not so quietly) mutter what a pack of apparent wankers this that or the other group of people are to indulge in this or that kind of shit?
when you have watched it you may have the answers
the solution is that these welshmen should be shown up as arseholes right around the world – just like someone who blackfaces, just like somewhiteone who uses a native american war whoop to try to insult someone of native american heritage.
why should some welsh fuckwits think they can do what they did – why? There is NO reason, NONE – apart from idiocy, bigotry, insensitivity, arrogance and fuckwittery.
Oh fuck. I managed to boot up another computer, watched it and then did a quick search to see how other media were reporting on it (and if they were reporting on it).
And the first non NZ based news story was this.
From http://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/wales-football-team-perform-wild-11583742
Over 1200 shares and only one comment. At least the comment, from the handle ‘thelongwhitecloud’ pointed out that it was “embarrassing, insulting and demeaning”
I got nuffin.
I’m not sure what a traditional welsh celebration entails but the idiots missed a great opportunity to put it on the world stage. I am very pleased that I have not resorted to insulting the welsh because of these individuals – I have deleted a number of sentences where my fingers started typing of their own volition!!!
FFS who really cares don’t watch it and you can’t be offended
I care – you don’t – fair enough – just move on and don’t comment on what I’ve written or is that too complicated for you to understand? Jeeze some people…
Yeah cos no nzer has ever made fun of a male voice choir or a miner or the welsh accent….
Get over yourself
is that in undies or in formal wear?
got a link for your claim?
As Sabine says put the link up and I’ll write a comment on that too but don’t worry I’m not holding my breath on your ability to do that LOL
Now that’s just absolute fucken BS and needs to be corrected. The All Blacks may use the haka but it’s certainly not theirs.
As for the Welsh – if they want to do a war dance they should probably look to their own culture which is rich in martial tradition:
http://www.paganachd.com/articles/celticmartialarts.html
http://www.britainexpress.com/wales/history/iron-age.htm
I’m sure that they could put together a great war dance. The Sword Dance is a credible place to start.
Housing affordability – also a problem in Vancouver
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/jul/07/vancouver-chinese-city-racism-meets-real-estate-british-columbia
Problem wherever theres no rules on foreign ownership of residential as theres trillions of chinese controlled funds looking for boltholes.
National have cynically ridden that with tax havens, no cgt and the chch rebuild to smudge the effect of their destructive behaviour across the economy, public service and industry.
+1
Simple fact of the matter is that foreign ownership needs to be banned.
I’ve commented several times on this on The Standard. I’ve seen it in Vancouver with my own eyes and read about it in the local papers there. Streets of houses empty and boarded up and rents going up and up.
It is a problem in cities around the Pacific rim.
Sydney is another case in point. However in Australia the station is under some sort of control with far more stringent rules wrt to overseas investors buying. The extra taxes imposed are not great but they do slow the market to some extent. Furthermore development is still going on even with a slight downturn. A 4×2 (4 bedroom 2 bath 2 garage houses are around $400,000) in the suburbs. Beginning teachers on $60+K salary. A couple can look to buy close to work. Why can’t NZ get it’s act together?
I was talking to some overseas students who are really upset about the institution they were attending not helping them to get jobs after their study. They also felt a lot of students were being exploited working below minimum wage and for more than the 20 hours they are legally allowed. It was pointed out to them that they have a student visa and there is no guarantee that they will get work or a work visa and presumably they have stated that they have resources to support themselves. However this is not the reality and these people are coming here to study in the hope they will get jobs and eventually permanent residence. Some of these students already had a bachelors degree in their own country and had taken on a lower level course in new Zealand. The primary purpose of their being here is not the education.
When listening to the frustration and disappointment these young people felt I thought this might not end well for any of us. Perhaps we need to get away from the idea of education as a marketable product and stop selling places to overseas students. Can’t see how the current system really benefits anyone. Of course there is a real benefit in scholarships which are given for academic excellence and help the transfer of ideas between countries. These students are well supported and they come to do a higher degree such as a Phd.
I agree Fairy Godmother, I have commented about this before on the Standard. Once upon a time students came here to better their education so they could return to their home countries and further enhance their home country with their acquired skills. Why are these students allowed to come here, extend their stay and try to gain residency here when their original intention was to come here for extended education. I once experienced a very young Asian girl win a house at auction and then phone her relatives in China to put the money in the bank for the house. This was a large 4 bedroomed home, and surely not for her, is this the way families can get in here if their offspring gain residency here.
