“Nearly 15,000 people voted for the biscuit’s return after Upper Hutt mother Amber Johnson started a Facebook page titled Get Griffin’s To Bring Back Choco-ade”
NZH, and the average Kiwi – Example of why progress is so difficult in this country!
The interview (not on line yet) involved McVicar hinting darkly at the right to silence and how this is an impediment to the course of Justice. Â There is one slight problem with this comment, Ewen McDonald spent hours talking to the police about the case. Â This was all recorded and shown to the jury. Â So not only did he not exercise his right to silence but he even admitted some offending to boot.
He also hinted darkly at evidence being excluded and has promised the people of New Zealand a full review.
The obvious tenor of McVicar’s comments was that justice demanded and required a result. Â No matter how weak the Crown case was.
Sounds like more McVicar and the Sensible Sentencing Trust talking up false hopefor those who want a legal outcome (especially for victims), completely contrary to sound legal practice.
Nor does he seem to have hung around outside the courthouse to court the Korean man who was run over by a white banker. And let us not forget his defense of the man who stabbed a little tagger to death in South Auckland. This guy is actually an opponent of sound legal practice, favouring an “us versus them” approach, and is very rarely called to account for it. Last night I saw an episode of 60 Minutes in which Greg king was interviewed (I cannot link it because it does not appear to be up yet). He was asked to account for himself every step of the way, which he did very ably. In comparison, McVicar is generally left free to rant against every principle upon which the legal system is based.
McVicar and his awful “Trust” are perpetually courted by the media for “expert opinion”, and thus unfortunately encouraged. I am sorry for any family that calls upon him for support (or did he foist himself upon them?) Believe it or not, true experts are available, if only people and media will seek them out.
Believe it or not, true experts are available, if only people and media will seek them out.
The difference is that the true experts can’t afford to put themselves in the media as they’re actually doing important stuff with the limited funds they have. The SST’s funding is, on the other hand, almost entirely for massaging the media so that they get heard. Which means that when people do need expert help in criminal matters they go to the one they’ve heard of – the SST – which probably doesn’t have a single expert in it.
I just got told that I was guilty of some evil behaviour and had to do a recaptcha! Why? Please, this is the umpteenth time in weeks, it’s needs fixing!
meh – I think it’s linking that does it.Â
Quite a good idea – it stops the robots adding spam links, although it doesn’t stop failed united future candidates…
Â
In fact right now, they’re on 3 News right now, claiming that McDonald was silent! I didn’t follow the trial as I was fed up with it right from the start, but I read above that he wasn’t silent so ???
Peter Dunne had a chance to explain his (and United Future’s) position on asset sales on Q+A yesterday.
SHANE TAURIMA
Good morning, Peter Dunne. Thank you for joining us. Youâve been under a bit of fire lately for supporting the state asset sales. Was it a hard decision to mae?
PETER DUNNE â United Future Leader
No, it wasnât. In fact, United Future and its policy as long ago as 2005, had said while we opposed wholesale asset sales, we were not against floating shares in selected state assets. We had the same policy in 2008, had the same policy in 2011. I enunciated it on the leaders debate in this very studio in 2011. So it was not a difficult decision to make. Whatâs been surprising, though, is that no one seemed to notice that we were honouring a policy commitment we put in place three years ago.
SHANE You werenât swayed by the polls, public opposition or indeed your electorate?
PETER No. In fact, in every electorate meeting during the campaign, this issue was raised. I set out the position exactly as I intended to follow, what our policy was. I was re-elected with an increased majority. We concluded in our confidence and supply agreement statutory limitations. The National Party previously wasnât in favour of putting into law the 51-49 10 split. That was put in the confidence and supply agreement. Utterly transparent and public. Iâm one of these old fashioned people that believes that if you say something, you stand by your word. If you make an agreement, you keep it, and thatâs exactly what Iâve done.
Pete George, the energizer bunny of the blogosphere who keeps going and going and going and going …
This is a straw man argument Pete. Â The basic problem is that under economic, financial, environmental and security of energy supply considerations this is a really stupid policy. Â You can’t argue against that although you will probably try.
