Further returns heading offshore coupled with falling commodity prices will negatively impact our current account, yet the Government continues to seek offshore investment facilitating further profits to head offshore .
B Waghorn, what is your take on this? http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/201757604/dairy-broker-says-fonterra's-milk-supply-share-will-shrink
From my limited understanding (but may have misinterpreted this), Fonterra have to pick up milk at farm gate, from Fonterra farmers and deliver to non-Fonterra processors (many foreign owned) at same price (for milk) as what Fonterra farmers are given (as this is the legislation and Fonterra cannot charge over and above the farm price).
In effect, the non-Fonterra processors are free riding on the infrastructure and logistics that Fonterra have built up as a cooperative over years.
Are we absolutely nuts in this country, as this is the craziest thing I have heard?
Yes they are required to supply milk to competition companies at cost , but I’m not involved in dairy (I’m Shepherd) you would have to know how much profit leaves the country and is the tax paid here IMO as to how bad a situation it is. It has allowed more factories to be built without farmers having to stump up the cash which will of helped the massive expansion,.
It has allowed more factories to be built without farmers having to stump up the cash which will of helped the massive expansion,.
Where did the resources to build those factories come from? If, as I suspect, all those resources came from NZ then foreign money allowed nothing at all.
In effect, the non-Fonterra processors are free riding on the infrastructure and logistics that Fonterra have built up as a cooperative over years.
Fonterra was, and is, a near monopoly and thus gets controls that monopolies get.
BTW, selling at cost should give the farmers more than enough to live on. After all, their living costs are most definitely part of the over all costs of farming.
Agreed that Fonterra are a near monopoly, and (I think!) I have no problem with that WHEN they were a true cooperative, owned and run by farmers. Collective bargaining for global trade is a logical governance model. However, with the extending of shareholding to non-farmers coinciding with regulation around (farm gate) pricing, especially pricing control vis-a-vis competing processors, the government has given a free pass to these non-Fonterra processors …..and are these not the processors who have special access to China (for milk solids). Draco, do you know which companies these are – is Oravida one of them?
Draco, regarding selling at cost, the radio snippet said that non-Fonterra processors were offering 10c more per litre. Farmers who are peeved with Fonterra (for selling out on them) are switching to non Fonterra processors -reciprocating a lack of allegiance. If so, it’s a short term gain for the farmers, could lead to a demise of Fonterra. Long term, it’s not good for Fonterra, in my humble understanding of it.
The simple fact of the matter is that the government should never engage offshore firms to do work as it is the government doing stuff that ultimately builds and develops our economy.
And FFS, in this case it’s obvious that we have the capability as both Xero and MYOB show. And there’s no way that the could have been cheaper than NZ.
hi draco,
like kiwi rail awarding contracts to chinese companies (coz they were 25% cheaper than a kiwi bid), these decisions are too short sighted and limited in the thinking.
award the contracts locally and you may pay more but there are lots of tangible and intangible benefits. granted they will not all appear on your balance sheet, however, (especially) the government, are not constrained by greedy shareholders barking for a return on their investment.
a wonderful oppurtunity to model good community behaviour.
yeah… kind of a no-brainer i would have thought. also not sure if they ended up being 25% cheaper considering the product was substandrd. on the other hand hillside workshops was closed down and sold off, soooo….
Over on The Daily Blog, Chris Trotter implies Labour could do with a shake up. Why? Oh because they are too rich, not Tongan enough etc etc. He even takes some time to bash beneficiaries, with his appropriation of “a Tongan cleaners’ views”, and purposeful omission of how and why people become unemployed. That’s great Chris, don’t own your bene-bashing, project it onto “a Tongan”. There’s a name for that, you know. For a long time now I have suspected Chris Trotter isn’t left-wing anything, but he sure got a lot of air-time on that ticket.
Yes Chris, what Labour needs now is a self-inflicted continuation of the problems that acerbated* some poor polls. That’s sarcasm, Chris. No Chris, it doesn’t much matter at this time whether they are rich or not, because they appear to know which way is up, right now, (you see, even fringe lefties can see past “class war” long enough be pragmatic for the good of the wider movement) and if any “shake ups” in senior MP line-ups happen it should happen on the back of electoral success, and to support the direction they say they are taking as outlined in the electoral review that was recently “released”.
*Yes, that’s right, in hindsight, compared to what NZders have voluntarily supported and have been complicit in since, it is no longer certain that anything Labour did in running their campaign, in changing leaders multiple times, or even in the “Sickness Beneficiary Painting the Roof” moment of stupid, was in any way the reason for poor polling.
Key rejected the idea of a one-off payment for heating, instead backing current provisions despite current provisions attributing the death of Emma-Lita Bourne.
Under current provisions the family couldn’t afford to heat their home, but apparently it was insulated.
And while the cost of implementing minimum standards for rentals will be less than the cost of a comprehensive rental warrant, there will still be a fiscal burden that (unless it’s made tax deductible) landlords will seek to pass on.
Costs are often passed on, thus would negatively impact tenants. Leaving them with less to heat their newly insulated homes. Therefore, is a problem that will require to be overcome.
Moreover, the loss of disposable income to higher rents will hurt the wider economy, negatively impacting on consumer demand, business return, thus jobs.
Heating costs (which also attributed to the damp home, thus death) are largely being overlooked with Key failing to support changes to current provisions.
Everything you say there tells us that what we really need to do is to get rid of private landlords and shift all rental to government ownership and set as a percentage of household income.
The high cost of heating can only be brought down by the installation of insulation in existing houses and improving the housing code so that new houses meet or exceed the Passive House standard. There is no short term solution.
Might be better to nationalise power rather than rentals. There are advantages to private rentals, a better solution there is to regulate more specifically.
As a farm worker I’m required to live on the job so we rent our house out so that if something goes wrong we’ve got a home to go to, and its the safest place I can think of to have most of our money.
Yes, but that doesn’t remove the high costs of heating the house. They’re still there ergo it’s not a solution at all.
As I say, once you start thinking in terms of physical resources the economy looks a lot different than it does when you think in terms of money. When thinking in terms of money then what we need is nationalisation of power, have it run as a government service with every household getting a free amount which is enough to run a house for a year.
