i was talking to a middle-aged lady over the weekend..
..whose husband is in stage four cancer..
..and she told me that she has been told (unofficially) that after his latest round of chemo..
..that rather than him going on to morphine…
..that cannabis would be better for him…(especially high-potency cannabis-oil..which has demonstrated the power to shrink tumors..)
..so she now has to go and find some hash-oil..somewhere..)
..i took two takeaways from that..
1)..how fucken ‘sick’ that is…that someone in the final stages of cancer ..has to turn to the blackmarket for relief for his suffering..when a proven low-risk palliative (at the very least..maybe more..)..is to hand..
..and for fucken why..?
..’cos some national party fucken piss-ignorant rednecks..have cowed gutless-politicans into silence/bowing to their will..
..and why am i talking about/bringing this up..?
..why the fuck isn’t the spokesperson for (say) the greens..?
..going on breakfast tv to argue the logic/humanity of a law-change..
..who is that green party spokesperson on that issue..?
..you wouldn’t know..(where’s fucken waldo..?..)..but it’s hague..(who knew..?..)..the green party cowardice on this issue..is beyond fucken contempt..
..and they roundly deserve their long-suffering/ignored constituency on that issue..
..to walk from them..to the internet/mana parties…
2)..why the fuck are these cancer-doctors not going public on this..?
..they are offering this off-the-record advice..?..w.t.f..?..
..someone in a white-coat talking about cancer-patients vomiting their guts out..(when they don’t need to have that added layer to their suffering..
.(.it’s just the will of those pig-ignorant/provincial-rednecks the national party serves/cowers in front of..)
..these cancer doctors speaking out might even cause politicians like (but not only) hague..
Isn’t that your chance to actually make a substative difference to the debate on Cannabis in NZ as opposed to posting here and on your blog which largely gets ignored?
NORML and Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party are largely ghettoised and subject to negative stereotyping similar to say Voluntary Euthanasia advocates and other one issue groups. Little progress has been made in decades by NORML their conference is highlighting Colorado experience so far.
Cannabis debate has been bouncing for a week on facebook via the IMP pages so maybe cannabis reformers should make links there.
I am for general legalisation and urgent attention to medical cannabis. But not putting time into an ineffective one issue group.
“.. and on your blog which largely gets ignored?..”
..i wont rise to yr slur on my work..
..save to say that one day people will notice that there is a local news-resource – that brings them a best-of from local/the world..every day..(40-50 new stories/links..every day..)
..and with/having built up over time… a hand-picked best-of searchengine of over 90,000 best-of’s..
..the value of that will come into its’ own..
..’till then..i’ll just plug on/away..
..eh..?..
..and console myself with the 20,000 rss subscribers i have..
..and the over 20,000 other websites around the world that have whoar on their best-of websites lists..
I had a good laugh when I was reading this porkie:
“Prime Minister John Key says National would have refused to accept some votes of Act MP John Banks had he not said he would quit Parliament.”
Espiner asked Key this morning about his not accepting Bank’s vote. Key dodged the question (of course) but I wondered how they could refuse a vote from an elected MP. If they could then they could pass any legislation that they liked by say, not accepting votes from Labour. Clever?
Sounds like a good Tui ad in there somewhere.
The sad thing is that 50% of the electorate appear to accept whatever shit he tells them.
Look at the different stances Key has taken since the court findings last week.
We’re supposed to believe that they wouldn’t have introduced legislation that relied on his vote, I think. Not that Key says that: what he says has no practical meaning: it’s an invitation to interpretation.
Anyone else do the Labour Zone 1 list conference on the weekend?
I liked a couple of things.
Degree of organization
All electorates had clearly pre-debated with ranked lists. They had their shit together. This saved a lot of time and energy. The most successful candidates had worked very hard with blocs beforehand. It was well chaired.
Fluid Blocs
Alignments between electorates and sectors were usually temporary; supporting one candidate and not necessarily the next. This is a pretty mature attitude.
Civility
Despite everyone’s egos being traded live on the floor, there was only the necessary bruising of democratic full-contact rather than any real blood. There was also a noticeable smarts to the timing of some candidates, who despite being enthusiastically nominated early, made clever tactical withdrawals to come in uncontested later. I suspect being low in the polls and few gaps from retirements helped the reality of that.
Skill emphasis
None of the candidates told us they were donor rainmakers, washed up semi-celebrities, dick-swinging egos, or retreading from successful careers. The most successful ones figured out that what the party wanted were superior organizers and told us so. Even the “rebalancing” for gender etc criteria was handled gracefully.
Life
Every participant could see the joint was fizzing, with difference, with organisational drive, and with initiative.
For the price of membership and a delegates tag, well worth the entertainment. And good democracy to boot.
I wasn’t in my seat for more than 5 minutes at a time.
Apart from whipping, there was too much gossipping and scheming to do, and simply enjoying the micro-politics with the contestants.
Jamie Whyte is shyte. He was interviewed by Michael Wilson on TV3 and was a blithering stuttering mess!
The Labour Strategy for Epsom must ask our supporters to “hold their noses” and vote for National.
Labour should only have Party vote signs up and no no no electorate mp signs.
How bizarre. To help stick it to the right you need to vote for them!
Glad I don’t live in the enclave of Epsom. Don’t feel bad though left voters that have the misfortune to reside there, you can still party vote to your conscience and ‘alter’ a few ACT hoardings.
My first election i lived in doug grahams electorate. For a few after that in helen clark’s and since 2002 in the epsom enclave. Thank god for mmp or one feels totally disenfranchised
go read the party and electorate voting in 2011 in epsom… If john banks couldnt attract party votes…and he couldnt, jamie whyte isnt going to attract anything. National is giving act the most right leaning seat in the country and the greens get more party votes than ACT?
The corporate world is concerned about water quality, but this is not a good thing, the corporates are worried that an incoming Labour Green government may enact legislation to improve water quality. This comes hard on the heels of the news that the corporate’s choice of government, National, want to gut the Resource Management Act, RMA, to give economic concerns equal weight to environmental concerns.
Primary sector leaders are nervous about the outcome of the election, reports KPMG New Zealand.
This is one of the key themes of the KPMG Agribusiness Agenda, titled “Facilitating Growth in an Uncertain World”.
KPMG interviewed more than 150 leaders for its fifth edition. Many were concerned about the prospect of a left-of-centre coalition, and the impact it might have over issues such as water quality and infrastructure.
I can hardly believe what I am reading. What on earth are we to make of this? An incoming centre Left government is unlikely to want to make water quality worse, So the corporates must be concerned that they may want to make it better!
The corporate sector are publicly raising worried concerns over better water quality!
This statement is extraordinary blunt. What has gone wrong? Usually entities like KPMG are usually much better at spinning us some silky storyline than this.
The sheer arrogance of these statements by National’s corporate cheer leaders shows that this country can barely afford another 3 months of this National government, let alone another three years of these corporate lackies.
To match this Right Wing threat to our country, the Left will have to be equally blunt and determined. Labour throw the seat of Te Tai Tokerau, if that is what it takes. And to rid our parliament of National’s rabid Right support partner urge your supporters in Epsom to vote Goldsmith,
I think that KPMG and the rabid Right are spinning out of control, they need to take a chill pill and take a little time to listen to Dr Vandana Shiva on water quality vs Growth
“While honouring any contracts already in place, Labour would replace the Crown Irrigation Fund, established from the proceeds of state asset sales, with a freshwater pricing regime to encourage economically marginal irrigation schemes.
“With a new irrigation proposal where the economics are just breakeven, as they often are, then maybe the price of water for the first 30 years is next to nothing,” said Parker.
Parker also outlined numerous other planks in the party’s environmental platform, including a National Policy Statement to protect estuaries and resurrection of a plan for national freshwater management devised under the last Labour-led administration.”
Labour shows that replacing the current regime with a properly priced allocation would give KPMG plenty of consulting work to get on with, should a Labour coalition win.
Perhaps Mr Parker should call the Chair of KPMG and remind him that this major policy change will rack him major billable units, and the Crown’s got major direct interest in irrigation through its many farms and shareholdings. Figure it out KPMG.
bullshit they do. There is nothing free-market about the Central Plains Water scheme. They have received welfare from taxpayers and ratepayers the entire way through and continue today to ask for it. Bludgers.
Apart from a virtuous few, farmers tend to only respect market mechanisms.
Not correct I’m afraid Ad – farmers will respect Regional Council plan rules and decisions when they have been fully discussed, community consultation carried out and the measures are seen as necessary, fair and reasonable.
In Otago water quality Plan Change 6A, now in force, is the perfect example.
I’m not so sure about that Colonial Viper. In a recent survey it was found that most farmers don’t give a rats arse about water quality. Also, the Plan Change 6A (PDF) still allows pH, temperature changes and suspended solids at reasonably high levels.
Furthermore, these rules allow for discharges above where communities water supply comes from as long as the discharge is publicly notified. So a business can effectively contaminate a water source so it can no longer be used as long as there is a small notice in the paper.
Gaining resource consent to pollute is still in place (with a few provisions that such pollution shouldn’t be seen or smelt by the public) and as always these rules rely on adequate monitoring by the council. Like most other regions in New Zealand, the Otago council will be made up of people with a vested interest in keeping the status quo and there will be no proper system in place for testing and enforcing these rules.
Therefore it’s just business as usual whereby our waterways are treated as a drainage system by big business and the farming industry.
You’re not going to get a 100% solution but to describe this as business as usual is pretty mean-spirited Jackal. Just look at how crappy the situation in Southland is compared to Otago, for starters.
Otago now has amongst the tightest regs throughout the entire country – ones with the support of local communities, the Feds and environmental groups.
Like most other regions in New Zealand, the Otago council will be made up of people with a vested interest in keeping the status quo and there will be no proper system in place for testing and enforcing these rules.
Yep. Enforcement is always going to be a challenge. But very few in Wellington understand the issues down here. They certainly could not have delivered anything as good as Plan Change 6A, not by a long shot. Try running something like this out of Wellington without local support and see how far you get, mate.
Local support helps but, at the same time, I think we need national level rules else we end up with some of the country being good and most of the rest being bad.
How are you going to get national level rules when soils vary up and down the country as do water management approaches for different geographies and climates. Like I said, most Thorndon bubble types struggle and struggle with the nuances.
At the most basic level, the problem areas are particulates, nitrates, ph and temp.
So water quality monitors at top of property, monitors at bottom of property, any addition/subtraction happened in that stretch of waterway. Where the waterway is the property border, or there are outfalls, place monitors on each side of waterway and adjacent to outfalls.
The national rules would be a basic level of per cumec change in water quality, or per km waterway.
There are some pretty good remote monitors around now – realtime telemetry, and if too much fertiliser runs off that’s money out of the farmer’s pocket.
Or if an overflow valve jams on the wine vat, as one story comes to mind…
You’re micromanaging too much. The national rules would specify maximum levels of pollutants, the local rules would take into account soils etc and then specify ways to stay below those maximum levels.
So if you say Plan Change 6A is really good without providing any other reasons, I should just take your word for it Colonial Viper? Where is the support from local communities exactly and what environmental groups are in favour?
I’m not saying it has to be a 100% solution (straw man) because that’s currently impossible and pointing out the reality of the legislations failures isn’t mean spirited at all. I’m in fact being a realist about the situation.
From actually taking the time to look at Plan Change 6A it appears to not be too dissimilar from regulations in other parts of the country, which basically amounts to business as usual. In fact many of these regulations appear to be exactly the same as the ones in force in places like Taranaki which has terrible water quality problems, mainly due to agriculture and the fossil fuel industry.
Public consultation really amounts to very little at all if there is no proper enforcement when the rules are broken. The rules throughout Plan Change 6A appear to be designed to allow Otago’s waterways to continue to be polluted. For instance, the suspended solids and pH levels allowed will likely mean the water quality in that region will show no improvement at all.
In my opinion this would only amount to a mediocre plan if there was no pollution to begin with. It’s certainly not a “good” plan because it will fail to achieve anything of real value for the environment. It will of course provide a bit of PR for the council, which I suppose is the main reason for its development.
I’ve got a great market mechanism – if the farm pollutes the waterways the farm is nationalised with the farmer keeping the debt used to buy it. Oh, and we’ll lock up the farmer for 5 years and have it so that they can’t be in any management position ever again.
Irrigation schemes should really be at least 51% controlled by local or central government. Like they used to be when the majority of irrigation schemes were controlled by the old MOW before 1988, and MAF there after until their sale to farmers in 1990. I do see the economic and social value in water storage for irrigation purposes, but allowing private sector interests to drain rivers and lakes while domestic and recreational users get pretty much nothing is quite sickening. Having some public ownership of irrigation schemes, ensures that the public interest is kept, with revenue (farmers dont seem to have any objection to paying for power) going towards water conservation efforts.
China has 20% of the world’s population but only 7% of its fresh water. A former prime minister, Wen Jiabao, once said water shortages threaten “the very survival of the Chinese nation”.
The shortage is worsening because China’s water is disappearing. In the 1950s the country had 50,000 rivers with catchment areas of 100 square kilometres or more. Now the number is down to 23,000. China has lost 27,000 rivers, mostly as a result of over-exploitation by farms or factories.
….” rising temperatures are only part of China’s problems, many of which have resulted from overpopulation, aggressive industrialization and a huge reliance on elaborate engineering schemes to irrigate crops and harness scarce supplies.
…”China’s water shortages stem more from problematic urbanization and water resource management, rather than the scapegoat of climate change,” said Zhou Lei, a fellow at Nanjing University who studies how industry affects the environment.
…”In my home town in Jiangxi, the water system consisted of underground springs, ponds, wetlands, brooks, streams, and seasonal rivulets, but all these have been totally ruined in the last 20 years due to a catastrophic urbanization plan, a construction mania and transport megaprojects,” he said.
[2:44] We are repeatedly told by every politician in every country that we have got to have more growth to remove poverty, and the metaphor is the cake must get bigger for the people to have a bigger share, especially the poorest…..
[5:12] …when the abstract starts becoming the measure for the real world and for life, that’s when the destructiveness starts. Because.every abstract that relates to living systems must have a feed back, must check how is this measure working. Is it delivering on what I said would happen, or is it failing? The problem of using GDP as an abstract is that it insulates itself from feedback. And no matter what scale of destruction takes place there is no way to feed it back in. [5:58] I know that there are some rough calculations that actually if you take China’s growth and India’s growth and add the destruction of our rivers, just our water bodies and our rivers because of pollution, we would be having negative growth, [it is] just that, that pollution isn’t even counted. How have we reached the place that we can sacrifice our world for a flawed abstraction.
Except systems where individual liberty and freedom are more highly valued generally have better environments that those where the supposed neeeds of the collective are paramount. To see this you just need to look at the horrendous environmental catastrophes that occured in the former Soviet bloc.
what a lot of tripe.
what about the world bank calling the NZ ETS scheme a rort.
The thing about being free is if you dont like it then you can always f*ck off.
hint hint.
Except systems where individual liberty and freedom are more highly valued generally have better environments that those where the supposed neeeds of the collective are paramount.
We have one of those systems and our environment is turning into a blocked toilet for cows.
Damned RWNJ, always denying the reality of what’s actually happening for their ideology of what they think should be happening.
Coming back to this, I must point out that during those times, it didnt matter what political and economic system held sway. The Kremlin’s Central Committee was no less committed to development and economic growth at all costs than the White House Cabinet. Factories in the Urals were as free to dump as much toxic waste was factories in Michigan. No one cared in the world of the ’40’s, 50’s and 60’s, about environmental impacts.
This statement is extraordinary blunt. What has gone wrong? Usually entities like KPMG are usually much better at spinning us some silky storyline than this.
They’ve gotten lazy after having National, who kowtows to all their desires, in government.
The giant behemoth Brownlee ‘doesn’t take advice from tourists’ regarding the lol – ‘rebuild of Christchurch’. Meanwhile the Christchurch mayoral legacy comedy show rolls out the next skit involving temporary pumps in case the Flockton basin is flooded. What a fucking joke. More than three years down the potholed road and we’re at the temporary experimental pump stage. I really do think Lianne Dalziel is morphing into the great Gadsby Jon.
Pumping stations are a well recognised method of preventing or mitigating flooding in low lying areas… a permanent fix when the ground has dropped so much will be extremely difficult considering the geography.
Yep, had a look a few days ago at an Amsterdam building development where every shovelful of dirt comes out wet. Pumps and drainage channels were operating from day one. It needs to be remembered that Chch is built on a swamp. Good on Lianne Dalziel for getting stuck in and making sensible decisions around the rebuild. If only the previous administration were as on to it as she is.
Still being paid it would seem – Firstly, it breathed life into Winnie at the time. Secondly, would ‘anonymous’ mayoral race funding have got anywhere near the High Court if Banks hadn’t taken Epsom on a high tide of tea and arrogance ?
Kia Ora New Zealand
Now listen you well
There’s sage old advice
In the story I tell
A Feisty called Banks
A Bankster called Key
Fulsome with thanks
Sat down for some tea
The air was thick
On Broadway that day
Two rorting pricks
With cups all asway
Each other they doted
They bullshitted on
And smarmingly voted
For John and for John
See how we love
Smirked they to the people
It’s we are above
And you are the sheep-le
The people cried “No !”
They smell-ed a rort
Neither stupid nor slow
“This crap it ain’t sport !”
In handsome numbers
With vigorous burst
They got off their bum-bers
And ticked NZ First !
The moral you see
Important you trust
Choose beer over tea……
When it’s power you lust !
I completely agree with this but I’d take it further and have an inquiry into all cases of alleged electoral shenanigans where the police failed to act
perhaps the first step chris is for you to oia the minister of police and ask how many mps have been referred to the police over electoral issues and how many moved on to charges.then call for a widening of the enquiry.
