Prime Minister John Key made the transtasman exodus of New Zealanders a major election issue in 2008 but, as the Herald reported last week, far from dwindling, that flow has increased under his watch … unquote
-0.3% growth inreal terms since coming to power with the best commodity prices for years trickle down is actually trickle up as the OECD has pointed out.Spread some moiney around History has proven that it works!
If anyone needs the perfect example of why I grin and grimace at the same time when NZ First is described as being on the left of the political spectrum then newbie MP Richard Prosser has provided one.
His proposal to ban the burqa is dog whistle racist cant. Why using the full force of the law to stop women from deciding to wear a small piece of material is beyond me.
Not only this but he wishes to arm taxi drivers and bring back compulsory military training.
He has that loud opinionated shrill and stupid approach to politics that I despise.
NZF has always had its share of loony MP’s; Prosser is just a slightly less subtle Michael Laws. Have to disagree with your assessment of why women wear the burqa though; it’s not from their own choice, its a culturally enforced symbol of patriarchal ownership.
Once skimmed a column Richard Prosser penned in Ian Wisharts “Investigate” magazine, (in a waiting room) he appeared to have all the blustering insight of an inebriated talk back caller.
The sound of barrels being scraped must be quite usual at NZ1 candidate selections. Will Winston operate the choker chain on this loose cannon once he gauges reaction to his utterances?
I’ve noticed that virtually every medical-related waiting room I’ve been in for a couple of years, both at home and in Auckland, has been heavily stocked with “Investigate”. Way out of proportion to its small market niche. And while I’m thinking, I can think of a few public ‘bureaucratic’ waiting rooms stocked with many copies too.
I’m guessing Wishart either ‘donates’ them, or facilitates actual buyers doing so.
I don’t like the way the waiting room stacking (however it comes about) seems to lend the magazine a bit of undeserved credibility. You don’t expect to find extremist fringe propaganda, including religious dogma in such places.
“…it’s not from their own choice, its a culturally enforced symbol of patriarchal ownership…”
From a western perspective looking in, it may be a culturally enforced symbol etc etc. I’m not excusing the modern/practical abuses that are entertained under the guise of Islam by certain regimes and the kind of general manipulative ignorance found anywhere in the world, any more than I will say that Christianity is the sum total if it’s abuses. There are for sure “muslims” who would not wish to be muslims, but have no choice because of chance of birthplace. There will be those who barely fullfil the basic concepts of Islam and think themselves devout. But then there are true muslims who would take deep offence at being asked to remove symbols of the surrender to Allah.
From a muslim perspective looking out (going from memory here so apologies to any muslim readers) it is an attempt to bring the individual into the sanctuary of the temple, recreating the closeness to Allah; Allah is everywhere at all times, and a muslim can be close to Allah anywhere, but in the temple is to be closest. It is the act of submission and moving towards Allah that is responded to by Allah moving twice as rapidly towards the disciple – that makes a large theological difference.
I’ve strained most of the poetic beauty out of the concept as it was told to me originally, but just thought I’d offer that idea as I believe a better world encourages understanding of others from their perspective, not just that of the observer.
If we truly embrace the diversity of ideas, then we would accept that there are people who are different. Mr Prosser for example can have his opinion even if we disagree. Mr Brash can have his ideas about decriminalisation and Mr Banks can have his racist ideas and Mr Key can have his mean-spirited ideas about Education and Welfare. And those who wear the burqa are entitled to do so. We welcome diversity of ideas -don’t we?
Oh yes please, but they must live their ideals, themselves, and not be allowed to push them on the vulnerable or those who reject them. Any arguments that a muslim should in no way offend a taxi driver while a taxi driver may offend a muslim should be discussed. Please begin.
And would Banks, Brash and others please put forward the basis of their ideology too, explained in full from all angles, so we can see clearly what they stand for and what they seek.
The difference you’ll soon discover is that a muslim is obliged to reveal and face the source of their morality, whereas Banks and others will twist, turn and lie to either conceal theirs or avoid facing the truth. A muslim (theoretically) is not concerned with philosophy and politics, because his god outlines all there is, via the prophet. A politician will believe only in expediency because he is moving too fast or using false ideas.
RNZ breakfast show inter view with Prosser said a lot of these comments were taken out of context he said read investigate articles and see the real story.
The Right wing have selectively released parts of sentences and not the whole sentence.
Prosser also said he adheres to NZFirst policy and is a team player .
Depends on the person – I have a friend who wears the niqab from choice. Her husband would be quite happy for her not to. Many women wear the niqab/burqa for modesty or tradition – there was a most interesting RNZ item some time ago on this very subject.
Gross generalisations do not apply to most situations.
Annette – Gross generalisations do not apply to most situations.
We need to know more about the subject when referring to niqab/burqa as if they are just a different form of ordinary female clothing. These are extreme forms of human camouflage.
Burqa refers to the whole body covering that is needed in a country where in some places, in more traditional country areas, a woman can be condemned as loose if her eyes meet a man’s. And loose women may be dealt with terminally. (There have been many books written about the harsh penalties such as Burned Alive by Souad.) So the niqab which shows the eyes must seem quite an advance.
Many women and some men have fought for women’s rights and respect in New Zealand and it is an unsatisfactory situation if some women retreat from what has been achieved and cover themselves in tents even if it they say it’s their choice.
But there are other coverings that Islamic women wear that suffice to give comfort, modesty and religious conformity. The khima and chador both cover well leaving the face open. The niqab does this then other head coverings that are less extensive are hijab, al-amira and shayla. All these should be accepted by all as respecting Islamic choice and precepts, just as we accept Sikh headgear. It is only the burqa that obliterates the person’s appearance to others.
Here is a good information link. http://www.apologeticsindex.org/505-muslim-veils-hijab-burqa
Sorry, while I can’t speak personally, I do know a woman, a divorced, single, educated, professional woman, who chooses to wear the burqa and who challenges anyone who thinks she does it because she’s been forced to by anyone – she wears it because she wants to. That is all.
Prosser raised some ‘interesting’ ideas, none of which have much chance of progressing. You have to wonder why he was put at 4 on the NZ First list, but one of his quips…
“As recently as 1973 every bank in New Zealand had a pistol under the counter and tellers undertook regular revolver training.
“Whose brilliantly stupid idea was it for that policy to be abandoned?”
In a firm I worked for in the sixties the pay clerk who collected the weekly pay from the bank carried a gun, and the briefcase containing the money was handcuffed to his left wrist.
NZ1st is left of Labour but not actually of the left. They’re also far more authoritarian – almost as much so as National and Act – which is where the cries for conformity come from. John Banks is another good example of this authoritarianism.
BTW, The burqa is the full body covering so not a small bit of cloth. That would be the niqab. Plenty of women wear them voluntarily and it’s not our place to tell them what to wear.
Yep pays to remember that NZ First originally appeared out of the socially conservative, though far more socially responsible wing of the National Party. The one which rejected the tenets of corporatist neo-liberalism. Old fashioned ‘wet’ Tories in other words.
Apparently Walt was obsessed with the idea that his writers were all closeted reds and that they were manipulating the various cartoon characters to undermine capitalism. He used to pore over scripts looking for signs of a pink tinge before OK’ing production and once referred to the Screen Actors Guild as a communist front, which must have come as a surprise to the organisation’s leaders, who included the well known lefty Ronald Reagan.
Prosser from NZFirst is a strange individual but it’s even stranger that Labour supporters are complaining about a member of a possible coalition party they were happy to utilize under MMP.
Politics makes for strange bed fellows it seems.
[source for Labour complaining about Prosser? Eddie]
How is it strange that Labour Party members are complaining about someone who is advocating introducing firearms on to our streets, who is a climate change denier, and who is dismissive of others’ religious and cultural traditions to the point of authoritarianism?
Jester – look at the vile racist filth that inhabits comments on Kiwiblog and Whale Oil. And National was in coalition with the Maori Party for three years. At least here the focus is the man’s ideas, not the colour of his skin.
Data obtained by Amnesty International shows that the US has repeatedly transferred ammunition to Egypt despite security forces’ violent crackdown on protesters.
The capitalist running dogs are profiting from the unrest. One wonders if they intentionally create conflicts to keep their weapons manufacturers happy.
Well, US corporations had lucrative existing munitions supply contracts with the Mubarak regime (even if most of them were paid for out of US Government funds anyway), why cancel them just because a new dictatorship is now in charge? Another day, another dollar.
Really Vernon? Shearer was endearing last night but hardly ‘landslide’ worthy and everyone I spoke to after the meeting was having trouble choosing and couldn’t make up their minds. Why? All four were superb.
But made up my mind last night. Cunliffe and Mahuta. Cunliffe needs to do some work on how he presents but he hit the right points for me last night – and both of them were able to provide more specific answers when pressed on how to fix things.
Again, it was a superb evening. National should be crapping their pants.
I was watching all of them through the Crosby Trextor lens last night – ie. what spin lines will stick in critiquing them. Cunliffe comes across as a little ‘smarmy’ – his jokes are a little forced, a little ‘I’m funny and you know it’. And he’s got to do something about his smile when he’s listening, waiting. He’s very polished and that might actually work against him against Shearer (and indeed Key) who come off as a bit rougher.
It’s all style though, CV, something that a good PR expert could fix in no time. I hate having to pick people apart like this but it’s the game the Nats have excelled in with Key and we need to take the fight to them. Substance-wise I’ve always been impressed by him and last night he sealed it for me.
I’d generally say – relax. Try not to be so earnest and precise about nearly everything. Show a bit of fun and spontenaity. You have a huge smile- use it naturally. Humanise your opponent, don’t talk about him as ‘my opponent’ – you guys are going to have to work together no matter what the outcome so make it clear that bygones will be bygones after the vote and that party unity is paramount.
(note that I’ve not seen much of the two in the last few days, this is based on the election campaign and immediate post election period so he may be presenting slightly differently. With Shearer I’d say he needs to sharpen up in look and ideas. He is way too vague and the over relaxed image may not survive the hard grillings he’s likely to get in the selection process. I think he needs more solidity behind his vague concepts of ‘reform’. A bit too ‘third way’ for my liking.)
From what I have seen on the blogs, party members and supporters seem to largely prefer Cunliffe while those who get to vote reportedly favour Shearer. This leaves me hoping to hell that they listen to us, and are not just going through an “inclusive” exercise trundling them around the country.
I am most concerned that those who get to vote may consider that “we have lost the centre & need to move to the centre to get it back” – a concern exacerbated by Shearer’s use of the term “the hopes & aspirations of all NZers.” My question is, move to the centre from where?”
A brief potted history: By the 70s, liberal politics joined class politics, & while they were not 100% compatible at all times, they were able to function as a left wing. In the eighties Labour dumped the class politics and retained what remained its left wing credentials through liberal politics. The Clark government moved toward the centre from the Rogernomic outskirts, reasonably thinking that people had put up with enough disruption, & that the markets had matured enough for a new accommodation to be wrought, one that was not so unjust. This hope became untenable by 2008, but was reasonable at the time. Enter John Key who did not so much move toward the centre as woo it and bide his time, with a second term in mind. He wooed the centre so as to allay the fear many had of a right wing government, and this is the point of this whole paragraph: those who think that the centre is where it’s at forget about the fear factor.
Both Helen Clark and John Key moved decisively to the centre (or in Key’s case pretended to) at least partly to allay fears. No one presently fears the Labour Party, and if it is going to gain traction, it needs someone who is going to scare the horses a bit. Cunliffe is far more likely to do that than Shearer.
All four are impressive but quite different. My main worry about Cunliffe is that although he is a very good speaker, he doesn’t seem to be a team player and could quite easily alienate people.
Actually, if you look at his bio & Standard posts, Cunliffe seems to have worked very well in teams before he got into politics. And comments from people active in his electorate describe him as working very well in his electorate team.
The fact that there are millions of assault weapons in civilian US hands and a few hundred thousand vets from recent Afghanistan and Iraqi campaigns kicking around the US, makes me think that the original rationale for ‘the right to bear arms’ might just be coming valid again.
I used to be a consummate Pacifist but if I was in the US right now, I’d be carrying. Better to go down fighting instead of being a sheeple. Absolutely terrifying.