Do that and watch as the bludgers whinge about not making a profit.
Only if we, as a people, allow it to become a pipe dream. We need to change the narrative and tell people how much better it will be compared to privatisation. There’s still enough of us around that remember that it was better. Not perfect but certainly better than the BS that we have now.
so we collectively pay for the services these tenants need while the landlord gets to keep making capital gain and or yield. sounds fair given the landlord class seem to hate bludgers off the taxpayers
Imagine if you had a system where tenants could dob in landlords for not providing minimum housing standards. Weekly fines could be put on the landlord until the requirements were met and the landlord would be forced to stop rent increases for the next 5 years. You would get a big improvement of housing stock quite quickly!
Bollocks there would be more homeless, there would suddenly be a glut of houses for sale, & market forces would mean they would go for less, & anyway not all landlords are scum sucking parasites, some are quite happy to have their tenants live in safe houses.
Creating a glut of poor quality homes for sale merely shifts the problem onto first home buyers, who in the short-term are seldom fiscally better off than tenants.
If you’ve got enough money to buy a crappy overvalued New Zealand house, then you’ve got enough money to factor in doing some basic repairs on the house and bringing it up to a liveable standard.
The “no rent increase” for a set time is to try and stop the transfer of the landlord costs onto the tenants. There’s probably other ways you could do it, but that was my intention.
The “no rent increase” for a set time is to try and stop the transfer of the landlord costs onto the tenants.
I’m interested in this concept that landlords’ costs for maintaining and upgrading rental properties shouldn’t be passed on to tenants. Are you envisaging renting flats to people as a kind of charitable or philanthropic exercise, or is it more that you see being a landlord as such an enjoyable hobby that those participating surely won’t mind paying for the enjoyment they derive from it?
It’s more about the line between making a Lin
living and greed. There’s also the issue of housing costs in NZ being far too high relative to income. If that ratio was lower, rent rises would be less of an issue.
If you’re remodelling the house’s kitchen to attract different clientele then raising the rent makes sense. But if you’re fixing draughty rooms, leaks coming into the house, putting insulation in where there was none before, repainting some rooms and the exterior and passing those costs onto the renters then you’re not a good landlord in my book.
Why? If you’re renting, your rent covers the cost of the property – since when did maintenance cease being a cost of ownership? And if your landlord upgrades the property, eg by putting insulation in the walls or under the floor, or installing a heating system, it’s not because they’re philanthropists who love giving money away, it’s because they can recover the cost of the upgrade via rent. Nobody gets into the landlord business because they love losing money.
It’s lucky I’ve never had a landlord who thinks like that because I would think they’re an arsehole. As soon as the dishwasher breaks.. up goes the rent. It’s the duty of care of the landlord to look after your tenants and provide what they need in the house. I would like to think that the motivation behind installing a heatpump in a house is because you knew that the house got cold and would be cheaper for your tenants to run, not that you would only do it if your tenants agreed that their rent would go up.
The motivation behind installing a heat pump is to see that the tenants have a relatively cheap means of heating the place, sure. But if you don’t recover the costs of doing things like that via the rent, you’re a philanthropist, not a landlord.
So as you believe there’s a strong causation effect to actual costs and rents charged no doubt you’ll believe that landlords reduce rents when their costs decrease eg interest rate drops, paying the mortgage off.
I know several landlords who have no mortgage on their rental properties yet they still increase their rents when the “market” moves.
The profiteering in Christchurch has showed some of our landlords at their very bastard worst. Rents there increased well beyond any actual increase in costs.
Tenants have been lining landlords pockets for years and now they are crying because they might have to meet some habitable standards.
What about all the excess rent they’ve got over the years.
What about all the personal tax they didn’t pay cause they could offset their losses against it. I couldn’t do that with my house but I’ve spent a darn sight more than most landlords to maintain and insulate my home to keep my family warm and healthy.
What about all the tax free capital gains many have made.
Bastards lots of them.
They’ve been subsidised by both tenants and the tax system for years.
You know some bad landlords? Funnily enough, lots of landlords know some bad tenants. If only our Lord would return and bring the day of judgement upon us, then all this wickedness would cease.
You know like there’s good beneficiaries eg superanuitants and bad beneficiaries eg sole parents.
But what’s a good landlord – one that has maintained his property well, ensured it is repaired and suitable for habitation. One that would meet the warrant of fitness maybe.
And therein lies the difficulty – you’re arguing for a subsidy for those landlords that have reaped the profit and the tax advantages. but not invested back into the property.
Saw the same thing with commercial buildings. Conscientious landlords not touching buildings that clearly needing strengthening or paying for the strengthening work out of their rentals only to find those that didn’t bother or bought cheaply then asking for a handout to do so.
What has happened to the mantra of self-responsibility or caveat emptor in this situation?
( keep it up Labour Party ….we need one of these Labour Party policies every day on Morning Report and/or an attack on this jonkey nact government policies)
Mihingarangi Forbes was on Native Affairs last night for the last time I think. She traversed the mis-spending of funds
but of special interest was an interview with a tired fearful looking John Key.
He didn’t relax until the last few moments.
Every time he diverted she quietly politely bought him back on task. Re the first-refusal of land for housing. A first rate interview and no wonder pressure has been brought to bear to eliminate Mihi. Not online yet but repeats on Wed at 10:30pm.
A masterful interviewer!
look forward to seeing it…hopefully it will be linked here
imo jonkey nactional is trying to kill off any media that asks the hard real questions of him and his government…he is very fearful of this!…he much more comfortable with infotainment
….this is why jonkey’s friend Slater is now turning his attention on attacking blog sites like this ….where the hard questions are asked and the real news is discussed
jonkey nactional is trying to bring in thought control …in other words fascism by stealth
He seemed not to be able to grasp the difference between a collective set up to deal with 3 specific issues and the iwi most involved, Ngati Whatua and Tainui but Mihingarangi politely and firmly brought him back several times.
