Very sad. Wanky media think it’s funny duping ordinary workers. I’ve had to deal with a few incidents of media (sometimes via politicians, employers and sadly a time or two by other benefit advocates) putting everyday people in unnecessary spotlight and seen terrible consequences there as well – not far away from this.
That whole notion that came through in the 80’s that staff were simply a resource and no longer people is one of the reasons this sort of crap happens.
People don’t even think about the consequences of humiliating a resource.
Perhaps this tragedy will begin the demise of the tabloid culture in broadcasting that has gone unbridled since the advent of “pirate radio” – where disc jockeys have masqueraded as commentators with opinions of some worth. Ratings driven please-the-advertisers-justification drivel.
It’s all a symptom of the Murdoch type world.
And we have a government here who would like to commercialise RNZ. Just the way they have stuffed Television New Zealand.
It is sad. But it’s sad because, this nurse, doing one of the most important jobs for society, only became known to us because of her association with royals.
It’s sad that the royal pregnancy has got saturation coverage in the NZ media, while the MSM largely ignore a far more important event going on right under their noses: the international TPPA negotiations going on this week at Sky City in Auckland.
From the above linked article:
The nurse, Jacintha Saldanha, was a 46-year-old mother of two.
I hope Jacintha is now at peace. She made an important contribution to this world as a nurse and parent.
Simply a symptom of the break down of society, the dumbing down of the masses.
The sensationalism and tabloid culture the entertainment factor of journalism these days is simple in response to this.
Not only tragic and appalling for all the individuals involved; but serves crystal clear notice to the media industry that it’s long past time for a complete cleanout of all the venal, slimy, craven lack of professional journalistic standards that have become the accepted norm.
If journalism wants to survive as a profession it needs to take a very long hard look at itself. Self-righteous defensiveness and posturing no longer cuts mustard.
Perhaps this tragedy will begin the demise of the tabloid culture in broadcasting that has gone unbridled since the advent of “pirate radio” – where disc jockeys have masqueraded as commentators with opinions of some worth. Ratings driven please-the-advertisers-justification drivel.
It’s all a symptom of the Murdoch type world.
Such will only happen if the particular station gets done for causing the death.
And we have a government here who would like to commercialise RNZ. Just the way they have stuffed Television New Zealand.
That’s National and Act and UF to the core. Sell everything into private ownership so that the private owners get to control everything. Capitalism is just another form of dictatorship.
Commercialising Radio New Zealand isn’t going to make things worse. The National program is pretty well down in the dregs already.
I was listening to Jim Mora’s program on Thursday with his “panel” of Jock Anderson and Josie McNaught. A chunk of the fake call was played and the three of them certainly didn’t see anything wrong with doing it. If anything they appeared to regard it as funny and certainly nothing to worry about. There was mild sympathy with the nurse who was fooled but certainly no concern for the invasion of Kate’s privacy.
alwyn
That’s silly. Public National Radio is important. Complain if there is some program you want to change or improve but don’t talk about throwing it away in favour of commercialisation.
(I see I have to give up my? pseudonym Vindow Viper – some clever clogs always has thought of it first!)
If you re-read what I said, I didn’t actually call for National Radio to be commercialised, or privatised.
What I said was that they were just as appalling in their approach to this story as most of the commercial radio stations probably were (I didn’t hear anything they were playing so I can’t say).
I think we are entitled to rather better behaviour from National Radio than the juvenile giggling they did turn on. It was a gross invasion of privacy and it should NOT have been repeated in their broadcasts.
alwyn
I find the responses from Jim Mora’s guests very variable.
And that some of them would find the prank amusing is not surprising, they can be pretty vapid.
Of course it was not foreseen then that this poor lady would be soon dead.
Yes alwyn I agree with you. I turned the radio off in disgust because of the flippant attitude they were exhibiting. We are entitled to much better behaviour from the only non commercial radio station we have in NZ.
As someone who was a victim of a number of vicious hoaxes in the distant past (not from the media in my case) I know the feeling of embarrassment, humiliation, fear and most of all… the violation of one’s privacy.
When malice and violation of privacy is involved, it should automatically become a criminal offence. The police approached my complaints with such a cavalier attitude, they might as well have told me what they were clearly thinking: ” Oh, you must have asked for it”. I still have a low opinion of the NZ Police as a result of that experience and probably always will have.
fender/same sentiment less eloquent Viper 1.1.1.4.1.3
If you listen to RNZ often you will know there’s often a right-wing panel one day and a left-wing panel the next. I think they should be commended for trying to be fair and balanced, but I’ll always be down on them for banning Bomber when all he did was tell the truth.
While I agree with the theory, the plain simple reality is the right wing manufacturing of slogan should have seen a much more balanced Moro being able to counter them.
Take the kid in the corner, he basically allowed one of his guests to say it was all okay, because civics taught by religion classes was a social good. Have these people not been anywhere in the last 500 years, religion is death – to culture, to learning, to people, its prescriptivist nature has long been the enemy of the people.
It’s all part of the me generation that seeks pleasure and amusement and to hell with other considerations. Paul Holmes, Paul Henry, fun-loving types playing merry japes from Oz or NZ. Sociopathic at base. A proud hardworking ambitious medico may have felt her reputation and future had been fatally marked as she was being censured.
In the wake of these very sad events, hopefully we will witness the passing of the age of the boorish insensitive media shock jock?
Maybe the coarse laddish cheap and nasty reactionary humour of the John Tamiheres’ and Paul Henrys’ of this world, with behaviour previously excused, as “Ladish Fun” will no longer be considered acceptable behaviour for media broadcasters?
We can only hope that this is the case.
Boorish and reactionary, often misogynist and racist, radio and TV announcers are no longer funny, if they ever were.
Populuxe1 1.2
Tedious shock jocks not media? If they are broadcasting from a position of employment then every comment they distribute is part of their media presentation, including tweets and facebook.
They aren’t “tedious Australian shock jocks” – they’re victims.
We’re seriously concerned about their welfare and we’re doing whatever we can to help them…This is a tragic event that could not have been reasonably foreseen and we’re deeply saddened by it.
You seem to be implying they should be held responsible for their behaviour this tragic event or something.
Bwana Dave Shearer attempting to brush a few Labour crumbs off of the table in the Greens direction,
I see nothing to be gained by the Greens in accepting a ‘nothing’ position such as Deputy Prime Minister, the position in terms of coalition politics is simply ‘a bauble’ of office which would leave the incumbent powerless but tarred with the brush of having to accept the policies of the larger partner in the coalition while also being held to account for policy not of it’s own making by the electorate,
I would hope that the Greens are giving some thought this far out from 2014 to some bottom lines in policy where they can show the electorate specific gains to be made from soiling themselves in any coalition Government,
There may be far more to gain in terms of electoral support for the Greens to allow Labour as a minority Government with Green confidence and supply votes while extracting from Labour a specific set of goals via legislation within a stated time-frame…
Aha, the worry here is that the Greens could wind up in coalition with Labour while holding specific portfolio’s such as Conservation and then find their Ministries hamstrung by a Labour strangle-hold on the Finance Ministry,
I am sure that the Green Party is well up with this concern and would seek iron-clad budget guarantees as part of any coalition negotiations,
There is nothing i would like to see more in politics than a strong Green presence in a New Zealand Government, the codicil to that of course would have to be the careful balancing of the gains to be made by having that Cabinet representation as opposed to being able to extract the same gains from a confidence and supply agreement without the negative political effects that most junior coalition party’s suffer…
FFS I’m with Karol on this one.
Memo to the Left. Women vote for you in large quantites. Women have taken a pounding under Nact [along with young people, children, those on social assistance etc etc].Most voters aren’t rich white males.
There is no need for tokenism you have plenty of competent women, use them.
Why isn’t the greens other co leader being considered for deputy PM? Maybe even a shared deputy PM.
“Finance is obviously the most important role in a government and that would go to the party with the greatest proportion of votes, and that’s what people in New Zealand would expect,” Mr Shearer said.
No Mr Shearer, I’d expect it to go to the person most suited to the role within the ruling coalition.
He would like Labour to be above 40 per cent, but whatever the Greens scored “we’ll work it out from there”.
Will Russel Norman become the Nick Clegg of New Zealand
And destroy his party in the process?
David Shearer appears to be weighing up his options for deputy prime minister between Green co-leader Russel Norman and NZ First leader Winston Peters as he looks for ways to reward support partners without letting go of the key finance portfolio.
For Russel Norman to accept a high cabinet position while Labour oversees a huge expansion in coal mining and oil drilling, would be to take a poisoned chalice for the Green Party. While Russel Norman may personally profit, like Nick Clegg in the the UK his party would be destroyed. Especially as looks likely the Labour Party will be committed to the strip mining of coal of West coast coal at Denniston and deep sea oil drilling and fracking all of which the Greens oppose.
Under the last Labour administration environmentalists were getting illegally spied on and arrested for protesting such things. No doubt under Shearer this will continue and Russel Norman will be seen to be a party to it.
Far better for the Greens to stay out of formal coalition with Labour and be captured. As happened with the Alliance, as happened to the Maori Party with National, as happened to the British Liberal Democrats with the Conservatives. And all see their votes collapse. Better to keep fighting for
your principles rather than trade them away.
Started work friday at 8am finished at 11pm so a very very long day for me.
Weekend will be groceries, gardening weeding veg garden, looking after baby naps and then back to work on Monday.
ACT leader John Banks wants to be excused from appearing in court over the Dotcom donations saga.
