Could someone please get Josie Bloody Pagani expelled from the Labour Party so she isn’t seen by the MSM as the ‘go-to’ spokesperson for Labour. One can’t decide who is more to blame for yet another ‘authoritative’ statement and photo on the herald website this morning, the MSM or the publicity seeking Pagani. She should have been closed down long ago on matters pertaining to Labour Policy.
From the article..
“Pagani – who was an outspoken critic of the proposals for a target – said she would not stand for Labour again in the 2014 election, and had not been asked to.”
Some good news at least..
As to blame, well Pagani is to blame. You expect the Herald to go for Labour. The Herald is a right wing rag and is always looking for any story to undermine any party left of Attila the Hun. Pagani is the tool who feeds them the answers to construct these stories. You should not expect members of the left to help the Herald out.
Pagani should take a lesson from Cunliffe’s response, which serves to defuse the whole NZ Herald beat-up.
The article fudges the difference between having a general aim for gender balance with having a quota for women candidates.
Also, Pagani says the party should focus on things such as equal pay, but says nothing about the plight of women on low pay and benefits. And she says the focus should be on issues that affect most people’s lives (like gender pay equity) – similar to the whole idea of targeting the middle classes, and not the demonised beneficiaries and people struggling on low pay.
Yes, but saying “it was a matter for the party” would not get her mentioned in the newspaper.
Pagani speaks to get the limelight for herself, not to promote the Labour Party.
She is correctly identified by Martin Bradbury as a ‘Fox Democrat.’
So what drum is she beating? Is this because she didn’t want Cunliffe, so seeks to undermine the Party? It makes a bit of a nonsense of some of her words written here by her from a hilltop about unity etc…
Has she come down from the hilltop yet? And is this article the beginning of the Pagani Mosesesque commandments about how Labour should and should not be?
Has she taken the time to address the questions of the people who read her “response” kindly made into a thread topic because apparently she can’t hit reply in the original thread like everyone else?
She sounds, to me, like she is beating Shane Jone’s drum, still.
“He said I was probably the only Labour Party feminist that voted for Shane Jones.
How revealing is this statement – that those of us who supported an alternative contender in the leadership election are not welcome, that we don’t have a valid Labour voice, and that therefore, logically, we should be excluded.
So that puts the lie to David Cunliffe’s public claims during and after the contest that there would not be reprisals.
I reject the divisiveness and vilification that says you must be banished for voting the wrong way in a now-finished contest. It’s ugly. It’s self-defeating. Labour cannot win government by hunting heretics to demean and banish them.”
I think the article also shows how Pagani is not critised her overall expressed values taken out of context, but the way she responds to an issue – the context and the way her comments are produced and/or used selectively in the MSM.
I know you don’t know, but wondered what you thought was motivating her… cos it seems to me she is assisting with a media-wide view that Labour “can’t even agree with each other”, which she must know is self defeating?
I note the two folks quoted in the article were
Shane Jones, and
Josie Pagani (who stated she voted for Jones on this site)
Well, the choice of people to quote ultimately is the NZ Herald author and/or editors.
It may be that Josie P has some established networks with NZ Herald authors.
Going by Josie P’s angry post on TS – rebutting various claims – I think Josie P may not be aware of her own underlying response triggers. She may well think she is upholding traditoonal Labour values. She is someone who supported the Blairite approach to targeting the middle classes. So she continues to aim to appease the right wingers, without seeing it as a problem.
I don’t mean this as the cutting putdown it sounds like, but I honestly believe Josie Pagani has no firm idea of what leftwing/liberal principles are, what her own principles are, how her statements are used by the media to undermine Labour, or how to communicate ideas so that she doesn’t get used in that way.
Either that or she’s a rightwing fifth columnist mastermind whose chief interest is getting her own name into the paper. But I don’t think so.
The lack of left commentators is a problem though.
Trotter, Pagani, Bradbury…
If you look at the treatment of people such as Dame Anne by the Prime Minister when she did speak out, there is a real disincentive for left wingers with profile to put themselves into that role.
“assisting with a media-wide view that Labour “can’t even agree with each other””
Considering National’s dismal failure these past two terms, having the MSM run a divide and conquer strategy against the left is probably their only option for securing a third term.
I reject the divisiveness and vilification that says you must be banished for voting the wrong way in a now-finished contest. It’s ugly. It’s self-defeating. Labour cannot win government by hunting heretics to demean and banish them.”
Nothing to do with it as far as I can see. Just the wish that Labour representatives represent Labour values and beliefs and the reaction of the left when they repeatedly don’t.
…she would not stand for Labour again in the 2014 election, and had not been asked to.”…
I’m going to chalk that up as a victory for the flaxroots left. (Nobody rain on my parade with alternative scenarios okay? I need the political optimism).
Labour’s media strategy should include “grooming” people who will become useful “commentators”. The media needs “commentators” and Pagani seems accessible and available.
The Labour media teams over the past few years have been shite. Hopefully it will improve under the new regime.
I cringe when I hear about Media Training….no doubt it is necessary to some degree but it reminds me of Grima Wormtongue in LOR….sometimes it is better to hear the reality from somebody who is just “you and me” rather than media trained drivel.
I do agree Labour has done badly with the media, I doubt that their methodology is any different to National, so either the methodology is wrong for Labour or its down to the message and messengers. Yes it needs to be sorted.
Modifications I would like to see are “the right to work” extended to “the right to work for a living,” and the right to secure dwelling included in the human rights section.
I would like to see adherence to these principles as a precondition for standing for Labour, and I would also like to see them set as the standard that policies, press statements and so on must meet. That is to say, policies etc. should at best strongly support them and at least not work against them.
The Labour Party principles are listed on their website:
Thank you Olwyn. I should have been more clear. I wasn’t looking for a Monsanto style mission statement e.g. “Monsanto is an agricultural company. We help farmers grow yield sustainably so they can be successful, produce healthier foods…” (who could disagree with any of that)
I was looking for principles communicated in both policy and follow through in action, to the electorate. The statement for instance that the natural resources of NZ belong to all the people of NZ. That there has some big implications of deep sea drilling and other mining right there.