[lprent: Why? All first (ie pseudonym + email combinations) comments have to be approved by a moderator. Silly comments like this either get spammed or passed with probation. We view them identifying you as a person of suspicion. And if you are doing it on a post then make sure that the comment relates to either the post of the content of the whoever you are replying to. Otherwise use Open Mike. Read the policy. ]
I was battling some very pernicious malware. I had done a re-install of OS to try to remedy the situation and the above was me entering the wrong email.
New OS Didn’t solve it though 🙁 Which is odd as I am on Ubuntu and never really have to bother with viruses etc. So anyway, after lots and lots of reading what other similarly frustrated people had written, a solution was found. A new router.
If anyone else has met “Ads by Lu” you may want to save yourself the headache and replace your router before attacking your OS
– there are some &*%$* advertisers out there
As well as throwing popups everywhere, (adblockers don’t have any affect btw) it really loves to insert itself into news articles by replacing words in the article with hyperlink advertisements. Just nasty and basically a big frikkin headache, but all better now after finding a replacement router 🙂
In the late 1990s and early 2000s I was heavily involved in a NZ-based marxist magazine called ‘revolution’. We had readers all over the world and quite a range of people wrote for the mag at various times, including the moderator of this list and (then) up-and-coming sci-fi writer Ken MacLeod. Ken is now well-established as a sci-fi novelist.
today i was reading parts of interview with waterside workers from 1951. some of the stuff including references to company profits while crying poor put me in mi d of POA dispute… 60+ years later
By the way, Trotter’s stupid comment about ‘‘beneficiary tucked up warmly in bed’ was a crap of a shallow comment.
However, I liked the two ideas, attributed to Danyl McLauchlan, mentioned in his article. [ How to select Labour candidates and about their take home pay].
Any comments on these two ideas and the possible immediate and long term implications for the Labour party?
I thought that Chris raised questions that need to be raised. If we think that MP’s are there to robustly represent constituencies, then we should be shocked at some of the findings of the Labour Party review – most particularly the undermining effect of disunity within the caucus. Can you imagine National losing an election partly due to open caucus disunity? It is hard to imagine because National’s constituency has the power to scare its MP’s into line. We have come to think and behave as if we cannot expect much better – to wearily hope that things will improve now that we have Andrew at the helm.
Labour voters are not powerful enough to scare Labour politicians into line. In fact the people who can scare Labour politicians are exactly the same ones who can scare National politicians – the powerful (who can withhold or give donations) and their media mates, (who are able to build or destroy reputations). However, many of these people benefit from the very injustices that Labour exists to challenge. Even if Chris’s suggested solution does not prove to be workable, he is spot-on in identifying the problem, and the two qualities that he is indirectly pointing to, conviction and real solidarity, are much needed parts of its solution.
Well said. If the two ideas are implemented, it will serve many purposes, such as…
The members will be the ultimate judges of the type of candidates they want the Labour party to be represented by. There is a greater chance that good people of quality will get selected as our MPs. If the MPs are not good enough, it is easy for members to replace them or rank then lower at the next candidate list selection. It is more likely that we will get more patriotic, more intelligent, more idealistic and more caring MPs representing the party.
It also means that the MPs are there for the right reasons of working selflessly without excessive greed, for the people and the betterment of the country rather than for personal benefits to themselves.
I fail to see how the damaging effects of disunity in caucus would be shocking – they’ve been evident for years. And has the discunity in the party membership, and the friction between factions in membership and factions in caucus, and vice versa…
But while it’s been bad over the past few years, it’s improving. I see it as repercussions from the departure of a particularly strong and disciplined leader and some of her caucus stalwarts, like water rushing into a vacuum. And then the membership and affiliates took some control of the caucus leadership from caucus itself, and that caused waves as well (but made the seabed more stable).
Quite frankly, “shock” leads to searches for explanation, which leads to witch hunts, which leads to more division and disunity.
Labour in general seem to have a pretty good response to the review: it is what it is, and we’ll learn the lessons.
If government wants to do this in the health system how about doing the same in the social welfare benefit system where benefit numbers are dropping without any information about what’s really happening to the people behind each statistic?
There’s a ton of anecdotal evidence about what’s really happening which is that people are being turned away at the counter without proper assessment, MSD are making decisions that ignore medical evidence, the whole process is made deliberately onerous to create a “can’t be bothered appyling” attitude amongst the poor and so on and so on.
Woohoo, a new replacement for Campbell Live has been announced.
After being forced to get our daily dose of empathy and human kindness from Roadcops, from next week we now will be able to witness genuine suffering and human interest with…… Come Dine With Me.
I can’t wait. Err, no, yes I can !!
I’m surprised the flag roadshow wasn’t turned into a reality programme.
Each week the viewers could have voted off a contender and at the end the winning designer would get to have their flag used for the next 100yrs, free movie passes (only Warner Bros films) and a signed poster of John Key. (Txts cost 99cents per minute).
I quite like ‘Come Dine with Me’ – watching the dynamics of personalities and interactions on it can be fascinating in a sort of appalling way.
But if this is the replacement for Campbell Live, it’s a massive dumbing down and the viewing audience will be down as well.
CDWM is an amusing little diversion, but people who have just watched ‘news’ that consists of soundbites about serious stories and fluff about ‘celebs’ want something a bit meatier afterwards, like a chunk of the stories that appeared on ‘Campbell Live’, not more vacuous ‘entertainment’. And five nights a week?!!!
Mind you, some of the opinions expressed around the dinner table on CDWM are probably better-informed than anything out of the mouth of that little airhead with the spikey hair over on TV1 at 7pm.
Good grief, could TV3 dumb down any more? Obviously yes they can, and will. I once spent 5 minutes watching the British CDWM which was excruciatingly ghastly. Campbell Live is sorely missed.
American singer and actor Ronnie Gilbert, of the legendary folk group The Weavers (blacklisted during the McCarthyite 1950s) died on Saturday. The inspiration for a string of female folk singers from Mary Travers to Holly Near, Ms Gilbert was in her 89th year.
She certainly had a long and fruitful life, even remarrying in 2004, second time round to her manager and longtime partner Donna Korones, during a short period where the mayor of San Francisco had instructed the city clerk to issue marriage licences to same-sex couples.