Auckland Council vs occupy auckland is currently being heard in an Auckland court. Penny Bright has been on the stand critquing the Auckland Council actions and statements on the issue, making some references to law, Bill of Rights etc.
I’ve been reading Debt: The First 5,000 Years by David Graeber. I’m only a couple of chapters in but it’s got these sentences in it:-
In [Adam] Smith’s time, at least it could be said that reliable information on Native American economic systems was unavailable in Scottish libraries. But by mid-century, Lewis Henry Morgan’s descriptions of the Six Nations of the Iroquois, among others, were widely published – and they made it clear that the main economic institution among the Iroquois were longhouses where most goods were stockpiled and then allocated by women’s councils, and no one ever traded arrowheads for slabs of meat. Economists simply ignored this information.
He’s going on about the Myth of Barter (Chapter 2). It seems even the most basic assumption of economists, that people started bartering and thus invented money to make things easier, is wrong.
If you want to study economics then study history – you’ll learn more and what you learn is more likely to be correct than if you study an economics text book.
Karl Polanyi also provided an interesting debunking of the myth that humans are naturally inclined to “truck and barter” in his 1940s tome “The Great Transformation”. Prior to the advent of Western capitalism, most societies got by just fine on the systems of economic reciprocity, redistribution, and domestic householding.
Several other people arrested in the drug bust also appeared in court, including a company director, but they sought continued name suppression.
Now this guy, once found guilty, needs to be banned from being a director/manager or business owner for a time. I’d go for 5 years – same as bankruptcy. Why? Because he’s shown himself unfit to be such.
To be a company director all you need to do is pay $150 to Companies Office to get a company registered and get yourself listed as a director. I wouldn’t get too excited about what he calls himself.
it’s not about size it’s about relevance. lots of people commit crimes like assault but don’t get banned from say driving. It appears you just want to ban him because you assume he is a rich prick
Auckland-based
Company Director
Chair – IAG New Zealand Limited; IAG New Zealand Holdings Limited
Director – Fletcher Building Limited; Rubicon Limited; Vector Limited; Insurance Australia Group Limited; IAG Finance (New Zealand) Limited; NGC Holdings Limited; NZI Staff Superannuation Fund Nominees Limited
Member – Australian and New Zealand Advisory Board of L.E.K. Consulting
Trustee – Dilworth Trust; New Zealand Portrait Gallery; The University of Auckland Foundation
First appointed 10 June 2002 – current term expires 9 June 2012
And a member of the trilateral commission just like Mike Moore. That’s the old boy network at work for ya!
Just think how much better things are than they were. In the past those who got in the way of rampant capitalism were killed ‘security’ forces.
‘On May 4, l970 members of the Ohio National Guard fired into a crowd of Kent State University demonstrators, killing four and wounding nine Kent State students.’
‘The Ludlow Massacre was an attack by the Colorado National Guard on a tent colony of 1,200 striking coal miners and their families at Ludlow, Colorado on April 20, 1914.
The massacre resulted in the violent deaths of between 19 and 25 people; sources vary but all sources include two women and eleven children, asphyxiated and burned to death under a single tent. The deaths occurred after a day-long fight between strikers and the Guard.’
Better not mention the Maori Land Wars. They had ‘nothing’ to do with rampant capitalism.
Whereas those who worked for rampant capitalism got terrible diseases or died as a consequence.
Even those unfortunate enough to be born near industrial activity frequently suffer, of course,
‘study history – you’ll learn more and what you learn is more likely to be correct than if you study an economics text book.’
Very true.
The problem is, which version of history. Much of what is promulgated as history by the mainstream is not what actually happened, or has been given spin by the empire. The events of 9/11 are a prime example.
Modern economics is a complete fabrication, built on misinformation and bizarre theories, some of which are fairly recent and others that go right back to the time of John Locke (they may not have seemed bizarre to people of his time).
The fundamental [false] assumptions of economics are what are going to bring the current sytem crashing down shortly.
One way of thinking about modern economics is that we are caught up in a ‘game’ that has a life expectancy of 420 years (plus or minus 15 years) and we are now in the 402nd year.
The problem is, which version of history. Much of what is promulgated as history by the mainstream is not what actually happened, or has been given spin by the empire.
Agreed. That’s why I tend to read multiple sources and then to think about what I’ve read.
Modern economics is a complete fabrication, built on misinformation and bizarre theories…
One of the fairly recent ones is the myth based around the Tragedy of the Commons. In the economic myths this is used to promote privatisation over common ownership. They ignore the simple fact that such commons have always had rules and regulations about their use which completely removes the tragedy. They also ignore the fact that privatisation without regulation is what’s leading to resource depletion, pollution and Climate Change.
Talking about new MPs – I was impressed with Andrew Little on Back Benchers last night – he and Catherine Delahunty made David Bennett look the inept MP he appears to me to be. Andrew should go far.
The history of ancient climate changes, which occurred over millions of years in the planet’s history as it moved in and out of ice ages, offers the best insight into how humans’ greenhouse gas emissions will alter the planet, Hansen said here today (Dec. 6) at the annual American Geophysical Union (AGU) meeting. And his research suggests the climate is more sensitive to greenhouse gas emissions than had been suspected.
“What the paleoclimate record tells us is that the dangerous level of global warming is less than what we thought a few years ago,” Hansen said. “The target that has been talked about in international negotiations for 2 degrees of warming is actually a prescription for long-term disaster.”
Paleoclimate data yield our best assessment of climate sensitivity, which is the eventual global temperature change in response to a specified climate forcing. A climate forcing is an imposed change of Earth’s energy balance, as may be caused, for example, by a change of the sun’s brightness or a human-made change of atmospheric CO2. For convenience scientists often consider a standard forcing, doubled atmospheric CO2, because that is a level of forcing that humans will impose this century if fossil fuel use continues unabated.
the Clark government (nine years of it! ) set up all the preconditions for the collapse we will witness over the next three years
like those disastrous surpluses. Fortunately the fiscally prudent Nats have have remedied that problem
No, when thinking of the failures of the Clark government I was thinking more in terms of the promotion of an economy predicated on perpetual growth (which is impossible on a finite planet and is grinding to halt right now because it is a mathematical impossibility) and the promoting of looting of natural resources and turning them into waste by corporations.
I was thinking more in terms of the abysmal failure of the Clark government with respect to local government of 2002 (ever read any of it Brooklyn?), i.e. permitting city and district councils to present, and then accepting from them, so-called 10 year plans which do not mention one factor that will determine the future ,plans that read like touurism brochures and are much use to the community as tourism brochures.
I was thinking more in terms of Cullen pouring hundreds of milions of dollars into the banksters’ international Ponzi scheme and losing much of it for us.
I was thinking in terms of the national debt, which went up under Clark, raher than the government’s fiscal balance.
I was thinking of the urban sprawl and in-fill housing, the leaky home sydrome, the box-store ‘development’ and covering of agricultural land that the Clark government encouraged. I was thinking of the huge waste of resources that went into road transport infrastructure when we were ‘at or close to peak oil’, as acknowledged by Helen Clark.
Sabotage (especially of the next generation’s future) is the word that always comes to mind when I think of Helen Clark and Michael Cullen.
Of course, those who only look at superficialities never see the big picture.
[lprent: And I’m thinking that you’re getting way off the point of the post and moved into speech mode. So I have moved your comment to OpenMike. ]
afew that ponzi scheme has grown by nearly $6billion since this govt took office without any further contribution. Clark and Cullen rescued and resuscitated rail. you such a pessimist time to go and get your prescription filled out. Better still join the Scientology movement they have plenty of conspiracy theories and doomsday dates.
AFKTT is pretty much right on this one. There aren’t enough chairs to go around and the bankster owned DJ is about to stop playing. Europe goes down first., and soon.
r0b – I don’t think Tigger is referring to the govt. The article is about how WINZ will now be requiring those with HIV/AIDS on the sickness benefit to be work-tested. Tigger is alluding (ironically) to “solution” preferred by Adolf Hitler and co.
Cameron Slater and his Wail oily mates were most vehemently and frothingly accusing the Greens and Labor of being virtually culpable for murder over the Pike River mine tragedy.
Now under oath evidence is coming out about the covering of gas safety sensors with plastic bags to prioritize profits over safety, and also other serious Health&Safety regulatory deficiencies…
I’m wondering if Mr Slater and his cohorts will take a step back and acknowledge that the environmental policies of the Labor and the Greens weren’t the actual cause for this tragedy.
My gut feeling is you won’t hear a peep from them about these revelations. I really can’t be assed dredging through whaleoil to see if that’s the case, so if Slater/team-WO is trolling this forum: What is your take on these revelations?
Full credit to this enlightened and sensible policing by Auckland Central Police which is respecting the basic democratic rights of New Zealanders.
1) “…Police is aware that Council has issued trespass notices to the occupiers of Aotea Square. Having considered all the circumstances, including that the occupiers are protestors exercising rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of expression, Police has formed the view that there is not currently legal justification for Police to forcibly remove those in the square pursuant to a criminal trespass…”
Andrew D Coster
Inspector
Area Commander
Auckland City Central
(Quote from ‘Letter for Consideration in the Auckland District Court Auckland Council v The Occupiers of Aotea Square, Auckland CIV-2011-404-002497 7 December 2011 )
2) How many Kiwibloggers support Auckland ratepayers monies being wasted on unnecessary Court proceedings because the Auckland Council Manager for Risk and Assurance Natalie Verdouw didn’t properly double-check her purported and unsubstantiated telephone conversation with Andrew Hendrie “He told me no resolutions had been made”, regarding a collective response from the Occupy Auckland General Assembly to requests from Mayor Len Brown?
This was NOT true, and the evidence to support this is a letter addressed to Mayor Len Brown dated 27 November 2011, which was was annexed to the ‘Supplementary Affidavit of Natalie Louise Verdouw dated 2 December 2011′.
Why weren’t these unnecessary and precipitious court proceedings immediately stopped, once it was realised that Ms Verdouw had made this serious FACTUAL error?
Doesn’t the buck for ‘operational’ matters stop with the CEO of Auckland Council Doug McKay?
Why didn’t HE step in and stop proceedings?
How come he didn’t even put in an affidavit?
There were a number of affidavits filed by some of the Auckland Council ‘Indians’ – how about the ‘Chief’?
How ‘accountable’ is THAT?
Or is this really all about unlawful discrimination on the basis of political opinion, by some senior Auckland Council staff and some elected representatives?
(Tomorrow should be VERY interesting in Court! 🙂
Penny Bright
Named ‘Respondent’ in the above-mentioned proceedings – who did not ask to go to Court.
(But who WILL defend herself). [email deleted]
Re: Andrew Little – At Pike River, Miners union (EPMU and forerunner) failed in representing workers industrial health and safety interests – with pay and benefits the most basic of workers welfare interests – (which of course includes monitoring performance by Dept. Labour of mining safety responsibilities). Basically this is the fault of trade union membership who have permitted a takeover of their union (and trade unions generally) by people from the urban educated liberal elite who see themselves more as part of the “labour movement” than as trade union activists. This description appears to fit Andrew little miners union/EPMU Little General Secretary for 11 years until recently – 2011 election Labour candidate for New Plymouth (and perhaps also predecessor Rex Jones) during which 11 years the rot set into mining safety – following the destruction of regulation by previous National Governments (left unremedied). Both Jones and Little found time to be President of the NZ Labour Party at the same time as being EPMU General Secretary. Mr Little apparently wasn’t likely to robustly challenge the industrial safety policy failures of Labour Government Ministers of Labour and dereliction of public duty by Dept.of Labour chiefs.
[lprent: IMHO: just another fool from offshore ranting about something that they know even less on than I do (and I have never been in a union). Why do I get the impression that this has all just been copied from somewhere, given a theoretical faith driven spin and dumped here by a troll. If someone wants to convince people then this isn’t the way. It is just meaningless drivel where assertions are mixed with fact without a sustaining argument. It is symptomatic of the idiots that I usually just trash first comments from. I figure that if they can’t argue then they are unlikely to survive here. I’ll let this one through for peoples amusement. ]
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When they were running for election, Labour promised to overhaul the Employment Relations Act and introduce fair pay agreements to set basic pay and conditions on an industry level, preventing bad employers from undercutting good ones. They followed this up by establishing a working group, which reported back in January ...