Sorry. I didn’t mean to insult you by suggesting you may not know these principles, I just wanted to draw attention to exactly what they are. For one thing, they are put forward as “principles,” not as “branding,” and should be treated as such. I too want to see the flow from principle to policy to action from Labour. It offends me when politicians appear to treat the party principles merely as a form of branding.
Labour is a “broad church”, one which I no longer frequent. But as a past member, I follow it’s antics. You may not like or agree with Pagani, but as long as we live in a democracy, people such as her have a right to speak out.
I prefer to sit on the sidelines and criticize the current administration, and occasionally, the odd “lefty” when they show hues of blue, aka, David Shearer and his beneficiary bashing.
As for Shane Jones, he represents the wealthy Maori, who have “farmed out” their quotas. So much for giving employment to Maori, or training todays youth, when foreign fishers will provide cheap labour to do their jobs. It also makes it easier to turn a blind eye to the over-fishing that is going on in our waters. A convenient accompaniment for many of National’s policies.
she does have a right to speak out as do we all. BUT when you know your speaking out will be listened to due to your privileged position in relation to the media you have responsibilities.
I don’t go to their church anymore either. Will, when you and I speak out there are no ripples.
Having read the piece, it’s not a blog, but a bleat. Personally I would prefer to see the best person living in the electorate challenge for that seat, without the various outside representatives being helicoptered in. I’m still in favour of those standing in an electoral seat being barred from the list.
Then, and only then do we look at the make up of the list.
Right now Labour needs a serious clean out if it wants to re-claim the left.
Of course to have good local candidates standing in local seats, you need to have strong electoral organisations to find, mentor and support the candidates. Sometimes that’s a problem, right there.
And you need previous or non-performing candidates who are willing (or be made to be willing) to step aside and make way. Another problem, right there.
I also despaired when I saw today’s Herald article featuring Josie Pagani yet again. While she, like everyone, has the right to express her opinion etc (and I certainly don’t agree that she should be expelled from the LP), her continual appearance as a supposed authority on the LP leaves me cold.
Hopefully things will change with Simon Cunliffe’s appointment as David Cunliffe’s chief media person. According to this article he starts his new job next Monday, 13 January, so I hope that he hits the ground running.
PS – If Josie was available for the Herald article, presumably she is no longer on holiday. Would be ‘nice’ if she had the manners to reply to the comments on the post on here, where she was given the opportunity of right of reply at her request. Not holding my breath ….
Hi Tracey, I went back to the Google search I did on Simon Cunliffe but could not find amy SST compilation for him similar to the ODT one. Various other references etc, but no identifiable SST ones. I also went to the Stuff site, and searched for Simon Cunliffe and that brought up a whole swag, so suggest you do the same. (Could not work how to get a link to the search.)
His bio is quite broad though, in terms of both journalism and wider interests. He wrote a play a year or so ago – The Truth Game – that was performed at Circa in Wellington in 2012, and in Dunedin. He also appears to have done theatre reviews for the Listener for a time; and also a Wine blog for the ODT. He was also David Cunliffe’s Press Secretary in the early 2000s when David C was a Minister, so he is familiar with government.
..for ‘services to follicles’..as i understand it..
..and as an aside/apropos of not much..:..my celtic-peasant genes gave me a sturdy head of hair..
..(and in the past i have called out dunne..for a wave/pompadour-smackdown..)
..but the combination of my general distaste for dunne..and all about him..
..and the appearance of that character ‘barry’ on that (why is it so?) kinda compelling trash-reality-show where vultures cluster to paw over/buy others’ possessions..out of abandoned lockers..
..dual-mental-pictures of dunne/’barry’ running their hands thru their silvered/wavy-locks..(shudder..!..)
..has led me to decide to ditch (what has become in my eyes) the aging-roue/pimp-look..
..and i have gone back to the earlier/punkier days of the number two…
..and i hafta say..i am glad i am here..it’s a nice spot..
..(and as i said..that is really all ‘apropos of not much’..eh..?..)..i did warn you..!)
The Labour party is at the vanguard of social change, or should be. Worrying about fossils with antediluvian attitudes would mean that no social change would have happened in as much as social change happens with political groups’ inputs.
We’d still be back there with slavery, women being men’s chattels, racial, sexual, and gender discrimination and all the other snake skins that we have sloughed off over the centuries.
Remember this- there is a high correlation between mysogyny and homophobia. If a person doesn’t like Labour because (usually) he doesn’t like our objective to have real equality for women, then he probably won’t like us for our stand against equal rights and opportunities for the gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender communities.
I read last night a biography of Dan Long, a former president of the PSA, who died in 1976. His life story was a wake-up call and an affirmation, too, of how far we have come in a century in terms of our maturing attitudes. In “White Collar Radical” the targets of the antediluvian fossils were ‘conchies’, communists, left wingers, liberals, women, Catholics, the Irish, workers, unionists, Labour members, intellectuals, among others. The perpetrators included all, or elements of, the Catholic Church, Fascists, the RSA, the Labour Party, the papers, local mayors, the Protestant Businessman’s Association, union leaders like FP Walsh, the SIS etc etc etc.
I’m proud to be a member of a party which is there at the forefront of change away from the past and its bigotry, persecution and blinkered thinking. I would never claim to speak for the Labour Party as an ordinary member. I have been a candidate and had the right then to represent it.
Claims by the Herald that ordinary members can speak for more than themselves need to be challenged. A member should not be media commentating on his or her own party. It is seen as non-objective for a variety of reasons and also risks interpretation and corruption by the media in serving its own ends.
“The Palestinians do not even have the right to have rights”
Conversation with Richard Falk, 13 December 2013
FRANK BARAT: John Dugard, your predecessor, was part of a team that wrote a report in 2009, in which he called what was happening in the West Bank, apartheid. What do you make about this concept, that is used more and more in various campaigns around the world?