Didn’t immigrants have to gain so many points and once upon a time it was so difficult to attain those points. It seems there are large loop holes in the system. Also didn’t the Reserve Bank just state that its not so much immigration that was the problem but that the system wasn’t being as selective in its criteria as it should be.
+100 Fairy Godmother, “get away from the idea of education as a marketable product and stop selling places to overseas students….
Of course there is a real benefit in scholarships which are given for academic excellence and help the transfer of ideas between countries. These students are well supported and they come to do a higher degree such as a Phd.”
It would certainly be interesting to know how much impact they’re having on the property market. Auckland alone received more than 65,000 international enrolments in 2015, that’s a huge number.
Congratulations to the Redcliffs community forcing the Minister of Education to overturn her decision to close their precious school. A deserved victory..but be alert for any hidden catches.
Shame that the poorer Philipstown community didn’t have the same money, expertise and influence to keep their school open. But hey! Who gives a toss about the Philipstown working class
Also a shame that just one person has the power to cause such stress in a community to pursue an ideological slogan . (‘Big is better’ might be OK for a DIY store but not community based schools).
I believe the Redcliffs polling booth was the only one in Port Hills electorate where the last vote count for National’s candidate was higher than that of the Labour candidate.
I wonder if they’ll stay loyal to National out of misguided gratitude.Or just short memories.
Redcliffs voters might well remember who fought to keep their school open – Their Labour MP, Ruth Dyson or the wannabee hiding quietly in the shadows?
This decision just shows the pnats are looking after their own constituents poor school closed rich school left open despite the danger
On a lighter note maybe you might like the “Chillest fish and chip” man dealing with a would-be robber in Christchurch?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11670611
After Brexit, Red Ukip prepares to take on Labour’s northern heartlands
(New Statesman) A few brief passages:
“Farage’s departure as leader might … lead to Ukip ratcheting up their attempts to displace the Labour Party in the north of England.
The referendum campaign again exposed the disconnect between Labour MPs and what was once called their core vote. While just 10 of Labour’s MPs supported leaving the EU, and 218 wanted to stay in, 37 per cent of Labour voters opted to leave.
Much more ominous for Labour is that their remain supporters were concentrated in relatively few seats – principally in London and Manchester. Of Labour’s current seats, 150 voted to leave the EU, and just 82 to remain. So on the biggest issue in British politics for a generation, two-thirds of Labour MPs had a dissident view to their constituents.
None of this will have passed Ukip by. Over the last five years, the party has attempted to redefine itself: ditching the reputation as the party of crusty retirees in the south, and replace it with an altogether more abrasive image
Ukip came second in 120 seats, 44 of which were held by Labour.
The rise of Ukip in the north is also the story of the rise of “Red Ukip”: a cocktail of anti-immigration and anti-elitism, with a social democratic tinge ……. At last year’s by-election, in Oldham West and Royton, Ukip circulated leaflets on “How Labour privatised the NHS: And How Ukip will save it, for you”
We could now be about to hear plenty more of this message. The two favourites to be Ukip’s next leader are Steven Woolfe and Paul Nuttall: two working-class men from the north who grew up in Labour-supporting households. Together, they have led Ukip’s surge into Labour territory.“
http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/staggers/2016/07/after-brexit-red-ukip-prepares-take-labours-northern-heartlands
UKIP supporters are predominantly uneducated racist anti-gay red necks full of anger and hate. They should be ashamed of themselves.
(/sarc)
More on the potentially profound consequences of Brexit for UK Labour and the broader Party System (New Statesman)
(1) “Labour is the party most in line for some kind of split.
The new social cleavage runs clean through it. On one side are “heartland” Labour-voting Brexiteers, left behind by globalisation. On the other are liberal metropolitans of both the left and the centre (not just Corbyn and Corbynistas, but much of the wider Labour membership and parliamentary party too). What happens to the other parties – particularly the Conservatives and UKIP – depends to some extent on how Labour responds to its predicament. But whatever Labour does, we will see liberal, metropolitan Tories finding it hard to stick with their party in the new political landscape, and UKIP hoovering up both parties’ spoils.“
http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/staggers/2016/07/wake-political-reality-brexits-blade-splitting-labour-two
(2) The strange death of liberal politics
The world is changing in ways the British left cannot comprehend.