A judge summoned the Epsom MP to appear in Wellington District Court next week, after retired accountant Graham McCready launched a rare private prosecution on a charge of knowingly filing a false election return
Jones is asking if Banks can be excused and instead represented by a lawyer.
Poor Morrissey – Sexual problems? You’re just jealous of smoothy Bill Clinton. There’s too much interest in the ordinary sex habits of pollies. Leave them alone until they do it in the street and frighten the horses.
You could not be more wrong. Clinton has a history of foolish and reckless sexual behaviour, but then so do many politicians.
And, take my word for it, he’s welcome to his ghastly wife—and to the pathetic matrons who threw themselves at him in Queenstown and Auckland when he was here in 1999.
7.3 magnitude quake off the coast of Miyagi prefecture yesterday. Miyagi prefecture is right next to Fukushima prefecture. So, no tsunami or what not. But haven’t seen any reports about Fukushima-Daiichi Unit 4. Anyone?
And if you’re reading this but are unaware of the importance of Unit 4, then….last I heard (from the fairewinds website some months back), its walls were bulging due to quake damage and the fear was that a good sized aftershock could cause it to split or collapse.
And if Unit 4 loses its water and the cooling rods are exposed to air they will, apparently, ignite and it will not be possible to extinquish the resulting highly radioactive fire. And the release of radiation would exceed the culmutive radiation from all nuclear tests.
So, given the potential for an absolutely unprecedented disaster scenario if Unit 4 is compromised, I’ve have expected news reports of a major aftershock to carry specific info on the integrity of that cooling pool. (ie, something more detailed or focussed than some Tepco mouthpiece issuing a blanket – ‘It’s all A-OK at all of our plants’ – type statement.)
I’d like to buy a badge to wear to all Labour Party meetings with the words:
“I am Colonial Viper!”
This would be a great fund raiser for the Dunedin South Labour party. I’d pay $10 for one (incl P&P and GST).
They could use half the proceeds for the Hillside families and the other half to fund a better election campaign in 2014.
Maybe they are vetting the applications for left wing bloggers hence the time delays.
How about CV for Dunedin South. Replace a twit tweeter with a Activist blogger.
Reply to Lenore at 41 in the ‘Just how wrong…’ thread.
I instinctively wanted to argue with your comment.
But it reminded me of a blog-post of Chris Trotter’s from way back, in which he lamented that gatherings of the left seem more rancorous, cliquey, unfriendly, and sometimes downright nasty, on a personal level, than similar groups on the right. And sadly, that has largely been my experience of left-wing activism too.
Even allowing for my own ineptness in group settings, memories of being quite outrageously patronised, feeling deliberately excluded much more often than I felt included, of cliquiness not otherwise seen outside of adolescence, and of personalised belittling, backstabbing, and malicious gossip completely unrelated to any idealogical differences, do tend to predominate.
I don’t see activism as a social outlet, or expect “fun”, and I think I understand that the left is diversity by definition, and solidarity in diversity is much harder work than I imagine a National Party fundraising dinner would be. Fighting oppression will never be a smooth ride, and so in that respect I do understand and share your trepidation at rejoining the fray.
But hey, the Labour Party isn’t particularly left-wing, so you might be pleasantly surprised….
I’d suggest that this lack of sociability among left-wing activists has it’s roots in the idea that most of us are fundamentally introverted personalities. In a world that largely values and celebrates extroversion it’s very difficult for us to learn constructive ways to assert ourselves, because for much of our lives we experience exclusion and marginalisation everywhere.
Put a bunch of us face to face in a room we find it all a bit intense, hard work, and it’s not so very surprising that it’s a more than a little dysfunctional. It’s also why if you let us remove ourselves back to the privacy of our own homes … we can often connect quite successfully with each other on the net.
I was active for a while in the dim dark past but well my local party was geared up as anti newbie and very very focused on power plays and knife tossing. Little real activity and organisational skills. Now ten years on all focused around the sitting MP support core from the culled woman’s branch.
I remember my first LEC meeting after doing a review of the leaflet drop zones, the red neck affiliate rep judged me as ” great another fucking homo”, the feminist urban renewal supporter sniffed and exclaimed “I don’t need a man to accompany me doing canvassing”, the regional rep mumbled and stumbled shyly stating ” I don’t do public speaking”, and th sitting MP hinted at dark economic tidings on the horizon.
Anyway long live the revolution within the party and membership rights.
LOL
I could tell a few funny stories of a similar ilk – but not without identifying myself and potentially offending fellow activists – who as individuals were good people. (I always imagined one particular group as a satirical tv show).
And yes, shoot me right now and get it over with, identity cliques, including feminist cliques seem to naturally occur, gain powerbases, start playing power games….
Understandable in many ways, and there can be an element of overcompensating once we “identities” find our voices.
In reply to Bill, I think changes to the ways we organise ourselves could help ameliorate the problem, but I don’t think hierarchical structures are the only cause. There are a whole lot of factors at play I think.
And Vindow Viper – I find it hard to believe that the majority of left-wingers can be introverted because introversion is a minority trait. We are probably disproportionately represented though. Another part of the jigsaw is differences in how the working classes are socialised (compared to the ruling classes). Unconsciously, many of our parents prepared us to be “good workers” – rather than the smooth social operators the ruling class tend to train their kids to be.
I think the places like TS can help overcome the problem, not just because many of us are shy, but because conversations can develop over time. So often in real world setttings we can’t get past action and reaction, to actually listening to each other.
Unconsciously, many of our parents prepared us to be “good workers” – rather than the smooth social operators the ruling class tend to train their kids to be.
IMO there’s two parts. Socialisation needs to be taught but the majority of families fail to actually teach it and so children are left to pick up socialisation from the people around them which is, more often than not, other children in places such as school. So the majority of people grow up with failed socialisation.
The part where you say prepared us to be “good workers” is exactly that – the parents, used to nothing other than working themselves, tell their children that they need to have a job. It’s all they’ve known. Other families teach their children how to be successful within the present hierarchical paradigm which really isn’t about having a job but about having the right social connections and having others work for them.
Interesting idea Draco, that there can be an absence of teaching socialisation which sees kids scratching around picking up what they can from their peers who might also be largely untaught. That rings true to me.
My whole group are what you call elites…take last new years one fly in by his own helicopter for the party but my point thru education and self or taught drive and determination either through group socialisation or individual drive etc we should all be elites. Further to this is that even the multi millionaire is a worker basically just more cleverer or more socialised connected or had a better start so therefore all workers given the right or left tools should be the same.
We can’t all be elites. That is a contradiction in terms.
The idea that through hard work, and determination, blah blah blah……. is a prevalent right-wing meme which is not founded in reality.
Similar to “we can all be winners”. If we were all winners there would be no winners because there can be no winning without others losing. Good for keeping us in aspirational la-la land though.
It’s called a rule change if you don’t like the rules stand up and change them just don’t sit it out.
First step…power to the party i.e members
Two.. Plan and organise in the long term
Three. Promote key identifiers into position of change.
Four. Disseminate ideas of change to the masses.
Five. Systematically create change or await an event that fosters the right environment for change….big bang or crunch will do nicely.
Hmm. Meetings. In not very democratic settings, all the nasty, cliquey, power tripping shit gets free reign. So quieter or shyer people get excluded, options or opinions sidelined if they are not ‘in tune’ with the dominant suggestion (which is usually framed as a yes/no, agree/disagree ‘decision’). Even the agenda for what is/isn’t to be discussed is set from ‘on high’…by ‘the committee members, the clique etc, ie those with more access to information and by extention, ability to excercise power.
There are fairly simple ways around all of that. In a word: democracy.
Level the environment where the decisions are going to be made. No permanently appointed or elected committees, chairpeople or whatever to preside over meetings. Revolving position of facilitators whose main task is identify what the group is actually saying, ensure or encourage input from those who are less dominant in group settings, see to it that all opinions are canvassed and not casually dismissed ‘just because’, deny the opportunity to dominate…etc, etc, etc.
Facilitator = potentially poisoned chalice of being King/ Queen/dictator/ diplomat (depending on their approach/skill level)….for a few hours. And next time around they are just one of the unwashed like everyone else and somebody else gets to fill those shoes. Which aren’t very pleasant btw…it can be bloody hard work and usually involves a very steep learning curve. And is utterly disempowering on the level that the facilitator does not actually engage in terms of input to whatever decisions are up for consideration.
Could LEC meetings run along those lines? I’d love to hear any excuses as to why they couldn’t or shouldn’t…or any arguments that would attempt to justify why such meetings should be considered as ‘special cases’ allowed to practice ‘less than democratic’ meeting procedures.
So, vulture capitalists. I hadn’t paid much attention before, just another lot of financiers ripping people off with derivatives, bonds, currency trading an the like. But it’s worse than that when they can:
– Impound a frigate of a sovereign state and get a court order from some country or another (in this case Ghana) to hold it until the State pays the vultures the debt they bought up for a song
… A few months ago, the Argentine frigate Libertad, which ironically means freedom in Spanish, was seized in Ghana after a local judge ruled in favour of Elliott Capital Management. …
…Elliott Capital Management, a vulture fund based in the tax haven Cayman Islands owned by conservative financier Paul Singer (a big donor to the Romney campaign), refused to accept the terms of the debt restructuring that was accepted by more than 92% of bondholders in 2005 and 2010. It has demanded payment in full, and has actively pursued its case in different courts across the world
– Buy up debt from a defaulting sovereign state, get a court ruling from some country (in this case the U.S.) to force a country who had defaulted to pay billions, with interest – at the expense of debtors who agreed to take less to facilitate the default and without any concern whatsoever for the citizens of the country, or the economic recovery that has made the demand for payment viable.