RICHARD FALK: I think it’s more descriptive than any other way of talking about the situation. Each context of subjugation of a people has its own originality. There is a kind of temptation on the part of critics of those who invoke the idea of apartheid to say that it’s not like South Africa, it’s not based on race, there are differences. But if you look more closely you see that in certain respects its worse than in South African apartheid. For instance South Africa never had settler-only roads. They did not ever create such a pervasive structure of discrimination that the one that exists in the West Bank. The dual legal structure is very expressive of an ethnically based form of domination that deprives the Palestinians of rights while it endows the unlawful Israeli settlers with the full panoply of rights under Israeli law. The Palestinians don’t even have the right to have rights on one side and the Israelis that are present in the Occupied Territories in a manner that the International Court of Justice almost by unanimous opinion said was unlawful having this full legal protection under the rule of law that prevails in Israel for Israelis.
Here’s an in-depth comparative analysis of South African and Israeli Apartheid from The Guardian’s Middle East (and former South African) correspondent, Chris McGreal.
We are the towns
– with apologies to Stephen Sondheim
Why aren’t they rich?
Why so much fear?
We’re here so close to the ground,
They rule from the air.
We are the towns.
More to it than this?
As debt is accrued
So many lies thrown around
So easy to prove
And what of the towns?
So many sad towns.
It seems someone stopped, opening doors
Instead they stand there and shout, its their world not yours,
Facing election again, the puppets all stare,
Blurring the lines,
No one is there.
Play up the farce?
But build up the fear.
The MSM tell you all what you want.
The message is clear.
And what of the towns?
Those wonderful towns.
We’re fighting back here.
Volumes of text
Profoundly unclear
We’re losing more than we’re gaining
Is that really fair?
And what of the towns?
Those critical towns.
It changes this year.
Timely, last nights movie “the reader” posses the question re moral vs legal. http://entartetemusik.blogspot.co.nz/2009/02/moral-controversy-reader.html
Bruno Ganz, as a law professor, asks his class (and the audience) to consider not whether some was right or wrong, but whether it was legal.
Professor Rohl: Societies think they operate by something called morality, but they don’t. They operate by something called law.
Unfortunately this is the case, and when pollies get into trouble they revert immediately that ” no laws were broken” as their defense.
Yes, apparently Graham Mac has decided to have a go at Brown through the same charges Banks got caught out by,(knowingly filing a false return),
Can’t see myself donating to this latest of crusades as i did for the pleasure of seeing Banks face the consequences of His actions,
i can see a long drawn out legal process ahead for Graham Mac where He is likely to be given a lesson in the niceties written into the Law which usually gives to those with the coin able to hire the best of Barristers an ‘out’,
While a conviction for Banks means a definite expulsion from the Parliament as an MP, no such outcome can be said to be the fate of Brown as the Mayor so even with a conviction, if such were to occur, the victory may be somewhat hollow producing bragging rights only…
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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 ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
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 Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
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 ...
The world has been experiencing a productivity slowdown, from which New Zealand has not been exempt. COVID-19 temporarily boosted labour productivity, but more recently, productivity has retreated. The overall trend since 2007 has been one of slow productivity ...
What’s more wasteful than spending $315k on syrup and machine maintenance? Trying to drum up a controversy about it.Cast your mind back to the pre-pandemic idylls of 2019. A “rat” was a disgusting rodent and not a self-administered plague test; the sixth Labour government was in power; and the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Fitz-Gibbon, Professor of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts, Monash University, Monash University Ken stocker/Shutterstock In the wake of numerous killings of women allegedly by men’s violence in 2024, thousands of Australians have joined rallies across the country to demand action ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Henry Cutler, Professor and Director, Macquarie University Centre for the Health Economy, Macquarie University Oleg Ivanov IL/Shutterstock Waiting times for public hospital elective surgery have been in the news ahead of this year’s federal budget. That’s the type of non-emergency surgery ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Konstantine Panegyres, McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellow, Historical and Philosophical Studies, The University of Melbourne Amna Artist/Shutterstock One of the earliest descriptions of someone with cancer comes from the fourth century BC. Satyrus, tyrant of the city of Heracleia on the Black Sea, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Rose, Professor of Sustainable Future Transport, University of Sydney LanaElcova/Shutterstock Electric vehicles are often seen as the panacea to cutting emissions – and air pollution – from transport. Is this view correct? Yes – but only once uptake accelerates. Despite the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Giselle Natassia Woodley, Researcher and Phd Candidate, Edith Cowan University There is widespread agreement Australia needs to do better when it comes to gender-based violence. Anger and frustration at the numbers of women being killed saw national rallies over the weekend and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Graham, Lecturer in Economics, University of Sydney Mark and Anna Photography/Shutterstock As home ownership moves further out of reach for many Australians, “rentvesting” is being touted as a lifesaver. Rentvesting is the practice of renting one property to live ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sukhmani Khorana, Associate Professor, Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture, UNSW Sydney Netflix The new season of Heartbreak High is garnering mixed reviews. Critics are writing about the racy story lines, comparing it to other coming-of-age series about teenage relationships and ...
Bob Carr intends to launch legal action against Winston Peters and Julie Anne Genter is facing a second allegation of bullying. Both sucked the air out of an announcement on education, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in ...
In 1995, Sally Clark went out on her own in a bold and unorthodox attempt to join an illustrious group of equestrian riders conquering the world. In the days of glovebox road maps, brick cell phones, and the hit song How Bizarre, Clark refused to follow Sir Mark Todd, Blyth ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Beaglehole, Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Otago niphon/Getty Images The number of people accessing medication for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in Aotearoa New Zealand increased significantly between 2006 and 2022. But the disorder is still under-diagnosed and ...