A list of indicators of bad science – many of these are found in articles promoted by anti-fluoride activists. Anti-fluoride activists have been pouring money into a scaremongering campaign warning pregnant women not to drink fluoridated water. They claim fluoride will lower the IQ of their future child. Fluoride ...
Nothing Left To Say: Labour's pollster, Stephen Mills, remains swaddled-up in the comforting myths of the 1980s. As if the experience of Roger Douglas’s genuinely radical post-Muldoon policy agenda was literally a once-in-a-lifetime thing – as much as the party could possibly absorb for at least the next 50 years.MEMO ...
The Royal Commission on abuse in care is very significant for the disability community. For many decades last century, thousands of disabled children, and adults who managed to survive, were locked away from families and communities. This was not for anything they had done, but for the perceived threat their ...
With an unfair voting system, uneven electorates and an un-elected upper house, the UK's "democracy" is barely worthy of the name. But now the government wants to make it worse:The government has been accused of suppressing voters’ rights with the potential disenfranchisement of tens of thousands of people after plans ...
Back in the 90's and early 2000's, the building industry was building leaky homes which should never have been granted consent. Now it turns out they've been building dodgy office blocks as well:New imaging technology has revealed hundreds of major buildings nationwide have defective or missing concrete or reinforcing steel. ...
Local body election results were released over the weekend, to joy or despair depending on where you live. In Auckland, Phil Goff trounced John Tamihere, who is muttering darkly about running for Parliament again (but which party would want him?) Wellington is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Weta Workshop, except ...
How could government evolve over the next decades? Reports of democracy’s imminent demise are greatly exaggerated. However, satisfaction with political systems in many countries is low, so there is much to do for governments of all political stripes to improve relevance and trust. Digital technologies are seen as one ...
Two years have now gone by since the Friday afternoon when my university-student son and I headed out of our Barcelona flat to a nearby primary school, designated as a polling station for the vote that was to be held the following Sunday: the referendum on Catalonia’s independence from Spain ...
Overruled: The joint decision of Finance Minister, Grant Robertson (Labour) and his Associate Minister, David Parker (Labour) arguably the two most powerful ministers in Jacinda Ardern’s government, to grant OceanaGold the consents which Land Information Minister, Eugenie Sage (Greens) had earlier denied them, offers bitter proof of how hard fighting ...
More than double the number of people who will vote in this year’s local body elections have tried marijuana or urinated somewhere they shouldn’t have. As local elections look set for the lowest turnout in decades, with many regions falling well short of 40%, the Government is exploring a number ...
A Statement on Abortion Law Reform by the Council of Disobedient Women On the eve of bringing an end to antiquated, anti-women abortion laws Green MP Jan Logie intends to write women out of the Bill. With a stroke of the pen, the woke are aiming for total erasure ...
Musings continue apace about “the experienced businessman!” soon to be taking up a National Party MP position. Or to be more accurate, being parachuted into a seat to shut down their former MP Jamie-Lee Ross, who despite his own shortcomings shed at least some more light on the inner workings ...
The Ugandan government wants to murder gay people:Uganda has announced plans to impose the death penalty on homosexuals. The bill, colloquially known as “Kill the Gays” in Uganda, was nullified five years ago on a technicality, but the government said on Thursday it plans to resurrect it within weeks. The ...
Freedom Of Speech? The Säuberung (cleansing by fire) was the work of the German Student Union which, on 10 May 1933, under the watchful eye of the Nazi Reichminister for Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, consigned 25,000 books to the flames in a ritual exorcism of “un-German thought”. According to the logic of the ...
“There can be no such thing as kaupapa Māori political parties or politics in Aotearoa” (Willie Jackson, Labour Party (2017). Māori TV, General/List Election Special) I begin with that claim because at the time, I was confounded at first that it fell out of Willie Jackson’s mouth, and then ...
New Zealand has prided itself for decades with regard to its lack of pollution, and all will be aware that the ‘100% Pure New Zealand‘ meme is under threat through land, water and air pollution of various causes. There is another type of contamination that the country also faces: light ...
New Zealand’s media is doing its part in Japan, reassuring those in the path of the storm that they won’t miss any rugby while away from their flooded homes. New Zealand sports reporters stationed in Japan for the Rugby World Cup have had the rare and heartwarming opportunity to inform ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones is the only Cabinet member in favour of putting it all on green. As Finance Minister Grant Robertson finds himself with an enormous $7.5 billion surplus, the Government has begun intense, at times contentious conversations about whether to put the money on red or black at ...
by Susanne Kemp At the start of September close to 100,000 school teachers went on strike in Jordan. They demanded a 50% pay rise. A pay rise actually agreed to by the regime back in 2014. In early October, however, in the face of government repression and threats, the teachers’ ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzWhy do people still think climate change isn’t real?David ...
Back in 2011, journalist Nicky Hager published Other People's Wars, an expose on NZDF's activities over the previous decade of the "war on terror". NZDF didn't like this, and especially didn't like the fact that it was base don leaks from their own. So, they had the SIS investigate him ...
The Zero Carbon Bill is due back from select committee in two weeks, and will likely pass its final stages in November. So naturally, farmers are planning a hate-march against it. But they're not just demanding lower methane targets so they can keep on destroying the planet; they're also demanding ...
Last year, California burned. This year, to stop it happening again (or rather, to stop themselves from being found liable if it happens again), Pacific Gas and Electric is cutting power to half the state for a week:Schools are closed. Traffic lights down. Tunnels dark. Businesses unopened. Hospitals running on ...
The Best Way: Missing from the on-line voting debate is any reference to the voting system that produces turn-out figures ranging from 77 to 93 percent of registered voters. The voting system used to collect and count the votes cast in our parliamentary elections. The system that involves citizens making ...
Among the great new bunch of political friends we have been making recently is the excellent Australian-based Marxist gender-critical site, Freer Lives. So we asked the comrade who set up that blog to write something for Redline on the blog, himself, his analysis of the rise of gender politics and ...
by Don Franks The Auckland City Mission is struggling with a 40 percent increase in demand for food parcels this year. A total of 23,020 were needed by June. Last month Missioner Chris Farrelly told the Herald the “cupboards are bare” and without an emergency food drive, he can’t see ...
by The Council of Disobedient Women Massey Wellington Student Association had a sit-in today. Imagine a sit-in. On a campus. Against a women’s rights meeting. Did the ’60s really happen or did we fucking dream it? They gathered in the student square, an echo chamber. Sitting on soft pillows ...
For some reasons, my post about the mystery message from inside the Downing Street bunker seemed to catch people's attention. Quite a lot of hits from NZ (unsurprisingly) and the USA (a bit more puzzlingly, but hi there, USAians!!) and 76 views from the Ukraine.I've celebrated my Ukrainian readers in ...
First, almost a score of Labour MPs seem to have sent a letter to the EU basically begging them to accept a deal - any deal - just so Britain can get the Heck on with Brexiting instead of being trapped in limbo:
by Phil Duncan In 2016 the National-led government suspended the Parent Visa Category, through which migrants were able to bring their parents into New Zealand. Since then over 5,700 people have been in immigration limbo, stuck on the visa wait list. Labour is now bringing back the scheme. Well, sort ...
The following was released yesterday (Tues, October 8) by the women’s liberation organisation Speak Up for Women. On 23 September Speak Up For Women announced that we would be holding an event at the Massey University Theaterette in Wellington. The event is called Feminism 2020. The intention of the event ...
The government is currently consulting on plans to improve freshwater quality. So naturally, farmers oppose it:South Taranaki farmers are preparing to fight proposed national freshwater changes that some fear will bankrupt them. The Government's proposed National Environment Standard on Freshwater Management, released in September, rated the Waingongoro River as one ...
Yesterday was the last day for (reliably) posting your vote away in local body elections. Turnouts are mostly much lower than the equivalent time last year (Palmerston North is down 2.3%), and so naturally people are pushing their online-voting snake oil again. Because the online census worked so well, lets ...
This essay, on the political legacy of the eugenics movement, by Kenan Malik was originally published in the Observer on 6 October 2019, under the headline ‘The spirit of eugenics is still with us, as immigrants know to their cost’. Birth control. Intelligence tests. Town planning. Immigration controls. It’s striking how ...
Another year, and the government has announced another enormous government "surplus". And just like last year, its nothing of the sort. When we have people homeless and sick and hungry, when we have schools and hospitals still falling down, when we have underpaid public servants and infrastucture unmaintained or unbuilt, ...
James Forsyth at The Spectator (I know, I know) has tapped one of his contacts inside Number Ten for an insight into the Johnson administration's thinking and strategy.It is fascinating, unsettling and quite, quite mad. Some key points:Negotiations have stalled and the Johnson administration are keen to blame the EU: ...
Fatal Contact: With the arrival of captain James Cook in October 1769, the islands of what would become New Zealand ceased to be the preserve of Polynesian navigators and settlers and became a part of both the world’s map and the world’s history.THE MAORI NATIONALIST assault upon the historical meaning ...
Another round of tactical talks about forming a Government of National Unity have come to nothing with the Liberal Democrats still refusing countenance putting Jeremy Corbyn into Downing Street:Opposition talks on Monday made little headway over when to try and vote down Boris Johnson's government and who might succeed him as ...
by Nick Rogers The debate around the meaning of sex and gender made an appearance at this year’s British Labour Party conference in Brighton. Women’s Place UK – an organisation that questions the demand that biological males who self-identify as woman should have access to women’s spaces, to all-women shortlists, ...
Yesterday I went down to Wellington to participate in the Extinction Rebellion protest. Its part of the latest global wave of XR actions, with actions happening all over the world. Some of those protests are massively disruptive: in Canada, XR is blocking major bridges, stopping people from getting to work. ...
The Workshop is a charitable trust for public good. The Workshop undertake research to find ways of communicating that will build support for the solutions that work to solve complex social and environmental problems. See their Report on Talking about Poverty and Welfare Reform below. ...
What is language? We generally assume that it a facility unique to humans, allowing us to share what’s in and on our minds. We can tell of our plans, our past exploits, our knowledge. It also allows us to lie. And yet there are vast numbers of people we can’t ...
Being and Being Bought (Spinifex Press, 2013) by Kajsa Ekis Ekman A synopsis and commentary of Chapters 1-2 by Daphna Whitmore Ekman, a Swedish journalist and critic, brings together a Marxist and feminist analysis of prostitution and surrogacy in this groundbreaking book She opens the discussion with a definition of ...
I make no claims to having much legal knowledge, so I defer to those trained in this area.I am very much enjoying this twitter stream from m'learned friend in Edinburgh, deciphering the legal arguments around the Scottish court challenge to Boris Johnson, based on the charmingly obscure principle of Nobile ...
Ivory Folly? The University of Auckland’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Stuart McCutcheon, upheld the right of the radical nationalist group, Action Zealandia to exercise their freedom of speech – not matter how distasteful that speech might be. A wiser community of students and scholars would have nodded their agreement and moved on. ...
If you are not convinced terrorist Organisation ‘Extinction Rebellion’ is very, very dangerous – watch this video at one of their recent meetings. Not only is this obviously mentally ill Woman begging the other terrorists to promote killing and “eating” babies and children, if you watch carefully other members nod ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is predicting a hard Brexit for the United Kingdom, as he believes British Prime Minister Boris Johnson won’t be able to negotiate terms before the October 30 deadline. The Minister, who was one of the first to publicly come out and predict British voters would leave ...
Speaking at the Council of Trade Unions' (CTU) biennial conference, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters told unionists that any future attacks on the Government won't work. "Now, we are being attacked by the union movement in this country. You can have your views but I'm here to say standing ...
We want every New Zealander to be happy, safe, and healthy. To do this, we need to support strong, safe communities, and a robust and efficient health system. ...
Defence Minister Ron Mark has used his powers to overrule a noise complaint ruling against Whenuapai airbase on the grounds of "national security". The Environment Court last month released a ruling in favour of a private developer, declaring the Auckland airbase had to comply with noise restrictions when it performs ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has opened fire against "unreconstructed morons" after NZ First MP Shane Jones was photographed on holiday holding an AR-15 rifle. Mr Peters is defending Mr Jones, telling Magic Talk host Peter Williams that his MP was just having fun "like most people do". "The ...