The ruling also contradicts US internal bankruptcy laws, which force minority creditors to confirm to deals accepted by 70% of creditors. If this ruling is supported in the higher courts (both Argentina and other creditors have already appealed) it will create an unviable situation for global bond markets. Creditors will only be making one-way bets if no possibility of restructuring is accepted, making the only options all (full payment) or nothing (complete default)…
…Ironically, this may turn out to be counterproductive. It is not just that these recent moves are deeply unjust and anti-democratic – it is also that they threaten the global financial system itself. Allowing vulture funds to get precedence over other bondholders that accept restructuring undermines any possibility of renegotiating debts, without which no credit system can function.
Big issues here for how the Greek, Spanish and Portugese debt is handled, and maybe something of the reason for the convoluted drawn out process in managing Greek debt.
There must be something going on behind the scenes to get rid of these people. Surely even the eyes at the top of the financial tree can see there is a massive risk of it crashing to the ground.
Yep this means the whole idea of partial write-downs of debt will be out of the window. But the finacial elite don’t care – they have their interests nicely protected
What I find amazing is that while the super-rich have always been able to bend ‘justice’ to their will in the name of obscene profiteering, they now believe they have the power to take on an entire nation – impounding a frigate!
Maybe the feisty Cristina Kirchner should consider formally declaring war on Paul Singer and all the interests of Elliot Capital Management
So what explains all the downgrading and undermining of the country in financial markets and the media?
The real reason may lie in the very success of the country’s economy after its default and forced debt restructuring process. After 2002, Argentina reversed the austerity measures promoted by the IMF, renationalised key productive sectors like aviation, pensions and most recently oil, increased social protection and income transfers to the poor, and reduced poverty substantially. Real wages have increased, and wage inequalities have been reduced.
Yep, as far as the capitalists go it’s proof that their preferred financial method doesn’t actually work and they can’t have that as people will break the bonds that the capitalists have spent centuries putting in place.
Good on you, you’re making your point. Those who would censor take note.
If you’re joining the viper army, however, a reminder that the first comment under a new name goes into moderation. Once the new name is cleared, away you go as usual. But in the weekend moderation can take a while sometimes…
(I can see the headlines now – The Standard is a nest of vipers!)
No, I was answering your question about why.
The “look it up” was sarcastic (apologies) because I thought the reasons we “vipers” are trying to offer our support, were quite obvious. Did you read yesterday’s open mike?
I did read the article, but it does not make sense from what has been discussed.
I would have thought that as CV self proclaimed does not work, and apparantly does not have to, that he would be in an ideal position to really get stuck into the system, so to speak.
Being a prolific poster on blogs is not enough to have to take cover from blogging, if it can have no blow back – Perhaps it about his family as opposed to him, which would be understandable.
Looking for some more details, in a generalist sense as to what else could have triggered this, as it sounds like its overblown to me.
Sure there might be more to it in the background, but the posts do not tell that.
Solidarity is great, but so is some information, above what has been given.
Oh for olde petes sake….a song coched in old lost language.
Old farmer will had a farm, sheep dogs and pigs and an old work horse called one left shoe. Now on that farm there was a mouse called Micky…..Micky mouse had a friend called pig man E N G O and that’s what his name is NGO NGO loud and shrill but solid and kind who walked and talked until he was red deep red in the face….poor old NGO.
Me-thinks the latest attempt to muzzle internet comment on the Labour Party leadership is an attempt to silence those in the Party who support Cunliffe as leader,
The intent of such would seem to be a view that a challenge can be fore-stalled in February if such activists within the Party can be silenced,
To me Labour and the Shearer faction and supporters in the Party, (if there are in fact many, any ???), have gone about this all arse about face,
Perhaps the Shearer faction ‘knows’ that should a vote be triggered in February they don’t have the numbers, but, putting that aside for now most of us, (an assumption), would have found it to be the mark of a real leader if the Shearer camp had of from the moment the Conference re-wrote the rules on leadership selection openly stated that it would be they, (the Shearer faction), who would trigger that vote by the wider party in February,
Complaining about and threatening Party members for voicing their opinions on websites such as the Standard is at the least weak,
Further to that i believe that Labour as a Party should not rest on it’s laurels as far as having added the ‘democratic’ element to it’s choice of leadership and the same voting system could anbd should be extended in the future to selecting future Labour Cabinets with the Parliamentary Leader allocating the relevant portfolios…
Yes that much is clear, but is it more about the outing of the real identity as a way of trying to quiet the blogging community as a whole, or does CV have a specific role as member of the LP which would seem to make sense to the person alledged to be putting the heat on?
Does CV have a blog site, or a role inside the membership which would explain this attention?
Does CV have a blog site, or a role inside the membership which would explain this attention?
Not to my knowledge except he has shown himself to be a very effective communicator. I suspect that was the sin he committed.
[Some details deleted. r0b] While there may be some other incidences of bullying going on, I don’t think its a campaign on the part of the Labour caucus to stamp out criticism or dissent. I hope not.
I will give you an example that happened a few months ago. The MP in question ‘outed’ one of The Standard’s most well known (and highly regarded) commenters… on Red Alert. I doubt the person in question was too phased because he’s never made any attempt to hide his real identity anyway. What I’m saying is: she has a history of this kind of silly behaviour.
If it’s not an LP campaign, then it’s a further example of Shearer’s poor control over his caucus – he’s heavy handed with MPs he, or his leadership team see as a threat, but lets his supporters get away with actions that undermine the principles of a left wing party.
PS: Is it possible that the repressive approach of the leadership team to MPs in the Labour caucus, is causing lone MPs to act pre-emptively against LP members, in order to preserve their own standing with the caucus leaders?
Muzza, you seem to be saying a) What’s so special about Colonial Viper?
and b) you question the importance to CV of his pseudonymity, and believe you have a right to know his reasons and have the right to judge whether his reasons are “valid.”
You do get that CV is a commenter on a blog, and you have no right to know anything about his “real” life? Any more than I have a right to any information about yours. That CV has been silenced (albeit temporarily I hope) by Labour management shows his right to privacy is very important to him. And CV is one of us.
And we know, because it has been discussed here extensively, that some, maybe many, would not be able to participate at all, or would have their right to freedom of speech significantly curtailed without this protection.
Labour management is silencing dissent by bullying its own members (who are, it’s worth noting, its (unpaid) workforce). If you don’t see this as important enough to warrant a rallying of support from this community, and/or don’t see CV as ‘important” enough, I’d be kind of interested in your criteria.
Who would be important enough?
What would be important enough?
Muzza, you seem to be saying a) What’s so special about Colonial Viper?
Thats not what I’m saying
and b) you question the importance to CV of his pseudonymity, and believe you have a right to know his reasons and have the right to judge whether his reasons are “valid.”
Everyone who wants to remain anonymous should be able to expect that is maintainable, whether or not that becomes maintainable will depend on how out there they put themselves, and the type of people they are putting themselves out there with/against. Politics is theatre, the media is theatre, and the people inside the political theatre are low quality, as we see by the state of NZ.
Should people be outed, or threatened to be outed, no, but is that likely to happen, yes of course!
If en masse people, following some vague details and a blogger saying he needs to check out for a while, want to show outward solidarity, thats great, and I understand the positions people are taking.
So far as having a right to know, no, not at all, just the right to ask questions (answered ot not), and form my own opinions based on what makes sense from the little info available!
You do get that CV is a commenter on a blog, and you have no right to know anything about his “real” life? Any more than I have a right to any information about yours. That CV has been silenced (albeit temporarily I hope) by Labour management shows his right to privacy is very important to him. And CV is one of us.
Again, I do not want/expect/have rights to anything, and yes he is as far as I am aware, a commentator on a blog, and seemingly LP member. Would that in its own right be enough to attact that sort of attention, unless the MP involved has lost the plot, ot there ir more to the story than has come across the posts – I suspect much of both. –
If CV has been silenced that is his choice to allow, or not, and if the threat of being outed has lead to the silencing, that is unfortunate, but again, its his choice. Do I agree with outing, absolutely not, but see my comment above about who/how much people involved themselves.
And we know, because it has been discussed here extensively, that some, maybe many, would not be able to participate at all, or would have their right to freedom of speech significantly curtailed without this protection.
Actually i think there may be a bigger agenda at play, in so far as the *freedom of the net/speech* is concerned, and perhaps this might be a trigger. Hard to say though as its all rather under the radar from what I can tell.
Labour management is silencing dissent by bullying its own members (who are, it’s worth noting, its (unpaid) workforce). If you don’t see this as important enough to warrant a rallying of support from this community, and/or don’t see CV as ‘important” enough, I’d be kind of interested in your criteria.
I see the LP having been taken over decades back, and woudl consider this alledged behaviour as another example of the takeover of politics, which has allowed the takeover of NZ, in case no one else noticed!
Yes its important, but I’m not the blond support/cheer leader type – CV is one of the many commentators here which can be enjoyed, and if he is being harrassed, that is out of order.
Support takes many forms, not always the outwardly obvious!
a) Yeah, all the world is a stage. And?
b)Are you familiar with the concept of victim-blaming?
c)What, exactly, do you imagine is flying under what radar?
d)Support and victim-blaming are mutually exclusive as far as I’m concerned.
What the heck are you talking about. Threatening to expose someone when they’ve used a pseudonym to debate on blogs is bullying at best and blackmail at worst.