Bugger. That’s so very sad. Pete was a great guy, always so kind and generous and very forgiving of economic illiterates like myself. He had a real strength to him, but didn’t need to shout to make that apparent. I really can’t believe it. Crying now. Shit.
Of course not. First and foremost you have to make money (lots of it) at what you’re doing and all he did was sit around and think about the workers. In other words a bleeding heart. (profound sarcasm)
I’m on the periphery of workers rights these days and never knew Peter Conway personally but was very aware of his presence and effect within the movement.
I don’t know if this has been covered or not, but Peter Dunne has, after dragging his feet as long as he could during petition signing and protests, made a call on which way the wind is blowing and allowed the family of a young man in a coma to import and try a medical cannabis product. (The product is coming from the US, the original home of Nixon’s quaint old ‘war on drugs’ vote winner). http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/69243877/medicinal-cannabis-application-approved-for-teenager-in-coma
The comments below are pretty unanimous. Isn’t it time we joined the 21st century on this issue?
Thanks, ianmac. Quite right re: Mihi and she wouldn’t let Johnboy off the hook either, no matter how much he slithered. I suspect he has the emotional quotient of a 15 year old.
Good Morning Mr Prentice, Your site and its contents have been brought to my attention yesterday. Your posts concerning me are malicious and deliberately false. I was not present in the High Court in the Blomfield matter and certainly did not take pictures of you. I have absolutely no interest in your narcissistic delusions of your own self importance. I have written to the High Court requesting details of any security footage of that day, if it exists. I suggest you do the same. I was not there so do not know the date. It might assist if you contact the registry and request details and supply the dates. Your mendacious malevolent threats of ongoing abuse have been taken seriously. Please desist from your conduct and the promotion of the nonsense on the web site Lauda finem scam. I have emailed you and cc Mr Matt Amon of the High Court Registry. I will be filing a copy of your posts and my response with the District Court this morning. Continued conduct will result in legal action Lyn ( apologies if that is not how you spell your name ).
[lprent: Bullshit. Go ahead, make my day. I do so love the concept of discovery and the court ordered allocation of costs.
BTW: for others reading this, the Nottingham brothers are highly likely to be the blowhards who run Lauda Finem and who delight in attacking anyone that Cameron Slater dislikes.
Prior to my appearance on The Nation, I’d deliberately avoided leaving images of myself as an adult on any part of nets, and have done so for more than 3 decades.
These clowns took the photos of me in the high court on the net and then published them on Lauda Finem. Needless to say, I was and are still rather annoyed about that.
Since I appeared on The Nation, there is no longer a reason to maintain a neither confirm nor deny policy on those photos, nor to refrain from naming the arseholes who did it. ]
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 27 were:1. The Minister for Ford Rangers strikes againTransport Minister Simeon Brown was again the busiest of the Cabinet ministers this week, announcing an ...
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Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
Te Rangi e tu nei (The sky above us) Te Papa e takoto nei (The land beneath us) Tatou katoa te hunga ora (To us all the living) Tena koutou katoa (Greetings) ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
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http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1506/S00128/ird-contract-set-to-benefit-us-economy-not-nz.htm
How stupid can keys pursuit of globalization get.
This stupid?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11461963
Brown rig are a brethren out fit I believe.
Come on b wagon you know Key and Co don’t give a rat’s about the majority of NZ business – it jobs for the mates, ideology, then bugger the rest.
I wonder if nz even gets the tax back from that billion ? I doubt it somehow.
Further returns heading offshore coupled with falling commodity prices will negatively impact our current account, yet the Government continues to seek offshore investment facilitating further profits to head offshore .
It;s almost like we are a broker rather than a nation.
Well, that’s how you turn a nation into serfs for Key’s corporate masters.
B Waghorn, what is your take on this?
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/201757604/dairy-broker-says-fonterra's-milk-supply-share-will-shrink
From my limited understanding (but may have misinterpreted this), Fonterra have to pick up milk at farm gate, from Fonterra farmers and deliver to non-Fonterra processors (many foreign owned) at same price (for milk) as what Fonterra farmers are given (as this is the legislation and Fonterra cannot charge over and above the farm price).
In effect, the non-Fonterra processors are free riding on the infrastructure and logistics that Fonterra have built up as a cooperative over years.
Are we absolutely nuts in this country, as this is the craziest thing I have heard?
Same as NZ Post having to deliver DX Mail (In places that DX Mail cannot make a profit).
Yes they are required to supply milk to competition companies at cost , but I’m not involved in dairy (I’m Shepherd) you would have to know how much profit leaves the country and is the tax paid here IMO as to how bad a situation it is. It has allowed more factories to be built without farmers having to stump up the cash which will of helped the massive expansion,.
Where did the resources to build those factories come from? If, as I suspect, all those resources came from NZ then foreign money allowed nothing at all.
http://m.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10863663
Chinese money is what’s talked about to build this one.
Money is not a resource.
Where’d the resources come from? Where were they refined? Where were they produced into building materials and tools? Where the people come from?
Fonterra was, and is, a near monopoly and thus gets controls that monopolies get.
BTW, selling at cost should give the farmers more than enough to live on. After all, their living costs are most definitely part of the over all costs of farming.
Agreed that Fonterra are a near monopoly, and (I think!) I have no problem with that WHEN they were a true cooperative, owned and run by farmers. Collective bargaining for global trade is a logical governance model. However, with the extending of shareholding to non-farmers coinciding with regulation around (farm gate) pricing, especially pricing control vis-a-vis competing processors, the government has given a free pass to these non-Fonterra processors …..and are these not the processors who have special access to China (for milk solids). Draco, do you know which companies these are – is Oravida one of them?
Draco, regarding selling at cost, the radio snippet said that non-Fonterra processors were offering 10c more per litre. Farmers who are peeved with Fonterra (for selling out on them) are switching to non Fonterra processors -reciprocating a lack of allegiance. If so, it’s a short term gain for the farmers, could lead to a demise of Fonterra. Long term, it’s not good for Fonterra, in my humble understanding of it.
The simple fact of the matter is that the government should never engage offshore firms to do work as it is the government doing stuff that ultimately builds and develops our economy.