New Zealand First Deputy Leader and Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau was in attendance during the morning blessing of the Rotorua Lakefront development project. Around 60 people gathered on the shores of Lake Rotorua, including city mayor Steve Chadwick and deputy Dave Donaldson. The Lakefront development is a ...
Forestry Minister Shane Jones is considering reining in on conversions of farmland to forestry, and also issued a warning to foreign-owned forestry companies that make up nearly 75 per cent of the industry. He said too many foreign companies had not provided enough access for domestic processors to get timber. ...
Speaking to Radio NZ, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters said the tightening of the parental category visa is a direct result of the Party’s coalition negotiations with the Labour Party. He said the new changes switch the financial onus from the parent moving to New Zealand to the child ...
The Coalition Government is set to cut red tape in the building and construction sector in an effort to allow more houses to be built, including prefabricated houses. The changes will enable the mass factory production of "high quality" buildings, slash the likely number of building inspections for factory produced ...
Since coming into Government, we’ve worked hard to tackle homelessness and make sure everyone has a warm, dry home. And today, on World Homeless Day, we want to report back and update you on our progress so far. ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has hit back at National Party leader Simon Bridges who criticized the Coalition Government’s approach to crime, and said that the latter isn't credible in his attack on the Government over gang recruitment. "We've got as massive drug problem in this country. It is ...
New Zealand Mānuka honey exporters have welcomed an initiative by the Coalition Government to help secure the term “mānuka honey” to be used exclusively by Kiwi exporters, ensuring that our multimillion-dollar industry is protected. Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones had recently announced that a Provincial Growth Funding of $5.7 ...
Political commentator Mike Hosking has labelled New Zealand First leader Winston Peters as “the voice of reason in a government soft on drugs”, for the Party’s stance on drug testing at music festivals. “If common sense is worth a vote, Winston Peters is quids in,” Mr Hosking said. The Labour ...
Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau has announced Provincial Growth Funding to ensure work opportunities in Turangi and Whanganui, through its skills and employment programme, Te Ara Mahi. A fund of $500,000 will go to Rafting NZ in Turangi for a 16-week river guide training course to train ...
Treasury has shown that the Coalition Government has a $7.5 billion surplus, which is $4 billion higher than what was expected in the 2019 Budget unveiled last May. It is also $2 billion higher than the actual surplus unveiled this time last year, and at a size that has not ...
Official Information Act figures released to NZME show there were 350 assaults on officers in the year to the end of June, 79 more than the year before. The increase in attacks have sparked calls for more legal protection for first responders to be enacted. The assaults included officers being ...
“Nobody wants to see babies uplifted”, this was the pronouncement of Minister for Children Hon. Tracey Martin as her department, Oranga Tamariki, faces multiple inquiries into the number of babies being taken from their families. “But a baby can die with a single punch, “the Minister continued. “So sometimes, Oranga ...
We're making progress on tackling the long-term challenges: from homelessness, to strengthening border security, to bringing banking back New Zealand's small towns. ...
Associate Transport Minister Shane Jones has backed the ambitious plan to move Auckland’s port to Northport, at Whangarei harbour, which he says will be the “King Kong of infrastructure”. The plan is part of the recommendations of a six-person independent working group, which has recommended the Ports of Auckland be ...
A six-member independent working group selected the option of moving Auckland’s port to Northport, in Whangarei, ahead of other options. In what could be New Zealand’s most ambitious infrastructure project yet, a major expansion of the Marsden Point port could happen within 15 years. The project, officially called the “Upper ...
The final Electricity Price Review recommended prohibiting prompt payment discounts but allowing “reasonable” late fees. The findings of this review was welcomed by the Coalition Government, but they hope companies will follow through with its recommendations without regulations needed to be passed. Meridian Energy had already stopped prompt payment discounts, ...
Fletcher Tabuteau, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF)through its skills and employment programme, Te Ara Mahi,will invest nearly $600,000 to ensure work opportunities for locals in Turangia and Whanganui, Parliamentary Under Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau announced today. “I’m pleased to announce the PGF ...
An export-led economy is one of New Zealand First’s key principles, and our commitment to achieving this is shown by the continuing skyrocketing demand for our beef and sheep meat exports. Beef + Lamb New Zealand's New Season Outlook 2019-20 report forecasts beef, lamb and mutton prices to lift from ...
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today in Gisborne an investment of $17.27m into bringing “world-leading” food-growing technology and the creation of more than 100 new jobs in the East Coast city. The funding comes from the Provincial Growth Fund, and included a $15 million loan to LeaderBrand, a ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development More than 100 people in Tairāwhiti’s Tolaga Bay will benefit from two employment initiatives supported by the Provincial Growth Fund, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones and Employment Minister Willie Jackson announced today. “Tolaga Bay is an incredibly tight-knit community, but one in ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is supporting Gisborne business Leaderbrand to produce salad vegetables year round and create more jobs in the Tairāwhiti region, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. “Our support for Leaderbrand will help them build large greenhouses ...
“Nobody wants to see babies uplifted”, this was the pronouncement of Minister for Children Hon. Tracey Martin as her department, Oranga Tamariki, faces multiple inquiries into the number of babies being taken from their families. “But a baby can die with a single punch, “the Minister continued. “So sometimes, Oranga ...
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has praised the promise by New Zealand’s biggest banks not to close any provincial branches while the Coalition Government trials regional banking hubs across the country. The Minister said the announce was the “first sign of hope for regional communities”, many of which have ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, New Zealand First Leader New Zealand First is proud to have delivered an upgrade of the SuperGold Card website and a new smartphone app, which will help unlock the full benefits of the SuperGold Card for 750,000 New Zealand seniors.Party Leader Rt Hon Winston Peters, ...
Delivering a key election campaign promise, New Zealand First is proud to have accomplished a long overdue upgrade of the SuperGold Card today. At an event in Auckland, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters joined Minister for Seniors Hon. Tracey Martin in unveiling the new website and smartphone app which ...
Government Ministers today welcomed the release of a marine environment report highlighting the four key issues affecting our oceans, estuaries and coastlines. The release underlines the importance of government proposals to combat climate pollution, ensure clean freshwater, protect biodiversity, make land use more sustainable, and reduce waste and plastic. Environment ...
The Government has approved funding for a new acute mental health facility for Waikato which will provide better care and support to people with mental health and addiction issues. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Health Minister Dr David Clark announced the $100 million project to replace the aging Henry Rongomau ...
The Government is making progress on its goal to integrate te reo Māori into education by 2025, with over 500 teachers and support staff already graduating from Te Ahu o te Reo Māori, Associate Education Minister Kelvin Davis announced today. Kelvin Davis made the announcement at an awards ceremony in Waikanae today, for ...
Statistics Minister James Shaw has welcomed the first release of 2018 Census data. The first release of data today, 23 September, includes key data on population, regional growth, the number of homes and the size of different ethnic groups in New Zealand. Data from the 2018 Census will support the ...
Minister for Statistics James Shaw today announced a public consultation on a proposed algorithm charter for government agencies. The charter has been developed by the Government Chief Data Steward in response to growing calls for more transparency in government use of data. Computer algorithms – procedures or formulas for solving ...
Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor, Climate Change Minister James Shaw and visiting Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte co-hosted a business roundtable in Auckland this morning focused on working together to address climate change. “The Netherlands is an important partner for New Zealand. We share a strong agricultural history. Sustainable agribusiness and ...
The Government is taking action to build an inclusive economy where more of us receive our fair share at work and businesses can compete on great products and services, not undercutting wages and conditions, Immigration and Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says. Two consultations launched today seek feedback ...
The future for New Zealand’s threatened indigenous freshwater fish looks brighter with the passing of the Conservation (Indigenous Freshwater Fish) Amendment Bill in Parliament today said Minister of Conservation, Eugenie Sage. “Until now, our freshwater fish legislation has been 20 years out of date. We have lacked effective tools to ...
At 1.30pm tomorrow, hundreds of thousands of Kiwis will join about 65 million people around the globe in ShakeOut, the world’s biggest earthquake drill. The annual drill is to remind people of the right action to take during an earthquake which is to Drop, Cover, Hold, and to practise their ...
Kiwis are benefiting from higher wage growth and low inflation under the Coalition Government. Stats NZ data out today shows the rise in the cost of living remains low, as annual Consumers Price Index (CPI) inflation fell to 1.5% in September from 1.7% in June. “The low inflation comes as ...
New Zealand’s economic strength and resilience has been recognised in a major update on the state of the global economy. The IMF’s latest World Economic Outlook released overnight shows a reduced global growth forecast over the next two years as issues like the US-China trade war and Brexit take hold. ...
Justice Minister Andrew Little has today introduced a new Bill to prevent terrorism and support the de-radicalisation of New Zealanders returning from overseas. The Terrorism Suppression (Control Orders) Bill gives the New Zealand Police the ability to apply to the High Court to impose control orders on New Zealanders who ...
A Bill that proposes targeted changes to simplify the processes for Māori land owners when engaging with the Māori Land Court has had its First Reading today. “The approach taken by the Government is to ensure that the protection of Māori land remains a priority as we seek to improve ...
Let me first thank all the new unionists and members in the room. There is nothing more important to improving people’s working lives than people making the decision to care, to get on board and help, to take up the reins and get involved. Congratulations to you. You bring the ...
Minister of Defence Ron Mark has signed a certificate exempting the activity of engine testing at Whenuapai Airbase from the Resource Management Act 1991. The Act gives the Minister of Defence the power to exempt activities for the purposes of national security. The certificate will mean the recent Environment Court ...
Finance Minister Grant Robertson has announced New Zealand will join the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action while attending APEC meetings in Chile. The objective of the 39 member Coalition is to share information and promote action to tackle climate change. It was formed in April this year, in ...
Ladies and gentlemen, NZCTU President Richard Wagstaff, members of respective unions – thank you for the invitation to speak to you today. This might be preaching to the choir, but the importance of trade unions in New Zealand’s historical arch is difficult to understate. And it is my belief that ...
"Let’s start by acknowledging that it has been a huge year. " Police Association Annual Conference James Cook Grand Chancellor Hotel Wellington Nau mai, haere mai. Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, ka nui te mihi, ki a koutou katoa. President of the Police Association, Chris Cahill; Members of the Association and ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters and Minister of Defence Ron Mark have announced the New Zealand Government’s decision to again deploy a Royal New Zealand Air Force P-3K2 (P-3) maritime patrol aircraft to support the implementation of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions imposing sanctions against North Korea. New ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters says New Zealand continues to have serious concerns for peace and stability in north-east Syria. “Recent reports that hundreds of ISIS-affiliated families have fled from a camp are deeply concerning from a humanitarian and security perspective”, Mr Peters says. “While we acknowledge Turkey’s domestic security ...
Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor is warning travelling Kiwis to be vigilant as the high-season for the crop-eating brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB) is under way. “We’re on high alert to stop BMSB arriving in NZ. The high season runs until April 30 and we’ve strengthened our measures to stop stink ...
The Government is moving swiftly to change the law to improve the welfare and pastoral care of students living in university halls of residence and other tertiary hostels. Cabinet has agreed to several changes, including creating a new mandatory Code of Practice that sets out the duty of pastoral care ...
The Minister for Conservation Eugenie Sage has launched a new comprehensive trapping guide for community trappers to help them protect our native birds, plants and other wildlife, at Zealandia in Wellington today. ‘A practical guide to trapping’, has been developed by the Department of Conservation (DOC), and was launched during ...
Associate Health Minister Julie Anne Genter welcomes PHARMAC’s move to improve access to long-acting reversible contraception (LARCs). PHARMAC has today announced it will fund the full cost of Mirena and Jaydess for anyone seeking long term contraception, lifting previous restrictions on access to Mirena. “I welcome women having greater choices ...
The Government has approved the next stage of a major redevelopment of Taranaki Base Hospital, which will deliver new and improved facilities for patients. Health Minister Dr David Clark has announced details of a $300 million dollar project to build a new East Wing at the New Plymouth hospital. It ...
Extra funding will allow Rural Support Trusts to help farming families, says Minister for Rural Communities and Agriculture Damien O’Connor. “I know that rural families are worried about some of the challenges facing them, including the ongoing uncertainty created by the Mycoplasma bovis outbreak. “Those concerns sit alongside ongoing worries ...