This issue is not “political theatre”, nor is it just “harassment”, it is both a personal attack on an individual’s rights, and total contempt for the premise which gives bloggers the freedom to question the means and ends of those in power without having their livelihood threatened by bullies.
Outed
What kind of word is that? To me it suggests that you equate the threat of damaging someone by releasing their private information to an inevitable act of ‘bringing something out into the open’
And do you really think CV would be receiving this degree of support if it were purely based on “Following vague details”
Over the last two days reliable contributors have corroborated information that blackmail/bullying is happening. But keep on asking your questions…..and forming your opinions.
Haven’t ‘vipered’ me name. But have quietly wondered what the effect would be if every person simply posted under the name ‘colonial viper’ instead of variously x,y or z viper. A lot of the discussion around psuedonyms was that it potentially gave more power to the idea being expressed rather than the person expressing it.
Everyone under the same posting name = absence of recognisable personality. Just wonder what it could do for enhancing debate/discussion of ideas?
Anyway…wasn’t here yesterday. And just want to say that I’m more than just a little pissed off and angry that a commentator of the quality of CV has been (temporarily?) silenced.
Just about forgot, a small spot of praise from an unlikely quarter directed at a just as unlikely recipient,
Fonterra have just celebrated it’s one year of ‘milk in schools’ program in low decile schools in the Far North, reports are that milk consumption, (apparently off of the back of the ‘milk in schools), has risen markedly in the North and reports from the education sector say that after the daily dose of the white stuff the kids are showing definite rises in levels of both happiness and concentration,
Fonterra should (a), be congratulated for the ‘milk in schools’ initiative, and, urged to take the ‘trial’ further and roll it out across the country….
Has Cunliffe been allowed back into the fold again? he was speaking in parliament the other
day,also there was an economic meeting in Invercargill last night, from all media releases
on it he was confirmed to attend,while the local MP, Roy, declined, there were others confirmed as well including Winston,Turei, i can’t find anything on the meeting at all today.
CV, your fight is our fight for democracy,we stand together.
Hmmmm Internet is simple words and words have power. More likely it’s who control the flow of words and there meaning that have the power…or not as words are free
Interesting interview by Kim Hill of Rebecca Watson, sceptic and feminist on, among other things, attempts at censorship of women by intimidation and cyberbullying:
“What happens is not too surprising: the economy very fast chews up the environmental resources, depletes those reservoirs, resulting in a significant amount of environmental damage,” Werner said during his talk. He is still finishing up the model, so no details on the inputs and the final simulations are available. Still, I asked him afterward to clarify if his model had answered his baseline question. Is Earth fucked? “More or less,” he said.
It’s the stupid economy. It’s very nature must result in all resources being used up as fast as possible which must result in the collapse of the environment.
Hard to take seriously some guy who dresses like he rides a unicycle around the big tent.
Actually he looks like he fire dances to Goa trance on ‘rooms till dawn and has those uber ketch psuedo mystical psychedelic posters plastered all over his bedroom wall ( his mum won’t let him put them up in the TV room )
Predictably, he blames everything on Capitalism and wants us to shift to some notion he has about an anarchic never-never-land, Romantic pre industrial society – which was oh so full of loving kindness and harmony with nature.
Is it really practical or even possible for the 30 million + inhabitants of Tokyo to just walk away from their skyscrapers back into the forests and fields, picking wild berries and digging up roots?
“And how do you think that’s working out? Social, economic and environmental collapse starting to unravel before your eyes … and you will not see.”
I’m not claiming that Capitalism is perfect. But I’m not some extreme anti capitalist pushing some Rousseau Romantic “civilisation is decadent lets take all our clothes off and go back to nature” la la land nonsense either.
You would be wise to remember that the Left help build a balance between Democracy, social rights and Capitalism.
“Only old white guys in suits get taken seriously.”
You forgot to be heterophobic and chuck “straight” into that too. At least you got ageist, sexist and racist covered, 3 out of 4, not bad.
No doubt like all the rest of the little PC foot soldiers around here, you believe being sexist, racist, heterophobic and ageist is all ok when the target is the sworn enemy.
k_p, you just proved that you’re a fucken idiot. Given the data and the argument you then attacked the person rather than the data and the argument, i.e, you advanced a typical ad hominem attack characteristic of the terminally stupid.
I didn’t say you weren’t allowed, I just said you showed your stupidity by doing so. And yes, I thought the same about the article for doing so as it had nothing to do with his point.
It’s one thing for an MP and one presume on behalf of the leadership clique, to have a private chat regarding some kind of perceived dissent but surely one is allowed to be vocal in expressing opinion.
To go further and give a stop or expulsion order is borderline dictatorial and surely runs counter to the very principles of Labour. The double standard vs CV and JT is staggering…and the crux ban ban ban lets ban blogging.
David ” stalin” Shearer lived by his action and deeds now he must back off or fall come feb.
I think time for the real leader in the pack to step up,.
Grant Robertson this is your time, early but necessary and please please take cunliffe with you, not as finance but economic development and policy. Dull Parker can host out treasury.
As far as I can see Robertson is part of the current leadership team that is causing all the divisions and ruthless repression. The LP needs another leadership team to step up. An Cunliffe would be the best person for finance.
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
April has been a quiet month at A Phuulish Fellow. I have had an exceptionally good reading month, and a decently productive writing month – for original fiction, anyway – but not much has caught my eye that suggested a blog article. It has been vaguely frustrating, to be honest. ...
A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 21, 2024 thru Sat, April 27, 2024. Story of the week Anthropogenic climate change may be the ultimate shaggy dog story— but with a twist, because here ...
Hi,I spent about a year on Webworm reporting on an abusive megachurch called Arise, and it made me want to stab my eyes out with a fork.I don’t regret that reporting in 2022 and 2023 — I am proud of it — but it made me angry.Over three main stories ...
The new Victoria University Vice-Chancellor decided to have a forum at the university about free speech and academic freedom as it is obviously a topical issue, and the Government is looking at legislating some carrots or sticks for universities to uphold their obligations under the Education and Training Act. They ...
Do you remember when Melania Trump got caught out using a speech that sounded awfully like one Michelle Obama had given? Uncannily so.Well it turns out that Abraham Lincoln is to Winston Peters as Michelle was to Melania. With the ANZAC speech Uncle Winston gave at Gallipoli having much in ...
She was born 25 years ago today in North Shore hospital. Her eyes were closed tightly shut, her mouth was silently moving. The whole theatre was all quiet intensity as they marked her a 2 on the APGAR test. A one-minute eternity later, she was an 8. The universe was ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is Antarctica gaining land ice? ...
Images of US students (and others) protesting and setting up tent cities on US university campuses have been broadcast world wide and clearly demonstrate the growing rifts in US society caused by US policy toward Israel and Israel’s prosecution of … Continue reading → ...
Barrie Saunders writes – Dear Paul As the new Minister of Media and Communications, you will be inundated with heaps of free advice and special pleading, all in the national interest of course. For what it’s worth here is my assessment: Traditional broadcasting free to air content through ...
Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its arguments for such a bold reform. ...
Peter Dunne writes – The great nineteenth British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, once observed that “the first essential for a Prime Minister is to be a good butcher.” When a later British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, sacked a third of his Cabinet in July 1962, in what became ...
Ele Ludemann writes – New Zealanders had the OECD’s second highest tax increase last year: New Zealanders faced the second-biggest tax raises in the developed world last year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says. The intergovernmental agency said the average change in personal income tax ...
We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Simon Clark. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). This year you will be lied to! Simon Clark helps prebunk some misleading statements you'll hear about climate. The video includes ...
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
…it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisitionNOTE – this article was published before the High Court ruled that Karen Chhour does not have to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal Gary Judd writes – The High Court ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
Open access notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
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Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor Police in Solomon Islands are on high alert ahead of the election of the prime minister today. The two candidates for the top job are former foreign affairs minister Jeremiah Manele at the head of the Coalition for National Unity and Transformation, which is ...
He’s fine but it feels like I’m losing a friend and it’s making me bitter. How do I say ‘enough is enough’? Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzHey Hera,I’ve recently moved in with a girlfriend, her partner Steve, and his friend. We all live in a lovely little house. ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jessica Balanzategui, Senior Lecturer in Media, RMIT University ABC “Bluey mania” shows no sign of abating. Bluey’s season finale, The Sign, was the most viewed ABC program of all time on iView. A “hidden” follow-up episode, aptly named The Surprise, created ...
Labour market figures came in softer than the Reserve Bank had forecast, but they won’t be enough to move the needle on interest rates, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. Unemployment ...
The campaign will engage the community and encourage submissions on the bill to the New Zealand government by the closing submission deadline of Friday 31st of May 2024 4pm. ...
The paper raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand's political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency plays in that. ...
The Urban Habitat Collective was an attempt to built an innovative new form of apartment building in Wellington. Here’s why it failed, and why the idea could still work, writes co-founder Bronwen Newton. When we started the Urban Habitat Collective in November 2018, we thought we were starting a revolution, ...
Two decades ago this week, a controversial law that attempted to define ownership of the foreshore and seabed prompted a formidable display of outrage and kōtahitanga as 15,000 marched to parliament. Jamie Tahana looks back.‘Hīkoi, hīkoi,” they chanted by the thousands as the biggest Māori march in a generation ...
Why has New Zealand slipped from third to 12th on Quality of Death Indexes over the past decade or so? Hospice New Zealand Chief Executive Wayne Naylor has a list of reasons. “We don’t have a current national strategy – the Government hasn’t renewed our 2001 strategy, so we don’t ...