To celebrate the start of New Zealand music month, we look back at the best local tuneage that managed to weasel its way into Hollywood productions. There’s nothing quite like the thrilling zap of recognition when New Zealand weasels its way into a glamorous Hollywood production. Crack open a Tui ...
People trust other people more than institutions. So how can the media gain that trust through journalists without losing what’s important about the institution? Anna Rawhiti-Connell reflects on two years of curating the news for The Bulletin.Amonth ago, armed cops descended on my neighbourhood as calls to “lock your ...
Opinion: PFAS – per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances – are a class of thousands of man-made chemicals used widely in everyday consumer items such as textiles, packaging, and cookware, popular for their water, grease and stain-repellent properties. However, the very properties that make PFAS so attractive to manufacturers are also what ...
NONFICTION 1 The Last Secret Agent by Pippa Latour & Jude Dobson (Allen & Unwin, $37.99)’ This is the hottest book in New Zealand, number one with a bullet in its first week, selling more than any overseas title, and demand is so huge that it’s already been reprinted. A ...
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A warning – suicide is discussed in this podcast New Zealand’s own long-running soap Shortland Street doesn’t hesitate to kill off its much-loved characters. But would TVNZ dare to kill off our favourite soap? That’s the fear as times get tough in television – even though it’s been pointed out ...
Essay: If the Crown harms children, how do you hold it accountable? Analysis by Aaron Smale in light of the Waitangi Tribunal court decision. The post The Crown versus Māori Children appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Asia Pacific Report A West Papuan resistance leader has condemned the United Nations role in allowing Indonesia to “integrate” the Melanesian Pacific region in what is claimed to be an “egregious act of inhumanity” on 1 May 1963. In an open letter to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, Organisasi Papua Merdeka-OPM ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra A key part of the Albanese government’s political strategy is to fill the news cycle with its presence and messaging. Ministers are deployed to the maximum, even when they’ve little to say. This week ...
Recent extreme weather events showed the importance of a well-functioning insurance system, says Commerce and Consumer Affairs minister Andrew Bayly. ...
By Jo Moir, RNZ News political editor, and Craig McCulloch, deputy political editor New Zealand’s Labour Party is demanding Winston Peters be stood down as Foreign Minister for opening up the government to legal action over his “totally unacceptable” attack on a prominent AUKUS critic. In an interview on RNZ’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christian Brakenridge, Postdoctoral research fellow at Swinburne University, Centre for Urban Transitions, Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute The Conversation, Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock People have a pretty intuitive sense of what is healthy – standing is better than sitting, exercise is great for overall ...
The Wellington-based Reserve Force soldier is now almost three years into his New Zealand Army career with 5th/7th Battalion, Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment. ...
"The Government needs to release the review immediately as this reckless approach to change risks disjointed decision making and creates more distress and uncertainty for staff," Fitzsimons said. ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor Jeremiah Manele has been elected Prime Minister of Solomon Islands, polling 31 votes to 18 over rival candidate and former opposition leader Mathew Wale with one abstention. The final result of the election by secret ballot was announced by the Governor-General, Sir David Vunagi, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Priestley Habru, PhD candidate, public diplomacy, University of Adelaide Former foreign minister Jeremiah Manele has been elected the next prime minister of Solomon Islands, defeating the opposition leader, Matthew Wale, in a vote in parliament. The result is a mixed bag for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shaun Eaves, Senior Lecturer in Physical Geography, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington Jamey Stutz, CC BY-SA How often do mountains collapse, volcanoes erupt or ice sheets melt? For Earth scientists, these are important questions as we try ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Flood, Professor of Sociology, Queensland University of Technology Shutterstock Most young adult men in Australia reject traditional ideas of masculinity that endorse aggression, stoicism and homophobia. Nonetheless, the ongoing influence of those ideas continues to harm men and the people ...
The NZQA proposal released to staff today would involve a net loss of 35 roles. There are 66 roles being disestablished with 13 of those currently vacant, and 31 new roles proposed, said Fleur Fitzsimons Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga ...
Alex Casey talks to Loren Taylor, the writer, director and star of new film The Moon is Upside Down, about assembling her dream ensemble cast, toilet paper pads and turning literal dreams into reality. There’s a moment in The Moon is Upside Down where frazzled anaesthetist Briar (Loren Taylor) gets ...
Renters and realtors are upset with a government decision to scrap a bill meant to regulate property managers over concerns about unethical and unlawful behaviours. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cassy Dittman, Senior Lecturer/Head of Course (Undergraduate Psychology), Research Fellow, Manna Institute, CQUniversity Australia With winter sports swinging into action, adults around the country have volunteered or been volunteered by others (humorously known as being “volun-told”) to coach junior sports teams. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Karleen Gribble, Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Western Sydney University richardernestyap/Shutterstock Parents are often advised to burp their babies after feeding them. Some people think burping after feeding is important to reduce or prevent discomfort crying, or to ...
Workers at a major ASB contact centre in Auckland have voted to take strike action and withdraw their labour following disappointing pay negotiations with the employer and an "offer" to workers that would leave them worse off than the previous year. ...
As the government tries to get the country back on track with a school phone ban, Tara Ward has an idea for where they should turn their attention to next.New Zealand students returned to school on Monday morning, but their cellphones did not. The government’s new phone ban began ...
The Labour Party is demanding Peters be stood down, saying "he's embarrassed the country" with a "totally unacceptable" attack on a prominent AUKUS critic. ...
The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance, whose members were victims of a China-backed cyber attack, is discussing forming a standing committee to deal with foreign influence. ...
The PSA is concerned that the voluntary redundancies being offered to staff by Stats NZ will impact on the agency’s ability to deliver on its core functions. ...
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Could someone please get Josie Bloody Pagani expelled from the Labour Party so she isn’t seen by the MSM as the ‘go-to’ spokesperson for Labour. One can’t decide who is more to blame for yet another ‘authoritative’ statement and photo on the herald website this morning, the MSM or the publicity seeking Pagani. She should have been closed down long ago on matters pertaining to Labour Policy.