Thank you for the opportunity to be here to present certificates to the 16 graduates who have completed a beekeeping course delivered by the Howard League. Let us start by acknowledging Auckland Prison’s Deputy Prison Director Tom Sherlock, and Acting Assistant Regional Commissioner of Corrections Northern Region Scott Walker - ...
Finance Minister Grant Robertson leaves this weekend to attend the APEC Finance Ministers meeting in Santiago, Chile. Discussions between APEC Finance Ministers at the meeting will include the effects of the current global economic uncertainty, risks for APEC economies and sustainable development of the region. While at APEC Grant Robertson ...
The Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio says for Pacific people, language can be a source of strength. It can help ground us and give us confidence. When we speak them, our languages provide us with an immediate and intimate access to our identity and our story - and ...
The Coalition Government has announced an action plan to improve the wellbeing of disabled New Zealanders by addressing inequalities in play, active recreation and sport. The initiative includes training to develop a workforce that understands the needs of children and young people with a range of impairments, advocacy for fit ...
The construction sector is being freed up to allow more homes to be built more quickly as the Government cuts through some of the red tape of the Building Act. “Every New Zealander deserves a warm, dry, safe home and old inefficiencies in the Building Act make building slow and ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has welcomed further details on the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall’s visit to New Zealand next month. Their Royal Highnesses will visit New Zealand from 17-23 November – their third joint visit to New Zealand and first in four years. They arrive in Auckland ...
Minister of State for Trade and Export Growth and Minister of Agriculture, Damien O’Connor, heads to Thailand today to attend the final Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Ministerial meeting, as negotiations enter their final stages. “The RCEP Agreement would anchor New Zealand in a regional agreement that covers 16 countries, ...
Pacific young people living in the Hawke’s Bay, Southland and Otago regions will have access to support services that have proved successful in helping young people find new earning and learning opportunities. “Tupu Aotearoa is about changing Pacific young peoples’ lives. Our young people are talented, they are smart, they ...
Introduction As the Minister for ACC I thank you all for the work that you do supporting New Zealanders in their literally most vulnerable moments. From those who hold people’s lives in their hands, to the people who research technique, technology and trends, your work is highly valued. A special ...
Notes prepared for speeches in Christchurch – Wednesday 9 October 2019 Today’s topic, “trends and opportunities for the New Zealand economy,” is certainly one getting a great deal of commentary at the moment. Looking across the media landscape lately you’ll notice we aren’t the only ones having this discussion. There ...
Minister of Health Dr David Clark and Associate Minister of Health Peeni Henare say this year’s World Mental Health Day theme is a reminder of why the Government’s work on mental health is so important. “This year the World Federation for Mental Health has made suicide prevention the main theme ...
Associate Arts, Culture and Heritage Minister Carmel Sepuloni will represent the government at Australia’s Meeting of Cultural Ministers in Adelaide this week. “This year’s meeting is special because New Zealand is expected to become an International Member of the Meeting of Cultural Ministers at this Australian forum,” Carmel Sepuloni said. “The meeting is an opportunity to ...
The Greater Christchurch Claims Resolution Service has resolved 608 insurance and EQC claims in its first year in operation, Minister Megan Woods has announced. The government service, which celebrates its first birthday today, provides a one stop shop to help Cantabrians still battling to get their homes repaired or rebuilt ...
Today’s topic, “trends and opportunities for the New Zealand economy,” is certainly one getting a great deal of commentary at the moment. Looking across the media landscape lately you’ll notice we aren’t the only ones having this discussion. There has been an increasing amount of attention paid to the outlook ...
The proposition that global warming driven by greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is a risk that needs to be dealt with has achieved a large measure of agreement among policymakers. The proposition that it has to be dealt with right now and at great cost has no such consensus.One point ...
A bill to improve the pastoral care of students living in halls of residence has flown through its first reading in Parliament, thanks to cross-party support. ...
In this week's MediaRoom column: could MediaWorks close its TV operations altogether? And the Herald restructures its newsroom to remove a layer of management and shake up its investigative team. ...
Twenty-five young people who represent the future of the Asia-New Zealand relationship have been acknowledged as ‘ones to watch’, by the Asia New Zealand Foundation Te Whītau Tūhono. ...
The taboo that surrounds immigration and our refugee qouta, are two issues rising in New Zealand that need to start being given attention to challenge the fruit loops of the far left. ...
Winston Peters has been ordered to answer questions about whether he received a letter from MSD asking him to check details of his living arrangements, three years before discovering he'd been overpaid. ...
To celebrate 10 years since the start of New Zealand’s Next Top Model, our reality TV podcast The Real Pod is going to recap it week by week. Here are 10 of the most incredible revelations from the very first episode. 1) Colin Mathura-Jeffree was an emo kidThis was the moment ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s content by Dr Bryce Edwards.Terrorism bill Lydia Lewis and Dan Satherley (Newshub): Security expert backs new terror law proposal ...
Occupiers of the disputed land at Ihumātao have been shut out of talks with the government about finding a resolution, saying they haven’t had any direct contact with ministers in more than a month, writes RNZ‘s Te Aniwa Hurihanganu and Meriana Johnsen.The Māori King announced in September mana whenua had ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bronwyn Fancourt, Adjunct Research Fellow, University of New England Feral cats are wreaking havoc on our native wildlife, eating more than a billion animals across Australia every year. But managing feral cats and reducing their impacts on our threatened species is challenging, ...
Later this month, the national commemoration of the New Zealand Wars, known as Te Pūtake o Te Riri, is to be held in Taranaki. Local community activist Vivian Hutchinson looks at how a history of conflict has shaped our sense of citizenship and describes how some people in Taranaki are ...
New Zealand First MP Clayton Mitchell is demanding an apology from security guards who booted him out of a Tauranga bar on Saturday night, describing them as politically-motivated "buffoons". ...
New Zealand First MP Clayton Mitchell is demanding an apology from security guards who booted him out of a Tauranga bar on Saturday night, describing them as politically-motivated "buffoons". ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jerry Zhou, Lecturer, School of Medicine, Western Sydney University If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskids@theconversation.edu.au.Does chewing gum stay inside you for years? – Olivia, aged 12, Australia. Great question, Olivia! ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Liam Elphick, Adjunct Research Fellow, Law School, University of Western Australia In March last year, Frances McDormand won the Academy Award for Best Actress. In her acceptance speech, she drew attention to the female nominees in the room and left them with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peggy Kern, Associate professor, University of Melbourne The Portal follows six individuals who undergo a personal transformation from trauma and struggle to calmness, self-acceptance, and compassion towards others. These personal changes are intertwined with contemplations about the broader struggles facing humanity and ...
Many hill country farmers could be locked into low-return agriculture by government policy, with little chance of breaking the cycle, according to the main meat producers' lobby, Beef + Lamb New Zealand. ...
The Southern DHB has apologised and pledged to change practices after a report into a young woman’s complaint about treatment which included being stripped naked and left unattended in seclusion for 12 hours. Here she tells her story.I’d forgotten the Health and Disability Commission was about to publish its report. ...
In the Chief Ombudsman’s latest Annual Report, contacts for advice increased 29 percent, while more use was being made of guidance material, including the 23 new or updated guides that were published in the 2018/19 year. ...
Fletcher's new offsite home manufacturing facility could be producing two homes a day within a couple of years. But for the moment this high-tech factory is underwhelming. ...
National's leader Simon Bridges says his party will pull its support for the new anti-terrorism legislation if the minister doesn't meet with them next week and start negotiating in good faith. ...
For the latest episode of On the Rag, notorious prude Alex Casey enlisted the help of sex toy expert and pleasure therapist Teddy Curle. It sounds a bit like ingredients for an avant-garde stir-fry recipe. Cauliflower. Kūmara. A jar of Vegemite. But what it actually is, sex toy expert Teddy Curle ...
It is deeply concerning that the state of our marine environment has not improved in the last three years. Resilient coasts and oceans are essential to New Zealanders' health and wealth, so urgent action is needed to address the decline. ...
Something’s crowning this Christmas, and it isn’t King Richard of Aldovia in his favourite tiara. Tara Ward looks at what Netflix’s new movie A Christmas Prince: A Royal Baby could mean for us all. Yesterday Netflix announced they’re about to give birth to the third instalment in the legendary series A Christmas ...
In a new initiative, Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga (NPM) New Zealand’s Māori Centre of Research Excellence is celebrating and recognising the careers of three Māori leaders and visionaries, who have a long history of bringing about major social change ...
The Environmental Defence Society (EDS) has welcomed the publication by the Ministry for the Environment and Stats NZ of Our Marine Environment 2019 , the latest in the reports on the state of our environment. The report is available here . ...
Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Campbell Brown, CEO of PredictHQ.This week we talk to Campbell Brown, the CEO ...
The Government has today released its discussion paper ‘ Designing a Fair Pay Agreements System ’ providing detail of what proposed law for Fair Pay Agreements (FPAs) could include. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Leah Ruppanner, Associate Professor in Sociology and Co-Director of The Policy Lab, University of Melbourne The polls were wrong in the last US and Australian federal elections. Hillary Clinton was favoured to win at a margin of 85% to Donald Trump’s 15%. ...
Today is World Ecolabel Day and to mark the occasion New Zealand’s premier ecolabel has released a study showing the powerful environmental effect of ecolabelled products. ...
Family First's continued fight against attempts by the government's Charities Registration Board to deregister them is set to continue in the Court of Appeal in Wellington next week (Tues & Wed 22-23 Oct). In a significant development, the Charity Law ...
The actions of New Zealanders on land are increasingly harming the ocean’s ability to sustain life. Alex Braae looks at a worrying new government paper on the marine environment.What’s all this then?A new report from the Ministry for the Environment and Stats NZ has sounded alarming warning about state of ...
Farmers for Positive Change (F4PC) congratulates environmental, recreation and public health groups for coming to a united position on the Government’s freshwater reform and finds significant areas of agreement with the Healthy Water, Healthy Future joint ...
In time for Auckland Artweek, Eloise Callister-Baker opens the door on a cluster of small Auckland art spaces, once off the beaten track and ephemeral, now finding cunning new ways to adapt and survive in the CBD property market. Auckland’s terrific documentor of art openings, Sait Akkirman of artdiary.co.nz, provides ...
Right to Life asks, why the Special Abortion Legislation Bill Committee is continuing to discriminate by refusing to hear the 2,740 submitters who have requested the right to make a ten minute oral submission on the highly contentious abortion Bill conceived ...
Winston Peters is calling on an old mate to give evidence in his landmark court case against government agencies over a leak of his personal superannuation details. ...
Government ministers are exulting over how the NZ economy is performing— and their own work in making it stronger. David Clark, standing in for Grant Robertson in Parliament on Tuesday, rejoiced at how solid the “underlying fundamentals of the NZ economy are”. He said the government accounts for the June ...
A campaign to ban the Forced Swim Test in New Zealand is in line with public opinion, according to a new survey commissioned by the New Zealand Anti-Vivisection Society (NZAVS) and SAFE. ...
Environment, health, recreation, and water infrastructure groups have come together to support four essential policies to save fresh water in Aotearoa New Zealand. The Public Health Association, Forest & Bird, Fish & Game New Zealand, Environmental ...
"So many of our children are being violently harmed. Their innocence stolen and their bodies used for the sexual gratification and financial gain of those involved in the dark world of paedophillia. These innocent children are voiceless; nobody ...
There must be consternation within the upper ranks of the Labour Party at the performance of some of the Ministers in the coalition government. Every time the government looks like making some positive progress, one or other of these errant Ministers can be ...
Responding to Massey University’s decision to cancel the upcoming ‘Feminism 2020’ event, Free Speech Coalition member Melissa Derby (who had been scheduled to speak at the event) says: ...