Cameron Slater already tried but I think part of the problem is its been going on for years (decades?) and maybe we do need something new as suggested in his post
I find it fascinating that c73 apparently thinks that there’s no point in his trying simply because slimeboy didn’t succeed.
He obviously doesn’t want to succeed enough. We should not make him dependant by helping him, he needs to be responsible for his own inaction on the matter.
Key sounded like a blithering idiot on Banks as Espiner gave him a hard time.
Andrew Little spoke well on the need for an enquiry into why the police didn’t prosecute Banks
Good coverage of Labour’s just announced policy of an Earthquake Court
Labour’s spokeman on Pacific Affairs made it clear that Key had been telling lies on his Pacific trip and made the point that National has made it harder for Pacific people to come into the country.
Now we just need a few more weeks like this and to stop infighting (of which there is far too much on The Standard) and the election will be won.
National has made it harder for Pacific Islanders to come here have they? I thought that would please the Labour party as they wish to reduce immigration numbers at the moment.
Yes National has made it harder for Pacific people to enter the country Gosman.
Listen to MR (at 8.38-Sua Willem Si’o Labour Pacific Island Affairs spokesman) and better still listen to Wallace Chapman’s show yesterday where this was brilliantly discussed by Pacific Issues correspondent Karen Mangnall (at 7.17) where she described how National had slyly made it harder for Pacific people to enter Godzone.
The contradiction is with National saying they won’t limit immigration numbers while targeting Pacific people to do exactly that Gosman. The overall amount of immigration at the moment is not sustainable but specific ethnicities should not be targeted. In effect National is being both racist and contradicting their own political stance on the issue.
When does the pmb for paternity leave reappear? Was thinking, with banks vote gone, and english saying he would veto, the maori party would be caught in a pincer?
With the veto the bill is dead even if the Maori party supported it. With the recently announced changes proposed to paternity leave in the budget there will not much fall out from doing so either.
It is the Government’s prerogative to control matters of policy impacting majorly on the fiscus. Therefore it is entirely appropriate the bill is killed via the veto if it is passed.
Just thinking, ACT has no MP’s in parliament now at all. It also polls close to zero.
This probably doesn’t matter but can anyone out there think of any implications this has for election funding, election coverage, party status, anything else?
Only in cloud cuckoo land does a cut from $163,000 to $77,000 in broadcast funding not “make much of a difference” Gosman. Please get a grip because your arguments are decidedly pathetic!
What factors must the Commission consider in allocating time and money to eligible parties?
The law requires the Commission to consider the following factors in allocating time and money to an eligible political party at a general election:
[…]
the number of members of Parliament who were members of that political party immediately before the dissolution or expiration of Parliament; and
[…]
Selective quoting of articles is tending towards the dishonest. There are a number of factors impacting broadcast funding and that is but one influence. I doubt the commission will not provide any funding or reduce it to less than they were entitled to when Banks was in Parliament.
I doubt the commission will not provide any funding or reduce it to less than they were entitled to when Banks was in Parliament.
So you don’t think that the level of funding will be influenced by one of the six (and only six) factors the commission “must consider” when allocating funding?
I’ll tell you what. If ACT receives significantly different funding and broadcast time to say what United Future gets (in the negative) I will make a formal acknowledgement that you were right and I had no clue. Will you do the same if they don’t get less than United?
I’ll wait for the outcomes of resulting complaints to the electoral commission, first.
Why you tories always want to reduce these issues to a wager is beyond me. Oh, I forgot – it’s just a game to you. You don’t give a shit about mass unemployment and child poverty at 27%.
I think it would be worth Labour/Greens asking questions on this. The number of MP’s at dissolution appears to be important for funding. I guess ACT still has rich backers like Alan Gibbs, though even he might be throwing in the towel with wallies like Whyte and Seymour in charge.
If nothing else asking the question would accentuate how completely and utterly useless ACT has become (or always has been?).
ACT. Frauds, thieves and criminals who never take “individual responsibility” for them-selves, while advocating “sink or swim” for the victims of their policies.
I hope there will come a day, when all those who inflicted the neo-liberal religion on the unsuspecting public, for the last 30 years, are bought to justice.
The article sets out the criteria for the allocations. Both National and Labour’s funding has been cut, while NZ First and the Greens will receive higher funding this election.
Taxpayer funding for National and Labour’s election campaign broadcast advertising has been cut for this year’s election but the Greens and NZ First will enjoy a substantial boost. …
The Maori Party’s funding is slashed by $60,000 to $100,000 while Act suffers an even deeper cut, going from $163,000 to $77,000 — the same amount as new entrants the combined internet Mana party, Peter Dunne’s United Future and former NZ First MP Brendan Horan’s likely political vehicle, the NZ Independent Coalition.
Colin Craig’s Conservative Party receives $60,000, up from $20,000 in 2011.
Among the minnows, satirist Ben Uffindel’s Civilian Party gets $33,600.
…
Taxpayer funding for party political broadcasts during this year’s election campaign:
• National: $1.05m
• Labour: $919,829
• Greens: $401,380
• NZ First: $200,690
• Maori Party: $100,345
• Act: $76,930
• Internet Mana: $76,930
• United Future: $76,930
• Conservative: $60,207
I presume that Banks’ resignation will not affect these allocations, but could be wrong. If so, I am sure we will hear this soon. I will check the Electoral Commission’s actual announcement to see whether it says anything as the Banks’ guilty decision would have been known at the time of the announcement with its likelihood that he could be gone.
A very rough quick through the decision indicates that ACT’s allocation is based on number of votes last election and one MP in Parliament as of the date of the decision (6 June 2014) although the Commission used a variety of criteria to set the overall allocations.
Some interesting discussion in the decision of social media etc, the Internet-Mana alliance etc which I don’t have time now to read in full. But no addendum or similar on the current ACT situation and the possiblity of the Epsom seat becoming vacant, as far as I could see in my very quick read.
Mainly it’s looking for more transparency an more democratic procedures for deciding on such matters – and not to be just a client US-state, doing whatever the US asks.
Not really. The people who advocate for foreign banks to be partially nationalised (exactly the same sort of policies that Zanu-PF were pushing until recently) never see a downside. That is the simplistic BS. All policy settings have pros and cons. The negative impact of threatening to partially ‘indigenise’ or nationalise foreign owned banks is capital flight. Zimbabwe illustrates this in spades.
The onus is on me to do what? If it is that there is a downside to threatening to nationalise or forceably divest foreigners of their stake in banks I believe I have done so.
I’m not just shouting Zane -. I provided a link to an article which highlights what happens when you promise to ‘indigenise’ 51 percent of the banking sector. Credit dries up and business else’s have a hard time finding their operations.
The onus is on me to do what? If it is that there is a downside to threatening to nationalise or forceably divest foreigners of their stake in banks I believe I have done so.
Singapore did something similar very successfully a few years ago. Rationalised its retail banking industry and told a couple of the biggest players that they were gone, thank you very much for playing.
Of course, it takes a gutsy capable government willing to go toe to toe with the powers of international capital to pull off a move like that.
how about..gossie..if you try a little bit harder..
..tell us the downside of the people taking a 51% share in the banks that rule over us..?
..are you quite ‘relaxed’ about the $15 bn in foreign-profits sucked out of nz each and every year..?..are ya..?
….an amount..funnily enough..almost exactly the same as our annual ‘deficit’..
..we aren’t in fucken ‘deficit..
..our problem is that profiteered $15 bn a year sucked straight out of our economy..
..and the people taking a 51% stake in the foreign-owned banks/supermarket-chains etc..
.(with those shareholders bought out..and paid by a mix of initial-payment..followed by payment from annual profits..what’s not to love about that plan..?)
..this will keep a decent chunk of that ‘deficit’ here in nz…to be used to benefit new zealanders..
..fix that..and you fix a lot…
..and of course..having a 51% control of the supermarket duopoly..(as just one example..)..
..will make our upcoming war on obesity/battles for good-food..much much easier to facilitate..
..rather than having to fight these bastards arguing their ‘commercial-rights’ to flog unhealthy/salt/sugar/fat-laden crap..disguised/marketed as some ghastly impersonation of ‘food’..
If you want to support women and girls in India start to turn around a predatory culture of disrespect for women there, they are planning a campaign of posters to embarrass their new hard-right president. They want to draw attention to their cries for change when he is visiting the holy city of Varanasi with posters everywhere. They are asking for names of millions to show the world is watching.
Two young girls were hanged from a tree after being gang raped in India. Shockingly a minister just responded by saying, “rape…sometimes it’s right.” The Prime Minister must take action and we can force him by delivering a millions-strong call for an end to the rape epidemic into the city where he holds his seat. Sign now:
Good grief! Could Hooton possibly get more irritating (National radio this morning). You can see why he likes key. Neither of them is EVER wrong about anything, but anybody who DISAGREES! with them is automatically wrong. No question, no doubt. And always pronounced so with that nauseating smugness they both possess. A few years ago key was asked if he thought he had ever got anything wrong and all he could come up with was that MAYBE! he could have handled the BMW situation a little bit better. To date I can’t recall him ever admitting to being wrong about anything. It is highly unusual for someone to NEVER being wrong.
Pretty sure he has mentioned numerous areas where he disagrees with John Key and where John Key has stuffed up. I believe he stated that his handling of the Judith Collins situation has not been great and that he should have sack Heki Parata. On both of these he states the only reason he can see why he hasn’t is as a result of them being representative of a key demographic and power grouping in National.
Wee Matty Hooton is totally wasted as a serious political commentator, this mornings efforts produced too many belly laughs to detail,
Matty, to continue on in the vein of the comment i made here after lasts weeks little effort said of the Banks/Whyte/Prebble relationship that ”it would all come out in the wash”,
It took Hooton a while to get the spin cycle to work this morning and i was thinking that He should recall the repair person who when attending to Matty’s spin cycle had obviously over tightened the belts leaving Matty way to uptight,(i could near on smell the neurons burning as He spoke),
The effort sounded akin to a machine where the load had shifted while on ‘agitate’ thus slowing the ‘spin cycle’ to a slow grind interspersed with a number of clunks as the bricks in Matty’s head cannoned from side to side,
By the time Matty had delved deep into the pool of ‘wisdom’,(some might describe this pool in terms of a smelly brown liquid), for the grand statement,”National can Govern alone” my aural facilities had been fatally interrupted by bursts of mad laughter so any more ‘pearls’ that escaped from Matty’s nether regions were lost to me,
Seriously wee Matty, you sound like you have admitted to yourself the almost inevitable defeat that the ides of September will bring you, try and put some life into it wont you,
”And now they’re spinning spinning spinning through the magic land, heading back to the beginning of the end at the masters hand”….
They have them as well. However the basic political panel format is usually a commentator from the left and one from the right and the panel host. What you seem to be stating is you don’t like this format and would prefer the panel to just reflect a single or narrow view of a topic.
nope, i dont want a panel to reflect a single or narrow view of a concept, that is what we have now.
You are right i dont like the concept because it is generally a shallow and manipulative spot to spin a view.
What i suggest is the same topics get discussed as now, and political experts as opposed to political players discuss. In a similar manner to media watch. Analysis, criticism, evaluation of veracity, tactics etc.
I still believe that given reliable information people can think, the current format is designed to think for people.
Why the Greens will hit 15% and won’t form an alliance with National
By Martyn Bradbury / June 9, 2014
“How to raid into National’s soft green-blue underbelly without creating a backlash amongst their core supporters has always been the challenge for the Greens in an electoral market now too crowded on the Left by Internet MANA.
It was a challenge I never thought they could pull off. I even compared such hunts on par with tracking Yeti and Lock Ness Besties, but the Greens over the last 2 weeks have unveiled policy that make deep runs within National territory while earning standing ovations from their core base.
It is astoundingly shrewd tactics that haven’t been appreciated above the roar of the Internet MANA Drum n Bass block party.
The Carbon Tax cut is genius because it targets the soft National vote so perfectly. Everyone who has the economic literacy to own a heat pump all sat up and listened to the mechanics of what was being proposed and saw its intelligent design and clicked the ‘Add to my Cart’ button with all the mercenary efficiency of upgrading an app.
The Greens followed this up with a bold announcement on making Abortion legal. It’s a staunch stance that has real pull to progressive women and goes beyond political affiliation. I think it’s bold enough to truly appeal to young female voters inside National..”…
Once again Martyn Bradbury hits the NAIL on the Head!…GO GREEN!
…Lets hope that the women in Mana Party and the Internet Party also support the LEGALISE ABORTION policy !
…….( also National and Act would do well to follow this policy if they want to keep women’s votes and in many many cases the votes of males )
…and leave the religious nutters and male power and control freaks over women’s lives and bodies out in the cold !..(.with no place to go except to the embrace of Colin Craigs Party)
A ”bold announcement” as you attribute to the Green Party announcing ”open slather abortion for all” might in some quarters be seen as something entirely different in the vein of ”stupid”,
In terms of electoral politics to enter a General election fighting with such a divisive policy is to invite the same situation that Phill Goff experienced during the 2011 campaign where He roared into the campaign touting the lead balloon that i suspect cost Labour % points by the truckload,
Such policy is in my opinion better proposed by a sitting Government in its third term,
The announced Laissez Fairre abortion policy has already cost the Green Party one member,(and thankfully the announcement was made befor i had parted with what was my intended election donation to the Party which i can now happily keep in my pocket for more deserving causes)…
Ha Ha is probably all your comment is worth, if that, Colon has as much chance of securing any of my votes as, well as the Green Party who until a week ago were a shoe in to get my electorate vote,
That after being subjected to god knows how many comments of mine you would for a moment consider that i would cast a vote for Colon says more about the vast empty spaces that occupy your mind than it does to say anything about me…
well, if you think mana will vote against decriminalising abortion you are dreaming, that goes for laila harres internet party, you seem to dislike labour, national, maori party, act and hairdo, so that left colin, or you will not vote at all.
Oh you are now the all seeing oracle are you Tracey, there will be one hell of a debate among Mana Party members should the Green Party Legislation ever hit the floor of the Parliament…
Nope, my Party Vote is going to InternetMana, yep a pretty symbolic withdrawal of a electorate vote that Russell might have liked to count but pretty meaningless as you say,
Not entirely lost nothing, my intention as a member was to give my election budget to the Party while i voted for InternetMana, am not sure what the ratio is concerning money spent and MP’s gained,(am sure someone has worked that one out),
You could say that my donation was probably worth an extra MP’s toenail clipping, of course, depending how deep the disquiet is about the abortion policy, after the extra MP’s toenail come the quick and after that….
if it makes you feel okay to sit back and apportion blame to kermit the frog parker that’s lovely. The fact remains that after more than 3 years the Christchurch drainage system is still the biggest fuckup since Dunkirk. The Netherlands have been below sea level way longer than that and i seriously doubt it is criscrossed by a system of temporary pumps. My point was and still is that it is comical an international city has to sit back with fingers and legs crossed in the hope that the temporary fix might work during heavy rain. Get some bastard in here from the Netherlands or some other tourist to offer real advice on how to stop this thing going on longer than the second world war.
P.s Ayn Rand was an arab hating headcase.
read Rod Oram on Sunday and he says the world bank says the NZ ETS scheme is a sham an a rort. Furthermore richard preebble says Banks is an honest man. What is happening here is that we have arrived at an orwellian point where the truth has become lies and lies are truth.
This government would have to be the most bent and corrupt administration New Zealand has ever seen.
They have had their TURN and now its time to turn the rascals out.
Did pre-European Maori practice Invasive Abortion, befor you even think about answering such a moot you need remember that Pre-European Maori were not and cannot simply be described as a ”They”,
Pre-European Maori were a number of what is best described as a series of sovereign nations formed around a tribal heart, thus ”they” depending upon where they lived and the Tikanga practices of that particular Tribal Nation might or might not have practiced invasive abortion,
My view is that IF you can produce a definitive opinion that ”They” did practice invasive abortion you can along with at least a reference to an author you wish to quote,proved a specific ”They” in the form of one of those Tribal Nations i mention where you believe that Maori in pre-European times practiced invasive abortions,
So far 2 Authors have been referred to: Gluckman LK born in 1920 i doubt had much contact with Maori that had lived their lives in an Aotearoa that was pre-European,
Hunton RB, which Hunton RB would you be quoting from, the Hunton RB 1877-1963 sure as hell didn’t write the 1970’s view of Maori invasive abortions, perhaps it is the other Hunton RB that is quoted, the same Hunton RB that has written widely of modern abortion practices, he sure as hell did not undertake an extensive study of pre-European abortion practices,
Elsdon Best, Tuhoe ethnographer, studied the practices of Maori in the lower North Island for most of His life and wrote prolifically and was respected by Maori for these writings much of which were simple copies of verbal history as told to Him by elders within the Tribes he worked and lived among,
This is Best on Maori abortions practices from the Journal of the Polynesian Society:
”it does not appear that anything in the way of medicine was taken internally in former times in order to cause abortion, or to cause anything for that matter”,
But,
”Since the natives have observed the use made of such by white people they have discovered ? many cures, generally simple remedies, decoctions of herbs etc for most complaints, and, also to procure abortions” unquote,
Love the way Best discusses ”the natives”,(He was tho well respected by many), pre-European Maori had an abortion rite, along with fertility rites, this ”rite” carried out by a relevant Tohunga and consisted of waving the leaves of a significant tree over the womb of the woman while reciting prayer,
Now that is the pre-European abortion practice from my Rohe which centers around the Porirua and Wellington areas of the lower North Island, and Lolz, i do not know how successful such rites were, but, invasive abortion was not practiced here by my ancestors as both the woman and the baby were simply Tapu and could not be touched…
so because the methods intended to induce abortions probably didn’t work, pre-E Māori would not approve of methods that do work?