And FFS, in this case it’s obvious that we have the capability as both Xero and MYOB show. And there’s no way that the could have been cheaper than NZ.
Short sighted idiots the lot of them.
hi draco,
like kiwi rail awarding contracts to chinese companies (coz they were 25% cheaper than a kiwi bid), these decisions are too short sighted and limited in the thinking.
award the contracts locally and you may pay more but there are lots of tangible and intangible benefits. granted they will not all appear on your balance sheet, however, (especially) the government, are not constrained by greedy shareholders barking for a return on their investment.
a wonderful oppurtunity to model good community behaviour.
I read once that a dollar only needs to be spent 3 times and it all ends up as tax so awarding contracts to nz companies is almost doing it for free,
yeah… kind of a no-brainer i would have thought. also not sure if they ended up being 25% cheaper considering the product was substandrd. on the other hand hillside workshops was closed down and sold off, soooo….
Speaking of “The left” undermining The Left…
Over on The Daily Blog, Chris Trotter implies Labour could do with a shake up. Why? Oh because they are too rich, not Tongan enough etc etc. He even takes some time to bash beneficiaries, with his appropriation of “a Tongan cleaners’ views”, and purposeful omission of how and why people become unemployed. That’s great Chris, don’t own your bene-bashing, project it onto “a Tongan”. There’s a name for that, you know. For a long time now I have suspected Chris Trotter isn’t left-wing anything, but he sure got a lot of air-time on that ticket.
Yes Chris, what Labour needs now is a self-inflicted continuation of the problems that acerbated* some poor polls. That’s sarcasm, Chris. No Chris, it doesn’t much matter at this time whether they are rich or not, because they appear to know which way is up, right now, (you see, even fringe lefties can see past “class war” long enough be pragmatic for the good of the wider movement) and if any “shake ups” in senior MP line-ups happen it should happen on the back of electoral success, and to support the direction they say they are taking as outlined in the electoral review that was recently “released”.
*Yes, that’s right, in hindsight, compared to what NZders have voluntarily supported and have been complicit in since, it is no longer certain that anything Labour did in running their campaign, in changing leaders multiple times, or even in the “Sickness Beneficiary Painting the Roof” moment of stupid, was in any way the reason for poor polling.
This is white, male, middle class Chris Trotter, yes?
Waitakere Man is never unemployed. If he loses his job he gets another one. Never gets sick either.
trotter doesnt go there much then 😉
Wasn’t it Trotter who came up with the “Waitakere Man” dogwhistle in the first place? When did he convert to favouring ‘identity politics’?
Key rejected the idea of a one-off payment for heating, instead backing current provisions despite current provisions attributing the death of Emma-Lita Bourne.
Under current provisions the family couldn’t afford to heat their home, but apparently it was insulated.
And while the cost of implementing minimum standards for rentals will be less than the cost of a comprehensive rental warrant, there will still be a fiscal burden that (unless it’s made tax deductible) landlords will seek to pass on.
cost, cost, cost. Those poor employers having their profits or investment income eroded for the safety of human beings.
Costs are often passed on, thus would negatively impact tenants. Leaving them with less to heat their newly insulated homes. Therefore, is a problem that will require to be overcome.
Moreover, the loss of disposable income to higher rents will hurt the wider economy, negatively impacting on consumer demand, business return, thus jobs.
Heating costs (which also attributed to the damp home, thus death) are largely being overlooked with Key failing to support changes to current provisions.
Everything you say there tells us that what we really need to do is to get rid of private landlords and shift all rental to government ownership and set as a percentage of household income.
It still overlooks a fundamental part of the problem, namely the high cost of heating.
The high cost of heating can only be brought down by the installation of insulation in existing houses and improving the housing code so that new houses meet or exceed the Passive House standard. There is no short term solution.
Might be better to nationalise power rather than rentals. There are advantages to private rentals, a better solution there is to regulate more specifically.
Name 1.
BTW, I think nationalising power and telecommunications is a must.
As a farm worker I’m required to live on the job so we rent our house out so that if something goes wrong we’ve got a home to go to, and its the safest place I can think of to have most of our money.
DTB-No No! we used to have nationalised power and telecommunications in my parents’ day and it didn’t w ..oh wait…..yes it did.
With electricity costs exceeding the rate of inflation, a number still find the cost of heating an insulated home excessive.
Subsidies for low income earners is a short-term solution that could be considered.
Yes, but that doesn’t remove the high costs of heating the house. They’re still there ergo it’s not a solution at all.
As I say, once you start thinking in terms of physical resources the economy looks a lot different than it does when you think in terms of money. When thinking in terms of money then what we need is nationalisation of power, have it run as a government service with every household getting a free amount which is enough to run a house for a year.
Do that and watch as the bludgers whinge about not making a profit.
It’s a stop gap measure to be considered which would protect the most vulnerable in the meantime.
Renationalization coupled with providing it as a government service is fast becoming a pipe dream.
Only if we, as a people, allow it to become a pipe dream. We need to change the narrative and tell people how much better it will be compared to privatisation. There’s still enough of us around that remember that it was better. Not perfect but certainly better than the BS that we have now.
so we collectively pay for the services these tenants need while the landlord gets to keep making capital gain and or yield. sounds fair given the landlord class seem to hate bludgers off the taxpayers
makes you wonder why electricity and water changed to being run on a bottom line profit motive then
Imagine if you had a system where tenants could dob in landlords for not providing minimum housing standards. Weekly fines could be put on the landlord until the requirements were met and the landlord would be forced to stop rent increases for the next 5 years. You would get a big improvement of housing stock quite quickly!
There would be no landlords to dob in under your suggested fantasies and the net result more homeless people.
Bollocks there would be more homeless, there would suddenly be a glut of houses for sale, & market forces would mean they would go for less, & anyway not all landlords are scum sucking parasites, some are quite happy to have their tenants live in safe houses.
No no gangnam the poor are meant to be greatful they are allowed to live in houses owned by the likes of Indiana.
Creating a glut of poor quality homes for sale merely shifts the problem onto first home buyers, who in the short-term are seldom fiscally better off than tenants.
If you’ve got enough money to buy a crappy overvalued New Zealand house, then you’ve got enough money to factor in doing some basic repairs on the house and bringing it up to a liveable standard.