New Zealand First's youth wing is at odds with leader Winston Peters over pill-testing at festivals and is working to overturn the party's position. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Byron, Lecturer in Psychology, University of Wollongong I am in year 11 and I like to listen to music when I am studying, but my dad says that my brain is spending only half of its time studying and the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Philippa England, Senior Lecturer, Griffith Law School, Griffith University Good planning needs integrity, and public participation should play a role in that. But a row over a high-rise development proposed for suburban Brisbane shows what happens when the public feels left out ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Frank Mathmann, Lecturer (Assistant Professor), Queensland University of Technology When you wander down most supermarket aisles are you befuddled by too much choice? Do you feel overwhelmed when comparing new phone deals, insurance offers, energy provider plans? There’s a lot of research ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Philip C. Almond, Emeritus Professor in the History of Religious Thought, The University of Queensland In a speech in Albury last month, Prime Minister Scott Morrison told his audience that he was praying for rain in drought-affected areas. “I pray for that ...
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Prefab housing factory opened amid huge need, worrying new measles developments, and public shows common sense on drug testing.A new factory has been opened to produce building materials, which if scaled up could have a significant impact on construction time ...
The Police Association says the Police Minister will be breaking his promise if he doesn't include staff turnover in the government's police staffing target. ...
Black Fern Vania Wolfgramm has been given a golden opportunity to learn from leaders in US sport, and in return, make a lasting contribution to Kiwi female athletes. ...
A symposium to mark the 50th anniversary of the formation of Halt All Racist Tours shook and changed our society, taking NZ into a new and different national and international consciousness. ...
When Hannah Yang complained about a racist clue in the daily paper, she was reminded of the prevalence of casual racism in New Zealand.I’d never seen a racist clue before.It happened in the morning when I sat down in our break room to look at the day’s cryptic crossword (yes, ...
The commentary around local election turnout is littered with misunderstanding. Yes, there’s a problem, but we should regard any suggestion of a single, simple solution with deep suspicion, writes local elections expert Julienne MolineauxThe Spinoff local election coverage is made possible thanks to The Spinoff Members. For more about becoming ...
Alex Casey talks to Henessey Griffiths, a 22 year-old Dunedin student who just finished her dissertation about one of Youtube’s most controversial stars. Content warning: this article contains mention of suicide, please take careYesterday afternoon in Dunedin, honours student Henessey Griffiths sent a tweet that was a year (or rather, five ...
The Transport Minister has released almost all of the letters he's received from Green MPs, but still refuses to release the letter from Julie Anne Genter that is now at the centre of an Ombudsman complaint. ...
Court documents have confirmed Winston Peters was sent a letter by officials four years into his seven-year overpayment of national superannuation asking him to check details he had supplied, including that he was 'single'. ...
Olympic sailors Blair Tuke and Peter Burling are throwing their weight behind a campaign encouraging New Zealander consumers and businesses to reduce their plastic pollution. ...
National Party leader Simon Bridges says his MP Agnes Loheni let him know she'd be contesting the candidacy for Botany, adding it's a "free world". ...
Open mike 08/12/2011 
Jo Swinson is doing even worse at this Being Sensible lark that I'd thought. I've just become aware of the following utterance
Today's IPCA report of police criminality: a police officer unalwfully tasered a fleeing suspect who posed no threat to anyone:The police watchdog has found an officer unlawfully tasered an Auckland man who broke his ankle jumping off a balcony to escape arrest. [...] To avoid arrest, the man jumped over ...10 hours ago
Media Statement for Immediate Release 16th October 2019 “Fake News” from Auckland City Council CCOs Board Chairs re pay and performance bonuses for top managers Despite comments from Auckland City Council CCOs Board Chairs re pay and performance bonuses for top managers—Herald Newspaper Tuesday Oct 15th–there is very little evidence ...11 hours ago
Would You Buy A Used Propaganda Video From This Man? Bridges and the National Party’s strategists have discovered that the ideas and attitudes considered acceptable by today’s editors and journalists are no longer enforceable. The rise and rise of the Internet and the social media platforms it spawned means that ...12 hours ago
John MacCormick Over the last 40 years, New Zealanders – and people in other countries – have experienced big changes in the jobs they do and where they live and work. These changes include: a decline in manufacturing jobs an increase in jobs in ‘information-intensive’ industries (which are better paid ...13 hours ago
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Thanks to a report from the Acting Inspector General of Intelligence and Security following a complaint by Nicky Hager, we have come to find out that the SIS illegally spied on Mr. Hager on behalf of the NZDF after publication of Hager’s 2011 book, Other People’s Wars. The NZDF justified ...2 days ago
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING MYTH 1: Global temperatures are rising at a rapid, unprecedented rate. FACT: The HadCRUT3 surface temperature index, produced by the Hadley Centre of the UK Met Office and the Climate Research Unit of the University of East Anglia, shows warming to 1878, cooling to 1911, ...2 days ago
The Royal Commission on abuse in care is very significant for the disability community. For many decades last century, thousands of disabled children, and adults who managed to survive, were locked away from families and communities. This was not for anything they had done, but for the perceived threat their ...3 days ago
More than double the number of people who will vote in this year’s local body elections have tried marijuana or urinated somewhere they shouldn’t have. As local elections look set for the lowest turnout in decades, with many regions falling well short of 40%, the Government is exploring a number ...6 days ago
“There can be no such thing as kaupapa Māori political parties or politics in Aotearoa” (Willie Jackson, Labour Party (2017). Māori TV, General/List Election Special) I begin with that claim because at the time, I was confounded at first that it fell out of Willie Jackson’s mouth, and then ...1 week ago
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is predicting a hard Brexit for the United Kingdom, as he believes British Prime Minister Boris Johnson won’t be able to negotiate terms before the October 30 deadline. The Minister, who was one of the first to publicly come out and predict British voters would leave ...1 day ago
We want every New Zealander to be happy, safe, and healthy. To do this, we need to support strong, safe communities, and a robust and efficient health system. ...2 days ago
Government Ministers today welcomed the release of a marine environment report highlighting the four key issues affecting our oceans, estuaries and coastlines. The release underlines the importance of government proposals to combat climate pollution, ensure clean freshwater, protect biodiversity, make land use more sustainable, and reduce waste and plastic. Environment ...6 hours ago
E tū members in cleaning and security are welcoming the Government’s call for consultation on the development of Fair Pay Agreements. ...3 hours ago
A bill to improve the pastoral care of students living in halls of residence has flown through its first reading in Parliament, thanks to cross-party support. ...3 hours ago
In this week's MediaRoom column: could MediaWorks close its TV operations altogether? And the Herald restructures its newsroom to remove a layer of management and shake up its investigative team. ...3 hours ago
Judith Collins is filling the blackhole that is National’s climate policy with social media posts appealing to science deniers. ...4 hours ago
To celebrate 10 years since the start of New Zealand’s Next Top Model, our reality TV podcast The Real Pod is going to recap it week by week. Here are 10 of the most incredible revelations from the very first episode. 1) Colin Mathura-Jeffree was an emo kidThis was the moment ...5 hours ago
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.
A Tom Sainsbury snapchat celebrating the genius of Dan Brown. ...9 hours ago
Many hill country farmers could be locked into low-return agriculture by government policy, with little chance of breaking the cycle, according to the main meat producers' lobby, Beef + Lamb New Zealand. ...9 hours ago
Sky Television's shareholders have approved its deal to retain the Sanzaar rugby rights for an undisclosed sum, making it unconditional. ...9 hours ago
Fletcher's new offsite home manufacturing facility could be producing two homes a day within a couple of years. But for the moment this high-tech factory is underwhelming. ...10 hours ago
Principals nervously wait for the final outcomes of the biggest education system review in 30 years. ...17 hours ago
The Second Fleet was reactivated to patrol the Arctic. Only problem is, the fleet’s home is on the front lines of sea-level rise. ...18 hours ago
Mildly dyslexic Sportsroom editor Steve Deane breaks down the keys to victory for the All Blacks in their World Cup quarterfinal against Ireland. ...18 hours ago
Black Fern Vania Wolfgramm has been given a golden opportunity to learn from leaders in US sport, and in return, make a lasting contribution to Kiwi female athletes. ...18 hours ago
A symposium to mark the 50th anniversary of the formation of Halt All Racist Tours shook and changed our society, taking NZ into a new and different national and international consciousness. ...18 hours ago
What happens when an historic air base that used to be well out of Auckland finds the city has grown up around it? ...19 hours ago
Court documents have confirmed Winston Peters was sent a letter by officials four years into his seven-year overpayment of national superannuation asking him to check details he had supplied, including that he was 'single'. ...1 day ago
An ambitious target for new officers seems to have turned into a cynical redefinition - how will police take the news? ...1 day ago
Olympic sailors Blair Tuke and Peter Burling are throwing their weight behind a campaign encouraging New Zealander consumers and businesses to reduce their plastic pollution. ...1 day ago
Now the Herald finds its voice – strange that, and within a week of the election.
Quote http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10767717
Exodus to Oz swells under Nats
Prime Minister John Key made the transtasman exodus of New Zealanders a major election issue in 2008 but, as the Herald reported last week, far from dwindling, that flow has increased under his watch … unquote
-0.3% growth inreal terms since coming to power with the best commodity prices for years trickle down is actually trickle up as the OECD has pointed out.Spread some moiney around History has proven that it works!
If anyone needs the perfect example of why I grin and grimace at the same time when NZ First is described as being on the left of the political spectrum then newbie MP Richard Prosser has provided one.
His proposal to ban the burqa is dog whistle racist cant. Why using the full force of the law to stop women from deciding to wear a small piece of material is beyond me.
Not only this but he wishes to arm taxi drivers and bring back compulsory military training.
He has that loud opinionated shrill and stupid approach to politics that I despise.
NZF has always had its share of loony MP’s; Prosser is just a slightly less subtle Michael Laws. Have to disagree with your assessment of why women wear the burqa though; it’s not from their own choice, its a culturally enforced symbol of patriarchal ownership.
Once skimmed a column Richard Prosser penned in Ian Wisharts “Investigate” magazine, (in a waiting room) he appeared to have all the blustering insight of an inebriated talk back caller.
The sound of barrels being scraped must be quite usual at NZ1 candidate selections. Will Winston operate the choker chain on this loose cannon once he gauges reaction to his utterances?
I have this overwhelming urge to replace the “Pr” in his surname with a “T” …
I’ve noticed that virtually every medical-related waiting room I’ve been in for a couple of years, both at home and in Auckland, has been heavily stocked with “Investigate”. Way out of proportion to its small market niche. And while I’m thinking, I can think of a few public ‘bureaucratic’ waiting rooms stocked with many copies too.
I’m guessing Wishart either ‘donates’ them, or facilitates actual buyers doing so.
I don’t like the way the waiting room stacking (however it comes about) seems to lend the magazine a bit of undeserved credibility. You don’t expect to find extremist fringe propaganda, including religious dogma in such places.
“…it’s not from their own choice, its a culturally enforced symbol of patriarchal ownership…”
From a western perspective looking in, it may be a culturally enforced symbol etc etc. I’m not excusing the modern/practical abuses that are entertained under the guise of Islam by certain regimes and the kind of general manipulative ignorance found anywhere in the world, any more than I will say that Christianity is the sum total if it’s abuses. There are for sure “muslims” who would not wish to be muslims, but have no choice because of chance of birthplace. There will be those who barely fullfil the basic concepts of Islam and think themselves devout. But then there are true muslims who would take deep offence at being asked to remove symbols of the surrender to Allah.
From a muslim perspective looking out (going from memory here so apologies to any muslim readers) it is an attempt to bring the individual into the sanctuary of the temple, recreating the closeness to Allah; Allah is everywhere at all times, and a muslim can be close to Allah anywhere, but in the temple is to be closest. It is the act of submission and moving towards Allah that is responded to by Allah moving twice as rapidly towards the disciple – that makes a large theological difference.
I’ve strained most of the poetic beauty out of the concept as it was told to me originally, but just thought I’d offer that idea as I believe a better world encourages understanding of others from their perspective, not just that of the observer.
If we truly embrace the diversity of ideas, then we would accept that there are people who are different. Mr Prosser for example can have his opinion even if we disagree. Mr Brash can have his ideas about decriminalisation and Mr Banks can have his racist ideas and Mr Key can have his mean-spirited ideas about Education and Welfare. And those who wear the burqa are entitled to do so. We welcome diversity of ideas -don’t we?
Oh yes please, but they must live their ideals, themselves, and not be allowed to push them on the vulnerable or those who reject them. Any arguments that a muslim should in no way offend a taxi driver while a taxi driver may offend a muslim should be discussed. Please begin.