That’s some impressive thinkafying.
You just do not get it do you Mac, i should imagine that the Tohunga of the time were not trying to induce anything,
For anyone involving themselves in such practice was an invitation to bring upon themselves a Makutu,
Like modern times there are probably many reasons for a woman to fear childbirth, especially if She had survived a specially painful miscarriage,
The Tohunga according to Tikanga could neither touch the pregnant woman or the baby in Her womb, Such Tohunga according to Tikanga could not try and directly induce an abortion,
The only means of intervention then was up to either specific Atua or Tipuna and the Tohunga would have been engaged in Karakia specifically asking those Atua and Tipuna to intervene on the pregnant woman’s behalf,
without intending any particular outcome the Tohunga were requesting a particular outcome (miscarriage) and that it might have “worked” (the requested parties induced a miscarriage), even though saying it “worked” means that the outcome was desired and intended.
So the Atua and/or Tipuna produced the abortion regardless of any rite, prayers or leave-waving made by the Tohunga?
So why bother with all the prayers and leave-waving?
fwiw, I don’t believe it did “work”. But I do believe that an abortion was the intended outcome, even if it didn’t “work”. But if leave-waving isn’t an “invasive” abortion, does that mean you’re cool with ru-486?
They didn’t believe that their actions were without deep metaphysical and spiritual consequences, McFlock, consequences which rested not just on the mother but the entire tribe, and which rebounded through time to worlds beyond this one. I am sure that their complex rituals and behaviours before during and after the entire process reflected that.
So why bother with all the prayers and leave-waving?
See my remarks above. Not that I expect you really give a fuck, as I am guessing that to you it’s all just bullshit leaf waving.
But what I give a fuck about is the delusion that abortion was yet another colonial import, whereas it seems to have been the objective of at least one ritual, effective or not. Worst case scenario, medicine simply enables what was originally intended.
were you there bad?? Not like you to so easily take the word of the representative of the evils of colonisation. Do you think, given she was tapu, pregnany maori women procuring or inducing abortions invitedthe very white male mr best to watch? How are you doing reconciling infanticide amongst maori?
Dont pull the if you are not maori you cant comment shit unless i can say you cant comment on abortion cos you have never been pregnant, and i have never said that.
Unlike you Tracey i do not base my thinking around a simpletons knee jerk, have you proof of infanticide and the further proof of where and by which Tribe(if any) that such was practiced,
As i said i will examine any evidence i can find of such later, such examination usually consists of a number of hours and unlike you i do not take ”probable” to mean anything except a ”slur” cast…
clook bad, calm down. I posted it in response to someone else about indigenous practices.
You can believe that maori are the only people in the history of humans who didnt abort foetuses. It is just an unlikely scenario. The word of a male who is unlikely to have been privy to women procuring such abortions is only part of the story.
Abortion has been tabu, or tapu in all societies and it hasnt stopped it happening.
i am specifically ruling out nothing, Elsdon Best writing in the Journal of the Polynesian Society said that Maori that He had lived among and studied had no such herbs that induced abortion,
Such herbs did not come into use until the Pakeha arrivals introduced them to Maori, as far as i know Best is in fact the best authority when it comes to written histories of pre-European Maori having as the saying goes gained the knowledge straight from the horses mouth,
If you know of a better source of information on pre-European Maori feel free to provide us all a hint…
Looks like abortion amongst maori was rare, for the reasons you state, so instead they practised infanticide
Anthropologists have found that abortion has been used as a method of birth control in nearly all societies that have been studied (Derereux, 1955) irrespective of social attitudes or legal prohibition.
With regard to the pre-European Maori, Gluckman (1971) has shown that while abortion did occur rarely, it was probable that infanticide was practised more often, as there existed strong mythological opposition to abortion.
Nineteenth century European colonization of New Zealand resulted in the introduction of British law concerning abortion. Traditionally, English common law permitted abortion if it was performed before quickening (about 16-20 weeks).
The first British statute to govern abortion was passed in 1803 and this forbade abortion at any time during pregnancy. This prohibition was automatically imported into New Zealand in 1840. In that year New Zealand became a colony and all relevant British law was enforceable in the colony.
The Offences Against the Person Act 1866, which was passed by both houses of the New Zealand Parliament without debate, was based on the earlier British legislation.
Apart from some subsequent re-enactments and minor alterations, statute law has retained most of the features of the original Act.
could you post a list of acceptable sources and researchers to save anybody wanting to debate with you some time?
Can i assume anyone not writing in support of your saintly notion of pre european maori is not acceptable.
You carry on with your belief that you are from a saibtly pure lineage where no one procured abortion, no one committed infanticide and no one tried to lose their foetus. You are entitled to do so but i dont have to be an enabler.
Have read it. Interesting to note that once medicines to abort were available they were used. Also interesting that given tapu, it is likely women, and men would have hidden any procurement and passed off tge result as miscarriage. Truly bad, i think it naive to think maori werent procuring abortin and that the means were not whispered from geberation to generation.
” Abortion (Whakatahe or Kuka).
According to Maori belief, premature birth was usually caused by some infringement of the laws of tapu on the part of the mother, and for which she would be thus punished by the gods. When a woman, in former times, desired to procure abortion on herself, she would proceed to taiki the fœtus, that is, she would pollute a tapu person, as a priest, or one of her elders, by passing some cooked food over – 13 his garment, or his resting place. Or she might take a portion of cooked food to some sacred place, and there eat it. Such acts would, to the native mind, be deemed quite sufficient to cause a miscarriage. Generally speaking, when a woman noticed that she was papuni, i.e., that menstruation had stopped, and she knew that she had conceived, and, moreover, wished to procure abortion, she would probably proceed to some sacred place, as the tuahu, where priests performed various religious rites, and she would pluck some herb there growing and, applying the same to her mouth, would then cast it away. That would be quite sufficient, she has “eaten,” or polluted, a sacred place. The gods will attend to her case.
There is a considerable amount of danger to man attached to abortion, so say the Maori people, inasmuch as the fœtus is liable to develop into a most malignant demon (atua), which afflicts man grievously in divers ways, and is much dreaded. Such a caco-dœmon is termed an atua kahu or kahukahu. It is the spirit (wairua) of the fœtus which thus developes into a mischievous and dangerous demon. The term kahu is applied to the membrane which covers the fœtus, as also is whakakahu.
It is in this way. When a case of abortion occurs, the fœtus is taken away and buried. Now, should it so happen that a dog, or pig, finds, and resurrects, and eats the fœtus, then the spirit of the same will enter into the animal, which thus becomes an atua ngau tangata, or man-afflicting demon. Or this evil spirit may be conciliated by some person, and utilised as a war god. For an exhaustive description of such a development, see the Journal of the Polynesian Society, Vol. VI., p. 41.
It is singular to note that the spirit of a stillborn child is, to the Maori mind, always an evil one, and a power for evil only, never for good.
When a person is afflicted by one of these evil spirits, he hies him to the tohunga, or priest, who proceeds to exorcise the same by means of a certain rite and invocation. The afflicted person probably knows not what ails him, but, being ill, he consults the priest, who, being a seer, will soon locate the cause. He will then say:—“Your affliction is a kahu.” He will probably also know which woman produced that cause, and, on his asking her, she will admit it, and say that she buried it at a certain place, or threw it into a stream. The famous Tuhoean war god Te Rehu-o-Tainui was an atua kahu, which came from a still born child which had been cast into a stream, and was eaten by the small fish named titarakura. Hence that fish was possessed by the evil spirit, and no member of the Tuhoe tribe has – 14 since eaten of those fish, for they are tapu. The natives of this district are yet firm believers in these matters.
However, to cure the sufferer introduced above, the priest will go in search of a plant termed keketuwai, which is used as an ara atua, or way by which an afflicting demon is made to leave the human body. Placing this object upon the body of his patient, the priest will repeat a charm, or incantation, in order to force the evil spirit to quit the body of the sufferer:—
“Tenei to ara Haere ki o tipuna Haere ki o matua Haere ki o koroua Haere ki nga mana o o tipuna.” Etc., etc.
This kind of charm is called a takutaku. It calls upon the demon to come forth from the sufferer’s body, and betake itself to the outer spaces, to the realm of darkness, or its original place, or to those from whom it sprang. Here is another takutaku:—
“Haere koutou e patu nei Haere i tua Haere i waho Haere i te Pu Haere i te More Haere i te Weu E oho e nga atua whiu E oho e nga atua ta Haere i tua Haere i te pouriuri Haere i te potangotango Ko rou ora Ki te whai ao Ki te ao marama.”
The tohunga will also proceed to the place where the fœtus was buried and there kindle a fire, over which he will repeat an incantatation in order to lay the evil spirit, and to render it harmless. He will also cook an article of food, usually a kumara, or sweet potato, at that fire. This he then proceeds to eat, and thus the evil spirit is tamaoatia, or polluted, rendered harmless, its powers to harm man are so destroyed. This rite is nowadays here termed a whakawhetia, a modern, introduced expression, and used in a very misleading sense.
The above rite was often performed over the fœtus as soon as it was buried, in order that the evil spirit be rendered harmless before it could do any evil, otherwise it might turn on the relatives of the woman and afflict them sorely. Prevention is better than cure.
15 The spirit of such a fœtus may enter an animal, or bird, or fish, or insect. Should a moth (purerehua) chance to fly over the fœtus it would be entered by the evil spirit and that moth would then possess powers inimical to man, passing dangerous to human life. If the fœtus be cast into the water, it may be devoured by a fish, which would thus become a dangerous atua. Such animal, fish, bird, or insect, thus becomes the aria, or form of incarnation of the evil spirit of the fœtus.
In one case which came under my notice, a fœtus was buried under the perch of a captive bird, a tame kaka parrot. The evil spirit of the kahu entered the bird with the result that several people were seriously afflicted by it. Diseases of the eyes, and other troubles, were caused by that dangerous demon, a truly disreputable bird. When any person was affected by that atua, should he, or a relative, dream of seeing the bird with ruffled plumage (E whakakenakena ana), that was deemed a good omen for the sufferer, he would recover. But should the dreamer see the bird moving about, or with its feathers in a flacid, or ordinary, condition (mohimohi), that that was a bad omen for the patient.
To destroy the evil spirit of a human fœtus, some of the leaves in which food has been placed for cooking may be used as a covering for such fœtus when buried. This will have the desired effect. There is nothing so inimical to tapu, or supernatural powers, as cooked food, or anything which has come in contact with it
But in some cases these atua kahu were not destroyed, but were cultivated, conciliated with offerings, and developed into war gods, in order that their power might be directed against tribal enemies. Such was the origin of the atua (gods, demons) known as Te Awa-nui, Pare-houhou, Peketahi, and Te Rehu-o-Tainui, of the Tuhoe tribe.
The terms tahe, whakatahe, mate-roto, and kuka are all applied to abortion.
It does not appear that anything in the way of medicine was taken internally, in former times, in order to cause abortion, or to cure anything for that matter. But since the natives have observed the use made of such by white people, they have discovered (?) many cures, generally simple remedies, decoctions of herbs, etc., for most complaints, and also to procure abortion. A local native is famous for his skill in procuring abortion in this manner. Native treatment of disease formerly was essentially empirical, being based on observation and experience alone, or such afflictions were viewed as the result of witchcraft.
Lots of invasive abortions occurring there then isn’t there,
You thunk it therefor it was or is Tracey is pretty much lightweight don’t you think,
The obvious that appears befor you written by Best who lived among the people He wrote about was that they didn’t,
Until that is pakeha introduced them to specific concoctions, by then i would suggest the Tikanga that ruled Maori pre-European lives was well on the way to breaking down completely…
Something else for you to consider Tracey, if you can drag yourself away from the notion of pre-European Maori killing their kids as a matter of course that is,
From what i have been told, and i will look later for the supporting literature, the act of sex among my lot was not instigated by the males,
He would have to wait until She wanted to engage, She would only engage when She felt She was ready to produce,(there’s an or goes here,which i will leave out for now),
That didn’t mean He missed out as my lot also practiced poly-whats-it,
Given that i am sure that such woman living by the rules they lived by way back then were far more in control of their bodies and their ”selves” i fail to see how there would be any great demand for abortion,
They all were certainly not going out on the piss on a Friday night to find a bit of ”fun”, i know more than a few among ‘my lot’ that still practice such methods of child birth…
It is singular to note that the spirit of a stillborn or aborted child is, to the Maori mind, always an evil one, and a power for evil only, never for good.
a little modification to the original sentence, which I believe is likely to hold true.
And why is the spirit always evil ( I read this as resentful/angry/vindictive)? Simple; because having come so close to that rarest opportunity of experiencing life as a human being in connection with heaven and earth, that chance was suddenly yanked away.
Kerlap, Kerlap,Kerlap, a totally dishonest addition to something you have little knowledge of CV, imposing your beliefs upon the natives like a good colonizer would do,
It’s very difficult to get a direct link, but the LandCare Research database of Maori plant use lists several late-1800s attestations for using kareao in a dedoction to procure abortion. A 1940 source states puka could also be used. http://maoriplantuse.landcareresearch.co.nz/WebForms/default.aspx
Murdoch Riley is a reasonable starting point. Most libraries have his ethnobotanical work. He talks about Māori women knowing the common Polynesian practice of external steaming to induce abortion. He uses the term ‘matter of course’. There were also wairua ways. I have talked to one Māori woman who confirmed that the knowledge of how to terminate pregnancies was amongst her people pre-contact with Europeans.
I wouldn’t consider Elsdon Best to be authoritative on abortion by Māori (although Riley says Best did know that abortion was practiced). The white male Europeans of the time wouldn’t have been asking the right questions, nor probably had access to the information that would have been held by Māori women. Māori women would have had their own reasons for sharing or not sharing (by the time Best was on the scence, anti-abortion Christian missionaries had been in NZ for quite some time). It’s a pretty common dynamic throughout the world where Europeans were colonising. If you want to know what women were doing at those times, talk to women and put the work of white male ethnographers in the proper context.
I’m surprised any of you anti-choicers so much as dare to show your heads this month, considering the massive scandal brewing over in Tuam where, it appears, your mob were busy enslaving women and dumping dead babies in septic tanks, like a little miniature Bergen-Belsen.
Now that is what i expect from the Pro-Lobby, a spirited debate connecting extreme events that have nothing what-so-ever to do with the debate here in New Zealand, the uglier the better right,
So as a proponent of No change to the current Law what part are you suggesting that i played in the ugly fate of those children,
That you can actually bring this into a discussion about abortion provokes in me cynical laughter(at you),how many baby lives have the Pro-Lobby promotions had flushed down the sinks of the abortion clinics so far,
Damn but you lot are slipping, i should have thought you would have found at least a little space to be able to paste an accusation of misogyny in there some place…
although im not willing to apologize for any possible inconvenience, putake – im slightly puffy chested that you at least appear to enjoy reading my posts. that being the case i can only say that for now im not able to multitask (because im male) to the ‘reply button’ you mention as im consumed by trying to figure out what the numerals to the far right of my posts indicate.
look, phillip, i understand youre probably a little bit put out the lovely trace was waving her vagina at me in an introductory fashion a few days ago, but i want to assure you i have no interest in the borderline personality types. why dont you trundle off and watch ‘shortie’ or something.
[lprent: I am failing to see any point in there. Read the policy on pointed abuse and why you must put points of possible interest to others in with any abuse you want to sling. ]
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Olivia and Noah and Hana are going to the library!It is fun to go to the library. It has books and songs and mat time and people who smile at you and say, Hello Olivia, what have you been doing this morning?The library is more fun than the mall. At ...
New World Orders: The challenge facing Christopher Luxon and Chris Hipkins is how to keep their small and vulnerable nation safe and stable in a world whose economic and political climate the forty-seventh American president is changing so profoundly.IT IS, SURELY, the ultimate Millennial revenge fantasy. Calling senior Baby-Boomer and Gen-X ...
“This might surprise you, Laurie, but I reckon Trump’s putting on a bloody impressive performance.”“GOODNESS ME, HANNAH, just look at all those Valentine’s Day cards!”“Occupational hazard, Laurie, the more beer I serve, the more my customers declare their undying love!”“Crikey! I had no idea business was so good.” Laurie squinted ...
In 2005, Labour repealed the long-standing principle of birthright citizenship in Aotearoa. Why? As with everything else Labour does, it all came down to austerity: "foreign mothers" were supposedly "coming to this country to give birth", and this was "put[ting] pressure on hospitals". Then-Immigration Minister George Hawkins explicitly gave this ...
And I just hope that you can forgive usBut everything must goAnd if you need an explanation, nationThen everything must goSongwriters: James Dean Bradfield / Sean Anthony Moore / Nicholas Allen Jones.Today, I’d like to talk about a couple of things that happened over the weekend:Brian Tamaki’s Library Invasion and ...
New reporting highlights how Brooke van Velden refuses to meet with the CTU but is happy to meet with fringe Australian-based unions. Van Velden is pursuing reckless changes to undermine the personal grievance system against the advice of her own officials. Engineering New Zealand are saying that hundreds of engineers ...
The NZCTU strongly supports the Employment Relations (Employee Remuneration Disclosure) Amendment Bill. This Bill represents a positive step towards addressing serious issues around unlawful disparities in pay by protecting workers’ rights to discuss their pay and conditions. This Bill also provides welcome support for helping tackle the prevalent gender and ...
Years of hard work finally paid off last week as the country’s biggest and most important transport project, the City Rail Link reached a major milestone with the first test train making its way slowly though the tunnels for the first time. This is a fantastic achievement and it is ...
Engineers are pleading for the Government to free up funds to restart stalled projects. File Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Monday, February 17 are:Engineering New Zealand CEO Richard Templer said yesterday hundreds of ...