Did the coiffured one promise hand on heart that no matter how stupid or ludicrous the privatisation proposal was he would back it no matter what? Â If this is what you are saying then it is the dumbest policy ever support by a political party.Â
but micky, p.dunny knew asset sales was a shit policy and he is a hero for adding a tiny clause to the legislation. never mind the fact that his election campaign stated uf was against privatisation. the good folk of ohariu would all have read the uf small print, and thus they endorse the asset stripping of nz.
cue PG with
‘ but but but but but but but but it is a Mixed Ownership Model! That’s not privatisation! waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh why doesn’t anybody listen to me, oh and i want you all to know i am working hard on your behalf to change nothing in particular or achieve anything of any great importance but by gum i will let you know how difficult the challenges facing us are and if we all would just pull together and do exactly as i say then nothing will change but we will have lots of new ways to distract each other from the endless mountain of crap my efforts have created’
The coiffured one is effectively a NAT stooge just like Banks is and will do whatever he is told to do or lose the baubles of ministerial trappings, he has presided over the meanest and most dishonest government in memory who are selling us out with his support….say no more.
PG sort of reminds me of Oscar Wilde on fox hunting (the unspeakable in pursuit of the uneatable)…perhaps the implausible in defense of the ingenuous. Any advances?
I think the people have had far too much of politicians who say one thing before an election and then weasel word after it. In fact, I must be the only politician being criticised for keeping his word.”
The lying prick knows full well, as you do, that his electioneering material was very carefully crafted to loudly and boldly proclaim ‘WE WILL NEVER SELL WATER, KIWIBANK, OR RADIO NZ’, while whispering softly ‘but everything else is on the block, and ps when I say water I’m not counting the water in the hydro system ie most of our water’.
He’s not being criticised for keeping his word Pete, he’s being criticised precisely for weasel- wording. He’s a deceitful, manipulative weasel and a nasty piece of work.
If a slightly leftish coalition needs dunne it is fucked. Much better to work with a true left movement like Mana that will put some backbone into them and hopefully move any coalition lefter.
If it came to that I’d prefer Mana. I don’t like everything that comes out Harawira’s mouth but at least you know what you’re getting.
And as marty says, any govt led by Labour will need its support parties pulling it leftward economically, not rightward, if it’s to achieve much.
I have concerns about some of Harawira’s conservative views on social issues but there are plenty of liberal voices in Labour, the Greens, and even in his own party to counter that.
Just get ready to hold your nose either way when the time comes.
Personally (because this morning I can forecast the future) I think we are heading for one of those 1996-type elections where the remaining minorities get to determine the fate of the larger parties’ reach for power.
FWIW I prefer to be offended by someone with principle rather than a pointless shill. The elevation in class just makes the entire experience more enjoyably visceral.
God if only the majority in the Labour caucus thought like you. They don’t. Remember when Helen Clark spoke of the Maori party as “Not even last cab off the rank”?
would you prefer Peter Dunne to sustain a Labour-Green coalition, or that guy from Mana?
Good question Ad, I would prefer Hone any day of the week. At least he works from well understood principles and has the interests of ordinary people at heart …
Which means ‘I’ll waffle about some other crap tangentially related to Ad’s question and see if I can slip in a few nasty snipes at Labour and the Greens’.
Remember when Helen Clark spoke of the Maori party as âNot even last cab off the rankâ?
Correct me if I’ve got it wrong Ad, but are you suggesting the Maori Party and the Mana Party are on an equal ideological footing? Although Helen Clark was savaged by all and sundry for her comment “the last cab off the rank”, time has proved she was 100% correct. The Maori Party have shown themselves to be nothing more than brown Tories who were/are happy to betray their own people for a few personal baubles and beads.
IMO Hone Harawira’s stature has increased significantly since the formation of the Mana Party (the real Maori Party) and I note David Shearer has acknowledged as much in one or two recent comments. I think it is highly likely Labour would be happy to include the Mana Party in a Labour-led coalition government.
Heâs not being criticised for keeping his word Pete, heâs being criticised precisely for weasel- wording. Heâs a deceitful, manipulative weasel and a nasty piece of work.
felix – but look at who’s criticising him. A few anonymous people on a blog. No evidence presented, just ‘opinions’ used in in attack that seemingly deliberately keep ignoring clear facts.