(A few passages from a long opinion piece)
“There are sure to be concerted efforts to resist the referendum’s message. The rise of the hydra-headed monster of populism; the diabolical machinations of tabloid newspapers; conflicts of interest between baby boomers and millennials; divisions between the English provinces and Wales on the one hand and Scotland, London and Northern Ireland on the other; Jeremy Corbyn’s lukewarm support for the Remain cause; the buyer’s remorse that has supposedly set in after Remain’s defeat – these already commonplace tales will be recycled incessantly during the coming weeks and months. None of them captures the magnitude of the upheaval that has occurred. When voters inflicted the biggest shock on the establishment since Churchill was ousted in 1945 they signalled the end of an era.
But those who think the vote can be overturned or ignored are telling us more about their own state of mind than developments in the real world. Like bedraggled courtiers fleeing Versailles after the French Revolution, they are unable to process the reversal that has occurred. Locked in a psychology of despair, anger and denial, they cannot help believing there will be a restoration of an order they believed was unshakeable …
… There will be no going back. The vote for Brexit demonstrates that the rules of politics have changed irreversibly. The stabilisation that seemed to have been achieved following the financial crisis was a sham. The lopsided type of capitalism that exists today is inherently unstable and cannot be democratically legitimated. The error of progressive thinkers in all the main parties was to imagine that the discontent of large sections of the population could be appeased by offering them what was at bottom a continuation of the status quo.
… “populism” is a term of abuse applied by establishment thinkers to people whose lives they have not troubled to understand. A revolt of the masses is under way, but it is one in which those who have shaped policies over the past twenty years are more remote from reality than the ordinary men and women at whom they like to sneer …
… Telling voters who were considering voting Leave that they were stupid, illiterate, xenophobic and racist was never going to be an effective way of persuading them to change their views. The litany of insults voiced by some leaders of the Remain campaign expressed their sentiments towards millions of ordinary people. It did not occur to these advanced minds that their contempt would be reciprocated.
Leading Labour figures have denied adamantly that the party’s stance on immigration is central to the collapse of its working-class base. It was a complex of issues to do with de-industrialisation, they repeat, that led to mass desertion by Labour voters. There is some force in this, but it is essentially a way of evading an inconvenient truth.
… Free movement of labour between countries with vastly different wage levels, working conditions and welfare benefits is a systemic threat to the job opportunities and living standards of Labour’s core supporters. Labour cannot admit this, because that would mean the EU is structured to make social democracy impossible. This used to be understood, not only on Labour’s Bennite left but also by Keynesian centrists such as Peter Shore and, more recently, Austin Mitchell. Today the fact goes almost unnoticed, except by those who have to suffer the consequences …
… Corbyn is not alone in passing over this conflict. So do his opponents, and this is one reason why it will be extremely difficult to reverse Labour’s slide. If Yvette Cooper, Andy Burnham or David Miliband had been leader, the referendum would still have ended badly for Labour. No doubt the campaign would have been handled better. But the message would have been the same – promises of European reform of European institutions have shown to be worthless. Labour’s heartlands were already melting away. A rerun in the north and Midlands of Labour’s collapse in Scotland is now a distinct possibility. Fear of this disaster is one reason Labour is unlikely to split. With over 40 per cent of the party’s voters opting for Leave, anyone who joined a new “modernising” party would be on a fast lane to oblivion. Only a radical shift from progressive orthodoxies on immigration and the EU can save Labour from swift and terminal decline. It is doubtful whether any future leader could enforce such a shift, as it would be opposed by most Labour MPs and by activists. Yet it is plainly what millions of Labour voters want.
http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2016/07/strange-death-liberal-politics
(3) Four ways the anti-immigration vote won the referendum for Brexit:
Total control on immigration mattered more to voters than the single market.
“The historic outcome of the EU referendum coincided with a 10 point surge (between May and June) in people saying immigration is the biggest issue facing the country in Ipsos MORI’s Issues Index. And in the final two weeks before the polls opened, our Political Monitor showed that immigration ranked as the single biggest issue which would affect how the public voted in the referendum, overtaking the economy.
The Issues Index has seen concern about immigration steadily increase over recent years, and so it was already a central theme in the debate long before Nigel Farage revealed the now infamous Breaking Point poster.“
http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/staggers/2016/07/four-ways-anti-immigration-vote-won-referendum-brexit
(4) I’m disappointed about Brexit – but the snobbery of some pro-EU protesters is hard to take
“Of all the brilliantly scathing lyrics on Pulp’s 1995 classic Different Class, my favourite has to be this line from “I Spy”: “Take your Year in Provence and shove it up your ass.”