@cc..yeah..that one had me chewing the table-leg..
(i had to laugh at tho’:
..pagani:..i won’t be standing for labour again..and i haven’t been asked..)
..but did you see perhaps the most egregious-example of a bought/owned corporate-media..
..in quite some time..?
..stuff has an ‘opinion-piece’…banging on about how wonderfully-served (pun-intentional) we all are by our banks/banking-system..(!)
..i instantly hunted for the name of the hack/access-media journalist that had penned this tripe..
..and guess what..?
..it was written by the head of the banking cartel..(!)
..it is a total advertorial..
..and stuff has it up as an ‘opinion-piece’..
..craven sell-outs..eh..?
..phillip ure..
From the article..
“Pagani – who was an outspoken critic of the proposals for a target – said she would not stand for Labour again in the 2014 election, and had not been asked to.”
Some good news at least..
As to blame, well Pagani is to blame. You expect the Herald to go for Labour. The Herald is a right wing rag and is always looking for any story to undermine any party left of Attila the Hun. Pagani is the tool who feeds them the answers to construct these stories. You should not expect members of the left to help the Herald out.
Here’s the link, anyway. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11183231
Pagani should take a lesson from Cunliffe’s response, which serves to defuse the whole NZ Herald beat-up.
The article fudges the difference between having a general aim for gender balance with having a quota for women candidates.
Also, Pagani says the party should focus on things such as equal pay, but says nothing about the plight of women on low pay and benefits. And she says the focus should be on issues that affect most people’s lives (like gender pay equity) – similar to the whole idea of targeting the middle classes, and not the demonised beneficiaries and people struggling on low pay.
Yes, but saying “it was a matter for the party” would not get her mentioned in the newspaper.
Pagani speaks to get the limelight for herself, not to promote the Labour Party.
She is correctly identified by Martin Bradbury as a ‘Fox Democrat.’
pagani is/as‘Fox Democrat’..
heh..!
phillip ure..
So what drum is she beating? Is this because she didn’t want Cunliffe, so seeks to undermine the Party? It makes a bit of a nonsense of some of her words written here by her from a hilltop about unity etc…
Has she come down from the hilltop yet? And is this article the beginning of the Pagani Mosesesque commandments about how Labour should and should not be?
Has she taken the time to address the questions of the people who read her “response” kindly made into a thread topic because apparently she can’t hit reply in the original thread like everyone else?
She sounds, to me, like she is beating Shane Jone’s drum, still.
“He said I was probably the only Labour Party feminist that voted for Shane Jones.
How revealing is this statement – that those of us who supported an alternative contender in the leadership election are not welcome, that we don’t have a valid Labour voice, and that therefore, logically, we should be excluded.
So that puts the lie to David Cunliffe’s public claims during and after the contest that there would not be reprisals.
I reject the divisiveness and vilification that says you must be banished for voting the wrong way in a now-finished contest. It’s ugly. It’s self-defeating. Labour cannot win government by hunting heretics to demean and banish them.”
I don’t know what motivates, Josie P.
I think the article also shows how Pagani is not critised her overall expressed values taken out of context, but the way she responds to an issue – the context and the way her comments are produced and/or used selectively in the MSM.
I know you don’t know, but wondered what you thought was motivating her… cos it seems to me she is assisting with a media-wide view that Labour “can’t even agree with each other”, which she must know is self defeating?
I note the two folks quoted in the article were
Shane Jones, and
Josie Pagani (who stated she voted for Jones on this site)
Well, the choice of people to quote ultimately is the NZ Herald author and/or editors.
It may be that Josie P has some established networks with NZ Herald authors.
Going by Josie P’s angry post on TS – rebutting various claims – I think Josie P may not be aware of her own underlying response triggers. She may well think she is upholding traditoonal Labour values. She is someone who supported the Blairite approach to targeting the middle classes. So she continues to aim to appease the right wingers, without seeing it as a problem.
I don’t mean this as the cutting putdown it sounds like, but I honestly believe Josie Pagani has no firm idea of what leftwing/liberal principles are, what her own principles are, how her statements are used by the media to undermine Labour, or how to communicate ideas so that she doesn’t get used in that way.
Either that or she’s a rightwing fifth columnist mastermind whose chief interest is getting her own name into the paper. But I don’t think so.
The lack of left commentators is a problem though.
Trotter, Pagani, Bradbury…
If you look at the treatment of people such as Dame Anne by the Prime Minister when she did speak out, there is a real disincentive for left wingers with profile to put themselves into that role.
Manning, (Gordon) Campbell, Kelsey, Gould, McCarten, …..
Minto, Kelly, Harawira, …
what has happened to tapu misa..?
..i like her work..
phillip ure..
@ p ure about Tapu Misa
Last article I could find was Feb 2013
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?objectid=10865952
Ah. Thank you, phillip. I was trying to remember her name – she hasn’t had an article out for a while.
would love to have seen Gordon Campbell asked on some of these tv shows about oil drilling.
what’s up with Pagani’s new website?
She’s a one woman campaign for……..????????????
The Nats between Farrar, Slater and Hooton, and the journos they are cosy with seem to do communication fairly well…
I suppose we don’t want an ‘insert name here’ left, but at least some cohesion would be nice…
Armstrong.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/columnists/dave-armstrong/
https://twitter.com/malosilima
“assisting with a media-wide view that Labour “can’t even agree with each other””
Considering National’s dismal failure these past two terms, having the MSM run a divide and conquer strategy against the left is probably their only option for securing a third term.
That’s a theme the corporate media likes to pursue and that Pagani is prepared to sacrifice so she gets media attention.
Josie Pagani motivates Josie Pagani
The Century of the Self by Adam Curtis
um..!..tracey..looking from out here..
..it doesn’t seem labour are ‘hunting’ and ‘demeaning’ pagani..(for past party neo-lib-sins(?)..)
..’cos if they were..that would be setting a new benchmark in scapegoating..