It’s one of New Zealand’s great sustaining myths: the spirit of ANZAC, our mates across the ditch, the spirit of Earl’s Court, Antipodeans united against the world. It is also a myth; it is not reality. That much was clear from a series of speakers, including a former Australian Prime ...
Many people have been unsatisfied for years that things have not improved for them, some as individuals, many more however because their families are clearly putting in more work, for less money – and certainly far less purchase on society. This general discontent has grown exponentially since the GFC. ...
A listing of 34 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, February 9, 2025 thru Sat, February 15, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
The Salvation Army’s State of the Nation report shows worsening food poverty and housing shortages mean more than 400,000 people now need welfare support, the highest level since the 1990s. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and ...
You're just too too obscure for meOh you don't really get through to meAnd there's no need for you to talk that wayIs there any less pessimistic things to say?Songwriters: Graeme DownesToday, I thought we’d take a look at some of the most cringe-inducing moments from last week, but don’t ...
Please note: I’ve delayed my “What can we do?” article for this video.The video above shows Destiny Church members assaulting staff and librarians as they pushed through to a room of terrified parents and young children.It was posted to social media last night.But if you read Sinead Boucher’s Stuff, you ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is sea level rise exaggerated? Sea levels are rising at an accelerating rate, not stagnating or decreasing. Warming global temperatures cause land ice ...
Here is a scenario, but first a historical parallel. Hitler and the Nazis could well have accomplished everything that they wanted to do within German borders, including exterminating Jews, so long as they confined their ambitious to Germany itself. After all, the world pretty much sat and watched as the ...
I’ve spent the last couple of days in Hamilton covering Waikato University’s annual NZ Economics Forum, where (arguably) three of the most influential people in our political economy right now laid out their thinking in major speeches about the size and role of Government, their views on for spending, tax ...
Simeon Brown’s Ideology BentSimeon Brown once told Kiwis he tries to represent his deep sense of faith by interacting “with integrity”.“It’s important that there’s Christians in Parliament…and from my perspective, it’s great to be a Christian in Parliament and to bring that perspective to [laws, conversations and policies].”And with ...
Severe geological and financial earthquakes are inevitable. We just don’t know how soon and how they will play out. Are we putting the right effort into preparing for them?Every decade or so the international economy has a major financial crisis. We cannot predict exactly when or exactly how it will ...
Questions1. How did Old Mate Grabaseat describe his soon-to-be-Deputy-PM’s letter to police advocating for Philip Polkinghorne?a.Ill-advisedb.A perfect letterc.A letter that will live in infamyd.He had me at hello2. What did Seymour say in response?a.What’s ill-advised is commenting when you don’t know all the facts and ...
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi President Richard Wagstaff has called on OJI Fibre Solutions to work with the government, unions, and the community before closing the Kinleith Paper Mill. “OJI has today announced 230 job losses in what will be a devastating blow for the community. OJI needs to work with ...
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi President Richard Wagstaff is sounding the alarm about the latest attack on workers from Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Brooke van Velden, who is ignoring her own officials to pursue reckless changes that would completely undermine the personal grievance system. “Brooke van Velden’s changes will ...
Hi,When I started writing Webworm in 2020, I wrote a lot about the conspiracy theories that were suddenly invading our Twitter timelines and Facebook feeds. Four years ago a reader, John, left this feedback under one of my essays:It’s a never ending labyrinth of lunacy which, as you have pointed ...
And if you said this life ain't good enoughI would give my world to lift you upI could change my life to better suit your moodBecause you're so smoothAnd it's just like the ocean under the moonOh, it's the same as the emotion that I get from youYou got the ...
Aotearoa remains the minority’s birthright, New Zealand the majority’s possession. WAITANGI DAY commentary see-saws manically between the warmly positive and the coldly negative. Many New Zealanders consider this a good thing. They point to the unexamined patriotism of July Fourth and Bastille Day celebrations, and applaud the fact that the ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with regular and special guests, including: and on the week in geopolitics, including the latest from Donald Trump’s administration over Gaza and Ukraine; on the ...
Up until now, the prevailing coalition view of public servants was that there were simply too many of them. But yesterday the new Public Service Commissioner, handpicked by the Luxon Government, said it was not so much numbers but what they did and the value they produced that mattered. Sir ...
Photo by Mauricio Fanfa on UnsplashKia oraCome and join us for our weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news with myself , plus regular guests and ...
In a moment we explore the question: What is Andrew Bayly wanting to tell ACC, and will it involve enjoying a small wine tasting and then telling someone to fuck off? But first, for context, a broader one: What do we look for in a government?Imagine for a moment, you ...
As expected, Donald Trump just threw Ukraine under the bus, demanding that it accept Russia's illegal theft of land, while ruling out any future membership of NATO. Its a colossal betrayal, which effectively legitimises Russia's invasion, while laying the groundwork for the next one. But Trump is apparently fine with ...
A ballot for a single member's bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Employment Relations (Collective Agreements in Triangular Relationships) Amendment Bill (Adrian Rurawhe) The bill would extend union rights to employees in triangular relationships, where they are (nominally) employed by one party, but ...
This is a guest post by George Weeks, reviewing a book called ‘How to Fly a Horse’ by Kevin AshtonBook review: ‘How to Fly a Horse’ by Kevin Ashton (2015) – and what it means for Auckland. The title of this article might unnerve any Greater Auckland ...
This story was originally published by Capital & Main and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. Within just a week, the sheer devastation of the Los Angeles wildfires has pushed to the fore fundamental questions about the impact of the climate crisis that have been ...
In this world, it's just usYou know it's not the same as it wasSongwriters: Harry Edward Styles / Thomas Edward Percy Hull / Tyler Sam JohnsonYesterday, I received a lovely message from Caty, a reader of Nick’s Kōrero, that got me thinking. So I thought I’d share it with you, ...
In past times a person was considered “unserious” or “not a serious” person if they failed to grasp, behave and speak according to the solemnity of the context in which they were located. For example a serious person does not audibly pass gas at Church, or yell “gun” at a ...
Long stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Thursday, February 13 are:The coalition Government’s early 2024 ‘fiscal emergency’ freeze on funding, planning and building houses, schools, local roads and hospitals helped extend and deepen the economic and jobs recession through calendar ...
For obvious reasons, people feel uneasy when the right to be a citizen is sold off to wealthy foreigners. Even selling the right to residency seems a bit dubious, when so many migrants who are not millionaires get turned away or are made to jump through innumerable hoops – simply ...
A new season of White Lotus is nearly upon us: more murder mystery, more sumptuous surroundings, more rich people behaving badly.Once more we get to identify with the experience of the pampered tourist or perhaps the poorly paid help; there's something in White Lotus for all New Zealanders.And unlike the ...
In 2016, Aotearoa shockingly plunged to fourth place in the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index. Nine years later, and we're back there again: New Zealand has seen a further slip in its global ranking in the latest Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). [...] In the latest CPI New Zealand's score ...
1. You’ve started ranking your politicians on how much they respect the rule of law2. You’ve stopped paying attention to those news publications3. You’ve developed a sudden interest in a particular period of history4. More and more people are sounding like your racist, conspiracist uncle.5. Someone just pulled a Nazi ...
Transforming New Zealand: Brian EastonBrian Easton will discuss the above topic at 2/57 Willis Street, Wellington at 5:30pm on Tuesday 26 February at 2/57 Willis Street, WellingtonThe sub-title to the above is "Why is the Left failing?" Brian Easton's analysis is based on his view that while the ...
Salvation Army’s State of the Nation 2025 report highlights falling living standards, the highest unemployment rates since the 1990s and half of all Pacific children going without food. There are reports of hundreds if not thousands of people are applying for the same jobs in the wake of last year’s ...
Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Correction: On the article The Condundrum of David Seymour, Luke Malpass conducted joint reviews with Bryce Wilkinson, the architect of the Regulatory Standards Bill - not Bryce Edwards. The article ...
Tomorrow the council’s Transport, Resilience and Infrastructure Committee meet and agenda has a few interesting papers. Council’s Letter of Expectation to Auckland Transport Every year the council provide a Letter of Expectation to Auckland Transport which is part of the process for informing AT of the council’s priorities and ...
All around in my home townThey're trying to track me down, yeahThey say they want to bring me in guiltyFor the killing of a deputyFor the life of a deputySongwriter: Robert Nesta Marley.Support Nick’s Kōrero today with a 20% discount on a paid subscription to receive all my newsletters directly ...
Hi,I think all of us have probably experienced the power of music — that strange, transformative thing that gets under our skin and helps us experience this whole life thing with some kind of sanity.Listening and experiencing music has always been such a huge part of my life, and has ...
Business frustration over the stalled economy is growing, and only 34% of voters are confidentNicola Willis can deliver. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, February 12 are:Business frustration is growing about a ...
I have now lived long enough to see a cabinet minister go both barrels on their Prime Minister and not get sacked.It used to be that the PM would have a drawer full of resignations signed by ministers on the day of their appointment, ready for such an occasion. But ...
“The ACT Party can’t be bothered putting an MP on one of the Justice subcommittees hearing submissions on their own Treaty Principles Bill,” Labour Justice Spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
The Government’s newly announced funding for biodiversity and tourism of $30-million over three years is a small fraction of what is required for conservation in this country. ...
The Government's sudden cancellation of the tertiary education funding increase is a reckless move that risks widespread job losses and service reductions across New Zealand's universities. ...
National’s cuts to disability support funding and freezing of new residential placements has resulted in significant mental health decline for intellectually disabled people. ...
The hundreds of jobs lost needlessly as a result of the Kinleith Mill paper production closure will have a devastating impact on the Tokoroa community - something that could have easily been avoided. ...
Today Te Pāti Māori MP for Te Tai Tokerau, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, released her members bill that will see the return of tamariki and mokopuna Māori from state care back to te iwi Māori. This bill will establish an independent authority that asserts and protects the rights promised in He Whakaputanga ...
The Whangarei District Council being forced to fluoridate their local water supply is facing a despotic Soviet-era disgrace. This is not a matter of being pro-fluoride or anti-fluoride. It is a matter of what New Zealanders see and value as democracy in our country. Individual democratically elected Councillors are not ...
Nicola Willis’ latest supermarket announcement is painfully weak with no new ideas, no real plan, and no relief for Kiwis struggling with rising grocery costs. ...
Half of Pacific children sometimes going without food is just one of many heartbreaking lowlights in the Salvation Army’s annual State of the Nation report. ...
The Salvation Army’s State of the Nation report is a bleak indictment on the failure of Government to take steps to end poverty, with those on benefits, including their children, hit hardest. ...
New Zealand First has today introduced a Member’s Bill which would restore decision-making power to local communities regarding the fluoridation of drinking water. The ‘Fluoridation (Referendum) Legislation Bill’ seeks to repeal the Health (Fluoridation of Drinking Water) Amendment Act 2021 that granted centralised authority to the Direct General of Health ...
New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill aimed at preventing banks from refusing their services to businesses because of the current “Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Framework”. “This Bill ensures fairness and prevents ESG standards from perpetuating woke ideology in the banking sector being driven by unelected, globalist, climate ...
Erica Stanford has reached peak shortsightedness if today’s announcement is anything to go by, picking apart immigration settings piece by piece to the detriment of the New Zealand economy. ...
Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. The intention was to establish a colony with the cession of sovereignty to the Crown, ...
Te Whatu Ora Chief Executive Margie Apa leaving her job four months early is another symptom of this government’s failure to deliver healthcare for New Zealanders. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Prime Minister to show leadership and be unequivocal about Aotearoa New Zealand’s opposition to a proposal by the US President to remove Palestinians from Gaza. ...
The latest unemployment figures reveal that job losses are hitting Māori and Pacific people especially hard, with Māori unemployment reaching a staggering 9.7% for the December 2024 quarter and Pasifika unemployment reaching 10.5%. ...
Waitangi 2025: Waitangi Day must be community and not politically driven - Shane Jones Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. ...
Despite being confronted every day with people in genuine need being stopped from accessing emergency housing – National still won’t commit to building more public houses. ...
The Green Party says the Government is giving up on growing the country’s public housing stock, despite overwhelming evidence that we need more affordable houses to solve the housing crisis. ...
Before any thoughts of the New Year and what lies ahead could even be contemplated, New Zealand reeled with the tragedy of Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming losing her life. For over 38 years she had faithfully served as a front-line Police officer. Working alongside her was Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson will return to politics at Waitangi on Monday the 3rd of February where she will hold a stand up with fellow co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. ...
Te Pāti Māori is appalled by the government's blatant mishandling of the school lunch programme. David Seymour’s ‘cost-saving’ measures have left tamariki across Aotearoa with unidentifiable meals, causing distress and outrage among parents and communities alike. “What’s the difference between providing inedible food, and providing no food at all?” Said ...
The Government is doubling down on outdated and volatile fossil fuels, showing how shortsighted and destructive their policies are for working New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s commitment to get New Zealand’s roads back on track is delivering strong results, with around 98 per cent of potholes on state highways repaired within 24 hours of identification every month since targets were introduced, Transport Minister Chris Bishop says. “Increasing productivity to help rebuild our economy is ...
The former Cadbury factory will be the site of the Inpatient Building for the new Dunedin Hospital and Health Minister Simeon Brown says actions have been taken to get the cost overruns under control. “Today I am giving the people of Dunedin certainty that we will build the new Dunedin ...
From today, Plunket in Whāngarei will be offering childhood immunisations – the first of up to 27 sites nationwide, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. The investment of $1 million into the pilot, announced in October 2024, was made possible due to the Government’s record $16.68 billion investment in health. It ...
New Zealand’s strong commitment to the rights of disabled people has continued with the response to an important United Nations report, Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston has announced. Of the 63 concluding observations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), 47 will be progressed ...
Resources Minister Shane Jones has launched New Zealand’s national Minerals Strategy and Critical Minerals List, documents that lay a strategic and enduring path for the mineral sector, with the aim of doubling exports to $3 billion by 2035. Mr Jones released the documents, which present the Coalition Government’s transformative vision ...
Firstly I want to thank OceanaGold for hosting our event today. Your operation at Waihi is impressive. I want to acknowledge local MP Scott Simpson, local government dignitaries, community stakeholders and all of you who have gathered here today. It’s a privilege to welcome you to the launch of the ...
Racing Minister, Winston Peters has announced the Government is preparing public consultation on GST policy proposals which would make the New Zealand racing industry more competitive. “The racing industry makes an important economic contribution. New Zealand thoroughbreds are in demand overseas as racehorses and for breeding. The domestic thoroughbred industry ...
Business confidence remains very high and shows the economy is on track to improve, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis says. “The latest ANZ Business Outlook survey, released yesterday, shows business confidence and expected own activity are ‘still both very high’.” The survey reports business confidence fell eight points to +54 ...
Enabling works have begun this week on an expanded radiology unit at Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital which will double CT scanning capacity in Hawke’s Bay to ensure more locals can benefit from access to timely, quality healthcare, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. This investment of $29.3m in the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Isaac Gross, Lecturer in Economics, Monash University Gumbariya/Shutterstock The Reserve Bank’s decision to cut interest rates for the first time in four years has triggered a round of celebration. Mortgage holders are cheering the fact their monthly repayments are now ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Housing supply in Australia will be a key battleground in the election campaign. With home ownership more and more out of reach for young and not so young Australians, red tape and low productivity are ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Korolev, Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations, UNSW Sydney The United States and Russia agreed to work on a plan to end the war in Ukraine at high-level talks in Saudi Arabia this week. Ukrainian and European representatives were pointedly ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Karleen Gribble, Adjunct Professor, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Western Sydney University BaLL LunLa/Shutterstock Sleep is the holy grail for new parents. So no wonder many tired parents are looking for something to help their babies sleep. A TikTok trend claims ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ranjana Gupta, Senior Lecturer, Accounting Department, Auckland University of Technology Jirsak/Shutterstock The profit made on every breakfast bowl of weet-bix is tax exempt, giving Sanitarium Health Food Company, owned by the Seventh-day Adventist Church, an advantage over other breakfast food companies. ...
A closer look at some of the homegrown talent currently commanding television screens around the globe. The new season of The White Lotus hit our screens this week, and with it a familiar face in New Zealand actor Morgana O’Reilly. To secure a role in one of the world’s most ...
"This is a crisis of the Government’s own making and the unit is another sign of desperation," said PSA acting national secretary Fleur Fitzsimons. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Francesca Perugia, Senior Lecturer, School of Design and the Built Environment, Curtin University Australia’s housing crisis has created a push for fast-tracked construction. Federal, state and territory governments have set a target of 1.2 million new homes over five years. Increasing housing ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ash Watson, Scientia Fellow and Senior Lecturer, UNSW Sydney Shutterstock When we’re uncomfortable we say the “vibe is off”. When we’re having a good time we’re “vibing”. To assess the mood we do a “vibe check”. And when the atmosphere in ...
What’s up with the man from Epsom? The leader of the Act Party has been in plenty of headlines in the last two weeks, ranging from a controversial letter to police on behalf of constituent Philip Polkinghorne (written before David Seymour was a minister) to an attempt to drive ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Stephenson, Deputy Director, Global Institute for Women’s Leadership, Australian National University Newly published research has found clear evidence that openly lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex, and queer+ (LGBTIQ+) Australian politicians were disproportionately targeted with personal abuse on social media at the ...
Gilmore Girls, Schitt’s Creek, even The Vampire Diaries – they’re all set in tight-knit neighbourhoods where everyone knows everyone. So what is it like to actually know your neighbours? My favourite television shows are set in tight-knit neighbourhoods where everyone knows everyone. Characters attend town meetings where they debate local ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Yanyan Hong, PhD Candidate in Communication and Media Studies, University of Adelaide IMDB On the surface, Ne Zha 2: The Sea’s Fury (2025), the sequel to the 2019 Chinese blockbuster Nezha: Birth of the Demon Child, is a high-octane, action-packed and ...