The Q+A researchers would have been aware of what he would claim and prepared no challenge. Shane Taurima didn’t challenge it. Stuff haven’t challenged it:
SUPPORT FOR SALES ‘GOES BACK THREE YEARS’
Facing a highly organised campaign against him in his electorate, United Future leader Peter Dunne is understandably finding the focus on his support for the Government’s asset sales legislation a tad tiresome.
When asked by TVNZ’s Q+A if voting for the Government’s mixed-ownership model was a difficult decision, he responded: “No, it wasn’t … what’s been surprising, though, is that no-one seemed to notice that we were honouring a policy commitment we put in place three years ago.”
He said United Future had never opposed floating shares in some state assets.
I asked a different Felix (Marwick) a while ago why the MSM weren’t interested in smear campaigns on blogs.
Iâm sorry to say thereâd be limited news interest, if any, in the debates about the accuracy of comments made on political blogs. In this case Dunneâs position has been accurately represented in the media and thatâs where itâll have been most noticed.
Iâm sure more people are aware of Dunneâs position on asset sales via whatâs been printed and broadcast in mainstream avenues than theyâve been influenced by whatever comments have been made by authors at The Standard.
Continued claims of things like “deceitful, manipulative weasel and a nasty piece of works” are in a small echo chamber here and reflect more on those who keep making unsubstantiated accusations.
Mate, the only small echo chamber here is you. And if TS is so lacking in influence, how come you carpet bomb the threads here every day? And one more question. If UF was in favour of asset sales, why didn’t they campaign on it? As you know, the UF literature and TV ads were silent on it and Dunne only made a couple of vague references to the issue in the entire campaign. He dishonestly allowed the belief that his one man party was opposed to the sales, when he knew that his salary depended on them going through. The man’s a weasel and a humbug.
Quite an echo-chamber for the highest-rating progressive site in the country, number three or four on the table of any blogsite, and from what I hear of Labour’s caucus, feared by all those in caucus who ought.
A less patsy question would be “surely your support for the National Party’s asset sales, as they announced prior to the election, is contrary to your repeated position of keeping national in check. Or did that just apply to things National weren’t going to do anyway?”
UF (with some help from The Standard) kept National in check exactly as we said we would. UF negotiated a C&S agreement on minimum ownership (51%), National actually changed it through a cabinet decision to voting rights only, and UF enforced the agreement and had it changed back to ownership
Pete, we’ve been over this plenty of times. Yes, if you look hard enough at the literal interpretation of the language you could conclude that Dunne supported privatising everything except water, kb, and rnz.
The focus however was always on saving three particular assets, not on selling the rest of them. The way this was presented is the very definition of weasel wording.
And I know you know this yourself, because it took you the best part of a day to find any references to his pro-privatisation policies when challenged.
The focus however was always on saving three particular assets, not on selling the rest of them.
Ah, yeah, that’s because the United Future emphasis was on United Future policy. I think you’ll find other parties tend to promote their own policies most too.
The reason why it took a while to find references was:
– it wasn’t a full time job, I fitted it in when I could
– there weren’t many references BECAUSE it was never an issue that was raised because it didn’t concern anyone then.
PETER DUNNE: In fact, in every electorate meeting during the campaign, this issue was raised. I set out the position exactly as I intended to follow, what our policy was.
I have never seen any credible dispute of this. Even Ohariu People’s Power accepted this as indisputable.
If there was any evidence supporting your case don’t you think it would have been found and trumpeted loud and wide now?
You continue repeating your argument against known evidence and with no evidence to support your case.
You’re the one trying to weasel something out of nothing on this.
Pete, the evidence I’ve presented is the United Future campaign videos and print material. It is entirely consistent with everything I’ve said and you have entirely failed to even address my argument. Every time.
And enough of the bullshit about you “fitting it in” when you could. We all watched you run around madly trying to find references. You were doing it here, in public. I’ll save you the embarrassment of posting a link for now but I don’t recommend repeating such an obvious lie so soon after the event.
We all watched you run around madly trying to find references.
You’re making things up again felix. But it’s worth noting that I did find references. Something you have failed to do.
Did you go to any of Dunne’s campaign meetings? Any campaign meetings where there was a UF candidate? I expect if you had and you had evidence to back up what you keep repeating about you would have said it by now. But all you have uis your ‘opinion’.
I’m sure if Dunne was guilty of your accusations Charles Chauvel and Gareth Hughes would have been all over it, as would at least one Standard author.