..pagani wasn’t a minister in a govt that beat the neo-lib drum (she admittedly favours)..
..she wasn’t one of those serially booting the poorest in the guts..for those nine long years..
..(tho’ as a person..she did/does..)
..if labour are hunting for scapegoats for their role in getting us into the shit-hole we currently are/need to climb out of..
..there is a raft of candidates for that role..
..and a disturbingly large number of them are still staring out at us from the labour seats in parliament..
..saying:..’trust us..we care..!..’
..eh..?
phillip ure..
I agree, that Labour doesn’t seem to be hunting and demeaning Pagani, but it could be construed that she is hunting and demeaning Labour?
@ tracey..
..aye..
..at this point in time..
..there could not be a worse ‘spokesperson’ for the labour party..
..and of course..her views are never rebutted by the real spokespeople in labour..
….are they..
..so they just get to stand/hang stinking in the air..
..w.t.f. is it with that..?..
..is englishs’ most effective-barb in parliament..true..?
..that there are no rebuttals from labour..
..because ‘as a political party..labour does not know where it stands’..
..there is more than a grain of truth in that..
..especially with so many of labours’ front-bench having that long history of being ..
..ideologically..in ‘the pagani-camp’..
..and we haven’t seen any volte-faces on their previous words/actions from any of these individuals..to date..
..have we..?
..so englishs’ claim still stands/hangs stinking up the air..
..at this point is time..most would grasp to (honestly) portray what labour stands for..
..go on..have a go..
..phillip ure..
I reject the divisiveness and vilification that says you must be banished for voting the wrong way in a now-finished contest. It’s ugly. It’s self-defeating. Labour cannot win government by hunting heretics to demean and banish them.”
Nothing to do with it as far as I can see. Just the wish that Labour representatives represent Labour values and beliefs and the reaction of the left when they repeatedly don’t.
+1
…she would not stand for Labour again in the 2014 election, and had not been asked to.”…
I’m going to chalk that up as a victory for the flaxroots left. (Nobody rain on my parade with alternative scenarios okay? I need the political optimism).
Labour’s media strategy should include “grooming” people who will become useful “commentators”. The media needs “commentators” and Pagani seems accessible and available.
The Labour media teams over the past few years have been shite. Hopefully it will improve under the new regime.
And the commentators need to keep at least one thing in mind and that is what Pascal’s Bookie has noted:
http://thestandard.org.nz/josie-pagani-replies/#comment-753124
good spotting/highlighting/heads-up-ing there..
..mr j nald..
phillip ure..
I cringe when I hear about Media Training….no doubt it is necessary to some degree but it reminds me of Grima Wormtongue in LOR….sometimes it is better to hear the reality from somebody who is just “you and me” rather than media trained drivel.
I do agree Labour has done badly with the media, I doubt that their methodology is any different to National, so either the methodology is wrong for Labour or its down to the message and messengers. Yes it needs to be sorted.
Really simple questions which Labour needs to answer and hasn’t enough
1) What principles do you stand for
2) What is your 10 year vision for NZ
3) How are you going to deliver it
Cunliffe is an excellent orator and hits the bullseye over and over again when he stays on this tack.
The Labour Party principles are listed on their website:
http://www.labour.org.nz/about
Modifications I would like to see are “the right to work” extended to “the right to work for a living,” and the right to secure dwelling included in the human rights section.
I would like to see adherence to these principles as a precondition for standing for Labour, and I would also like to see them set as the standard that policies, press statements and so on must meet. That is to say, policies etc. should at best strongly support them and at least not work against them.
Thank you Olwyn. I should have been more clear. I wasn’t looking for a Monsanto style mission statement e.g. “Monsanto is an agricultural company. We help farmers grow yield sustainably so they can be successful, produce healthier foods…” (who could disagree with any of that)
I was looking for principles communicated in both policy and follow through in action, to the electorate. The statement for instance that the natural resources of NZ belong to all the people of NZ. That there has some big implications of deep sea drilling and other mining right there.
Sorry. I didn’t mean to insult you by suggesting you may not know these principles, I just wanted to draw attention to exactly what they are. For one thing, they are put forward as “principles,” not as “branding,” and should be treated as such. I too want to see the flow from principle to policy to action from Labour. It offends me when politicians appear to treat the party principles merely as a form of branding.
no insult meant and certainly none taken, cheers Olwyn. Your principles vs ‘mere’ branding comparison is very apt.
@ ennui..it isn’t a matter of good media-training..
..(that is just sticking lipstick on a pig..)
….the problem/need to do is what c.v details @ 1.3.2.1/above…
..’cos to most of us out here..
..labour are lost..
..stuck somewhere between two ideologies..
..a janus-faced party..
..phillip ure..
who has represented and appealled to those earning under $30k per annum in recent times, that “you and me”?
Labour is a “broad church”, one which I no longer frequent. But as a past member, I follow it’s antics. You may not like or agree with Pagani, but as long as we live in a democracy, people such as her have a right to speak out.
I prefer to sit on the sidelines and criticize the current administration, and occasionally, the odd “lefty” when they show hues of blue, aka, David Shearer and his beneficiary bashing.
As for Shane Jones, he represents the wealthy Maori, who have “farmed out” their quotas. So much for giving employment to Maori, or training todays youth, when foreign fishers will provide cheap labour to do their jobs. It also makes it easier to turn a blind eye to the over-fishing that is going on in our waters. A convenient accompaniment for many of National’s policies.
she does have a right to speak out as do we all. BUT when you know your speaking out will be listened to due to your privileged position in relation to the media you have responsibilities.
I don’t go to their church anymore either. Will, when you and I speak out there are no ripples.
Freedom of speech is not freedom from criticism.
Having read the piece, it’s not a blog, but a bleat. Personally I would prefer to see the best person living in the electorate challenge for that seat, without the various outside representatives being helicoptered in. I’m still in favour of those standing in an electoral seat being barred from the list.
Then, and only then do we look at the make up of the list.