Wellington travellers say their buses are so hot they’re often forced to get off early and walk. Shanti Mathias explores the impact of non-functioning air conditioning on public transport. When Bella, a young professional living in Wellington, thinks about taking the bus, her first thought is “Ugh”. The bus might ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Annette Kroen, Research Fellow Planning and Transport, RMIT University The cleanup is underway in northern Queensland following the latest flooding catastrophe to hit the state. More than 7,000 insurance claims have already been lodged, most of them for inundated homes and other ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Subha Parida, Lecturer in Property, University of South Australia Carl Oberg/Shutterstock Houses and fire do not mix. The firestorm which hit Los Angeles in January destroyed nearly 2,000 buildings and forced 130,000 people to evacuate. The 2019–20 Australian megafires destroyed ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Bowman, Professor of Pyrogeography and Fire Science, University of Tasmania Tasmania has been burning for more than two weeks, with no end in sight. Almost 100,000 hectares of bushland in the northwest has burned to date. This includes the Tarkine rainforest ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Martin Loosemore, Professor of Construction Management, University of Technology Sydney This week, the Productivity Commission released its much-awaited report into productivity growth in Australia’s housing construction sector. It wasn’t a glowing appraisal. The commission found physical productivity – the total number ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Pascale Lubbe, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Molecular Ecology, University of Otago Royal spoonbills are among several new species that have crossed the Tasman and naturalised in New Zealand. JJ Harrison/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA When people arrived on the shores of Aotearoa ...
Stats NZ’s head is stepping down over the agency’s failure to safeguard census data, and more officials may soon be in the firing line, writes Catherine McGregor in today’s extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. An ‘absolutely unacceptable’ failure Stats NZ chief ...
Health NZ is under greater government scrutiny, with the new health minister setting up a unit he says will "drive greater accountability and performance". ...
Manurewa Marae acknowledges should have done better at handling completed census forms, following an inquiry into steps government agencies took to protect data. ...
Police failed to protect people from protesters at a high-profile rally and made unlawful arrests at another, the Independent Police Conduct Authority says. ...
Comment: Crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are making it easier for people to invest in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum without having to handle digital wallets or private keys. These allow investors to buy and sell cryptocurrency through their regular brokerage accounts.This has opened the door for billions of dollars ...
Two long-awaited reports into alleged personal data misuse, centred on census collection and Covid-19 vaccination efforts at Manurewa Marae, were released yesterday. Here’s what you need to know.“Very sobering reading” was how public service commissioner Sir Brian Roche described his organisation’s long-awaited report into the alleged misuse of census ...
Backbench MPs reached new levels of patsy questions in an extraordinarily dull question time on Tuesday. Echo Chamber is The Spinoff’s dispatch from the press gallery, recapping sessions in the House. Columns are written by politics reporter Lyric Waiwiri-Smith and Wellington editor Joel MacManus. “MPs ask questions to explore key issues ...
‘prohibitionist-panics’…the funny side of..
http://www.alternet.org/drugs/6-most-hilarious-pot-freak-outs
i was talking to a middle-aged lady over the weekend..
..whose husband is in stage four cancer..
..and she told me that she has been told (unofficially) that after his latest round of chemo..
..that rather than him going on to morphine…
..that cannabis would be better for him…(especially high-potency cannabis-oil..which has demonstrated the power to shrink tumors..)
..so she now has to go and find some hash-oil..somewhere..)
..i took two takeaways from that..
1)..how fucken ‘sick’ that is…that someone in the final stages of cancer ..has to turn to the blackmarket for relief for his suffering..when a proven low-risk palliative (at the very least..maybe more..)..is to hand..
..and for fucken why..?
..’cos some national party fucken piss-ignorant rednecks..have cowed gutless-politicans into silence/bowing to their will..
..and why am i talking about/bringing this up..?
..why the fuck isn’t the spokesperson for (say) the greens..?
..going on breakfast tv to argue the logic/humanity of a law-change..
..who is that green party spokesperson on that issue..?
..you wouldn’t know..(where’s fucken waldo..?..)..but it’s hague..(who knew..?..)..the green party cowardice on this issue..is beyond fucken contempt..
..and they roundly deserve their long-suffering/ignored constituency on that issue..
..to walk from them..to the internet/mana parties…
2)..why the fuck are these cancer-doctors not going public on this..?
..they are offering this off-the-record advice..?..w.t.f..?..
..someone in a white-coat talking about cancer-patients vomiting their guts out..(when they don’t need to have that added layer to their suffering..
.(.it’s just the will of those pig-ignorant/provincial-rednecks the national party serves/cowers in front of..)
..these cancer doctors speaking out might even cause politicians like (but not only) hague..
..to grow a set of fucken balls…
Are you attending the NORML conference this weekend perchance?
did not even know it was on..
..(and don’t get me started on ‘cannabis-warriors’..who fell-silent..and morphed into legal-high peddlers..eh..?
..grr..!!..
..and as it’s campaign-financing goody-bag time..
..we’ll probable hear again soon from the aotearoa legalise party people..(person?)
..and for the first time in 3 yrs..
..where have they been..?
..and what have they been doing on this issue..in the interim..?
..just sitting around smoking bongs..?
..and waiting for the next election-campaign-funding goody-baggie to turn up..?..)
Isn’t that your chance to actually make a substative difference to the debate on Cannabis in NZ as opposed to posting here and on your blog which largely gets ignored?
i have as much chance of an invite from them..(see above..)
..as i am likely to get an invite to jamie ‘just do nothing about climate-change!’ whytes next ayn rand appreciation society meeting..
..and given the stunning-silences from them..for so long..
..i wd question yr criticism of me for posting @ whoar..and here…
..if not me..here and there..
..fucken who..?..and where..?
..to me..the silences from all who should be speaking up/out..
..is fucken deafening..
NORML and Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party are largely ghettoised and subject to negative stereotyping similar to say Voluntary Euthanasia advocates and other one issue groups. Little progress has been made in decades by NORML their conference is highlighting Colorado experience so far.
Cannabis debate has been bouncing for a week on facebook via the IMP pages so maybe cannabis reformers should make links there.
I am for general legalisation and urgent attention to medical cannabis. But not putting time into an ineffective one issue group.
that coming out by laila harre..and that debate on this issue on the internet party site..
..has been a rare gust of fresh air..
..and welcomed..
“.. and on your blog which largely gets ignored?..”
..i wont rise to yr slur on my work..
..save to say that one day people will notice that there is a local news-resource – that brings them a best-of from local/the world..every day..(40-50 new stories/links..every day..)
..and with/having built up over time… a hand-picked best-of searchengine of over 90,000 best-of’s..
..the value of that will come into its’ own..
..’till then..i’ll just plug on/away..
..eh..?..
..and console myself with the 20,000 rss subscribers i have..
..and the over 20,000 other websites around the world that have whoar on their best-of websites lists..
..eh..?
(and of course..i am looking forward to the herald and stuff going behind a paywall..
..news hates a vacuum..eh..?.)
..and whoar will never paywall..
..i can promise you that..
..my political-imperative of free-access to (quality) news/info for all over-rides those/any commerical-considerations..
’till then..of course..you have the supermarket-giveaway quality herald/stuff to read/rely on..eh..?
..(snigger/snort..!..)
and maybe rawdy on breakfast telly for yr political-analysis..eh..?
..heh..!
..this morn there was that (3 day-old) story about the spikes being put in the ground outside buildings in london..
..to deter/stop the homeless from sleeping there..
..’rawdy’..obnoxious oink that he is..was all for this idea..
..and that if it were the case..he wd be urging his body-corporate/whatever..to do just that..
..eh ‘rawdy’..?
..even his co-compere seemed a tad shocked at ‘rawdy’ taking his callous/uncaring/fuck-the-poor!-side out for such a public-trot..
..but he clearly could not suppress/hide it..
..he just thought it was..all in all..a good-idea..
..and if you weren’t watching..
..you missed ‘rawdy’ giving ‘no worries!’ key..
..his usual mon-morn reaming-out/rimming..
god forbid you grow your own medicine,
I mean where is the profit in that i ask you !
I had a good laugh when I was reading this porkie:
“Prime Minister John Key says National would have refused to accept some votes of Act MP John Banks had he not said he would quit Parliament.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11270168
Espiner asked Key this morning about his not accepting Bank’s vote. Key dodged the question (of course) but I wondered how they could refuse a vote from an elected MP. If they could then they could pass any legislation that they liked by say, not accepting votes from Labour. Clever?
Sounds like a good Tui ad in there somewhere.
The sad thing is that 50% of the electorate appear to accept whatever shit he tells them.
Look at the different stances Key has taken since the court findings last week.
We’re supposed to believe that they wouldn’t have introduced legislation that relied on his vote, I think. Not that Key says that: what he says has no practical meaning: it’s an invitation to interpretation.
Anyone else do the Labour Zone 1 list conference on the weekend?
I liked a couple of things.
All electorates had clearly pre-debated with ranked lists. They had their shit together. This saved a lot of time and energy. The most successful candidates had worked very hard with blocs beforehand. It was well chaired.
Alignments between electorates and sectors were usually temporary; supporting one candidate and not necessarily the next. This is a pretty mature attitude.
Despite everyone’s egos being traded live on the floor, there was only the necessary bruising of democratic full-contact rather than any real blood. There was also a noticeable smarts to the timing of some candidates, who despite being enthusiastically nominated early, made clever tactical withdrawals to come in uncontested later. I suspect being low in the polls and few gaps from retirements helped the reality of that.
None of the candidates told us they were donor rainmakers, washed up semi-celebrities, dick-swinging egos, or retreading from successful careers. The most successful ones figured out that what the party wanted were superior organizers and told us so. Even the “rebalancing” for gender etc criteria was handled gracefully.
Every participant could see the joint was fizzing, with difference, with organisational drive, and with initiative.
For the price of membership and a delegates tag, well worth the entertainment. And good democracy to boot.
The seats were hard. My bum is sore. That is a high price for democracy.
Skinny-arsed young people. 🙂
I wasn’t in my seat for more than 5 minutes at a time.
Apart from whipping, there was too much gossipping and scheming to do, and simply enjoying the micro-politics with the contestants.
Jamie Whyte is shyte. He was interviewed by Michael Wilson on TV3 and was a blithering stuttering mess!
The Labour Strategy for Epsom must ask our supporters to “hold their noses” and vote for National.
Labour should only have Party vote signs up and no no no electorate mp signs.
How bizarre. To help stick it to the right you need to vote for them!
Glad I don’t live in the enclave of Epsom. Don’t feel bad though left voters that have the misfortune to reside there, you can still party vote to your conscience and ‘alter’ a few ACT hoardings.
i wd love to be living in the epsom electorate..
..left voters in epsom are more empowered than in most other seats..
..they have the power in their hands to both kick the clowns from act out the door..
..and to bring down this ruinous rightwing govt..
..i don’t have that power living/voting in mt albert…
..i am suffering from power-envy..
..and you’ll get no crocodile-tears from me..
..about/over ‘poor-lefties’ in epsom..
..being ‘forced’ to tactical-vote for the national party trout..
..they should fall upon those ballot-papers..and give that electorate-tick to national..with gibbering-delight..
..i know i would..
..(and they can still give their (usually) more-important party-vote for their tribe of choice..
.what..is..their…problem..?..
..watching genter from the greens..and the labour guy..dancing around this issue on wknd telly..
..had me both face-palming and banging head on desk..)
f.y.i..banned from editing comment..4 mins + still to run..
and of course..the other empowered voters on the left..
..are in dungs’ seat..
..and in the two maori seats contested by harawira and annette sykes..
(..i also suffer power-envy when thinking what they have at hand to do..)
that would be me tiger.
My first election i lived in doug grahams electorate. For a few after that in helen clark’s and since 2002 in the epsom enclave. Thank god for mmp or one feels totally disenfranchised
Are you advocating someone breaks the law to help influence an election?
what drivel r u talking gossie..?
..what ‘laws’ are ‘broken’..?
you mean like john banks?
i fell asleep. Literally
Jamie Whyte doesn’t have to appeal to you. He just needs to appeal to right leaning individuals.
do they appreciate mumble-fucking idiots..?
..do they..?
..those ‘right leaning individuals’..?
..so a gibbering-monkey/bag of flour cd actually stand for act in epsom..?
..is this what you are saying..?
The seeming answer to that is if they’re told to by National.
…and he was the best you could get.
go read the party and electorate voting in 2011 in epsom… If john banks couldnt attract party votes…and he couldnt, jamie whyte isnt going to attract anything. National is giving act the most right leaning seat in the country and the greens get more party votes than ACT?
@WG I watched the interview and was surprised, because Mr. Unclecousin’s default setting until this point has been a blithering stuttering mess.
This time he was relatively articulate. His argument’s still shyte though.
An unfortunate choice of words.
The corporate world is concerned about water quality, but this is not a good thing, the corporates are worried that an incoming Labour Green government may enact legislation to improve water quality. This comes hard on the heels of the news that the corporate’s choice of government, National, want to gut the Resource Management Act, RMA, to give economic concerns equal weight to environmental concerns.
I can hardly believe what I am reading. What on earth are we to make of this? An incoming centre Left government is unlikely to want to make water quality worse, So the corporates must be concerned that they may want to make it better!
The corporate sector are publicly raising worried concerns over better water quality!
This statement is extraordinary blunt. What has gone wrong? Usually entities like KPMG are usually much better at spinning us some silky storyline than this.
The sheer arrogance of these statements by National’s corporate cheer leaders shows that this country can barely afford another 3 months of this National government, let alone another three years of these corporate lackies.
To match this Right Wing threat to our country, the Left will have to be equally blunt and determined. Labour throw the seat of Te Tai Tokerau, if that is what it takes. And to rid our parliament of National’s rabid Right support partner urge your supporters in Epsom to vote Goldsmith,
I think that KPMG and the rabid Right are spinning out of control, they need to take a chill pill and take a little time to listen to Dr Vandana Shiva on water quality vs Growth
TVNZ reported Labour’s alternative thus:
“While honouring any contracts already in place, Labour would replace the Crown Irrigation Fund, established from the proceeds of state asset sales, with a freshwater pricing regime to encourage economically marginal irrigation schemes.
“With a new irrigation proposal where the economics are just breakeven, as they often are, then maybe the price of water for the first 30 years is next to nothing,” said Parker.
Parker also outlined numerous other planks in the party’s environmental platform, including a National Policy Statement to protect estuaries and resurrection of a plan for national freshwater management devised under the last Labour-led administration.”
Labour shows that replacing the current regime with a properly priced allocation would give KPMG plenty of consulting work to get on with, should a Labour coalition win.
Perhaps Mr Parker should call the Chair of KPMG and remind him that this major policy change will rack him major billable units, and the Crown’s got major direct interest in irrigation through its many farms and shareholdings. Figure it out KPMG.
Pricing of eco-services being the way of the future? More market mechanisms to bring us environmental solutions, is that the idea.
Where is the mention of tough nutrient limits and ensuring minimum flows.
“Ecosystem services”
Apart from a virtuous few, farmers tend to only respect market mechanisms.
bullshit they do. There is nothing free-market about the Central Plains Water scheme. They have received welfare from taxpayers and ratepayers the entire way through and continue today to ask for it. Bludgers.
I think that was Labour’s point above.
for those pricks it’s farmer-welfare ‘good’.
.(whenever asked for.’look..!..it’s rained..!..give us some more money..!’
..poor-welfare ‘bad’…
..’bludgers!’..those farmers sneer..
..’give it to us instead..!’
Yep, so they can this lake even greener and yuckier ….. see it ?
https://fbexternal-a.akamaihd.net/safe_image.php?d=AQAB4bZG9gzN3nF6&w=377&h=197&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmedia.nzherald.co.nz%2Fwebcontent%2Fimage%2Fjpg%2F201423%2Falex1.jpg&cfs=1&sx=13&sy=0&sw=593&sh=310
At least they will make more and more money ……….. and that is worth everything according to the principles of John Key
Not correct I’m afraid Ad – farmers will respect Regional Council plan rules and decisions when they have been fully discussed, community consultation carried out and the measures are seen as necessary, fair and reasonable.
In Otago water quality Plan Change 6A, now in force, is the perfect example.
I’m not so sure about that Colonial Viper. In a recent survey it was found that most farmers don’t give a rats arse about water quality. Also, the Plan Change 6A (PDF) still allows pH, temperature changes and suspended solids at reasonably high levels.
Furthermore, these rules allow for discharges above where communities water supply comes from as long as the discharge is publicly notified. So a business can effectively contaminate a water source so it can no longer be used as long as there is a small notice in the paper.
Gaining resource consent to pollute is still in place (with a few provisions that such pollution shouldn’t be seen or smelt by the public) and as always these rules rely on adequate monitoring by the council. Like most other regions in New Zealand, the Otago council will be made up of people with a vested interest in keeping the status quo and there will be no proper system in place for testing and enforcing these rules.
Therefore it’s just business as usual whereby our waterways are treated as a drainage system by big business and the farming industry.
You’re not going to get a 100% solution but to describe this as business as usual is pretty mean-spirited Jackal. Just look at how crappy the situation in Southland is compared to Otago, for starters.
Otago now has amongst the tightest regs throughout the entire country – ones with the support of local communities, the Feds and environmental groups.
Yep. Enforcement is always going to be a challenge. But very few in Wellington understand the issues down here. They certainly could not have delivered anything as good as Plan Change 6A, not by a long shot. Try running something like this out of Wellington without local support and see how far you get, mate.