But there’s nothing. Nothing from the parties. Nothing from the mainstream media. Nothing except a few anonymous repeating commenters.
ps I’m very pleased to learn that Pete George now considers posting on The Standard to be a waste of time and look forward to him backing up that opinion by fucking off forthwith and posthaste.
You’re making things up again felix. You’re again claiming something falsely or incorrectly.
You seem to have some intelligence and are sometimes are very pedantic with specific meanings of phrases, so my opinion tends towards deliberate misrepresentation, it’s hard to see it any other way.
he’ll probably do his version of bohemian rhapsody soon
Is this the real life?
Is this just fantasy?
Caught in a landslide,
No escape from reality
Open your eyes,
Look up to the skies and see,
I’m just a poor boy, I need no sympathy,
Because I’m easy come, easy go,
Little high, little low,
Any way the wind blows doesn’t really matter to
me, to me
marty mars Any way the wind blows doesnât really matter to
me, to me
It does if its a fart.
But I like your choice of verse. It’s a different way to being terse.
Commenting in rhyme
Â
Might be sublime,Â
 Â
But it’s not as cathartic
 Â
As just abandoning concepts such as rhythm and style and just swearing at some fucking obtuse moronic trool.
Wow. Sometimes I think you’re just taking the piss, but I’m beginning to wonder if you really aren’t aware of all these inherently contradictory statements you keep making.
How does it feel to willing spend so much time writing in a pointless meaningless echo chamber for no purpose?
“You’re making things up again felix.” Besides wishing for PGs absence, which would not make the heart grow fonder, can you think of some viable relief?
Peters Groupie You can’t even get your idol’s facts right obviuosly you didn’t watch Q&A.
Wait until I tell Dunny.
Dunny said that he had been pushing that policy in ohairyu for the past 3 elections.
Not 3 years .
Been off the air for a while….in which time I contemplated a number of mindsets that keep the rank and file in line with received wisdom no matter how unreal it is.
I saw a bit of Max Keiser on a MSM hosted talk show being accused of being a “ conspiracy theorist” for pointing out the very obvious fraudulent behavior of the Wall St bankers. Labeling somebody a conspiracy theorist is the ultimate smokescreen for the avoidance of reality by the mainstream media. And Joe Average is so bloody dumb he takes the easy route of not questioning but agreeing. Its a form of abrogation of personal responsibility to question: political power certainly does not want Joe questioning.
Then there is the pukesome Godwin crap. I see a f**scist yet I cant call them on it. Give me a break.
Yes, it seems that the only defense for the establishment is to use the CT call as some sort of way to throw the sheep off the scent, it seems to be working still, and the message was obviously given to Key, as he used the term multiple times of late.
The Keiser comments are interesting in that it shows explicitly who is really pulling the strings in the background. The cross over of finance and media working together to label as a, conspiracy theorist, Max Keiser, for commentating on the crumbling financial systems, the destruction ofwhich is the result of the greatest conspiracy every being pulled off. The irony of the MSM comments are immense, not to mention the hypocracy!
Keiser did not “invent” the stories, they are in fact happening in real time. People who use the term conspiracy theory, lack the intelligence, and or the mental strength/self esteem, to question what is in front of their face.
“The âsmall echo chamberâ comment refers to a vocal but small subset of The Standard commentariat.”
Given that something like less than 1% of readers actually comment, it doesn’t matter if it’s only a “small vocal subset” of people that post any particular content here, because there’s a large readership.
Surely that’s why you keep peddling your crap here. Although I would hope that a lot of readers do what I do and skim, or skip, your comments entirely.
Petey, Petey, Petey, Petey …
Â
Your original comment this morning has generated considerable response that essentially can be categorised into two different types:
Â
1. The coiffured one may have well indicated support for MOM type privatisation but this does not mean he had to sign up to every single MOM privatisation proposal, especially the really silly ones.
Â
2. There may have been this policy in the fine print but whenever the coiffured one spoke he made it sound like he was against privatisation of strategically important assets. He then turns lap dog and lets them go through.
Â
You as a self confessed opponent of “politics as usual” and talk about “smear tactics” but then denigrate various commentators, presumably including myself, as being part of a “small echo chamber” suggesting that their thoughts are not their own without addressing their concerns.