While women’s sport is exploding in Aotearoa and around the world, you still don’t hear a lot of talk about athletes and their periods, RED-S, breastfeeding and visible panty-lines. SASS (Suze and Sez Sports)Talk isn’t afraid to have that kōrero.LockerRoom founder Suzanne McFadden and Olympian broadcaster Sarah ...
On an unusually hot night in January 2019, a little boy’s lifeless body was found face up in a small town’s sewage oxidation pond. To the police, it was an open and shut case: three-year-old Lachlan Jones had run away from his home in the Southland town of Gore, climbed ...
A Labour Party Member’s Bill aims to plug a culpability gap between manslaughter and health and safety breaches The post New push for corporate killing laws appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Terence O’Brien had the rare and no doubt undesired distinction of rising to one of the most exalted positions in New Zealand diplomacy, then being unceremoniously recalled to Wellington without explanation just when his career was at its zenith. What is perhaps more surprising is that he appears to have ...
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Rongotai MP Julie Anne Genter has apologised in Parliament after National accused her of intimidating and attacking one of its ministers in the House. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Prime Minister and state and territory leaders met on Wednesday as the national cabinet to discuss a crisis gripping Australia – the horrific number of women murdered this year. The killings have shocked ...
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Sir Robert devoted his life to disability rights after living in institutions in his younger years, says Kaihautū Tika Hauātanga | Disability Rights Commissioner Prudence Walker. ...
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Responding to the long-awaited release of judges’ special allowances, including free air travel and hotels for spouses, generous sabbaticals, and access to limousines, Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Alex Murphy said: “In what world does your employer ...
Analysis - The United States has unveiled plans to boost the weapons trade with Australia and the UK, on the same day that Winston Peters is expected to sketch NZ's position on AUKUS. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrea Carson, Professor of Political Communication, Department of Politics, Media and Philosophy, La Trobe University Since Australia’s First Nations Voice to Parliament referendum in October 2023, diverse commentaries have sought to explain why it failed. But what does an analysis of media ...
Lawyers representing two iwi as well as the Māori Women’s Welfare League on Wednesday asked the Court of Appeal to overturn last week’s High Court decision on the Waitangi Tribunal’s decision to summons Children’s Minister Karen Chhour. The Tribunal is currently investigating the Government’s decision to repeal section 7AA of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Albanese government will introduce legislation to ban deepfake pornography and provide more funding for the eSafety Commission to pilot age-assurance technologies. The contribution of internet sites to gender-based violence was one major issue ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark A Gregory, Associate Professor, School of Engineering, RMIT University The telecommunications industry faces a major shakeup following the release of the post-incident report on last November’s 12-hour Optus outage. Telecommunications companies will have to share more information with customers during future ...
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http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/europe/8054196/Nurse-who-took-Middleton-prank-call-found-dead
Very sad. Wanky media think it’s funny duping ordinary workers. I’ve had to deal with a few incidents of media (sometimes via politicians, employers and sadly a time or two by other benefit advocates) putting everyday people in unnecessary spotlight and seen terrible consequences there as well – not far away from this.
That whole notion that came through in the 80’s that staff were simply a resource and no longer people is one of the reasons this sort of crap happens.
People don’t even think about the consequences of humiliating a resource.
Bastards.
Terrible terribly sad poor poor woman.
Perhaps this tragedy will begin the demise of the tabloid culture in broadcasting that has gone unbridled since the advent of “pirate radio” – where disc jockeys have masqueraded as commentators with opinions of some worth. Ratings driven please-the-advertisers-justification drivel.
It’s all a symptom of the Murdoch type world.
And we have a government here who would like to commercialise RNZ. Just the way they have stuffed Television New Zealand.
It is sad. But it’s sad because, this nurse, doing one of the most important jobs for society, only became known to us because of her association with royals.
It’s sad that the royal pregnancy has got saturation coverage in the NZ media, while the MSM largely ignore a far more important event going on right under their noses: the international TPPA negotiations going on this week at Sky City in Auckland.
From the above linked article:
The nurse, Jacintha Saldanha, was a 46-year-old mother of two.
I hope Jacintha is now at peace. She made an important contribution to this world as a nurse and parent.
Simply a symptom of the break down of society, the dumbing down of the masses.
The sensationalism and tabloid culture the entertainment factor of journalism these days is simple in response to this.
Not only tragic and appalling for all the individuals involved; but serves crystal clear notice to the media industry that it’s long past time for a complete cleanout of all the venal, slimy, craven lack of professional journalistic standards that have become the accepted norm.
If journalism wants to survive as a profession it needs to take a very long hard look at itself. Self-righteous defensiveness and posturing no longer cuts mustard.
Such will only happen if the particular station gets done for causing the death.
That’s National and Act and UF to the core. Sell everything into private ownership so that the private owners get to control everything. Capitalism is just another form of dictatorship.
Commercialising Radio New Zealand isn’t going to make things worse. The National program is pretty well down in the dregs already.
I was listening to Jim Mora’s program on Thursday with his “panel” of Jock Anderson and Josie McNaught. A chunk of the fake call was played and the three of them certainly didn’t see anything wrong with doing it. If anything they appeared to regard it as funny and certainly nothing to worry about. There was mild sympathy with the nurse who was fooled but certainly no concern for the invasion of Kate’s privacy.
Its called bullying, and when the whole world is watching it should be a crime.
Just what happens when she has a miscarriage, am I to be blasted by news about
how great Moro and the Media in bringing us more vomit?
alwyn
That’s silly. Public National Radio is important. Complain if there is some program you want to change or improve but don’t talk about throwing it away in favour of commercialisation.
(I see I have to give up my? pseudonym Vindow Viper – some clever clogs always has thought of it first!)
If you re-read what I said, I didn’t actually call for National Radio to be commercialised, or privatised.
What I said was that they were just as appalling in their approach to this story as most of the commercial radio stations probably were (I didn’t hear anything they were playing so I can’t say).
I think we are entitled to rather better behaviour from National Radio than the juvenile giggling they did turn on. It was a gross invasion of privacy and it should NOT have been repeated in their broadcasts.
alwyn
I find the responses from Jim Mora’s guests very variable.
And that some of them would find the prank amusing is not surprising, they can be pretty vapid.
Of course it was not foreseen then that this poor lady would be soon dead.
Yes, well, when has the media ever concerned itself with going to far.
Yes alwyn I agree with you. I turned the radio off in disgust because of the flippant attitude they were exhibiting. We are entitled to much better behaviour from the only non commercial radio station we have in NZ.
As someone who was a victim of a number of vicious hoaxes in the distant past (not from the media in my case) I know the feeling of embarrassment, humiliation, fear and most of all… the violation of one’s privacy.
When malice and violation of privacy is involved, it should automatically become a criminal offence. The police approached my complaints with such a cavalier attitude, they might as well have told me what they were clearly thinking: ” Oh, you must have asked for it”. I still have a low opinion of the NZ Police as a result of that experience and probably always will have.
If you listen to RNZ often you will know there’s often a right-wing panel one day and a left-wing panel the next. I think they should be commended for trying to be fair and balanced, but I’ll always be down on them for banning Bomber when all he did was tell the truth.
While I agree with the theory, the plain simple reality is the right wing manufacturing of slogan should have seen a much more balanced Moro being able to counter them.
Take the kid in the corner, he basically allowed one of his guests to say it was all okay, because civics taught by religion classes was a social good. Have these people not been anywhere in the last 500 years, religion is death – to culture, to learning, to people, its prescriptivist nature has long been the enemy of the people.
It’s all part of the me generation that seeks pleasure and amusement and to hell with other considerations. Paul Holmes, Paul Henry, fun-loving types playing merry japes from Oz or NZ. Sociopathic at base. A proud hardworking ambitious medico may have felt her reputation and future had been fatally marked as she was being censured.
In the wake of these very sad events, hopefully we will witness the passing of the age of the boorish insensitive media shock jock?
Maybe the coarse laddish cheap and nasty reactionary humour of the John Tamiheres’ and Paul Henrys’ of this world, with behaviour previously excused, as “Ladish Fun” will no longer be considered acceptable behaviour for media broadcasters?
We can only hope that this is the case.
Boorish and reactionary, often misogynist and racist, radio and TV announcers are no longer funny, if they ever were.
Tedious Australian shock jocks are hardly “media”.
Populuxe1 1.2
Tedious shock jocks not media? If they are broadcasting from a position of employment then every comment they distribute is part of their media presentation, including tweets and facebook.
They aren’t “tedious Australian shock jocks” – they’re victims.
You seem to be implying they should be held responsible for
their behaviourthis tragic event or something.Yes, like we should hound them, like they were royalty…
All hail the Menz Party! Not impressed with the retrograde leadership of this party from a by-gone era.
Hope you’re having a good weekend Mr Viper & regathering your energy for future struggles to democratise this lost caucus.
Despite similar polling problems, the Aussie Labor party is actually growing its membership. There may be some lessons to be learned for NZ Labour.
There may be some lessons to be learned for NZ Labour.
Such as total and utter subjugation to the diktats of the Imperial Master….
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/foreign-affairs/backbench-revolt-overturns-pm-on-un-palestine-vote/story-fn59nm2j-1226524953437
Bwana Dave Shearer attempting to brush a few Labour crumbs off of the table in the Greens direction,
I see nothing to be gained by the Greens in accepting a ‘nothing’ position such as Deputy Prime Minister, the position in terms of coalition politics is simply ‘a bauble’ of office which would leave the incumbent powerless but tarred with the brush of having to accept the policies of the larger partner in the coalition while also being held to account for policy not of it’s own making by the electorate,
I would hope that the Greens are giving some thought this far out from 2014 to some bottom lines in policy where they can show the electorate specific gains to be made from soiling themselves in any coalition Government,
There may be far more to gain in terms of electoral support for the Greens to allow Labour as a minority Government with Green confidence and supply votes while extracting from Labour a specific set of goals via legislation within a stated time-frame…
bad 12 I agree with you.