Local support helps but, at the same time, I think we need national level rules else we end up with some of the country being good and most of the rest being bad.
How are you going to get national level rules when soils vary up and down the country as do water management approaches for different geographies and climates. Like I said, most Thorndon bubble types struggle and struggle with the nuances.
At the most basic level, the problem areas are particulates, nitrates, ph and temp.
So water quality monitors at top of property, monitors at bottom of property, any addition/subtraction happened in that stretch of waterway. Where the waterway is the property border, or there are outfalls, place monitors on each side of waterway and adjacent to outfalls.
The national rules would be a basic level of per cumec change in water quality, or per km waterway.
There are some pretty good remote monitors around now – realtime telemetry, and if too much fertiliser runs off that’s money out of the farmer’s pocket.
Or if an overflow valve jams on the wine vat, as one story comes to mind…
You’re micromanaging too much. The national rules would specify maximum levels of pollutants, the local rules would take into account soils etc and then specify ways to stay below those maximum levels.
maybe
So if you say Plan Change 6A is really good without providing any other reasons, I should just take your word for it Colonial Viper? Where is the support from local communities exactly and what environmental groups are in favour?
I’m not saying it has to be a 100% solution (straw man) because that’s currently impossible and pointing out the reality of the legislations failures isn’t mean spirited at all. I’m in fact being a realist about the situation.
From actually taking the time to look at Plan Change 6A it appears to not be too dissimilar from regulations in other parts of the country, which basically amounts to business as usual. In fact many of these regulations appear to be exactly the same as the ones in force in places like Taranaki which has terrible water quality problems, mainly due to agriculture and the fossil fuel industry.
Public consultation really amounts to very little at all if there is no proper enforcement when the rules are broken. The rules throughout Plan Change 6A appear to be designed to allow Otago’s waterways to continue to be polluted. For instance, the suspended solids and pH levels allowed will likely mean the water quality in that region will show no improvement at all.
In my opinion this would only amount to a mediocre plan if there was no pollution to begin with. It’s certainly not a “good” plan because it will fail to achieve anything of real value for the environment. It will of course provide a bit of PR for the council, which I suppose is the main reason for its development.
I’ve got a great market mechanism – if the farm pollutes the waterways the farm is nationalised with the farmer keeping the debt used to buy it. Oh, and we’ll lock up the farmer for 5 years and have it so that they can’t be in any management position ever again.
Irrigation schemes should really be at least 51% controlled by local or central government. Like they used to be when the majority of irrigation schemes were controlled by the old MOW before 1988, and MAF there after until their sale to farmers in 1990. I do see the economic and social value in water storage for irrigation purposes, but allowing private sector interests to drain rivers and lakes while domestic and recreational users get pretty much nothing is quite sickening. Having some public ownership of irrigation schemes, ensures that the public interest is kept, with revenue (farmers dont seem to have any objection to paying for power) going towards water conservation efforts.
+100 millsy
And the problem of water in New Zealand is minuscule compared with other overpopulated countries
…a very good reason to halt immigration from large grossly overpopulated countries which stress water supplies
…lets face it overpopulation stresses water supplies particularly in overpopulated cities..Auckland already has a water problem!
http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21587789-desperate-measures
China has 20% of the world’s population but only 7% of its fresh water. A former prime minister, Wen Jiabao, once said water shortages threaten “the very survival of the Chinese nation”.
The shortage is worsening because China’s water is disappearing. In the 1950s the country had 50,000 rivers with catchment areas of 100 square kilometres or more. Now the number is down to 23,000. China has lost 27,000 rivers, mostly as a result of over-exploitation by farms or factories.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/23/us-climate-ipcc-china-idUSBRE98M0BP20130923
….” rising temperatures are only part of China’s problems, many of which have resulted from overpopulation, aggressive industrialization and a huge reliance on elaborate engineering schemes to irrigate crops and harness scarce supplies.
…”China’s water shortages stem more from problematic urbanization and water resource management, rather than the scapegoat of climate change,” said Zhou Lei, a fellow at Nanjing University who studies how industry affects the environment.
…”In my home town in Jiangxi, the water system consisted of underground springs, ponds, wetlands, brooks, streams, and seasonal rivulets, but all these have been totally ruined in the last 20 years due to a catastrophic urbanization plan, a construction mania and transport megaprojects,” he said.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2014/02/24/commentary/world-commentary/crisis-of-water-scarcity-continues-to-stalk-china/#.U5T8uXKSxHo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_issues_in_developing_countries#India
‘
Except systems where individual liberty and freedom are more highly valued generally have better environments that those where the supposed neeeds of the collective are paramount. To see this you just need to look at the horrendous environmental catastrophes that occured in the former Soviet bloc.
complete simplistic bullshit
deserves its’ own ‘simplistic-bullshit’-award’..really..
yeah im calling bullshit on that one aswell
i bet you cant even prove correlation let alone causation
http://i.imgur.com/8ejNmpO.jpg
that shelf must need reinforcing by now 🙂
what a lot of tripe.
what about the world bank calling the NZ ETS scheme a rort.
The thing about being free is if you dont like it then you can always f*ck off.
hint hint.
We have one of those systems and our environment is turning into a blocked toilet for cows.
Damned RWNJ, always denying the reality of what’s actually happening for their ideology of what they think should be happening.
Coming back to this, I must point out that during those times, it didnt matter what political and economic system held sway. The Kremlin’s Central Committee was no less committed to development and economic growth at all costs than the White House Cabinet. Factories in the Urals were as free to dump as much toxic waste was factories in Michigan. No one cared in the world of the ’40’s, 50’s and 60’s, about environmental impacts.
They’ve gotten lazy after having National, who kowtows to all their desires, in government.
The giant behemoth Brownlee ‘doesn’t take advice from tourists’ regarding the lol – ‘rebuild of Christchurch’. Meanwhile the Christchurch mayoral legacy comedy show rolls out the next skit involving temporary pumps in case the Flockton basin is flooded. What a fucking joke. More than three years down the potholed road and we’re at the temporary experimental pump stage. I really do think Lianne Dalziel is morphing into the great Gadsby Jon.
Pumping stations are a well recognised method of preventing or mitigating flooding in low lying areas… a permanent fix when the ground has dropped so much will be extremely difficult considering the geography.
Yep, had a look a few days ago at an Amsterdam building development where every shovelful of dirt comes out wet. Pumps and drainage channels were operating from day one. It needs to be remembered that Chch is built on a swamp. Good on Lianne Dalziel for getting stuck in and making sensible decisions around the rebuild. If only the previous administration were as on to it as she is.
Yep, you’re onto it te reo – the clown in this aspect of the rebuild has been that useless twat, the previous mayor Bob Parker. Total clown.
please use the correct-moniker of/for this ‘twat’….
..he is..sideshow-bob..
..writ large..
+10
“I really do think Lianne Dalziel is morphing into the great Gadsby Jon.”
She’s been in the job for less than a year, most of which has been playing catchup for the appalling job the last mayor and council did.
(one for that clown from act..jamie ‘just do nothing about climate-change!’ whyte..)
“..9 Political Cartoons That Put Climate Change In Perspective..”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/07/niels-bugge-cartoon-award_n_5455509.html?utm_hp_ref=arts
On The Savage Cost Of A Cuppa.
Still being paid it would seem – Firstly, it breathed life into Winnie at the time. Secondly, would ‘anonymous’ mayoral race funding have got anywhere near the High Court if Banks hadn’t taken Epsom on a high tide of tea and arrogance ?
Kia Ora New Zealand
Now listen you well
There’s sage old advice
In the story I tell
A Feisty called Banks
A Bankster called Key
Fulsome with thanks
Sat down for some tea
The air was thick
On Broadway that day
Two rorting pricks
With cups all asway
Each other they doted
They bullshitted on
And smarmingly voted
For John and for John
See how we love
Smirked they to the people
It’s we are above
And you are the sheep-le
The people cried “No !”
They smell-ed a rort
Neither stupid nor slow
“This crap it ain’t sport !”
In handsome numbers
With vigorous burst
They got off their bum-bers
And ticked NZ First !
The moral you see
Important you trust
Choose beer over tea……
When it’s power you lust !
Anon
bravo!that would be me tiger.
t
Great North. Does someone have a tune for that, good political ballad to take forward to the elction.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/10133288/Labour-calls-for-inquiry-over-Banks
perhaps the first step chris is for you to oia the minister of police and ask how many mps have been referred to the police over electoral issues and how many moved on to charges.then call for a widening of the enquiry.
http://www.whaleoil.co.nz/2014/06/wont-police-act-complaints-electoral-commission/
I dont click links to whaleoil.
Was his oia refused on the grounds of too long to research? So why not just agree to a finite period from computerisation of recordsd?
If you can’t be bothered reading it then I can’t be bothered explaining it
Let’s assume that it is authored by a piece of right wing trash who mocks dead children’s families and discount it with contempt on that basis alone.
Sorry No clicks to Wo .Don’t want to soil fingers. Nice try tho’.
I find it fascinating that c73 apparently thinks that there’s no point in his trying simply because slimeboy didn’t succeed.
He obviously doesn’t want to succeed enough. We should not make him dependant by helping him, he needs to be responsible for his own inaction on the matter.
well if thats the way you feel about it then you should just piss off.
I’d take it further and have an inquiry into all political donations. Especially Cabinet Clubs and high priced dinners.
A good Morning Report for the left today at last:
Key sounded like a blithering idiot on Banks as Espiner gave him a hard time.
Andrew Little spoke well on the need for an enquiry into why the police didn’t prosecute Banks
Good coverage of Labour’s just announced policy of an Earthquake Court
Labour’s spokeman on Pacific Affairs made it clear that Key had been telling lies on his Pacific trip and made the point that National has made it harder for Pacific people to come into the country.
Now we just need a few more weeks like this and to stop infighting (of which there is far too much on The Standard) and the election will be won.
thanks for your summary bg, didnt hear mr this morning.
National has made it harder for Pacific Islanders to come here have they? I thought that would please the Labour party as they wish to reduce immigration numbers at the moment.
Yes National has made it harder for Pacific people to enter the country Gosman.
Listen to MR (at 8.38-Sua Willem Si’o Labour Pacific Island Affairs spokesman) and better still listen to Wallace Chapman’s show yesterday where this was brilliantly discussed by Pacific Issues correspondent Karen Mangnall (at 7.17) where she described how National had slyly made it harder for Pacific people to enter Godzone.
Try and work with real facts Gosman.
Would you agree that this would satisfy the Labour party’s recent prounoucements on reducing immigration numbers at the moment?
The contradiction is with National saying they won’t limit immigration numbers while targeting Pacific people to do exactly that Gosman. The overall amount of immigration at the moment is not sustainable but specific ethnicities should not be targeted. In effect National is being both racist and contradicting their own political stance on the issue.
Stop trying to distract from National’s ongoing lies Gosman.
Agreed BG.
Espiner to Key, with a little laugh: “Aren’t you in another reality here?”
OAB Yes but Espiner still manages to sound obsequious.
Why doesn’t he just say, “You’re bullsh***ing aren’t you?”
I would prefer he said something like “after all, this is just another example of the low ethical standards you set, isn’t it?”
When does the pmb for paternity leave reappear? Was thinking, with banks vote gone, and english saying he would veto, the maori party would be caught in a pincer?
With the veto the bill is dead even if the Maori party supported it. With the recently announced changes proposed to paternity leave in the budget there will not much fall out from doing so either.
Dead against the will of Parliament, with Bill English’s knife in it’s back, and John Key’s handprints on the hilt.
Nothing to see here, look over there, it’s Jamie and Judith and Colin and Hekia. And Gerry.
It is the Government’s prerogative to control matters of policy impacting majorly on the fiscus. Therefore it is entirely appropriate the bill is killed via the veto if it is passed.
which means you would support the govt doing this to any bill that has a majority vote?
after all – pretty much everything carries a cost
Yes, Gosman, it’s a judgement call. Well, in this case a poor judgement call.
No, it’s not. This is a democracy not a dictatorship.
it has been used 34 times by the last four governments
That doesn’t make it right.
a good, brief paper on the veto here (one page)
http://www.minterellison.co.nz/files/Publication/2af09ba1-596a-4013-943d-d334fefe6715/Presentation/PublicationAttachment/404f4f94-31a5-49dc-9d7c-d7c9ab264bd8/Public_Law_Factsheet_Crown%27s_Financial_Veto.pdf
Just thinking, ACT has no MP’s in parliament now at all. It also polls close to zero.
This probably doesn’t matter but can anyone out there think of any implications this has for election funding, election coverage, party status, anything else?
ACT is currently polling as well as the Mana Party on it’s own so I doubt that it would make much of a difference.
Only in cloud cuckoo land does a cut from $163,000 to $77,000 in broadcast funding not “make much of a difference” Gosman. Please get a grip because your arguments are decidedly pathetic!
Why would Act lose their broadcast funding?
possibly this:
Selective quoting of articles is tending towards the dishonest. There are a number of factors impacting broadcast funding and that is but one influence. I doubt the commission will not provide any funding or reduce it to less than they were entitled to when Banks was in Parliament.
Hah! But it’s ok for Farrar to do it eh! You’re a complete hypocrite, gosman
If David Farrar does it then it is equally wrong.
he did do it but you called it semantics!
So you don’t think that the level of funding will be influenced by one of the six (and only six) factors the commission “must consider” when allocating funding?
Not that you actually give a shit, anyway.
I’ll tell you what. If ACT receives significantly different funding and broadcast time to say what United Future gets (in the negative) I will make a formal acknowledgement that you were right and I had no clue. Will you do the same if they don’t get less than United?
Nah.
I’ll wait for the outcomes of resulting complaints to the electoral commission, first.
Why you tories always want to reduce these issues to a wager is beyond me. Oh, I forgot – it’s just a game to you. You don’t give a shit about mass unemployment and child poverty at 27%.
So, you’re saying that Act should still get the same funding as if they had an MP despite not having an MP?
I’m stating that is likely what will happen. Whether they should or not is a different matter.
Nice one McF.
I think it would be worth Labour/Greens asking questions on this. The number of MP’s at dissolution appears to be important for funding. I guess ACT still has rich backers like Alan Gibbs, though even he might be throwing in the towel with wallies like Whyte and Seymour in charge.
If nothing else asking the question would accentuate how completely and utterly useless ACT has become (or always has been?).
ACT. Frauds, thieves and criminals who never take “individual responsibility” for them-selves, while advocating “sink or swim” for the victims of their policies.
I hope there will come a day, when all those who inflicted the neo-liberal religion on the unsuspecting public, for the last 30 years, are bought to justice.
The Electoral Commission released the advertising (public) funding for each party on Friday night, as reported in this Herald article on Saturday.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?objectid=11269245
The article sets out the criteria for the allocations. Both National and Labour’s funding has been cut, while NZ First and the Greens will receive higher funding this election.
Taxpayer funding for National and Labour’s election campaign broadcast advertising has been cut for this year’s election but the Greens and NZ First will enjoy a substantial boost. …
The Maori Party’s funding is slashed by $60,000 to $100,000 while Act suffers an even deeper cut, going from $163,000 to $77,000 — the same amount as new entrants the combined internet Mana party, Peter Dunne’s United Future and former NZ First MP Brendan Horan’s likely political vehicle, the NZ Independent Coalition.
Colin Craig’s Conservative Party receives $60,000, up from $20,000 in 2011.
Among the minnows, satirist Ben Uffindel’s Civilian Party gets $33,600.
…
Taxpayer funding for party political broadcasts during this year’s election campaign:
• National: $1.05m
• Labour: $919,829
• Greens: $401,380
• NZ First: $200,690
• Maori Party: $100,345
• Act: $76,930
• Internet Mana: $76,930
• United Future: $76,930
• Conservative: $60,207
I presume that Banks’ resignation will not affect these allocations, but could be wrong. If so, I am sure we will hear this soon. I will check the Electoral Commission’s actual announcement to see whether it says anything as the Banks’ guilty decision would have been known at the time of the announcement with its likelihood that he could be gone.
Further to the above, here is the Electoral Commission’s actual release on Friday, with the second link to their full PDF decision
http://www.elections.org.nz/news-media/2014-broadcasting-allocation-decision-released
http://www.elections.org.nz/sites/default/files/bulk-upload/documents/final_2014_broadcasting_allocation_decision.pdf
A very rough quick through the decision indicates that ACT’s allocation is based on number of votes last election and one MP in Parliament as of the date of the decision (6 June 2014) although the Commission used a variety of criteria to set the overall allocations.
Some interesting discussion in the decision of social media etc, the Internet-Mana alliance etc which I don’t have time now to read in full. But no addendum or similar on the current ACT situation and the possiblity of the Epsom seat becoming vacant, as far as I could see in my very quick read.
Internet Party Independence Policy – on TPPA, GCSB, FATCA (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act).
Mainly it’s looking for more transparency an more democratic procedures for deciding on such matters – and not to be just a client US-state, doing whatever the US asks.
The downside of nationalisation of foreign owned banks.
http://www.zimbabwesituation.com/news/zimsit_g_gono-has-the-last-laugh-dailynews-live/
I believe at least one of the regular comentators here were advocating something similar for NZ.
total simplistic bullshit
Not really. The people who advocate for foreign banks to be partially nationalised (exactly the same sort of policies that Zanu-PF were pushing until recently) never see a downside. That is the simplistic BS. All policy settings have pros and cons. The negative impact of threatening to partially ‘indigenise’ or nationalise foreign owned banks is capital flight. Zimbabwe illustrates this in spades.
simplistic nonsense begets simplistic nonsense
Care to expand on this or has this become your new mantra for anything that challenges your world view?
the onus is on you mr simpleton, that is the entire point
The onus is on me to do what? If it is that there is a downside to threatening to nationalise or forceably divest foreigners of their stake in banks I believe I have done so.
sorry gossie..just shouting ‘zanu-pf!’ in a crowded-theatre..