With house values several times higher than incomes, buying a house tends to stretch revenue streams, leaving little disposable income.
do you consider substandard homes and high electricity prices are a problem?
Indeed.
An insulated home alone isn’t a warm home without heating.
Weekly fines would be sufficient, you don’t need to put a 5 year ‘no-rent increase’ clause, which is stupid.
The “no rent increase” for a set time is to try and stop the transfer of the landlord costs onto the tenants. There’s probably other ways you could do it, but that was my intention.
Landlords increase rents for many reasons, not just to do (overdue) maintenance on their house.
I appreciate what you’re trying to achieve there, but a blanket rule banning rent rises isn’t fair.
The “no rent increase” for a set time is to try and stop the transfer of the landlord costs onto the tenants.
I’m interested in this concept that landlords’ costs for maintaining and upgrading rental properties shouldn’t be passed on to tenants. Are you envisaging renting flats to people as a kind of charitable or philanthropic exercise, or is it more that you see being a landlord as such an enjoyable hobby that those participating surely won’t mind paying for the enjoyment they derive from it?
It’s more about the line between making a Lin
living and greed. There’s also the issue of housing costs in NZ being far too high relative to income. If that ratio was lower, rent rises would be less of an issue.
If you’re remodelling the house’s kitchen to attract different clientele then raising the rent makes sense. But if you’re fixing draughty rooms, leaks coming into the house, putting insulation in where there was none before, repainting some rooms and the exterior and passing those costs onto the renters then you’re not a good landlord in my book.
Why? If you’re renting, your rent covers the cost of the property – since when did maintenance cease being a cost of ownership? And if your landlord upgrades the property, eg by putting insulation in the walls or under the floor, or installing a heating system, it’s not because they’re philanthropists who love giving money away, it’s because they can recover the cost of the upgrade via rent. Nobody gets into the landlord business because they love losing money.
It’s lucky I’ve never had a landlord who thinks like that because I would think they’re an arsehole. As soon as the dishwasher breaks.. up goes the rent. It’s the duty of care of the landlord to look after your tenants and provide what they need in the house. I would like to think that the motivation behind installing a heatpump in a house is because you knew that the house got cold and would be cheaper for your tenants to run, not that you would only do it if your tenants agreed that their rent would go up.
The motivation behind installing a heat pump is to see that the tenants have a relatively cheap means of heating the place, sure. But if you don’t recover the costs of doing things like that via the rent, you’re a philanthropist, not a landlord.
So as you believe there’s a strong causation effect to actual costs and rents charged no doubt you’ll believe that landlords reduce rents when their costs decrease eg interest rate drops, paying the mortgage off.
I know several landlords who have no mortgage on their rental properties yet they still increase their rents when the “market” moves.
The profiteering in Christchurch has showed some of our landlords at their very bastard worst. Rents there increased well beyond any actual increase in costs.
Tenants have been lining landlords pockets for years and now they are crying because they might have to meet some habitable standards.
What about all the excess rent they’ve got over the years.
What about all the personal tax they didn’t pay cause they could offset their losses against it. I couldn’t do that with my house but I’ve spent a darn sight more than most landlords to maintain and insulate my home to keep my family warm and healthy.
What about all the tax free capital gains many have made.
Bastards lots of them.
They’ve been subsidised by both tenants and the tax system for years.
You know some bad landlords? Funnily enough, lots of landlords know some bad tenants. If only our Lord would return and bring the day of judgement upon us, then all this wickedness would cease.
So we should only subsidise good landlords then.
You know like there’s good beneficiaries eg superanuitants and bad beneficiaries eg sole parents.
But what’s a good landlord – one that has maintained his property well, ensured it is repaired and suitable for habitation. One that would meet the warrant of fitness maybe.
And therein lies the difficulty – you’re arguing for a subsidy for those landlords that have reaped the profit and the tax advantages. but not invested back into the property.
Saw the same thing with commercial buildings. Conscientious landlords not touching buildings that clearly needing strengthening or paying for the strengthening work out of their rentals only to find those that didn’t bother or bought cheaply then asking for a handout to do so.
What has happened to the mantra of self-responsibility or caveat emptor in this situation?
+100.
And the number of landlords who own houses for capital gains rather than to generate income, would be a big percentage now compared to a decade ago.
The tenant who dobbed in the landlord would be given notice immediately for having the temerity to complain.
There’s a disincentive to do so right there.
It’s all the same in New Zealand: renters are powerless and second class citizens.
Andrew Little on form today on Morning Report
Labour has waded into the broadcasting debate saying it wants a a new public-service television broadcaster if it becomes government
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/201757643/labour-wants-public-service-television-broadcaster
( keep it up Labour Party ….we need one of these Labour Party policies every day on Morning Report and/or an attack on this jonkey nact government policies)
perhaps sell TVNZ and use it to bankroll Radio NZ’s TV plan as a start.
We can only hope that Julie Christie does not think to duplicate this idea in NZ.
Russell Brand reviews the US reality show: The Briefcase, and just when you think it doesn’t get any worse than The Bachelor, you really have to ask yourself: WTF?
she’s busy being paid to sell us a flag we didn’t know we wanted
Mihingarangi Forbes was on Native Affairs last night for the last time I think. She traversed the mis-spending of funds
but of special interest was an interview with a tired fearful looking John Key.
He didn’t relax until the last few moments.
Every time he diverted she quietly politely bought him back on task. Re the first-refusal of land for housing. A first rate interview and no wonder pressure has been brought to bear to eliminate Mihi. Not online yet but repeats on Wed at 10:30pm.
A masterful interviewer!
look forward to seeing it…hopefully it will be linked here
imo jonkey nactional is trying to kill off any media that asks the hard real questions of him and his government…he is very fearful of this!…he much more comfortable with infotainment
….this is why jonkey’s friend Slater is now turning his attention on attacking blog sites like this ….where the hard questions are asked and the real news is discussed
jonkey nactional is trying to bring in thought control …in other words fascism by stealth
http://www.maoritelevision.com/tv/shows/native-affairs/S09E014/native-affairs
Interview with the PM starts 12.30 – 27.20 approx
He seemed not to be able to grasp the difference between a collective set up to deal with 3 specific issues and the iwi most involved, Ngati Whatua and Tainui but Mihingarangi politely and firmly brought him back several times.