Aha, the worry here is that the Greens could wind up in coalition with Labour while holding specific portfolio’s such as Conservation and then find their Ministries hamstrung by a Labour strangle-hold on the Finance Ministry,
I am sure that the Green Party is well up with this concern and would seek iron-clad budget guarantees as part of any coalition negotiations,
There is nothing i would like to see more in politics than a strong Green presence in a New Zealand Government, the codicil to that of course would have to be the careful balancing of the gains to be made by having that Cabinet representation as opposed to being able to extract the same gains from a confidence and supply agreement without the negative political effects that most junior coalition party’s suffer…
Did the fledgling Labour Party seek coalition with the Liberals?
No they stood their ground and refused to water down their principles.
What happened. As the Labour Party vote grew the ersatz enemies of the Country Party and the Liberals collapsed together to form National.
bad12 +1
Old Labour could be a lame duck party and Greens could get a reputation of being a bunch of quacks if joined at the hip to Old Labour.
FFS I’m with Karol on this one.
Memo to the Left. Women vote for you in large quantites. Women have taken a pounding under Nact [along with young people, children, those on social assistance etc etc].Most voters aren’t rich white males.
There is no need for tokenism you have plenty of competent women, use them.
Why isn’t the greens other co leader being considered for deputy PM? Maybe even a shared deputy PM.
No Mr Shearer, I’d expect it to go to the person most suited to the role within the ruling coalition.
/snigger
Will Russel Norman become the Nick Clegg of New Zealand
And destroy his party in the process?
David Shearer appears to be weighing up his options for deputy prime minister between Green co-leader Russel Norman and NZ First leader Winston Peters as he looks for ways to reward support partners without letting go of the key finance portfolio.
Vernon Small Fairfax News
For Russel Norman to accept a high cabinet position while Labour oversees a huge expansion in coal mining and oil drilling, would be to take a poisoned chalice for the Green Party. While Russel Norman may personally profit, like Nick Clegg in the the UK his party would be destroyed. Especially as looks likely the Labour Party will be committed to the strip mining of coal of West coast coal at Denniston and deep sea oil drilling and fracking all of which the Greens oppose.
Under the last Labour administration environmentalists were getting illegally spied on and arrested for protesting such things. No doubt under Shearer this will continue and Russel Norman will be seen to be a party to it.
Far better for the Greens to stay out of formal coalition with Labour and be captured. As happened with the Alliance, as happened to the Maori Party with National, as happened to the British Liberal Democrats with the Conservatives. And all see their votes collapse. Better to keep fighting for
your principles rather than trade them away.
Started work friday at 8am finished at 11pm so a very very long day for me.
Weekend will be groceries, gardening weeding veg garden, looking after baby naps and then back to work on Monday.
Banksy’s Christmas card
That’s Banksy the brilliant artist, not the corrupt politician….
https://twitter.com/johncusack/status/276448960099528707/photo/1
AND I see “I have nothing to hide” Banks, wants to send his lawyer to court!!
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/8051774/Banks-seeks-Dotcom-court-excuse
ACT leader John Banks wants to be excused from appearing in court over the Dotcom donations saga.
A judge summoned the Epsom MP to appear in Wellington District Court next week, after retired accountant Graham McCready launched a rare private prosecution on a charge of knowingly filing a false election return
Jones is asking if Banks can be excused and instead represented by a lawyer.
I bet Bill Clinton’s weekly whoring budget that Banks will not appear in court.
Poor Morrissey – Sexual problems? You’re just jealous of smoothy Bill Clinton. There’s too much interest in the ordinary sex habits of pollies. Leave them alone until they do it in the street and frighten the horses.
You’re just jealous of smoothy Bill Clinton.
You could not be more wrong. Clinton has a history of foolish and reckless sexual behaviour, but then so do many politicians.
And, take my word for it, he’s welcome to his ghastly wife—and to the pathetic matrons who threw themselves at him in Queenstown and Auckland when he was here in 1999.
7.3 magnitude quake off the coast of Miyagi prefecture yesterday. Miyagi prefecture is right next to Fukushima prefecture. So, no tsunami or what not. But haven’t seen any reports about Fukushima-Daiichi Unit 4. Anyone?
And if you’re reading this but are unaware of the importance of Unit 4, then….last I heard (from the fairewinds website some months back), its walls were bulging due to quake damage and the fear was that a good sized aftershock could cause it to split or collapse.
And if Unit 4 loses its water and the cooling rods are exposed to air they will, apparently, ignite and it will not be possible to extinquish the resulting highly radioactive fire. And the release of radiation would exceed the culmutive radiation from all nuclear tests.
So, given the potential for an absolutely unprecedented disaster scenario if Unit 4 is compromised, I’ve have expected news reports of a major aftershock to carry specific info on the integrity of that cooling pool. (ie, something more detailed or focussed than some Tepco mouthpiece issuing a blanket – ‘It’s all A-OK at all of our plants’ – type statement.)
But hey. Maybe my expectations are just too high?
5.8 in NZ
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10852726
The only real certainty about Unit 4 Bill, like the entire episode at Fukishima, is that the wall of lies are thick.
This should be front page news every day of the bloody week!
Bill
I heard a mention of a 1 metre tsunami up there.
I’d like to buy a badge to wear to all Labour Party meetings with the words:
“I am Colonial Viper!”
This would be a great fund raiser for the Dunedin South Labour party. I’d pay $10 for one (incl P&P and GST).
They could use half the proceeds for the Hillside families and the other half to fund a better election campaign in 2014.
Yep, the members now have the power. A concerted effort is required to take the party back from these autocratic bullies.
How do you change the name you post under? Do you re-register or something?
If you don’t log-in, you can comment under any name you like.
Thanks. Here goes!
Aha, just clocked-in to TS on another post and was wondering… who the hell is Olsviper? 🙂
🙂
Brilliant ….tshirt are getting printed as we speak lol
Long live CV
Please send a link so we can purchase t-shirts as soon as they are available. Will be great for the summer BBQ season.
Perhaps the Wellington head office could run the the “I’m Colonial Viper” fund raiser.
Use the money to pay for additional staff to process the flood of membership renewals. There seems to be some delays at present…….
Maybe they are vetting the applications for left wing bloggers hence the time delays.
How about CV for Dunedin South. Replace a twit tweeter with a Activist blogger.
Reply to Lenore at 41 in the ‘Just how wrong…’ thread.
I instinctively wanted to argue with your comment.
But it reminded me of a blog-post of Chris Trotter’s from way back, in which he lamented that gatherings of the left seem more rancorous, cliquey, unfriendly, and sometimes downright nasty, on a personal level, than similar groups on the right. And sadly, that has largely been my experience of left-wing activism too.
Even allowing for my own ineptness in group settings, memories of being quite outrageously patronised, feeling deliberately excluded much more often than I felt included, of cliquiness not otherwise seen outside of adolescence, and of personalised belittling, backstabbing, and malicious gossip completely unrelated to any idealogical differences, do tend to predominate.
I don’t see activism as a social outlet, or expect “fun”, and I think I understand that the left is diversity by definition, and solidarity in diversity is much harder work than I imagine a National Party fundraising dinner would be. Fighting oppression will never be a smooth ride, and so in that respect I do understand and share your trepidation at rejoining the fray.
But hey, the Labour Party isn’t particularly left-wing, so you might be pleasantly surprised….
I’d suggest that this lack of sociability among left-wing activists has it’s roots in the idea that most of us are fundamentally introverted personalities. In a world that largely values and celebrates extroversion it’s very difficult for us to learn constructive ways to assert ourselves, because for much of our lives we experience exclusion and marginalisation everywhere.
Put a bunch of us face to face in a room we find it all a bit intense, hard work, and it’s not so very surprising that it’s a more than a little dysfunctional. It’s also why if you let us remove ourselves back to the privacy of our own homes … we can often connect quite successfully with each other on the net.
+1 good point.
VindowViper … hehe.
I was active for a while in the dim dark past but well my local party was geared up as anti newbie and very very focused on power plays and knife tossing. Little real activity and organisational skills. Now ten years on all focused around the sitting MP support core from the culled woman’s branch.
I remember my first LEC meeting after doing a review of the leaflet drop zones, the red neck affiliate rep judged me as ” great another fucking homo”, the feminist urban renewal supporter sniffed and exclaimed “I don’t need a man to accompany me doing canvassing”, the regional rep mumbled and stumbled shyly stating ” I don’t do public speaking”, and th sitting MP hinted at dark economic tidings on the horizon.
Anyway long live the revolution within the party and membership rights.
LOL
I could tell a few funny stories of a similar ilk – but not without identifying myself and potentially offending fellow activists – who as individuals were good people. (I always imagined one particular group as a satirical tv show).
And yes, shoot me right now and get it over with, identity cliques, including feminist cliques seem to naturally occur, gain powerbases, start playing power games….
Understandable in many ways, and there can be an element of overcompensating once we “identities” find our voices.
In reply to Bill, I think changes to the ways we organise ourselves could help ameliorate the problem, but I don’t think hierarchical structures are the only cause. There are a whole lot of factors at play I think.