..comes nowhere near cutting it..
..eh..?
I’m not just shouting Zane -. I provided a link to an article which highlights what happens when you promise to ‘indigenise’ 51 percent of the banking sector. Credit dries up and business else’s have a hard time finding their operations.
Well then, they probably shouldn’t have given them to the foreign corporates in the first place.
why dont you throw communist in there and be done with it?
Commie socialist scum!!!
thanks i feel collectively better now 🙂
Singapore did something similar very successfully a few years ago. Rationalised its retail banking industry and told a couple of the biggest players that they were gone, thank you very much for playing.
Of course, it takes a gutsy capable government willing to go toe to toe with the powers of international capital to pull off a move like that.
“..Of course, it takes a gutsy capable government willing to go toe to toe with the powers of international capital to pull off a move like that…”
i recommend that (partial-nationalisation?) minister harre be tasked with that chore..
..she’ll send them packing/have them begging for mercy…
..toot suite..
..i mean..she got epic-raises for the nurses –
..when she was their union rep..
..(the most abused/downtrodden component of the health system..(aside from the cleaners..)
Link please.
do yr own fucken research..
..u cd start with a definition of ‘simplistic’..
“The tendency to oversimplify an issue or a problem by ignoring complexities or complications..”
that’s you..ain’t it..?
Well since we’re being all simplistic and shit Gosman, weren’t the Nazis into privatization of the public sector as well?
Nope, pretty sure the SS ran the death camps
@ pops..
..oh..so funny..!
..what a quick wit you are….eh..?
..with those ‘ss’-jokes..
..what a wonderful fellow dinner-guest u wd b..eh..?
..a player with words..are ya..?
..is that how you earn yr daily-crust..?
..spinning/bullshitting/lying..?
..in gummint..?..are ya..?
Oh noes, some foreign money, which is worthless in the nation, will leave.
how about..gossie..if you try a little bit harder..
..tell us the downside of the people taking a 51% share in the banks that rule over us..?
..are you quite ‘relaxed’ about the $15 bn in foreign-profits sucked out of nz each and every year..?..are ya..?
….an amount..funnily enough..almost exactly the same as our annual ‘deficit’..
..we aren’t in fucken ‘deficit..
..our problem is that profiteered $15 bn a year sucked straight out of our economy..
..and the people taking a 51% stake in the foreign-owned banks/supermarket-chains etc..
.(with those shareholders bought out..and paid by a mix of initial-payment..followed by payment from annual profits..what’s not to love about that plan..?)
..this will keep a decent chunk of that ‘deficit’ here in nz…to be used to benefit new zealanders..
..fix that..and you fix a lot…
..and of course..having a 51% control of the supermarket duopoly..(as just one example..)..
..will make our upcoming war on obesity/battles for good-food..much much easier to facilitate..
..rather than having to fight these bastards arguing their ‘commercial-rights’ to flog unhealthy/salt/sugar/fat-laden crap..disguised/marketed as some ghastly impersonation of ‘food’..
..every inch of the way..
..so..gossie..what’s wrong with all that..?
If you want to support women and girls in India start to turn around a predatory culture of disrespect for women there, they are planning a campaign of posters to embarrass their new hard-right president. They want to draw attention to their cries for change when he is visiting the holy city of Varanasi with posters everywhere. They are asking for names of millions to show the world is watching.
+100 greywarbler
Good grief! Could Hooton possibly get more irritating (National radio this morning). You can see why he likes key. Neither of them is EVER wrong about anything, but anybody who DISAGREES! with them is automatically wrong. No question, no doubt. And always pronounced so with that nauseating smugness they both possess. A few years ago key was asked if he thought he had ever got anything wrong and all he could come up with was that MAYBE! he could have handled the BMW situation a little bit better. To date I can’t recall him ever admitting to being wrong about anything. It is highly unusual for someone to NEVER being wrong.
MR Key and Mr Hooton both have the same saying:
“I am always right and even when I am wrong I am still right.”
Pretty sure he has mentioned numerous areas where he disagrees with John Key and where John Key has stuffed up. I believe he stated that his handling of the Judith Collins situation has not been great and that he should have sack Heki Parata. On both of these he states the only reason he can see why he hasn’t is as a result of them being representative of a key demographic and power grouping in National.
Wee Matty Hooton is totally wasted as a serious political commentator, this mornings efforts produced too many belly laughs to detail,
Matty, to continue on in the vein of the comment i made here after lasts weeks little effort said of the Banks/Whyte/Prebble relationship that ”it would all come out in the wash”,
It took Hooton a while to get the spin cycle to work this morning and i was thinking that He should recall the repair person who when attending to Matty’s spin cycle had obviously over tightened the belts leaving Matty way to uptight,(i could near on smell the neurons burning as He spoke),
The effort sounded akin to a machine where the load had shifted while on ‘agitate’ thus slowing the ‘spin cycle’ to a slow grind interspersed with a number of clunks as the bricks in Matty’s head cannoned from side to side,
By the time Matty had delved deep into the pool of ‘wisdom’,(some might describe this pool in terms of a smelly brown liquid), for the grand statement,”National can Govern alone” my aural facilities had been fatally interrupted by bursts of mad laughter so any more ‘pearls’ that escaped from Matty’s nether regions were lost to me,
Seriously wee Matty, you sound like you have admitted to yourself the almost inevitable defeat that the ides of September will bring you, try and put some life into it wont you,
”And now they’re spinning spinning spinning through the magic land, heading back to the beginning of the end at the masters hand”….
Can you name a right leaning commentator you think would do better that him?
Chris Trotter…
what about getting one or two academics from a political science department and provide analysis.
That sounds far too close to the Alice Cooper, ”Some folks love to feel Pain” song Tracey…
it would make it less like a sporting contest full of cheats and match fixers
They have them as well. However the basic political panel format is usually a commentator from the left and one from the right and the panel host. What you seem to be stating is you don’t like this format and would prefer the panel to just reflect a single or narrow view of a topic.
nope, i dont want a panel to reflect a single or narrow view of a concept, that is what we have now.
You are right i dont like the concept because it is generally a shallow and manipulative spot to spin a view.
What i suggest is the same topics get discussed as now, and political experts as opposed to political players discuss. In a similar manner to media watch. Analysis, criticism, evaluation of veracity, tactics etc.
I still believe that given reliable information people can think, the current format is designed to think for people.
BM is a good example of how that “works”
Gosman, Crusty the Clown of Simpson’s fame has a certain appeal…
mike williams..?..oh..hang on..!..he’s already there..isn’t he.?
..flying under a false-flag..
Why the Greens will hit 15% and won’t form an alliance with National
By Martyn Bradbury / June 9, 2014
“How to raid into National’s soft green-blue underbelly without creating a backlash amongst their core supporters has always been the challenge for the Greens in an electoral market now too crowded on the Left by Internet MANA.
It was a challenge I never thought they could pull off. I even compared such hunts on par with tracking Yeti and Lock Ness Besties, but the Greens over the last 2 weeks have unveiled policy that make deep runs within National territory while earning standing ovations from their core base.
It is astoundingly shrewd tactics that haven’t been appreciated above the roar of the Internet MANA Drum n Bass block party.
The Carbon Tax cut is genius because it targets the soft National vote so perfectly. Everyone who has the economic literacy to own a heat pump all sat up and listened to the mechanics of what was being proposed and saw its intelligent design and clicked the ‘Add to my Cart’ button with all the mercenary efficiency of upgrading an app.
The Greens followed this up with a bold announcement on making Abortion legal. It’s a staunch stance that has real pull to progressive women and goes beyond political affiliation. I think it’s bold enough to truly appeal to young female voters inside National..”…
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2014/06/09/why-the-greens-will-hit-15-and-wont-form-an-alliance-with-national/-
Once again Martyn Bradbury hits the NAIL on the Head!…GO GREEN!
…Lets hope that the women in Mana Party and the Internet Party also support the LEGALISE ABORTION policy !
…….( also National and Act would do well to follow this policy if they want to keep women’s votes and in many many cases the votes of males )
…and leave the religious nutters and male power and control freaks over women’s lives and bodies out in the cold !..(.with no place to go except to the embrace of Colin Craigs Party)
Why do you shill for Martyn on what seems to be a daily basis?
I think Chooky might be Martyn’s mum.
Martyn is a very good boy and I like him a lot …lol ( but he isn’t my boy)
I don’t think Mr Bradbury would know a right leaning voter if one was sitting right in front of him.
A ”bold announcement” as you attribute to the Green Party announcing ”open slather abortion for all” might in some quarters be seen as something entirely different in the vein of ”stupid”,
In terms of electoral politics to enter a General election fighting with such a divisive policy is to invite the same situation that Phill Goff experienced during the 2011 campaign where He roared into the campaign touting the lead balloon that i suspect cost Labour % points by the truckload,
Such policy is in my opinion better proposed by a sitting Government in its third term,
The announced Laissez Fairre abortion policy has already cost the Green Party one member,(and thankfully the announcement was made befor i had parted with what was my intended election donation to the Party which i can now happily keep in my pocket for more deserving causes)…
and now you know why the big parties lie or shy away from this stuff and why colin craigs party exists, colin will welcome your vote.
Ha Ha is probably all your comment is worth, if that, Colon has as much chance of securing any of my votes as, well as the Green Party who until a week ago were a shoe in to get my electorate vote,
That after being subjected to god knows how many comments of mine you would for a moment consider that i would cast a vote for Colon says more about the vast empty spaces that occupy your mind than it does to say anything about me…
well, if you think mana will vote against decriminalising abortion you are dreaming, that goes for laila harres internet party, you seem to dislike labour, national, maori party, act and hairdo, so that left colin, or you will not vote at all.
Oh you are now the all seeing oracle are you Tracey, there will be one hell of a debate among Mana Party members should the Green Party Legislation ever hit the floor of the Parliament…
If you were going to electorate vote green, then they have lost nothing, ‘coz they ain’t winning any electorates. Did you mean party vote?
…The Voice of Reason…
…Bad is breaking up…
Walter White or Steve Austin? (We can rebuild him … we have the technology…)
Nope, my Party Vote is going to InternetMana, yep a pretty symbolic withdrawal of a electorate vote that Russell might have liked to count but pretty meaningless as you say,
Not entirely lost nothing, my intention as a member was to give my election budget to the Party while i voted for InternetMana, am not sure what the ratio is concerning money spent and MP’s gained,(am sure someone has worked that one out),
You could say that my donation was probably worth an extra MP’s toenail clipping, of course, depending how deep the disquiet is about the abortion policy, after the extra MP’s toenail come the quick and after that….
ooops that link to Bomber Bradbury on why the Greens are so successful and will romp in!…. doesnt seem to have come up…try again
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2014/06/09/why-the-greens-will-hit-15-and-wont-form-an-alliance-with-national/
Policies on a roll from Labour, Green and IMP today.
Green’s Digital Manufacturing Policy (3D printing) Policy.
thanks karol…interesting
if it makes you feel okay to sit back and apportion blame to kermit the frog parker that’s lovely. The fact remains that after more than 3 years the Christchurch drainage system is still the biggest fuckup since Dunkirk. The Netherlands have been below sea level way longer than that and i seriously doubt it is criscrossed by a system of temporary pumps. My point was and still is that it is comical an international city has to sit back with fingers and legs crossed in the hope that the temporary fix might work during heavy rain. Get some bastard in here from the Netherlands or some other tourist to offer real advice on how to stop this thing going on longer than the second world war.
P.s Ayn Rand was an arab hating headcase.
We could build a she’d load of Windmills if you like.
read Rod Oram on Sunday and he says the world bank says the NZ ETS scheme is a sham an a rort. Furthermore richard preebble says Banks is an honest man. What is happening here is that we have arrived at an orwellian point where the truth has become lies and lies are truth.
This government would have to be the most bent and corrupt administration New Zealand has ever seen.
They have had their TURN and now its time to turn the rascals out.
@ gosman: anti semite! anti semite!
[lprent: unlikely. And I can’t be bothered looking for the comment you are referring to. ]
Did pre-European Maori practice Invasive Abortion, befor you even think about answering such a moot you need remember that Pre-European Maori were not and cannot simply be described as a ”They”,
Pre-European Maori were a number of what is best described as a series of sovereign nations formed around a tribal heart, thus ”they” depending upon where they lived and the Tikanga practices of that particular Tribal Nation might or might not have practiced invasive abortion,
My view is that IF you can produce a definitive opinion that ”They” did practice invasive abortion you can along with at least a reference to an author you wish to quote,proved a specific ”They” in the form of one of those Tribal Nations i mention where you believe that Maori in pre-European times practiced invasive abortions,
So far 2 Authors have been referred to: Gluckman LK born in 1920 i doubt had much contact with Maori that had lived their lives in an Aotearoa that was pre-European,
Hunton RB, which Hunton RB would you be quoting from, the Hunton RB 1877-1963 sure as hell didn’t write the 1970’s view of Maori invasive abortions, perhaps it is the other Hunton RB that is quoted, the same Hunton RB that has written widely of modern abortion practices, he sure as hell did not undertake an extensive study of pre-European abortion practices,
Elsdon Best, Tuhoe ethnographer, studied the practices of Maori in the lower North Island for most of His life and wrote prolifically and was respected by Maori for these writings much of which were simple copies of verbal history as told to Him by elders within the Tribes he worked and lived among,
This is Best on Maori abortions practices from the Journal of the Polynesian Society:
”it does not appear that anything in the way of medicine was taken internally in former times in order to cause abortion, or to cause anything for that matter”,
But,
”Since the natives have observed the use made of such by white people they have discovered ? many cures, generally simple remedies, decoctions of herbs etc for most complaints, and, also to procure abortions” unquote,
Love the way Best discusses ”the natives”,(He was tho well respected by many), pre-European Maori had an abortion rite, along with fertility rites, this ”rite” carried out by a relevant Tohunga and consisted of waving the leaves of a significant tree over the womb of the woman while reciting prayer,
Now that is the pre-European abortion practice from my Rohe which centers around the Porirua and Wellington areas of the lower North Island, and Lolz, i do not know how successful such rites were, but, invasive abortion was not practiced here by my ancestors as both the woman and the baby were simply Tapu and could not be touched…
so because the methods intended to induce abortions probably didn’t work, pre-E Māori would not approve of methods that do work?
That’s some impressive thinkafying.
You just about have it right Mac, i can only speak for who/what i know which is controlled from a view which i know existed in this particular Rohe,
Tikanga says that a pregnant woman is Tapu, the baby in the pregnant womans womb is also Tapu according to Tikanga,
Maori behaving according to Tapu and Tikanga could not have performed an invasive abortion…
but they still tried to induce abortions. Even if it was by waving leaves.
You just do not get it do you Mac, i should imagine that the Tohunga of the time were not trying to induce anything,
For anyone involving themselves in such practice was an invitation to bring upon themselves a Makutu,
Like modern times there are probably many reasons for a woman to fear childbirth, especially if She had survived a specially painful miscarriage,
The Tohunga according to Tikanga could neither touch the pregnant woman or the baby in Her womb, Such Tohunga according to Tikanga could not try and directly induce an abortion,
The only means of intervention then was up to either specific Atua or Tipuna and the Tohunga would have been engaged in Karakia specifically asking those Atua and Tipuna to intervene on the pregnant woman’s behalf,
Who says that the method did not work Mac???…
So, to clarify:
without intending any particular outcome the Tohunga were requesting a particular outcome (miscarriage) and that it might have “worked” (the requested parties induced a miscarriage), even though saying it “worked” means that the outcome was desired and intended.
That’s john banks-level bullshit right there.
Nope, the Atua and/or Tipuna produced any abortion, well Mac it either ‘worked’ or it didn’t pick one, Yes or No???
So the Atua and/or Tipuna produced the abortion regardless of any rite, prayers or leave-waving made by the Tohunga?
So why bother with all the prayers and leave-waving?
fwiw, I don’t believe it did “work”. But I do believe that an abortion was the intended outcome, even if it didn’t “work”. But if leave-waving isn’t an “invasive” abortion, does that mean you’re cool with ru-486?
They didn’t believe that their actions were without deep metaphysical and spiritual consequences, McFlock, consequences which rested not just on the mother but the entire tribe, and which rebounded through time to worlds beyond this one. I am sure that their complex rituals and behaviours before during and after the entire process reflected that.
See my remarks above. Not that I expect you really give a fuck, as I am guessing that to you it’s all just bullshit leaf waving.
Pretty much.
But what I give a fuck about is the delusion that abortion was yet another colonial import, whereas it seems to have been the objective of at least one ritual, effective or not. Worst case scenario, medicine simply enables what was originally intended.
unless they are incredibly different to other indigenous folks on the planet, they did more than wave leaves
So you were there Tracey???, you know better then Elsdon Best Tracey???, you don’t appear to know jack Tracey,
Which Maori from which Rohe are you talking about Tracey???…
were you there bad?? Not like you to so easily take the word of the representative of the evils of colonisation. Do you think, given she was tapu, pregnany maori women procuring or inducing abortions invitedthe very white male mr best to watch? How are you doing reconciling infanticide amongst maori?
Dont pull the if you are not maori you cant comment shit unless i can say you cant comment on abortion cos you have never been pregnant, and i have never said that.
Unlike you Tracey i do not base my thinking around a simpletons knee jerk, have you proof of infanticide and the further proof of where and by which Tribe(if any) that such was practiced,
As i said i will examine any evidence i can find of such later, such examination usually consists of a number of hours and unlike you i do not take ”probable” to mean anything except a ”slur” cast…
http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-ThoFiji-t1-body-d13.html
Fiji Tracey??? that’s got as much to do with pre-European Aotearoa as the Earth has to do with Mars,(probably less when i think about it)…
clook bad, calm down. I posted it in response to someone else about indigenous practices.