+100 …thanks
test
[lprent: Why? All first (ie pseudonym + email combinations) comments have to be approved by a moderator. Silly comments like this either get spammed or passed with probation. We view them identifying you as a person of suspicion. And if you are doing it on a post then make sure that the comment relates to either the post of the content of the whoever you are replying to. Otherwise use Open Mike. Read the policy. ]
apologies lprent, I obviously wasn’t paying attention as to what post i was on – see 8.1
test
[Letting this through. You might have changed a login detail – MS]
I was battling some very pernicious malware. I had done a re-install of OS to try to remedy the situation and the above was me entering the wrong email.
New OS Didn’t solve it though 🙁 Which is odd as I am on Ubuntu and never really have to bother with viruses etc. So anyway, after lots and lots of reading what other similarly frustrated people had written, a solution was found. A new router.
If anyone else has met “Ads by Lu” you may want to save yourself the headache and replace your router before attacking your OS
– there are some &*%$* advertisers out there
As well as throwing popups everywhere, (adblockers don’t have any affect btw) it really loves to insert itself into news articles by replacing words in the article with hyperlink advertisements. Just nasty and basically a big frikkin headache, but all better now after finding a replacement router 🙂
change the default admin password on the new router 😉
+ found a handy resource which has a huge list of router username/passwords –
http://portforward.com/default_username_password/
In the late 1990s and early 2000s I was heavily involved in a NZ-based marxist magazine called ‘revolution’. We had readers all over the world and quite a range of people wrote for the mag at various times, including the moderator of this list and (then) up-and-coming sci-fi writer Ken MacLeod. Ken is now well-established as a sci-fi novelist.
I have put up on Redline blog a couple of pieces Ken wrote for the mag. There’s a very short piece on cultural dumbing down based on comments he made as part of a panel at the 1998 Edinburgh Book Festival. It’s here: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/06/08/ken-macleod-on-the-cultural-dumbing-down/
The more substantial piece is on Science fiction after ‘the end of history’, which he wrote for the mag the same year. It’s here: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/06/09/from-the-vaults-science-fiction-after-the-end-of-history-1998/
It was quite strange re-reading these and doing them up for Redline, 17 years later. They still ring very very true.
Phil
today i was reading parts of interview with waterside workers from 1951. some of the stuff including references to company profits while crying poor put me in mi d of POA dispute… 60+ years later
well this is… surprising?
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/275770/despite-budget-forecast,-books-in-surplus
An excellent article about two great ideas for the Labour party: How to select their candidates and about their take home pay.
I agree with its implication so much, I will link it here for your views and debate regarding the pros and cons of the idea.
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2015/06/09/the-real-deal-how-labour-could-once-again-become-a-workers-party/
By the way, Trotter’s stupid comment about ‘‘beneficiary tucked up warmly in bed’ was a crap of a shallow comment.
However, I liked the two ideas, attributed to Danyl McLauchlan, mentioned in his article. [ How to select Labour candidates and about their take home pay].
Any comments on these two ideas and the possible immediate and long term implications for the Labour party?
No to mention the dismissive ‘Tongan cleaner’ line. Trotter’s a bourgeois prat.
I thought that Chris raised questions that need to be raised. If we think that MP’s are there to robustly represent constituencies, then we should be shocked at some of the findings of the Labour Party review – most particularly the undermining effect of disunity within the caucus. Can you imagine National losing an election partly due to open caucus disunity? It is hard to imagine because National’s constituency has the power to scare its MP’s into line. We have come to think and behave as if we cannot expect much better – to wearily hope that things will improve now that we have Andrew at the helm.
Labour voters are not powerful enough to scare Labour politicians into line. In fact the people who can scare Labour politicians are exactly the same ones who can scare National politicians – the powerful (who can withhold or give donations) and their media mates, (who are able to build or destroy reputations). However, many of these people benefit from the very injustices that Labour exists to challenge. Even if Chris’s suggested solution does not prove to be workable, he is spot-on in identifying the problem, and the two qualities that he is indirectly pointing to, conviction and real solidarity, are much needed parts of its solution.
Well said. If the two ideas are implemented, it will serve many purposes, such as…
The members will be the ultimate judges of the type of candidates they want the Labour party to be represented by. There is a greater chance that good people of quality will get selected as our MPs. If the MPs are not good enough, it is easy for members to replace them or rank then lower at the next candidate list selection. It is more likely that we will get more patriotic, more intelligent, more idealistic and more caring MPs representing the party.
It also means that the MPs are there for the right reasons of working selflessly without excessive greed, for the people and the betterment of the country rather than for personal benefits to themselves.
Keen to hear your varied views.
said white male middle class trotter in his all knowing what the “others” need
I fail to see how the damaging effects of disunity in caucus would be shocking – they’ve been evident for years. And has the discunity in the party membership, and the friction between factions in membership and factions in caucus, and vice versa…
But while it’s been bad over the past few years, it’s improving. I see it as repercussions from the departure of a particularly strong and disciplined leader and some of her caucus stalwarts, like water rushing into a vacuum. And then the membership and affiliates took some control of the caucus leadership from caucus itself, and that caused waves as well (but made the seabed more stable).
Quite frankly, “shock” leads to searches for explanation, which leads to witch hunts, which leads to more division and disunity.
Labour in general seem to have a pretty good response to the review: it is what it is, and we’ll learn the lessons.
Testing after change of email.
If government wants to do this in the health system how about doing the same in the social welfare benefit system where benefit numbers are dropping without any information about what’s really happening to the people behind each statistic?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/69222706/government-to-track-numbers-of-surgical-patients-being-turned-away-from-hospitals
There’s a ton of anecdotal evidence about what’s really happening which is that people are being turned away at the counter without proper assessment, MSD are making decisions that ignore medical evidence, the whole process is made deliberately onerous to create a “can’t be bothered appyling” attitude amongst the poor and so on and so on.