Even if you’ve not read your Peter Mayle, you know exactly who the target is: a self-satisfied middle class that has mistaken educational privilege for intellectual and moral exceptionality, and is to be found using cultural tokens – the cottage in France, the wine from Tuscany, the opera tickets for Bayreuth – to state and restate their presumed superiority over the common masses.
I couldn’t get this lyric out of my head when looking at images of last Saturday’s anti-Brexit March for Europe in London.“
http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2016/07/i-m-disappointed-about-brexit-snobbery-some-pro-eu-protesters-hard-take
BOOOOOOOOM!
Just smashing. Thanks for this swordfish.
Yep, but the middle class has bought us Mendela and Kate Shepard. In fact most peaceful change throughout history is from middle class….
I know there is this discourse about glory to the uneducated worker but seriously, if you want to get rid of inequality it comes through education (not the cultural revolution style of glory and power to the ignorant and conformist).
Isn’t the idea of a social democracy to even everyone out, so we have a massive middle class, low poor and low rich communities…
And don’t forget NZ was settled by working class people who wanted a classless, fairer system they were escaping from Europe from (if we ignore the damage that does to indigenous people).
US had a massive refugee population after the 2nd world war which helped them as a nation push ideas.
My issue at present is that the migration National is spearheading, is based on a very different type of person, people who have made a lot of money by exploiting free trade cheap goods, having cheap workers, being plutocrats attracted by tax havens like status, ‘gold bricks’ banking and exploiting assets here and creating infrastructure offshore contracts, or just people who have no interest in NZ apart from to study a bogus course here, to get a passport which their agent told them to do.
Clearly I am generalising, but things are getting ridiculous in NZ, we really are becoming tenants, a banana republic and the unemployed in our own country, which Key seems to think is not a crisis.
From Trotter’s recent piece has already addressed your comment:
Well I’m an optimist so I think that the middle class are grouping and about to strike in a series of freedom fighter style attacks from blogs to anti TPPA, to communities fighting to keep their school open…
Let’s be clear both Jane Kelsey are Bomber Bradbury are middle class…. and in my view nothing wrong with it! Maybe they feel self loathing at being white educated individuals but in my view, own your own identity – because you have to feel comfortable in your own skin to get others like you to join you in the change. If every five minutes you attack your own class you will not get the momentum you need. That’s part of Labour’s problem, they apologise for all the wrong things. (Pro war and Pro trade deals and then attack the middle class who vote for them in some sort of 19th century view of blue collar worker that does not vote for them and probably lost their job due to the Pro war and Pro trade deals) but against the above).
Maybe that is why certain so called leftie’s fear Hone Hawawira, he is the real deal as being both the ‘accepted mythical revolutionary’ and then (even more fearful) he is a real revolutionary.
Remember the revolutionaries that sought the biggest changes had policies of inclusion. Luther King etc. If we want to alter neoliberalism then they have to understand why people are against it…
As for Trotter “The middle class have become selfish survivalists’ – possibly due to the shock of Rogernomics and the lack of political choice…. again read the above, do you want to contribute to a revolution by being inclusive or just moan about why nobody will join you or have some sort of complicated criteria based on some fucked up insecurity?
As was explained to me, the vulnerable don’t normally have time or energy to get a revolution going, they are too busy surviving day to day… nothing left in the tank… so you will be waiting a looong time for them to join you have an exacting criteria…
It’s not a crisis for the rich and Key/National only govern for the rich. They really don’t give a shit about anybody else.
tickets to bayreuth?
oh for love of mary, Bayreuth and Wagner are now a sign of the uppity middle class who is abusing the lower class? Really? Define Middle Class.
There are years of waiting lists to get tickets to the Bayreuth Wagner Spielfeste. However, one can enjoy Wagner at any of the other good Opera Houses in the World and that is where the middle class goes as does the lower class, the true Wagner Lover will go on the list and see what happens and the 0.01 % that is fucking it up for the rest of the world is invited.
For those who like playing around with stats….
http://insights.nzherald.co.nz/article/how-new-zealand-votes
If you have 15 minutes or so, this video is very interesting. Talking about the culture wars of the cold war, and the role of the CIA. There were some very smart people running the CIA in the post war era.
And it takes Venezuela public television to bring this information to the highly propagandised western audience.
I just read Dr Deborah Russells comments on negative gearing for housing investments. Perhaps if politicians didnt have so many houses themselves, they might look at this seriously.