Right now Labour needs a serious clean out if it wants to re-claim the left.
All good points.
Of course to have good local candidates standing in local seats, you need to have strong electoral organisations to find, mentor and support the candidates. Sometimes that’s a problem, right there.
And you need previous or non-performing candidates who are willing (or be made to be willing) to step aside and make way. Another problem, right there.
I also despaired when I saw today’s Herald article featuring Josie Pagani yet again. While she, like everyone, has the right to express her opinion etc (and I certainly don’t agree that she should be expelled from the LP), her continual appearance as a supposed authority on the LP leaves me cold.
Hopefully things will change with Simon Cunliffe’s appointment as David Cunliffe’s chief media person. According to this article he starts his new job next Monday, 13 January, so I hope that he hits the ground running.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1311/S00314/simon-cunliffe-to-be-labour-media-director.htm
PS – If Josie was available for the Herald article, presumably she is no longer on holiday. Would be ‘nice’ if she had the manners to reply to the comments on the post on here, where she was given the opportunity of right of reply at her request. Not holding my breath ….
Further to the above, I decided to google Simon Cunliffe and found this link to various articles of his on the Otago Daily Times.
I have only skimmed a couple so far, but like his writing style and thinking. .
.
you can find his writing a while ago in the SST?
Hi Tracey, I went back to the Google search I did on Simon Cunliffe but could not find amy SST compilation for him similar to the ODT one. Various other references etc, but no identifiable SST ones. I also went to the Stuff site, and searched for Simon Cunliffe and that brought up a whole swag, so suggest you do the same. (Could not work how to get a link to the search.)
His bio is quite broad though, in terms of both journalism and wider interests. He wrote a play a year or so ago – The Truth Game – that was performed at Circa in Wellington in 2012, and in Dunedin. He also appears to have done theatre reviews for the Listener for a time; and also a Wine blog for the ODT. He was also David Cunliffe’s Press Secretary in the early 2000s when David C was a Minister, so he is familiar with government.
I think that was always meant to be a ‘hit and run’. Certainly never expected any replying
I agree. Which is why she couldnt just hit reply like everyone else. She needed the limelight. Not about Labour or its values but her.
Heard David Cameron gave his hairdresser a gong in the new year handouts.Is this true? Or just a big joke?
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/shortcuts/2014/jan/07/david-camerons-hair-honours-mbe-lino-carbosiero
@ ffloyd..it’s true..
..for ‘services to follicles’..as i understand it..
..and as an aside/apropos of not much..:..my celtic-peasant genes gave me a sturdy head of hair..
..(and in the past i have called out dunne..for a wave/pompadour-smackdown..)
..but the combination of my general distaste for dunne..and all about him..
..and the appearance of that character ‘barry’ on that (why is it so?) kinda compelling trash-reality-show where vultures cluster to paw over/buy others’ possessions..out of abandoned lockers..
..dual-mental-pictures of dunne/’barry’ running their hands thru their silvered/wavy-locks..(shudder..!..)
..has led me to decide to ditch (what has become in my eyes) the aging-roue/pimp-look..
..and i have gone back to the earlier/punkier days of the number two…
..and i hafta say..i am glad i am here..it’s a nice spot..
..(and as i said..that is really all ‘apropos of not much’..eh..?..)..i did warn you..!)
phillip ure..
I kind of see Dunne more as the Barry off Extras
if i were to cast dunne in a movie..
.(.going on the amount of damage he has done to this country/people..)
..i would have him play the lead in a bio-pic of/on petain..
phillip ure..
this is very very funny..
.and it will have you laughing like a drain..
http://www.alternet.org/video/watch-daily-show-blasts-cable-anchors-over-unwarranted-legal-pot-hysteria
phillip ure..
Nick Clegg compared to a condom by Boris Johnston.
Maybe that’s why dunne hair do looks the way it does.
That’s the Boris Johnson who has today been revealed as wanting water cannon ready on London streets by this summer, right?
And I don’t think it’s for keeping the rioters moist and cool.
boris johnson is like alec baldwin..
..sometimes funny..
..but just another rightwing arsewipe..
phillip ure..
The Labour party is at the vanguard of social change, or should be. Worrying about fossils with antediluvian attitudes would mean that no social change would have happened in as much as social change happens with political groups’ inputs.
We’d still be back there with slavery, women being men’s chattels, racial, sexual, and gender discrimination and all the other snake skins that we have sloughed off over the centuries.
Remember this- there is a high correlation between mysogyny and homophobia. If a person doesn’t like Labour because (usually) he doesn’t like our objective to have real equality for women, then he probably won’t like us for our stand against equal rights and opportunities for the gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender communities.
I read last night a biography of Dan Long, a former president of the PSA, who died in 1976. His life story was a wake-up call and an affirmation, too, of how far we have come in a century in terms of our maturing attitudes. In “White Collar Radical” the targets of the antediluvian fossils were ‘conchies’, communists, left wingers, liberals, women, Catholics, the Irish, workers, unionists, Labour members, intellectuals, among others. The perpetrators included all, or elements of, the Catholic Church, Fascists, the RSA, the Labour Party, the papers, local mayors, the Protestant Businessman’s Association, union leaders like FP Walsh, the SIS etc etc etc.
I’m proud to be a member of a party which is there at the forefront of change away from the past and its bigotry, persecution and blinkered thinking. I would never claim to speak for the Labour Party as an ordinary member. I have been a candidate and had the right then to represent it.
Claims by the Herald that ordinary members can speak for more than themselves need to be challenged. A member should not be media commentating on his or her own party. It is seen as non-objective for a variety of reasons and also risks interpretation and corruption by the media in serving its own ends.
“The Palestinians do not even have the right to have rights”
Conversation with Richard Falk, 13 December 2013
FRANK BARAT: John Dugard, your predecessor, was part of a team that wrote a report in 2009, in which he called what was happening in the West Bank, apartheid. What do you make about this concept, that is used more and more in various campaigns around the world?