And would Banks, Brash and others please put forward the basis of their ideology too, explained in full from all angles, so we can see clearly what they stand for and what they seek.
The difference you’ll soon discover is that a muslim is obliged to reveal and face the source of their morality, whereas Banks and others will twist, turn and lie to either conceal theirs or avoid facing the truth. A muslim (theoretically) is not concerned with philosophy and politics, because his god outlines all there is, via the prophet. A politician will believe only in expediency because he is moving too fast or using false ideas.
RNZ breakfast show inter view with Prosser said a lot of these comments were taken out of context he said read investigate articles and see the real story.
The Right wing have selectively released parts of sentences and not the whole sentence.
Prosser also said he adheres to NZFirst policy and is a team player .
TVOR
I acknowledge the cultural complexities relating to Burqas. I just don’t think criminalising Burqa wearers is the solution.
+1 Voice of Reason. I agree, although I suspect Dick Prosser isn’t coming at it from the angle of protecting women from religious oppression!!
Depends on the person – I have a friend who wears the niqab from choice. Her husband would be quite happy for her not to. Many women wear the niqab/burqa for modesty or tradition – there was a most interesting RNZ item some time ago on this very subject.
Gross generalisations do not apply to most situations.
Annette and Arandar
We need to know more about the subject when referring to niqab/burqa as if they are just a different form of ordinary female clothing. These are extreme forms of human camouflage.
Burqa refers to the whole body covering that is needed in a country where in some places, in more traditional country areas, a woman can be condemned as loose if her eyes meet a man’s. And loose women may be dealt with terminally. (There have been many books written about the harsh penalties such as Burned Alive by Souad.) So the niqab which shows the eyes must seem quite an advance.
Many women and some men have fought for women’s rights and respect in New Zealand and it is an unsatisfactory situation if some women retreat from what has been achieved and cover themselves in tents even if it they say it’s their choice.
But there are other coverings that Islamic women wear that suffice to give comfort, modesty and religious conformity. The khima and chador both cover well leaving the face open. The niqab does this then other head coverings that are less extensive are hijab, al-amira and shayla. All these should be accepted by all as respecting Islamic choice and precepts, just as we accept Sikh headgear. It is only the burqa that obliterates the person’s appearance to others.
Here is a good information link. http://www.apologeticsindex.org/505-muslim-veils-hijab-burqa
Sorry, while I can’t speak personally, I do know a woman, a divorced, single, educated, professional woman, who chooses to wear the burqa and who challenges anyone who thinks she does it because she’s been forced to by anyone – she wears it because she wants to. That is all.
Prosser raised some ‘interesting’ ideas, none of which have much chance of progressing. You have to wonder why he was put at 4 on the NZ First list, but one of his quips…
…prompted some good anecdotes on bank security in the good old days – NZ First, and bank security
In a firm I worked for in the sixties the pay clerk who collected the weekly pay from the bank carried a gun, and the briefcase containing the money was handcuffed to his left wrist.
in marked contrast to you???
NZ1st is left of Labour but not actually of the left. They’re also far more authoritarian – almost as much so as National and Act – which is where the cries for conformity come from. John Banks is another good example of this authoritarianism.
BTW, The burqa is the full body covering so not a small bit of cloth. That would be the niqab. Plenty of women wear them voluntarily and it’s not our place to tell them what to wear.
Yep pays to remember that NZ First originally appeared out of the socially conservative, though far more socially responsible wing of the National Party. The one which rejected the tenets of corporatist neo-liberalism. Old fashioned ‘wet’ Tories in other words.
Thanks Draco and apologies for my cultural insensitivity. You learn something new every day!
NZFirst are not leftist, they are muldoonist conservatives.
Muldoon, in one of his books, Rise & Fall of a Young Turk, described himself as an old fashioned liberal.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/headlines.cfm?c_id=466
Fox news accuses the muppets of braiinwashing kids.
Well they would know!
So funny. Imagine what they think of that arch-liberal Walt Disney inventing Scrooge McDuck way back when.
Apparently Walt was obsessed with the idea that his writers were all closeted reds and that they were manipulating the various cartoon characters to undermine capitalism. He used to pore over scripts looking for signs of a pink tinge before OK’ing production and once referred to the Screen Actors Guild as a communist front, which must have come as a surprise to the organisation’s leaders, who included the well known lefty Ronald Reagan.
Yeah, Walt was crazy about pinko infiltration… but not as crazy as Fox, it seems. I’d be struggling with that thought if I wasn’t laughing at them.
Prosser from NZFirst is a strange individual but it’s even stranger that Labour supporters are complaining about a member of a possible coalition party they were happy to utilize under MMP.
Politics makes for strange bed fellows it seems.
[source for Labour complaining about Prosser? Eddie]
How is it strange that Labour Party members are complaining about someone who is advocating introducing firearms on to our streets, who is a climate change denier, and who is dismissive of others’ religious and cultural traditions to the point of authoritarianism?
You must not know what Labour stands for.
Jester – look at the vile racist filth that inhabits comments on Kiwiblog and Whale Oil. And National was in coalition with the Maori Party for three years. At least here the focus is the man’s ideas, not the colour of his skin.
USA repeatedly shipped arms supplies to Egyptian security forces
The capitalist running dogs are profiting from the unrest. One wonders if they intentionally create conflicts to keep their weapons manufacturers happy.
Well, US corporations had lucrative existing munitions supply contracts with the Mubarak regime (even if most of them were paid for out of US Government funds anyway), why cancel them just because a new dictatorship is now in charge? Another day, another dollar.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/6104643/Numbers-firm-up-in-Shearers-favour Vernon Small says most members last night preferred Shearer.
Really Vernon? Shearer was endearing last night but hardly ‘landslide’ worthy and everyone I spoke to after the meeting was having trouble choosing and couldn’t make up their minds. Why? All four were superb.
But made up my mind last night. Cunliffe and Mahuta. Cunliffe needs to do some work on how he presents but he hit the right points for me last night – and both of them were able to provide more specific answers when pressed on how to fix things.
Again, it was a superb evening. National should be crapping their pants.
Tigger, what could Cunliffe do to sharpen his presentation up a bit? I’ll get word to his team.
I was watching all of them through the Crosby Trextor lens last night – ie. what spin lines will stick in critiquing them. Cunliffe comes across as a little ‘smarmy’ – his jokes are a little forced, a little ‘I’m funny and you know it’. And he’s got to do something about his smile when he’s listening, waiting. He’s very polished and that might actually work against him against Shearer (and indeed Key) who come off as a bit rougher.
It’s all style though, CV, something that a good PR expert could fix in no time. I hate having to pick people apart like this but it’s the game the Nats have excelled in with Key and we need to take the fight to them. Substance-wise I’ve always been impressed by him and last night he sealed it for me.
Ah thanks. Useful.
I’d generally say – relax. Try not to be so earnest and precise about nearly everything. Show a bit of fun and spontenaity. You have a huge smile- use it naturally. Humanise your opponent, don’t talk about him as ‘my opponent’ – you guys are going to have to work together no matter what the outcome so make it clear that bygones will be bygones after the vote and that party unity is paramount.
(note that I’ve not seen much of the two in the last few days, this is based on the election campaign and immediate post election period so he may be presenting slightly differently. With Shearer I’d say he needs to sharpen up in look and ideas. He is way too vague and the over relaxed image may not survive the hard grillings he’s likely to get in the selection process. I think he needs more solidity behind his vague concepts of ‘reform’. A bit too ‘third way’ for my liking.)
From what I have seen on the blogs, party members and supporters seem to largely prefer Cunliffe while those who get to vote reportedly favour Shearer. This leaves me hoping to hell that they listen to us, and are not just going through an “inclusive” exercise trundling them around the country.
I am most concerned that those who get to vote may consider that “we have lost the centre & need to move to the centre to get it back” – a concern exacerbated by Shearer’s use of the term “the hopes & aspirations of all NZers.” My question is, move to the centre from where?”
A brief potted history: By the 70s, liberal politics joined class politics, & while they were not 100% compatible at all times, they were able to function as a left wing. In the eighties Labour dumped the class politics and retained what remained its left wing credentials through liberal politics. The Clark government moved toward the centre from the Rogernomic outskirts, reasonably thinking that people had put up with enough disruption, & that the markets had matured enough for a new accommodation to be wrought, one that was not so unjust. This hope became untenable by 2008, but was reasonable at the time. Enter John Key who did not so much move toward the centre as woo it and bide his time, with a second term in mind. He wooed the centre so as to allay the fear many had of a right wing government, and this is the point of this whole paragraph: those who think that the centre is where it’s at forget about the fear factor.
Both Helen Clark and John Key moved decisively to the centre (or in Key’s case pretended to) at least partly to allay fears. No one presently fears the Labour Party, and if it is going to gain traction, it needs someone who is going to scare the horses a bit. Cunliffe is far more likely to do that than Shearer.
All four are impressive but quite different. My main worry about Cunliffe is that although he is a very good speaker, he doesn’t seem to be a team player and could quite easily alienate people.
Actually, if you look at his bio & Standard posts, Cunliffe seems to have worked very well in teams before he got into politics. And comments from people active in his electorate describe him as working very well in his electorate team.
While here we are still labouring under the illusion we are with the good guys and the US is the land of the free and home of the brave I thought I’d inject some reality: http://aotearoaawiderperspective.wordpress.com/2011/12/08/low-level-terrorists-the-2012-defence-bill-and-the-activation-of-fema-camps-and-crowd-control-weapons-were-watching-the-terrifying-end-of-america-the-home-of-the-free-and-the-brave/
The fact that there are millions of assault weapons in civilian US hands and a few hundred thousand vets from recent Afghanistan and Iraqi campaigns kicking around the US, makes me think that the original rationale for ‘the right to bear arms’ might just be coming valid again.
Bad times.
I used to be a consummate Pacifist but if I was in the US right now, I’d be carrying. Better to go down fighting instead of being a sheeple. Absolutely terrifying.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/black-friday-gun-sales-break-records
Ah, zerohedge, nice.
One writer’s experience of an Occupy arrest. Beautifully expressed.
http://myoccupylaarrest.blogspot.com/
Sobering and distressing Tigger. The Land of the Free?
Auckland Council vs occupy auckland is currently being heard in an Auckland court. Penny Bright has been on the stand critquing the Auckland Council actions and statements on the issue, making some references to law, Bill of Rights etc.
http://occupyauckland.org/
http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/6102227/Row-delays-Occupy-protesters-court-case/
I’ve been reading Debt: The First 5,000 Years by David Graeber. I’m only a couple of chapters in but it’s got these sentences in it:-
He’s going on about the Myth of Barter (Chapter 2). It seems even the most basic assumption of economists, that people started bartering and thus invented money to make things easier, is wrong.
If you want to study economics then study history – you’ll learn more and what you learn is more likely to be correct than if you study an economics text book.
Karl Polanyi also provided an interesting debunking of the myth that humans are naturally inclined to “truck and barter” in his 1940s tome “The Great Transformation”. Prior to the advent of Western capitalism, most societies got by just fine on the systems of economic reciprocity, redistribution, and domestic householding.
Yep. The so-called ‘gift economy’.
Dmitri Orlov speaks about it as a way to continue economic activity post-collapse and to improve social cohesion to boot.
Lotta posts today, but it is always somewhat reassuring to see bent coppers, in this case non sworn ‘copettes’ subject to the same rules as the rest of us for once.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/6107933/Police-staff-in-drug-bust-court-reveals
All those confiscated sacks of dak, piles of Andean climbing powder and happy pills must be very tempting for some of the bluebellies.
Quoting article:
Now this guy, once found guilty, needs to be banned from being a director/manager or business owner for a time. I’d go for 5 years – same as bankruptcy. Why? Because he’s shown himself unfit to be such.
To be a company director all you need to do is pay $150 to Companies Office to get a company registered and get yourself listed as a director. I wouldn’t get too excited about what he calls himself.
Oh, so according to you it’s all about how big the company is and not about the simple fact that he’s proven himself immoral?
it’s not about size it’s about relevance. lots of people commit crimes like assault but don’t get banned from say driving. It appears you just want to ban him because you assume he is a rich prick
No, I want to ban him because of his influence upon society is such a position of power.