Surely, it would be as simple as Parliament saying (they are sovereign after all),
1) that if you claim a loss on a rental property, its an investment, so any income on sale is taxable
or
2) that you cant claim a loss on a rental property against other income (ringfence the loss till the property is sold)
I used to be an accountant in my earlier life, and I cant see that this is very hard to sort out.
Yes, unless of course you don’t want to sort it out.
Yeah, well there could be that too.
I would prefer to think that our Politicians want to improve the lives of all NZ citizens and that they would act accordingly.
But I can see your view too
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11670186
I know we all like to see wrongs righted and apologies where apologies are due.
Not sure how judges are hired or fired but this judge needs to take a good, hard look at themselves and ask if they’re really up to the task of being a judge
It’s your second go at this.
Let me explain. On the balance of probabilities, Banks is a crook, therefore it stands to reason his wife’s word might be in question. Perfectly legitimate connection to make.
Let me try to explain it you:
A High Court judge has made a public apology to John Banks’ wife after questioning her credibility as a witness.
The ex-politician was back in court today seeking $190,000 costs over the trial that saw his wrongful conviction for a false electoral return.
Just because you don’t like the guy doesn’t mean he should be wrongly convicted, that’s not how justice in NZ works
Could you explain why the donation was split in two?
Was John Banks falsely convicted? Yes, yes he was, anything else is unimportant.
If he is found guilty of anything in another case then he’ll deserve whatever punishment he gets.
But this is not that case.
Thought not.
So if someone is guilty of something then it doesn’t matter what the charge is and it also doesn’t matter if someone lies to get the conviction
Good to know
Someone committed perjury? That’s a serious allegation.
Meanwhile, it seems that Banks’ entire defense was that he didn’t know he was signing a false return because he didn’t read the bit of paper.
The overturned conviction was not for signing a false return. The return was false. It was for knowingly signing a false return. His defense was incompetence.
+1
Should still have been found guilty.
yeah – I don’t believe he was that incompetent by accident.
In some ways it got bogged down in this-lunch-vs-that-lunch argumentation, rather than the simple “are you fucking pulling my leg” test.
Tell that to Dotcom. bit of a double standard there… If you want to know why people are getting angry, it is because their governments are wasting unlimited time and resources persecuting various people who have stood up to them, (Dotcom, Assage, Snowdon), while secret deals mean that John Banks who is as guilty as hell in the public’s eyes gets off… with some US witness who suspiciously did not appear at the last trial…
Kim Dotcom is a very smart cookie (shame he wasted it, and choose the path he did).
Dotcom knew himself to split the donation in two, thus giving him leverage over Banks if he ever needed to call in a favor.
Which of course Dotcom did…and Banks told him to f…off (when Dotcom found himself in a Mt Eden jail cell).
The case focused on how he knew to split the cheque into two. What it should have focussed on is whether any reasonable person would have been unaware of two identical cheques that totalled to over the threshhold, or whether any reasonable person actually signs a legal declaration without reading it or knowing its contents.
As to your idea that people donate to politicians in exchange for direct influence with those politicians… well, the cabinet club springs to mind.
Ha Ha chuck so believable a trolling, not!
Banks should also be thrown in jail for selling off social housing when he was mayor and pushing Charter schools.
It’s a joke he’s asking for more handouts.
Under a joke government like this he may get them – the pig shit clearly wasn’t enough.
Muttonbird – you show your bias.
Why would there be reason to question Banks wife and not Kim Dotcoms and his wifes.
After Kim Dotcom is a proven crook.
Yes dear zzzzzzzz
KDC and his wife were both questioned.
Actually James, Dotcom has not been convicted yet, apart from John Key finding him guilty. In fact the GCSB has been found guilty of illegally spying on him and seizing his assets.
Well, I guess that is Nationals next dream to control the judiciary, which they are alarmingly getting close to. They did have to get the Internet expert judge to step down so someone else got to hear the case. Apparently joking about the US is now a crime for NZ judges….
“Actually James, Dotcom has not been convicted yet”
Thats bullshit savenz.
No it is not bullshit. The case which should have been bought by Hollywood in a civil case not by our dumbo government, has only got to the stage where NZ in a very dodgy unprecedented judgment has been allowed to extradite him to the US where he will stand trial. The dodgy extradition is being challenged. No conviction at all Naki Man. You need to stop believing John Key and his Hollywood buddies.
Even Sony lawyers thought what he was doing was not going to result in a conviction. You Tube do the same thing and won their case that file sharing is not illegal.
So Muttonbird what you are really saying is that birds of a feather nest together?
Sounds like political profiling to me.