You can believe that maori are the only people in the history of humans who didnt abort foetuses. It is just an unlikely scenario. The word of a male who is unlikely to have been privy to women procuring such abortions is only part of the story.
Abortion has been tabu, or tapu in all societies and it hasnt stopped it happening.
and abortion is a crime in nz, and was VERY criminal prior to current legislation, and yet abortions were performed.
Are you conveniently ruling out herbal induced miscarriages?
i am specifically ruling out nothing, Elsdon Best writing in the Journal of the Polynesian Society said that Maori that He had lived among and studied had no such herbs that induced abortion,
Such herbs did not come into use until the Pakeha arrivals introduced them to Maori, as far as i know Best is in fact the best authority when it comes to written histories of pre-European Maori having as the saying goes gained the knowledge straight from the horses mouth,
If you know of a better source of information on pre-European Maori feel free to provide us all a hint…
Looks like abortion amongst maori was rare, for the reasons you state, so instead they practised infanticide
Anthropologists have found that abortion has been used as a method of birth control in nearly all societies that have been studied (Derereux, 1955) irrespective of social attitudes or legal prohibition.
With regard to the pre-European Maori, Gluckman (1971) has shown that while abortion did occur rarely, it was probable that infanticide was practised more often, as there existed strong mythological opposition to abortion.
Nineteenth century European colonization of New Zealand resulted in the introduction of British law concerning abortion. Traditionally, English common law permitted abortion if it was performed before quickening (about 16-20 weeks).
The first British statute to govern abortion was passed in 1803 and this forbade abortion at any time during pregnancy. This prohibition was automatically imported into New Zealand in 1840. In that year New Zealand became a colony and all relevant British law was enforceable in the colony.
The Offences Against the Person Act 1866, which was passed by both houses of the New Zealand Parliament without debate, was based on the earlier British legislation.
Apart from some subsequent re-enactments and minor alterations, statute law has retained most of the features of the original Act.
Gluckman 1971 Tracey???, Gluckman was born in 1920 so he would have gained His knowledge of pre-European Maori from???,
Probable Tracey, right its ”probable” that you are clutching at an increasingly absurd series of ever thinning straws, yes/no???
i will look into infanticide later, are you tho saying that ALL Maori practiced infanticide Tracey, if not, which Maori Tribe practiced infanticide…
could you post a list of acceptable sources and researchers to save anybody wanting to debate with you some time?
Can i assume anyone not writing in support of your saintly notion of pre european maori is not acceptable.
You carry on with your belief that you are from a saibtly pure lineage where no one procured abortion, no one committed infanticide and no one tried to lose their foetus. You are entitled to do so but i dont have to be an enabler.
Have read it. Interesting to note that once medicines to abort were available they were used. Also interesting that given tapu, it is likely women, and men would have hidden any procurement and passed off tge result as miscarriage. Truly bad, i think it naive to think maori werent procuring abortin and that the means were not whispered from geberation to generation.
” Abortion (Whakatahe or Kuka).
According to Maori belief, premature birth was usually caused by some infringement of the laws of tapu on the part of the mother, and for which she would be thus punished by the gods. When a woman, in former times, desired to procure abortion on herself, she would proceed to taiki the fœtus, that is, she would pollute a tapu person, as a priest, or one of her elders, by passing some cooked food over – 13 his garment, or his resting place. Or she might take a portion of cooked food to some sacred place, and there eat it. Such acts would, to the native mind, be deemed quite sufficient to cause a miscarriage. Generally speaking, when a woman noticed that she was papuni, i.e., that menstruation had stopped, and she knew that she had conceived, and, moreover, wished to procure abortion, she would probably proceed to some sacred place, as the tuahu, where priests performed various religious rites, and she would pluck some herb there growing and, applying the same to her mouth, would then cast it away. That would be quite sufficient, she has “eaten,” or polluted, a sacred place. The gods will attend to her case.
There is a considerable amount of danger to man attached to abortion, so say the Maori people, inasmuch as the fœtus is liable to develop into a most malignant demon (atua), which afflicts man grievously in divers ways, and is much dreaded. Such a caco-dœmon is termed an atua kahu or kahukahu. It is the spirit (wairua) of the fœtus which thus developes into a mischievous and dangerous demon. The term kahu is applied to the membrane which covers the fœtus, as also is whakakahu.
It is in this way. When a case of abortion occurs, the fœtus is taken away and buried. Now, should it so happen that a dog, or pig, finds, and resurrects, and eats the fœtus, then the spirit of the same will enter into the animal, which thus becomes an atua ngau tangata, or man-afflicting demon. Or this evil spirit may be conciliated by some person, and utilised as a war god. For an exhaustive description of such a development, see the Journal of the Polynesian Society, Vol. VI., p. 41.
It is singular to note that the spirit of a stillborn child is, to the Maori mind, always an evil one, and a power for evil only, never for good.
When a person is afflicted by one of these evil spirits, he hies him to the tohunga, or priest, who proceeds to exorcise the same by means of a certain rite and invocation. The afflicted person probably knows not what ails him, but, being ill, he consults the priest, who, being a seer, will soon locate the cause. He will then say:—“Your affliction is a kahu.” He will probably also know which woman produced that cause, and, on his asking her, she will admit it, and say that she buried it at a certain place, or threw it into a stream. The famous Tuhoean war god Te Rehu-o-Tainui was an atua kahu, which came from a still born child which had been cast into a stream, and was eaten by the small fish named titarakura. Hence that fish was possessed by the evil spirit, and no member of the Tuhoe tribe has – 14 since eaten of those fish, for they are tapu. The natives of this district are yet firm believers in these matters.
However, to cure the sufferer introduced above, the priest will go in search of a plant termed keketuwai, which is used as an ara atua, or way by which an afflicting demon is made to leave the human body. Placing this object upon the body of his patient, the priest will repeat a charm, or incantation, in order to force the evil spirit to quit the body of the sufferer:—
“Tenei to ara Haere ki o tipuna Haere ki o matua Haere ki o koroua Haere ki nga mana o o tipuna.” Etc., etc.
This kind of charm is called a takutaku. It calls upon the demon to come forth from the sufferer’s body, and betake itself to the outer spaces, to the realm of darkness, or its original place, or to those from whom it sprang. Here is another takutaku:—
“Haere koutou e patu nei Haere i tua Haere i waho Haere i te Pu Haere i te More Haere i te Weu E oho e nga atua whiu E oho e nga atua ta Haere i tua Haere i te pouriuri Haere i te potangotango Ko rou ora Ki te whai ao Ki te ao marama.”
The tohunga will also proceed to the place where the fœtus was buried and there kindle a fire, over which he will repeat an incantatation in order to lay the evil spirit, and to render it harmless. He will also cook an article of food, usually a kumara, or sweet potato, at that fire. This he then proceeds to eat, and thus the evil spirit is tamaoatia, or polluted, rendered harmless, its powers to harm man are so destroyed. This rite is nowadays here termed a whakawhetia, a modern, introduced expression, and used in a very misleading sense.
The above rite was often performed over the fœtus as soon as it was buried, in order that the evil spirit be rendered harmless before it could do any evil, otherwise it might turn on the relatives of the woman and afflict them sorely. Prevention is better than cure.
In one case which came under my notice, a fœtus was buried under the perch of a captive bird, a tame kaka parrot. The evil spirit of the kahu entered the bird with the result that several people were seriously afflicted by it. Diseases of the eyes, and other troubles, were caused by that dangerous demon, a truly disreputable bird. When any person was affected by that atua, should he, or a relative, dream of seeing the bird with ruffled plumage (E whakakenakena ana), that was deemed a good omen for the sufferer, he would recover. But should the dreamer see the bird moving about, or with its feathers in a flacid, or ordinary, condition (mohimohi), that that was a bad omen for the patient.
To destroy the evil spirit of a human fœtus, some of the leaves in which food has been placed for cooking may be used as a covering for such fœtus when buried. This will have the desired effect. There is nothing so inimical to tapu, or supernatural powers, as cooked food, or anything which has come in contact with it
But in some cases these atua kahu were not destroyed, but were cultivated, conciliated with offerings, and developed into war gods, in order that their power might be directed against tribal enemies. Such was the origin of the atua (gods, demons) known as Te Awa-nui, Pare-houhou, Peketahi, and Te Rehu-o-Tainui, of the Tuhoe tribe.
The terms tahe, whakatahe, mate-roto, and kuka are all applied to abortion.
It does not appear that anything in the way of medicine was taken internally, in former times, in order to cause abortion, or to cure anything for that matter. But since the natives have observed the use made of such by white people, they have discovered (?) many cures, generally simple remedies, decoctions of herbs, etc., for most complaints, and also to procure abortion. A local native is famous for his skill in procuring abortion in this manner. Native treatment of disease formerly was essentially empirical, being based on observation and experience alone, or such afflictions were viewed as the result of witchcraft.
Lots of invasive abortions occurring there then isn’t there,
You thunk it therefor it was or is Tracey is pretty much lightweight don’t you think,
The obvious that appears befor you written by Best who lived among the people He wrote about was that they didn’t,
Until that is pakeha introduced them to specific concoctions, by then i would suggest the Tikanga that ruled Maori pre-European lives was well on the way to breaking down completely…
Something else for you to consider Tracey, if you can drag yourself away from the notion of pre-European Maori killing their kids as a matter of course that is,
From what i have been told, and i will look later for the supporting literature, the act of sex among my lot was not instigated by the males,
He would have to wait until She wanted to engage, She would only engage when She felt She was ready to produce,(there’s an or goes here,which i will leave out for now),
That didn’t mean He missed out as my lot also practiced poly-whats-it,
Given that i am sure that such woman living by the rules they lived by way back then were far more in control of their bodies and their ”selves” i fail to see how there would be any great demand for abortion,
They all were certainly not going out on the piss on a Friday night to find a bit of ”fun”, i know more than a few among ‘my lot’ that still practice such methods of child birth…
gosh. the worlds first perfect society.
Gosh a closet hater of Maori…
step away from the keyboard bad.
I posted your source because
A. I read it
B. It was interesting
C. Others might enjoy it
D. Unlike you i look at all sides of an argument.
But you just keep chucking your angry, frothing words into my mouth bad12, if you think it will make you feel better.
a little modification to the original sentence, which I believe is likely to hold true.
And why is the spirit always evil ( I read this as resentful/angry/vindictive)? Simple; because having come so close to that rarest opportunity of experiencing life as a human being in connection with heaven and earth, that chance was suddenly yanked away.
Kerlap, Kerlap,Kerlap, a totally dishonest addition to something you have little knowledge of CV, imposing your beliefs upon the natives like a good colonizer would do,
Well done…
Nah not saying it’s authoritative but I reckon it’s right on the dot.
It’s very difficult to get a direct link, but the LandCare Research database of Maori plant use lists several late-1800s attestations for using kareao in a dedoction to procure abortion. A 1940 source states puka could also be used.
http://maoriplantuse.landcareresearch.co.nz/WebForms/default.aspx
Murdoch Riley is a reasonable starting point. Most libraries have his ethnobotanical work. He talks about Māori women knowing the common Polynesian practice of external steaming to induce abortion. He uses the term ‘matter of course’. There were also wairua ways. I have talked to one Māori woman who confirmed that the knowledge of how to terminate pregnancies was amongst her people pre-contact with Europeans.
I wouldn’t consider Elsdon Best to be authoritative on abortion by Māori (although Riley says Best did know that abortion was practiced). The white male Europeans of the time wouldn’t have been asking the right questions, nor probably had access to the information that would have been held by Māori women. Māori women would have had their own reasons for sharing or not sharing (by the time Best was on the scence, anti-abortion Christian missionaries had been in NZ for quite some time). It’s a pretty common dynamic throughout the world where Europeans were colonising. If you want to know what women were doing at those times, talk to women and put the work of white male ethnographers in the proper context.
I’m surprised any of you anti-choicers so much as dare to show your heads this month, considering the massive scandal brewing over in Tuam where, it appears, your mob were busy enslaving women and dumping dead babies in septic tanks, like a little miniature Bergen-Belsen.
Now that is what i expect from the Pro-Lobby, a spirited debate connecting extreme events that have nothing what-so-ever to do with the debate here in New Zealand, the uglier the better right,
So as a proponent of No change to the current Law what part are you suggesting that i played in the ugly fate of those children,
That you can actually bring this into a discussion about abortion provokes in me cynical laughter(at you),how many baby lives have the Pro-Lobby promotions had flushed down the sinks of the abortion clinics so far,
Damn but you lot are slipping, i should have thought you would have found at least a little space to be able to paste an accusation of misogyny in there some place…
hahaha ‘unlikely’
Have you ever wondered what the ‘reply’ button was for, Marius?
Marius could be said to have found a means of conducting a running commentary…
He’s possibly on the mobile version that doesn’t have a reply button.
Yes but you can choose the desktop version of a page when commenting and get a reply button. Or quote.
That was the code the I couldn’t get myself to work on today. sigh
I went over and irritated the sewer instead.
i never wondered and I never gave a shit either!
Ffff-ing Anarchist…
The Employment Relations Amendment Bill is stuffed cos the Nats don’t have the numbers! Horay!!
RadioNZ National News– the Maori Party will not support the current National Party employment Legislation,
National now DO NOT have the numbers and will not proceed with the Legislation,
Pfft, Lame-duck Government, Bring on September…
A comment on New Zealand forsetry/environmental practices?
http://imgur.com/WkfizoD
Seen on a grafitti wall alongside the Donau Kanal, Vienna.
although im not willing to apologize for any possible inconvenience, putake – im slightly puffy chested that you at least appear to enjoy reading my posts. that being the case i can only say that for now im not able to multitask (because im male) to the ‘reply button’ you mention as im consumed by trying to figure out what the numerals to the far right of my posts indicate.
do you have an adult nearby who cd explain it for you..?
..(it is quite complex..i know..)
Pricks.
Metal spikes installed outside a complex of plush London flats, apparently to stop homeless people from sleeping there, have sparked outrage.
The 17-inch long metal studs are embedded in the floor outside a block of luxury flats on Southwark Bridge Road in central London.
http://metro.co.uk/2014/06/07/anti-homeless-spikes-outside-london-flats-spark-outrage-4753547/
The British right are equally outraged. When it’s in China.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2168175/Are-lethal-concrete-spikes-stop-beggars-sleeping-city-bridges-REALLY-Chinas-best-option-stop-homeless-problem.html
(as noted earlier)..rawdon christie likes the spike-those-homeless idea…
..expect him interviewing len brown on this..
christie:..’..just ..just tell me len..!..?..why..why not..?..’
Looks like just the ticket for the proposed Basin Reserve overpass in Wellington too! I’m sure Rawdon can work with that.
Commercial property owners in UK now putting spikes up to stop homeless people sleeping
Yes, homeless people are now considered vermin .
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-06-08/where-metal-spikes-meet-homeless-london-destitute-are-now-considered-vermin
edit gosh you guys are quick
quicker..?..
http://whoar.co.nz/2014/council-urged-to-act-over-inhumane-use-of-spikes-to-deter-homeless-ed-sghould-this-be-a-heads-up-for-the-lefty-mayor-of-auckland-and-the-green-mayor-of-wellington/
You are the fastest gun
i didnt say i wasnt cognizant of what the feature was there for, phillip – you double spacing pranny
hint..turn yr eyes slowly to the right..
..there you will see a button called ‘reply’..
..now..are you still with me here..?
..should you wish to reply to/rebuke ‘a double spacing pranny’ like myself..
..move the cursor..(that’s that little arrow that magically moves over the page..eh..)
..move that over that ‘reply’ button in that ‘pranny’-comment..
..and click on it..
..are you ready to try now..?
..(and have you always had this ‘thing’ about ‘double-spacing’..?..
..or is it recent..?
..’pranny’-induced..?..perchance..?..)
..you’re funny..!..i hope you stick around..
..in these troubles times..we need all the laffs we can get..eh..?
..you are doing good-works there..
and an american are you..marius..?
..wot with yr over/mis-use of ‘zees’..
..eh..?
see above
Hmm…digital gerrymandering.
http://radioboston.wbur.org/2014/06/06/zittrain-google-election (podcast – scroll down for more)
look, phillip, i understand youre probably a little bit put out the lovely trace was waving her vagina at me in an introductory fashion a few days ago, but i want to assure you i have no interest in the borderline personality types. why dont you trundle off and watch ‘shortie’ or something.
[lprent: I am failing to see any point in there. Read the policy on pointed abuse and why you must put points of possible interest to others in with any abuse you want to sling. ]
just fire-breathing righties for you..eh..?
..do you fantasise about collins ‘crushing’ you..?
..(i’ll leave ‘lovely trace’ to answer her/yr ‘vagina-waving’ bit/allegations..eh..?..)
..and you are in serious danger of lurching from ‘funny’..into ‘weird’..eh..?
Computer passes Turing Test.
Limits to Growth proven to be correct yet again.
Infinite growth upon a finite planet is impossible and yet both National and Labour still call for more of it. When are we going to get a political party that accepts reality? When are we going to stop voting for political parties that promote insanity?
Being a student in NZ gets you less than being unemployed – and you can’t live on the unemployment benefit.
http://www.students.org.nz/students_suffer
Supportive comments from Brian Fallow this in the Herald regarding IMF warning on overvalued NZD and Labours policies to combat it.He also pointed out how they have taken a swipe at National head in the sand approach.
Goes to show National have no idea in how to manage the economy, apart from making a few of their mates rich.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11272135
Oh yeah and Reserve bank Governor… current account deficit widening, interest rates up….