Indeed. Company directors are the captains of a capitalist economy.
insider- Not if you are banned.
I understand from the media that the Chinese company buying the Crafar farms gave the National Party $50,000 as a campaign contribution.
Really? Link?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10771749
Just Koha! ROFL.
Here is a link someone put on a post on my blog: http://www.rbnz.govt.nz/about/whoweare/0092967.html connecting the Reserve bank with Fletcher building and assorted other conflicts of interests:
Mr Hugh Fletcher (Deputy Chair)
Auckland-based
Company Director
Chair – IAG New Zealand Limited; IAG New Zealand Holdings Limited
Director – Fletcher Building Limited; Rubicon Limited; Vector Limited; Insurance Australia Group Limited; IAG Finance (New Zealand) Limited; NGC Holdings Limited; NZI Staff Superannuation Fund Nominees Limited
Member – Australian and New Zealand Advisory Board of L.E.K. Consulting
Trustee – Dilworth Trust; New Zealand Portrait Gallery; The University of Auckland Foundation
First appointed 10 June 2002 – current term expires 9 June 2012
And a member of the trilateral commission just like Mike Moore. That’s the old boy network at work for ya!
Just think how much better things are than they were. In the past those who got in the way of rampant capitalism were killed ‘security’ forces.
‘On May 4, l970 members of the Ohio National Guard fired into a crowd of Kent State University demonstrators, killing four and wounding nine Kent State students.’
http://dept.kent.edu/sociology/lewis/lewihen.htm
‘The Ludlow Massacre was an attack by the Colorado National Guard on a tent colony of 1,200 striking coal miners and their families at Ludlow, Colorado on April 20, 1914.
The massacre resulted in the violent deaths of between 19 and 25 people; sources vary but all sources include two women and eleven children, asphyxiated and burned to death under a single tent. The deaths occurred after a day-long fight between strikers and the Guard.’
Better not mention the Maori Land Wars. They had ‘nothing’ to do with rampant capitalism.
Whereas those who worked for rampant capitalism got terrible diseases or died as a consequence.
Even those unfortunate enough to be born near industrial activity frequently suffer, of course,
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080326201751.htm
Better turn a blind eye to what is going on in China and India etc. so we can cheap consumer goods too.
DTB
‘study history – you’ll learn more and what you learn is more likely to be correct than if you study an economics text book.’
Very true.
The problem is, which version of history. Much of what is promulgated as history by the mainstream is not what actually happened, or has been given spin by the empire. The events of 9/11 are a prime example.
Modern economics is a complete fabrication, built on misinformation and bizarre theories, some of which are fairly recent and others that go right back to the time of John Locke (they may not have seemed bizarre to people of his time).
The fundamental [false] assumptions of economics are what are going to bring the current sytem crashing down shortly.
One way of thinking about modern economics is that we are caught up in a ‘game’ that has a life expectancy of 420 years (plus or minus 15 years) and we are now in the 402nd year.
Agreed. That’s why I tend to read multiple sources and then to think about what I’ve read.
One of the fairly recent ones is the myth based around the Tragedy of the Commons. In the economic myths this is used to promote privatisation over common ownership. They ignore the simple fact that such commons have always had rules and regulations about their use which completely removes the tragedy. They also ignore the fact that privatisation without regulation is what’s leading to resource depletion, pollution and Climate Change.
A refutation of Garrett Hardin’s argument found on a really interesting website:
Rewriting the ‘Tragedy of the Commons’
Talking about new MPs – I was impressed with Andrew Little on Back Benchers last night – he and Catherine Delahunty made David Bennett look the inept MP he appears to me to be. Andrew should go far.
Yeah I agree. Andrew Little was good wasn’t he.
I also noticed David Shearer, Darien Fenton and David Farrar having a good ole chin wag at the end.
I hope Back benchers is going to be back next year.
James Hansen, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies: 2 Degrees of Warming a Recipe for Disaster.
The history of ancient climate changes, which occurred over millions of years in the planet’s history as it moved in and out of ice ages, offers the best insight into how humans’ greenhouse gas emissions will alter the planet, Hansen said here today (Dec. 6) at the annual American Geophysical Union (AGU) meeting. And his research suggests the climate is more sensitive to greenhouse gas emissions than had been suspected.
“What the paleoclimate record tells us is that the dangerous level of global warming is less than what we thought a few years ago,” Hansen said. “The target that has been talked about in international negotiations for 2 degrees of warming is actually a prescription for long-term disaster.”
Earth’s Climate History: Implications for Tomorrow
Paleoclimate data yield our best assessment of climate sensitivity, which is the eventual global temperature change in response to a specified climate forcing. A climate forcing is an imposed change of Earth’s energy balance, as may be caused, for example, by a change of the sun’s brightness or a human-made change of atmospheric CO2. For convenience scientists often consider a standard forcing, doubled atmospheric CO2, because that is a level of forcing that humans will impose this century if fossil fuel use continues unabated.
Moore: “Wall Street Has Their Man And His Name Is Barack Obama”
Brooklyn
the Clark government (nine years of it! ) set up all the preconditions for the collapse we will witness over the next three years
like those disastrous surpluses. Fortunately the fiscally prudent Nats have have remedied that problem
No, when thinking of the failures of the Clark government I was thinking more in terms of the promotion of an economy predicated on perpetual growth (which is impossible on a finite planet and is grinding to halt right now because it is a mathematical impossibility) and the promoting of looting of natural resources and turning them into waste by corporations.
I was thinking more in terms of the abysmal failure of the Clark government with respect to local government of 2002 (ever read any of it Brooklyn?), i.e. permitting city and district councils to present, and then accepting from them, so-called 10 year plans which do not mention one factor that will determine the future ,plans that read like touurism brochures and are much use to the community as tourism brochures.
I was thinking more in terms of Cullen pouring hundreds of milions of dollars into the banksters’ international Ponzi scheme and losing much of it for us.
I was thinking in terms of the national debt, which went up under Clark, raher than the government’s fiscal balance.
I was thinking of the urban sprawl and in-fill housing, the leaky home sydrome, the box-store ‘development’ and covering of agricultural land that the Clark government encouraged. I was thinking of the huge waste of resources that went into road transport infrastructure when we were ‘at or close to peak oil’, as acknowledged by Helen Clark.
Sabotage (especially of the next generation’s future) is the word that always comes to mind when I think of Helen Clark and Michael Cullen.
Of course, those who only look at superficialities never see the big picture.
[lprent: And I’m thinking that you’re getting way off the point of the post and moved into speech mode. So I have moved your comment to OpenMike. ]
afew that ponzi scheme has grown by nearly $6billion since this govt took office without any further contribution. Clark and Cullen rescued and resuscitated rail. you such a pessimist time to go and get your prescription filled out. Better still join the Scientology movement they have plenty of conspiracy theories and doomsday dates.
AFKTT is pretty much right on this one. There aren’t enough chairs to go around and the bankster owned DJ is about to stop playing. Europe goes down first., and soon.
http://www.gaynz.com/articles/publish/2/article_11165.php
This will open your eyes to exactly what a bunch of heartless aholes this govt is
Next up, let’s just shoot them all. Don’t think that’s coming…? Give them time.
[I’m having a bit of a crack down on calls for shooting at the moment – please don’t. Ta — r0b]
r0b – I don’t think Tigger is referring to the govt. The article is about how WINZ will now be requiring those with HIV/AIDS on the sickness benefit to be work-tested. Tigger is alluding (ironically) to “solution” preferred by Adolf Hitler and co.
Cameron Slater and his Wail oily mates were most vehemently and frothingly accusing the Greens and Labor of being virtually culpable for murder over the Pike River mine tragedy.
Now under oath evidence is coming out about the covering of gas safety sensors with plastic bags to prioritize profits over safety, and also other serious Health&Safety regulatory deficiencies…
I’m wondering if Mr Slater and his cohorts will take a step back and acknowledge that the environmental policies of the Labor and the Greens weren’t the actual cause for this tragedy.
My gut feeling is you won’t hear a peep from them about these revelations. I really can’t be assed dredging through whaleoil to see if that’s the case, so if Slater/team-WO is trolling this forum: What is your take on these revelations?
The good thing is about this was that it was on TV 1 news and I am amazed they rolled with it
Makes Whittle out to be the creep he is.
A fuking bully.
He needs to be charged over this
Charter Schools
Yet another way for Companies to launder their tax accounts no doubt, and get good publicity…
Full credit to this enlightened and sensible policing by Auckland Central Police which is respecting the basic democratic rights of New Zealanders.
1) “…Police is aware that Council has issued trespass notices to the occupiers of Aotea Square. Having considered all the circumstances, including that the occupiers are protestors exercising rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of expression, Police has formed the view that there is not currently legal justification for Police to forcibly remove those in the square pursuant to a criminal trespass…”
Andrew D Coster
Inspector
Area Commander
Auckland City Central
(Quote from ‘Letter for Consideration in the Auckland District Court Auckland Council v The Occupiers of Aotea Square, Auckland CIV-2011-404-002497 7 December 2011 )
2) How many Kiwibloggers support Auckland ratepayers monies being wasted on unnecessary Court proceedings because the Auckland Council Manager for Risk and Assurance Natalie Verdouw didn’t properly double-check her purported and unsubstantiated telephone conversation with Andrew Hendrie “He told me no resolutions had been made”, regarding a collective response from the Occupy Auckland General Assembly to requests from Mayor Len Brown?
This was NOT true, and the evidence to support this is a letter addressed to Mayor Len Brown dated 27 November 2011, which was was annexed to the ‘Supplementary Affidavit of Natalie Louise Verdouw dated 2 December 2011′.
Why weren’t these unnecessary and precipitious court proceedings immediately stopped, once it was realised that Ms Verdouw had made this serious FACTUAL error?
Doesn’t the buck for ‘operational’ matters stop with the CEO of Auckland Council Doug McKay?
Why didn’t HE step in and stop proceedings?
How come he didn’t even put in an affidavit?
There were a number of affidavits filed by some of the Auckland Council ‘Indians’ – how about the ‘Chief’?
How ‘accountable’ is THAT?
Or is this really all about unlawful discrimination on the basis of political opinion, by some senior Auckland Council staff and some elected representatives?
(Tomorrow should be VERY interesting in Court! 🙂
Penny Bright
Named ‘Respondent’ in the above-mentioned proceedings – who did not ask to go to Court.
(But who WILL defend herself).
[email deleted]
Interesting….
Well done Penny Bright.
“Doesn’t the buck for ‘operational’ matters stop with the CEO of Auckland Council Doug McKay?
Why didn’t HE step in and stop proceedings?”
Because the ex ‘sell lolly water with a kick to teenagers’ is too busy readying the local government assets for sale.
Re: Andrew Little – At Pike River, Miners union (EPMU and forerunner) failed in representing workers industrial health and safety interests – with pay and benefits the most basic of workers welfare interests – (which of course includes monitoring performance by Dept. Labour of mining safety responsibilities). Basically this is the fault of trade union membership who have permitted a takeover of their union (and trade unions generally) by people from the urban educated liberal elite who see themselves more as part of the “labour movement” than as trade union activists. This description appears to fit Andrew little miners union/EPMU Little General Secretary for 11 years until recently – 2011 election Labour candidate for New Plymouth (and perhaps also predecessor Rex Jones) during which 11 years the rot set into mining safety – following the destruction of regulation by previous National Governments (left unremedied). Both Jones and Little found time to be President of the NZ Labour Party at the same time as being EPMU General Secretary. Mr Little apparently wasn’t likely to robustly challenge the industrial safety policy failures of Labour Government Ministers of Labour and dereliction of public duty by Dept.of Labour chiefs.
[lprent: IMHO: just another fool from offshore ranting about something that they know even less on than I do (and I have never been in a union). Why do I get the impression that this has all just been copied from somewhere, given a theoretical faith driven spin and dumped here by a troll. If someone wants to convince people then this isn’t the way. It is just meaningless drivel where assertions are mixed with fact without a sustaining argument. It is symptomatic of the idiots that I usually just trash first comments from. I figure that if they can’t argue then they are unlikely to survive here. I’ll let this one through for peoples amusement. ]