RICHARD FALK: I think it’s more descriptive than any other way of talking about the situation. Each context of subjugation of a people has its own originality. There is a kind of temptation on the part of critics of those who invoke the idea of apartheid to say that it’s not like South Africa, it’s not based on race, there are differences. But if you look more closely you see that in certain respects its worse than in South African apartheid. For instance South Africa never had settler-only roads. They did not ever create such a pervasive structure of discrimination that the one that exists in the West Bank. The dual legal structure is very expressive of an ethnically based form of domination that deprives the Palestinians of rights while it endows the unlawful Israeli settlers with the full panoply of rights under Israeli law. The Palestinians don’t even have the right to have rights on one side and the Israelis that are present in the Occupied Territories in a manner that the International Court of Justice almost by unanimous opinion said was unlawful having this full legal protection under the rule of law that prevails in Israel for Israelis.
Read more….
http://lemuradesoreilles.org/2014/01/08/the-palestinians-do-not-even-have-the-right-to-have-rights-conversation-with-richard-falk/
Cheers Morrissey.
Here’s an in-depth comparative analysis of South African and Israeli Apartheid from The Guardian’s Middle East (and former South African) correspondent, Chris McGreal.
Part One – here…….http://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/feb/06/southafrica.israel
and Part Two – here…….http://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/feb/07/southafrica.israel
John Dugard himself also sees striking similarities
Here……..http://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/feb/23/israelandthepalestinians.unitednations
here……..http://mondoweiss.net/2011/11/the-law-and-practice-of-apartheid-in-south-africa-and-palestine.html and here……..http://epalestine.blogspot.co.nz/2009/08/epalestine-john-dugard-two-states-or.html
Sasha Polakow-Suransky on Israel’s very close alliance with Apartheid South Africa during 70s and 80s here……..http://mideastafrica.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/05/10/gold_stones_glass_houses#sthash.n2U4Auq0.dpbs
Norman Finkelstein on the fact that the SA Apartheid analogy is by no means controversial among sectors of the Israeli elite, here……..http://www.counterpunch.org/2006/12/28/the-ludicrous-attacks-on-jimmy-carter-s-book/ and here……..http://www.democracynow.org/2007/1/8/norman_finkelstein_vs_gil_troy_on
We are the towns
– with apologies to Stephen Sondheim
Why aren’t they rich?
Why so much fear?
We’re here so close to the ground,
They rule from the air.
We are the towns.
More to it than this?
As debt is accrued
So many lies thrown around
So easy to prove
And what of the towns?
So many sad towns.
It seems someone stopped, opening doors
Instead they stand there and shout, its their world not yours,
Facing election again, the puppets all stare,
Blurring the lines,
No one is there.
Play up the farce?
But build up the fear.
The MSM tell you all what you want.
The message is clear.
And what of the towns?
Those wonderful towns.
We’re fighting back here.
Volumes of text
Profoundly unclear
We’re losing more than we’re gaining
Is that really fair?
And what of the towns?
Those critical towns.
It changes this year.
FBI officially acknowledges it’s primary role is not one of law enforcement, but of ensuring the security of the establishment
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-01-07/fbi-admits-its-primary-focus-not-law-enforcement
The peace activists who burgled the FBI in 1971 revealing COINTELPRO spying on prominent Americans
Reminds me of the BSG saying: all this has happened before…and will happen again…
http://www.democracynow.org/2014/1/8/it_was_time_to_do_more
Politicians to replace faulty moral compass with new Ethical Sat Nav
Timely, last nights movie “the reader” posses the question re moral vs legal.
http://entartetemusik.blogspot.co.nz/2009/02/moral-controversy-reader.html
Bruno Ganz, as a law professor, asks his class (and the audience) to consider not whether some was right or wrong, but whether it was legal.
Professor Rohl: Societies think they operate by something called morality, but they don’t. They operate by something called law.
Unfortunately this is the case, and when pollies get into trouble they revert immediately that ” no laws were broken” as their defense.
I’ve noticed that especially from the right-wing politicians which is why I came up with:
Just because it’s legal doesn’t mean that it’s right.
Years only just begun and I’m already tired -_-
Bring on the Utopia already.
today i found what must be shortlisted for this years’ ‘most-arresting-headline-awards’..
..and it’s only the ninth of january..
..it comes in/from a story i linked to about the ex-wife of author cormac mccarthy…
“..After the disagreement – she pulled a gun from her vagina – and held it to her boyfriend’s head..”
whoar..!
..eh..?
phillip ure..
Phillip Ure
“…she pulled a gun from her vagina – and held it to her boyfriend’s head.”
Well, obviously you can’t shoot someone in the head with a baby.
@ adele..
..and there are so many unanswered questions..
..model and calibre not being least of them..
..it would also work as the opening (must-read-on!) line of a work of fiction..
…what would also be cool..would be a competition..
.seeing what people come up with..
..using that as the opening line..
..heh..!..
phillip ure..
Naughty, naughty…
…it was slippery when wet…and she dropped it…
If you were thinking of going for a swim at Mission Bay – don’t.
nat-rad is reporting that mcready is going after len brown next..
..and will file papers next week..
..over the $40,000 in (undeclared) free hotel rooms brown got during his two-year-long chueng mid-life crisis..
..phillip ure..
Yes, apparently Graham Mac has decided to have a go at Brown through the same charges Banks got caught out by,(knowingly filing a false return),
Can’t see myself donating to this latest of crusades as i did for the pleasure of seeing Banks face the consequences of His actions,
i can see a long drawn out legal process ahead for Graham Mac where He is likely to be given a lesson in the niceties written into the Law which usually gives to those with the coin able to hire the best of Barristers an ‘out’,
While a conviction for Banks means a definite expulsion from the Parliament as an MP, no such outcome can be said to be the fate of Brown as the Mayor so even with a conviction, if such were to occur, the victory may be somewhat hollow producing bragging rights only…