How about some proper information, Anne Tolley?
Woohoo, a new replacement for Campbell Live has been announced.
After being forced to get our daily dose of empathy and human kindness from Roadcops, from next week we now will be able to witness genuine suffering and human interest with…… Come Dine With Me.
I can’t wait. Err, no, yes I can !!
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=11462265
Of course, its produced by Eyeworks Touchdown. Started by Julie Christie, now owned by Warner Brothers.
her name sprung instantly to mind… the queen of imitation. makes you wonder whose flag she wants us to copy.
I’m surprised the flag roadshow wasn’t turned into a reality programme.
Each week the viewers could have voted off a contender and at the end the winning designer would get to have their flag used for the next 100yrs, free movie passes (only Warner Bros films) and a signed poster of John Key. (Txts cost 99cents per minute).
I should be quiet, they might still do that.
I quite like ‘Come Dine with Me’ – watching the dynamics of personalities and interactions on it can be fascinating in a sort of appalling way.
But if this is the replacement for Campbell Live, it’s a massive dumbing down and the viewing audience will be down as well.
CDWM is an amusing little diversion, but people who have just watched ‘news’ that consists of soundbites about serious stories and fluff about ‘celebs’ want something a bit meatier afterwards, like a chunk of the stories that appeared on ‘Campbell Live’, not more vacuous ‘entertainment’. And five nights a week?!!!
Mind you, some of the opinions expressed around the dinner table on CDWM are probably better-informed than anything out of the mouth of that little airhead with the spikey hair over on TV1 at 7pm.
You mean Mr Sucksessful. Ol Mini Mike.
Good grief, could TV3 dumb down any more? Obviously yes they can, and will. I once spent 5 minutes watching the British CDWM which was excruciatingly ghastly. Campbell Live is sorely missed.
lol
So having lost a ballpark competitor to seven sharp, they’re trying to compete with Shortland St.
Good luck with that. Meanwhile, seven sharp seems to have picked up quite a few viewers from somewhere…
American singer and actor Ronnie Gilbert, of the legendary folk group The Weavers (blacklisted during the McCarthyite 1950s) died on Saturday. The inspiration for a string of female folk singers from Mary Travers to Holly Near, Ms Gilbert was in her 89th year.
She certainly had a long and fruitful life, even remarrying in 2004, second time round to her manager and longtime partner Donna Korones, during a short period where the mayor of San Francisco had instructed the city clerk to issue marriage licences to same-sex couples.
There’s an appreciation of Ronnie Gilbert by veteran Wellington folk musician (and political activist) Don Franks here: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/06/09/ronnie-gilbert-singer-with-social-conscience-1926-2015/
In the feeds, to the right of the page is the news of the death of Peter Conway.
Sincere condolences to the family and to all that were close to him. Strength and love to all.
A sad day.
Bugger. That’s so very sad. Pete was a great guy, always so kind and generous and very forgiving of economic illiterates like myself. He had a real strength to him, but didn’t need to shout to make that apparent. I really can’t believe it. Crying now. Shit.
and no knighthood…
Of course not. First and foremost you have to make money (lots of it) at what you’re doing and all he did was sit around and think about the workers. In other words a bleeding heart. (profound sarcasm)
Sorry for your tears trp, let them flow though.
I’m on the periphery of workers rights these days and never knew Peter Conway personally but was very aware of his presence and effect within the movement.
It really is a great shock.
That is a very sad news, Rosie. I admired him from a distance and corresponded with him once.
It is people like him that needed to get the New Zealand awards.
Incidentally, Helen Kelly is another leader that highly deserves a high award.
My heartfelt condolences to his family and to all the people who knew him in the Union movement.
RIP, Peter.
snap
I don’t know if this has been covered or not, but Peter Dunne has, after dragging his feet as long as he could during petition signing and protests, made a call on which way the wind is blowing and allowed the family of a young man in a coma to import and try a medical cannabis product. (The product is coming from the US, the original home of Nixon’s quaint old ‘war on drugs’ vote winner).
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/69243877/medicinal-cannabis-application-approved-for-teenager-in-coma
The comments below are pretty unanimous. Isn’t it time we joined the 21st century on this issue?
The Native Affairs link is up:
http://www.maoritelevision.com/tv/shows/native-affairs/S09E014/native-affairs
Interview with Key after 15minutes. Key looks tired and very wary of Mihi.
Mihi is the quietest and most effective interviewer.
A must watch – I think.
tried to watch but can take only a minute of Key’s obfuscation.
Thanks, ianmac. Quite right re: Mihi and she wouldn’t let Johnboy off the hook either, no matter how much he slithered. I suspect he has the emotional quotient of a 15 year old.
+100
Good Morning Mr Prentice, Your site and its contents have been brought to my attention yesterday. Your posts concerning me are malicious and deliberately false. I was not present in the High Court in the Blomfield matter and certainly did not take pictures of you. I have absolutely no interest in your narcissistic delusions of your own self importance. I have written to the High Court requesting details of any security footage of that day, if it exists. I suggest you do the same. I was not there so do not know the date. It might assist if you contact the registry and request details and supply the dates. Your mendacious malevolent threats of ongoing abuse have been taken seriously. Please desist from your conduct and the promotion of the nonsense on the web site Lauda finem scam. I have emailed you and cc Mr Matt Amon of the High Court Registry. I will be filing a copy of your posts and my response with the District Court this morning. Continued conduct will result in legal action Lyn ( apologies if that is not how you spell your name ).
[lprent: Bullshit. Go ahead, make my day. I do so love the concept of discovery and the court ordered allocation of costs.
BTW: for others reading this, the Nottingham brothers are highly likely to be the blowhards who run Lauda Finem and who delight in attacking anyone that Cameron Slater dislikes.
Prior to my appearance on The Nation, I’d deliberately avoided leaving images of myself as an adult on any part of nets, and have done so for more than 3 decades.
These clowns took the photos of me in the high court on the net and then published them on Lauda Finem. Needless to say, I was and are still rather annoyed about that.
Since I appeared on The Nation, there is no longer a reason to maintain a neither confirm nor deny policy on those photos, nor to refrain from naming the arseholes who did it. ]