And Vindow Viper – I find it hard to believe that the majority of left-wingers can be introverted because introversion is a minority trait. We are probably disproportionately represented though. Another part of the jigsaw is differences in how the working classes are socialised (compared to the ruling classes). Unconsciously, many of our parents prepared us to be “good workers” – rather than the smooth social operators the ruling class tend to train their kids to be.
I think the places like TS can help overcome the problem, not just because many of us are shy, but because conversations can develop over time. So often in real world setttings we can’t get past action and reaction, to actually listening to each other.
IMO there’s two parts. Socialisation needs to be taught but the majority of families fail to actually teach it and so children are left to pick up socialisation from the people around them which is, more often than not, other children in places such as school. So the majority of people grow up with failed socialisation.
The part where you say prepared us to be “good workers” is exactly that – the parents, used to nothing other than working themselves, tell their children that they need to have a job. It’s all they’ve known. Other families teach their children how to be successful within the present hierarchical paradigm which really isn’t about having a job but about having the right social connections and having others work for them.
Interesting idea Draco, that there can be an absence of teaching socialisation which sees kids scratching around picking up what they can from their peers who might also be largely untaught. That rings true to me.
Is it socialisation or rise of individualism or both maybe.
It’s certainly the rise of the individual, as taught to the kids of the elite. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
My whole group are what you call elites…take last new years one fly in by his own helicopter for the party but my point thru education and self or taught drive and determination either through group socialisation or individual drive etc we should all be elites. Further to this is that even the multi millionaire is a worker basically just more cleverer or more socialised connected or had a better start so therefore all workers given the right or left tools should be the same.
We can’t all be elites. That is a contradiction in terms.
The idea that through hard work, and determination, blah blah blah……. is a prevalent right-wing meme which is not founded in reality.
Similar to “we can all be winners”. If we were all winners there would be no winners because there can be no winning without others losing. Good for keeping us in aspirational la-la land though.
It’s called a rule change if you don’t like the rules stand up and change them just don’t sit it out.
First step…power to the party i.e members
Two.. Plan and organise in the long term
Three. Promote key identifiers into position of change.
Four. Disseminate ideas of change to the masses.
Five. Systematically create change or await an event that fosters the right environment for change….big bang or crunch will do nicely.
Hmm. Meetings. In not very democratic settings, all the nasty, cliquey, power tripping shit gets free reign. So quieter or shyer people get excluded, options or opinions sidelined if they are not ‘in tune’ with the dominant suggestion (which is usually framed as a yes/no, agree/disagree ‘decision’). Even the agenda for what is/isn’t to be discussed is set from ‘on high’…by ‘the committee members, the clique etc, ie those with more access to information and by extention, ability to excercise power.
There are fairly simple ways around all of that. In a word: democracy.
Level the environment where the decisions are going to be made. No permanently appointed or elected committees, chairpeople or whatever to preside over meetings. Revolving position of facilitators whose main task is identify what the group is actually saying, ensure or encourage input from those who are less dominant in group settings, see to it that all opinions are canvassed and not casually dismissed ‘just because’, deny the opportunity to dominate…etc, etc, etc.
Facilitator = potentially poisoned chalice of being King/ Queen/dictator/ diplomat (depending on their approach/skill level)….for a few hours. And next time around they are just one of the unwashed like everyone else and somebody else gets to fill those shoes. Which aren’t very pleasant btw…it can be bloody hard work and usually involves a very steep learning curve. And is utterly disempowering on the level that the facilitator does not actually engage in terms of input to whatever decisions are up for consideration.
Could LEC meetings run along those lines? I’d love to hear any excuses as to why they couldn’t or shouldn’t…or any arguments that would attempt to justify why such meetings should be considered as ‘special cases’ allowed to practice ‘less than democratic’ meeting procedures.
So, vulture capitalists. I hadn’t paid much attention before, just another lot of financiers ripping people off with derivatives, bonds, currency trading an the like. But it’s worse than that when they can:
– Impound a frigate of a sovereign state and get a court order from some country or another (in this case Ghana) to hold it until the State pays the vultures the debt they bought up for a song
– Buy up debt from a defaulting sovereign state, get a court ruling from some country (in this case the U.S.) to force a country who had defaulted to pay billions, with interest – at the expense of debtors who agreed to take less to facilitate the default and without any concern whatsoever for the citizens of the country, or the economic recovery that has made the demand for payment viable.
Big issues here for how the Greek, Spanish and Portugese debt is handled, and maybe something of the reason for the convoluted drawn out process in managing Greek debt.
There must be something going on behind the scenes to get rid of these people. Surely even the eyes at the top of the financial tree can see there is a massive risk of it crashing to the ground.
Yep this means the whole idea of partial write-downs of debt will be out of the window. But the finacial elite don’t care – they have their interests nicely protected
What I find amazing is that while the super-rich have always been able to bend ‘justice’ to their will in the name of obscene profiteering, they now believe they have the power to take on an entire nation – impounding a frigate!
Maybe the feisty Cristina Kirchner should consider formally declaring war on Paul Singer and all the interests of Elliot Capital Management
Yep, as far as the capitalists go it’s proof that their preferred financial method doesn’t actually work and they can’t have that as people will break the bonds that the capitalists have spent centuries putting in place.
Calling all Vipers…
Good on you, you’re making your point. Those who would censor take note.
If you’re joining the viper army, however, a reminder that the first comment under a new name goes into moderation. Once the new name is cleared, away you go as usual. But in the weekend moderation can take a while sometimes…
(I can see the headlines now – The Standard is a nest of vipers!)
What is it that CV has actually been doing which would attract this kind of attention?
He’s not a regular author on the site, prolific poster sure, but thats not enough to cover it off…
No specific details required, in generalistic terms it would be helpful to get some sort of context, otherwise this just all seems a little, dramatic!
Solidarity.
Look it up.
So making an enquiry is to go against “solidarity”!
It doesn’t work like that….
Grow up!
No, I was answering your question about why.
The “look it up” was sarcastic (apologies) because I thought the reasons we “vipers” are trying to offer our support, were quite obvious. Did you read yesterday’s open mike?
Hmmm, digital communications distortion..
I did read the article, but it does not make sense from what has been discussed.
I would have thought that as CV self proclaimed does not work, and apparantly does not have to, that he would be in an ideal position to really get stuck into the system, so to speak.
Being a prolific poster on blogs is not enough to have to take cover from blogging, if it can have no blow back – Perhaps it about his family as opposed to him, which would be understandable.
Looking for some more details, in a generalist sense as to what else could have triggered this, as it sounds like its overblown to me.
Sure there might be more to it in the background, but the posts do not tell that.
Solidarity is great, but so is some information, above what has been given.
Oh for olde petes sake….a song coched in old lost language.
Old farmer will had a farm, sheep dogs and pigs and an old work horse called one left shoe. Now on that farm there was a mouse called Micky…..Micky mouse had a friend called pig man E N G O and that’s what his name is NGO NGO loud and shrill but solid and kind who walked and talked until he was red deep red in the face….poor old NGO.
Me-thinks the latest attempt to muzzle internet comment on the Labour Party leadership is an attempt to silence those in the Party who support Cunliffe as leader,
The intent of such would seem to be a view that a challenge can be fore-stalled in February if such activists within the Party can be silenced,
To me Labour and the Shearer faction and supporters in the Party, (if there are in fact many, any ???), have gone about this all arse about face,
Perhaps the Shearer faction ‘knows’ that should a vote be triggered in February they don’t have the numbers, but, putting that aside for now most of us, (an assumption), would have found it to be the mark of a real leader if the Shearer camp had of from the moment the Conference re-wrote the rules on leadership selection openly stated that it would be they, (the Shearer faction), who would trigger that vote by the wider party in February,
Complaining about and threatening Party members for voicing their opinions on websites such as the Standard is at the least weak,
Further to that i believe that Labour as a Party should not rest on it’s laurels as far as having added the ‘democratic’ element to it’s choice of leadership and the same voting system could anbd should be extended in the future to selecting future Labour Cabinets with the Parliamentary Leader allocating the relevant portfolios…
CV has been bullied and threatened by a Labour MP who has apparently acquired (by one means or another) his actual identity.
The above comment was meant to be in reply to Muzza at 9.1
Hi Anne,
Yes that much is clear, but is it more about the outing of the real identity as a way of trying to quiet the blogging community as a whole, or does CV have a specific role as member of the LP which would seem to make sense to the person alledged to be putting the heat on?
Does CV have a blog site, or a role inside the membership which would explain this attention?
Does CV have a blog site, or a role inside the membership which would explain this attention?
Not to my knowledge except he has shown himself to be a very effective communicator. I suspect that was the sin he committed.
[Some details deleted. r0b] While there may be some other incidences of bullying going on, I don’t think its a campaign on the part of the Labour caucus to stamp out criticism or dissent. I hope not.
Hi Anne,
It doesn’t stack up for me at this stage, but something’s to look into in any case.
I will give you an example that happened a few months ago. The MP in question ‘outed’ one of The Standard’s most well known (and highly regarded) commenters… on Red Alert. I doubt the person in question was too phased because he’s never made any attempt to hide his real identity anyway. What I’m saying is: she has a history of this kind of silly behaviour.
If it’s not an LP campaign, then it’s a further example of Shearer’s poor control over his caucus – he’s heavy handed with MPs he, or his leadership team see as a threat, but lets his supporters get away with actions that undermine the principles of a left wing party.
PS: Is it possible that the repressive approach of the leadership team to MPs in the Labour caucus, is causing lone MPs to act pre-emptively against LP members, in order to preserve their own standing with the caucus leaders?