Banks’ entire defense was basically that yes, I committed a crime but not the one I’m charged with. Nyah, nyah, you’re too late to charge me for the actual crime I did. See the article from Andrew Geddis below.
So if Banks is an admitted crook, then it’s a reasonable inference that his close associates may be less than completely trustworthy. Like Muttonbird says.
“First of all, it means Banks did break the law when he filed his donations return. Under the Local Electoral Act (as it then stood), inadvertently filing a false return was an offence. It’s just that this particular offence had to be prosecuted within six months of the return being made – so Banks escaped liability for his actions on a technicality.”
http://www.pundit.co.nz/content/if-you-want-people-to-believe-you-are-honest-then-its-best-not-to-file-false-donation-return
Yes Andre and I just read the Geddis article which points out that Banks did break the Law but just escaped the charge because it was after the 6 months. The rest is detail but it is a bit rich for Banks to still claim innocence. Thanks for the link.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11670970
Quite amusing really
“Poor old Saddam, he told the truth – that he didn’t have WMDs – and thus doomed both himself and the poor old Iraqis to mass death.”
Robert Fisk goes on to say that Blair-Bush would not dare attack North Korea because they do have atomic weapons, whereas they knew that Iraq did not.
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/chilcot-inquiry-report-iraq-war-robert-fisk-tired-of-lessons-ignores-iraqis-a7124841.html
You know how the RWNJs keep telling us that we all want more cars and more roads?
Yeah, well:
And political parties really need to take this on board:
Breaking news.
‘Officers shot at Dallas protest’
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/top/308252/live-officers-shot-at-dallas-protest
well that sucks.
What scam is National and Fletcher pulling? Are these vultures praying on the desperate UK migrants who are left fearful after the Brexit vote?
They are even putting out a call for expats living in NZ to contact their friends and relatives in the UK.
Fletcher heads to UK on big recruitment drive
“New Zealand’s biggest builder is off to London as it hunts for new staff to help fill vacancies in our building boom.
A massive surge in building work has prompted Fletcher Construction to kick off its latest recruitment drive with an event at New Zealand House in London on July 28, held in conjunction with Immigration New Zealand and a recruitment company.”
<a href="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11670287
This given:
World’s biggest builder arrives in NZ for $375m in contracts
<a href="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11668296
(China will bring in their own workers).
Plans for nearly 2000 of Auckland apartments ditched
<a href="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11665063
And you can bet that a Chinese government owned company will pick those plans up.
The National government fudges unemployment figures again
<a href="http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/81579257/nz-unemployment-rate-tumbles-along-with-the-number-employed-in-recalculation
Quake rebuild delays drive workers out of Christchurch
"Tradesmen and builders are leaving Christchurch in frustation over a lack of work and continuing delays to the quake-hit city's reconstruction.
Although recruitment agencies continue to advertise overseas for qualified tradespeople to help with the devastated city's rebuild, local workers say there's not enough work to go around as it is."
<a href="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10814294
Is what’s on offer ghost jobs? Not much is listed on the employment section on Fletcher’s website, and applications for graduates and interns is closed.
<a href="http://www.fletcherconstruction.co.nz/employment.php
And since New Zealand already has a massive housing crisis that is about to burst, where will National/Fletcher house all these new migrants from their huge UK recruitment drive?
“This given:
World’s biggest builder arrives in NZ for $375m in contracts
<a href="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11668296
(China will bring in their own workers)."
Where will these imported chinese workers live? Will they get to keep their passports / visas if there is an employment dispute? Will they fall under NZ Employment law? The questions are endless.
Actually is does not matter that they are chinese, or other nationality. where are these people once here supposed to live, we already are several thousand houses/flats/beds short?
We need training programmes and apprenticeships. It makes no sense to have all these unemployed youth and trades that need workers but then we don’t train. Is it really that much cheaper to import a fully grown adult with certain needs into a country to do a job then spending the cash on a local youth and train them from 15-16 onwards. By the time they are 19 they have learned a trade, earn a few dollars, are student debt free and have a trade. What the hell can kiwis not understand about this simple principe? Train your young ones. Teach ’em , learn ’em.
Yes agreed, Good questions that should and need to be asked. msm won’t do that though. National cut the funding to apprenticeships when they first came to power. This situation that we have now has been deliberately orchestrated from the outset, by the key National government.
so we need to wait for the government before the tradies can/could start hiring apprentices? Sad state of affairs.
So, it looks like the USA is seeing the start of a full scale race war.