Muzza, you seem to be saying a) What’s so special about Colonial Viper?
and b) you question the importance to CV of his pseudonymity, and believe you have a right to know his reasons and have the right to judge whether his reasons are “valid.”
You do get that CV is a commenter on a blog, and you have no right to know anything about his “real” life? Any more than I have a right to any information about yours. That CV has been silenced (albeit temporarily I hope) by Labour management shows his right to privacy is very important to him. And CV is one of us.
And we know, because it has been discussed here extensively, that some, maybe many, would not be able to participate at all, or would have their right to freedom of speech significantly curtailed without this protection.
Labour management is silencing dissent by bullying its own members (who are, it’s worth noting, its (unpaid) workforce). If you don’t see this as important enough to warrant a rallying of support from this community, and/or don’t see CV as ‘important” enough, I’d be kind of interested in your criteria.
Who would be important enough?
What would be important enough?
Thats not what I’m saying
Everyone who wants to remain anonymous should be able to expect that is maintainable, whether or not that becomes maintainable will depend on how out there they put themselves, and the type of people they are putting themselves out there with/against. Politics is theatre, the media is theatre, and the people inside the political theatre are low quality, as we see by the state of NZ.
Should people be outed, or threatened to be outed, no, but is that likely to happen, yes of course!
If en masse people, following some vague details and a blogger saying he needs to check out for a while, want to show outward solidarity, thats great, and I understand the positions people are taking.
So far as having a right to know, no, not at all, just the right to ask questions (answered ot not), and form my own opinions based on what makes sense from the little info available!
Again, I do not want/expect/have rights to anything, and yes he is as far as I am aware, a commentator on a blog, and seemingly LP member. Would that in its own right be enough to attact that sort of attention, unless the MP involved has lost the plot, ot there ir more to the story than has come across the posts – I suspect much of both. –
If CV has been silenced that is his choice to allow, or not, and if the threat of being outed has lead to the silencing, that is unfortunate, but again, its his choice. Do I agree with outing, absolutely not, but see my comment above about who/how much people involved themselves.
Actually i think there may be a bigger agenda at play, in so far as the *freedom of the net/speech* is concerned, and perhaps this might be a trigger. Hard to say though as its all rather under the radar from what I can tell.
I see the LP having been taken over decades back, and woudl consider this alledged behaviour as another example of the takeover of politics, which has allowed the takeover of NZ, in case no one else noticed!
Yes its important, but I’m not the blond support/cheer leader type – CV is one of the many commentators here which can be enjoyed, and if he is being harrassed, that is out of order.
Support takes many forms, not always the outwardly obvious!
a) Yeah, all the world is a stage. And?
b)Are you familiar with the concept of victim-blaming?
c)What, exactly, do you imagine is flying under what radar?
d)Support and victim-blaming are mutually exclusive as far as I’m concerned.
What the heck are you talking about. Threatening to expose someone when they’ve used a pseudonym to debate on blogs is bullying at best and blackmail at worst.
This issue is not “political theatre”, nor is it just “harassment”, it is both a personal attack on an individual’s rights, and total contempt for the premise which gives bloggers the freedom to question the means and ends of those in power without having their livelihood threatened by bullies.
What kind of word is that? To me it suggests that you equate the threat of damaging someone by releasing their private information to an inevitable act of ‘bringing something out into the open’
And do you really think CV would be receiving this degree of support if it were purely based on “Following vague details”
Over the last two days reliable contributors have corroborated information that blackmail/bullying is happening. But keep on asking your questions…..and forming your opinions.
Except when it comes to conspiracy theories.
Haven’t ‘vipered’ me name. But have quietly wondered what the effect would be if every person simply posted under the name ‘colonial viper’ instead of variously x,y or z viper. A lot of the discussion around psuedonyms was that it potentially gave more power to the idea being expressed rather than the person expressing it.
Everyone under the same posting name = absence of recognisable personality. Just wonder what it could do for enhancing debate/discussion of ideas?
Anyway…wasn’t here yesterday. And just want to say that I’m more than just a little pissed off and angry that a commentator of the quality of CV has been (temporarily?) silenced.
Red striped viper in the green green grass.
r0b
😀
This is fun….
One more viper!
This could catch on…..
Just about forgot, a small spot of praise from an unlikely quarter directed at a just as unlikely recipient,
Fonterra have just celebrated it’s one year of ‘milk in schools’ program in low decile schools in the Far North, reports are that milk consumption, (apparently off of the back of the ‘milk in schools), has risen markedly in the North and reports from the education sector say that after the daily dose of the white stuff the kids are showing definite rises in levels of both happiness and concentration,
Fonterra should (a), be congratulated for the ‘milk in schools’ initiative, and, urged to take the ‘trial’ further and roll it out across the country….
Has Cunliffe been allowed back into the fold again? he was speaking in parliament the other
day,also there was an economic meeting in Invercargill last night, from all media releases
on it he was confirmed to attend,while the local MP, Roy, declined, there were others confirmed as well including Winston,Turei, i can’t find anything on the meeting at all today.
CV, your fight is our fight for democracy,we stand together.
Nope Clayton crosgrove took the promised spot
Yes,just found it on the side ticker,by bsprout,the best man was missing.
Here’s one for CV:
“The internet, our greatest tool of emancipation, has been transformed into the most dangerous facilitator of totalitarianism we have ever seen”
A new interview with Julian Assange in the Grauniad.
Hmmmm Internet is simple words and words have power. More likely it’s who control the flow of words and there meaning that have the power…or not as words are free
Interesting interview by Kim Hill of Rebecca Watson, sceptic and feminist on, among other things, attempts at censorship of women by intimidation and cyberbullying:
http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/sat/sat-20121208-1105-rebecca_watson_girls_and_shopping-048.mp3
About 26 minutes, 9.4 MB
LEST WE FORGET
Why the U.K./U.S. axis is determined to get Julian Assange
http://www.collateralmurder.com/
Quite a shaky eq this morning here in NZ – 5.something. Felt it rocking in Nelson at 7.25 a.m.
After extensive mathematical modeling, scientist declares “Earth is F**ked”
It’s the stupid economy. It’s very nature must result in all resources being used up as fast as possible which must result in the collapse of the environment.
Hard to take seriously some guy who dresses like he rides a unicycle around the big tent.
Actually he looks like he fire dances to Goa trance on ‘rooms till dawn and has those uber ketch psuedo mystical psychedelic posters plastered all over his bedroom wall ( his mum won’t let him put them up in the TV room )
Predictably, he blames everything on Capitalism and wants us to shift to some notion he has about an anarchic never-never-land, Romantic pre industrial society – which was oh so full of loving kindness and harmony with nature.
Is it really practical or even possible for the 30 million + inhabitants of Tokyo to just walk away from their skyscrapers back into the forests and fields, picking wild berries and digging up roots?
Typical marxist derivative Leftie nonsense.
Hard to take seriously some guy who dresses like he rides a unicycle around the big tent.
Only old white guys in suits get taken seriously.
Predictably, he blames everything on Capitalism
And how do you think that’s working out? Social, economic and environmental collapse starting to unravel before your eyes … and you will not see.
which was oh so full of loving kindness and harmony with nature.
Human beings are neither angels nor devils, but adapt their behaviour to their environment.
Typical marxist derivative Leftie nonsense.
How about saying something interesting for once?
“And how do you think that’s working out? Social, economic and environmental collapse starting to unravel before your eyes … and you will not see.”
I’m not claiming that Capitalism is perfect. But I’m not some extreme anti capitalist pushing some Rousseau Romantic “civilisation is decadent lets take all our clothes off and go back to nature” la la land nonsense either.
You would be wise to remember that the Left help build a balance between Democracy, social rights and Capitalism.
“Only old white guys in suits get taken seriously.”
You forgot to be heterophobic and chuck “straight” into that too. At least you got ageist, sexist and racist covered, 3 out of 4, not bad.
No doubt like all the rest of the little PC foot soldiers around here, you believe being sexist, racist, heterophobic and ageist is all ok when the target is the sworn enemy.
kp go back to your closet
k_p, you just proved that you’re a fucken idiot. Given the data and the argument you then attacked the person rather than the data and the argument, i.e, you advanced a typical ad hominem attack characteristic of the terminally stupid.
The bloody article itself tries to make something out of his techno stoner pink hair, so I don’t see why I’m not allowed.
I didn’t say you weren’t allowed, I just said you showed your stupidity by doing so. And yes, I thought the same about the article for doing so as it had nothing to do with his point.
Some good laughs today, courtesy of CV… Vindow Viper, and the Standard as a nest of vipers 😀
Just joining the nest of
I’m going to have to stop this………please come back CV. Just tell the bastards to get f**cked.
It’s one thing for an MP and one presume on behalf of the leadership clique, to have a private chat regarding some kind of perceived dissent but surely one is allowed to be vocal in expressing opinion.
To go further and give a stop or expulsion order is borderline dictatorial and surely runs counter to the very principles of Labour. The double standard vs CV and JT is staggering…and the crux ban ban ban lets ban blogging.
David ” stalin” Shearer lived by his action and deeds now he must back off or fall come feb.
I think time for the real leader in the pack to step up,.
Grant Robertson this is your time, early but necessary and please please take cunliffe with you, not as finance but economic development and policy. Dull Parker can host out treasury.
As far as I can see Robertson is part of the current leadership team that is causing all the divisions and ruthless repression. The LP needs another leadership team to step up. An Cunliffe would be the best person for finance.
Wheels within wheels