Â
See the problem?
The problem is micky – you’ve got it wrong. You’re a part of the small echo chamber here that keeps peddling misinformation that isn’t taken seriously elsewhere.
The more you do it the more you confirm your own futility. Important people in Labour don’t even push your lines.
Can’t you try something that will actually help Labour rebuild and prepare for government? Surely that’s a party priority?
Surely you should direct your petey powers of polling perspicacity towards helping United Future achieve 1% at election time? Oh, you did. How did that go for you?
UF maintained the same number of seats and gained influence from the last election. How did that go for Labour?
I’d like to see UF support increase next time, I think that would add to the balance of parties in parliament.
I’d also like to see Labour get their act together and build a viable capability towards running the next government from 2014 or 2017 – that’s far more important for the country as a whole. So I have an interest in that too. Do you think I shouldn’t?
Labour did about 20 or 30 times better than UF, even with a reduction in support.
      Â
If anything, I think that your “interest” should be monitored as sort of a reverse pit-canary: as soon as you start extensively approving of anything controversial Labour does, they should immediately apologise and reverse course. As long as you keep providing helpful advise on how Labour should change to improve its popularity, they can’t be too far wrong.
If anything, I think that your âinterestâ should be monitored as sort of a reverse pit-canary
Same as if the NBR, John Armstrong or Fran O’Sullivan start praising Labour and its policies as being “pragmatic”, “realistic”, “sensible” and “moderate”.
I do recall an Alliance comrade saying that he really knew Lab4 was off the rails when the ODT started running positive editorials about their economic policies.
Ah, but of Labour politicians I think I’m closest to David Shearer. I’d rate Kevin Hague and Julie Anne Genter, amongst those in the Greens I’ve had anything to do with. And I like Pita Sharples. I’d be happy to work with any of them.
So bearing that in mind, if you sat in a room with say Farrah, Shearer, Hauge, Genter & lets throw Key in there too, which would be as close as just about anyone to your views and aims?
I think it’s unlikely I’ll be in Parliament with any party.
When I decided to get more into politics I first approached Labour. After initial contact I volunteered some outside real world experience and they didn’t get back to me.
I doubt I’ll join Labour unless they change their approach substantially, and I doubt I’m the sort of person they’d chose as a candidate, I’ve got too much practical life and business experence.
I certainly wouldn’t fit into the current Labour culture of being a negative talking point repeater.
Hate to break it to you but your inability to argue and your rather strange world views would not get you within a million miles of a Labour party nomination. You are right that you are not the sort of person who would be chosen as a candidate.
As for “being a negative talking point repeater” you should read this and hundreds of other threads you have strangled the life out of and then reconsider your statement.
When I decided to get more into politics I first approached Labour. After initial contact I volunteered some outside real world experience and they didnât get back to me.Â
Â
I suspect he was correctly identified as waaaaaaay outside the real world, hence their lack of follow-up. “oh noes, I accidentally lost his phone number”[rips paper into very small pieces]
Peters Groupie you are obviously trying to grease up the labour party so the follicle freaks can have another MP outside cabinet with the remuneration that goes with it.
PGroupie.
You could change the name of your party to .
P ontificating
U nbridled
F uckwits &
F ools&
E ndangered
R idiculed
Y awns
“UF maintained the same number of seats and gained influence from the last election.”
Bullshit. He maintained the same number of seats from the election and maintained precisely the same amount of influence from the post-election negotiations, not from the election.
ps for all this supposed influence you’ve still never listed all the awesome things he’s achieved (things that National weren’t going to do anyway) and you’ve still never listed all the Govt bills that he’s voted against, despite being asked several times.
Probably close to zero in both cases, but set the record straight anytime you like.
There were two bills in the last week that parliament sat that I’m aware of that Dunne supported and National didn’t:
– Phil Twyford’s depleted uranium bill
– David Clark’s holiday Mondayisation bill
But I don’t follow every vote. Do you? Or are you making things up again based on no facts?
From the Q+A interview:
…my crystal ball doesnât tell me where other parties are going to be on these issues. So I donât factor into the decision, and I canât, actually, whether my vote will be the determining one or not. What I have to do is decide what is the right course for me as the United Future member of Parliament to follow.
And this is what happens in my experience, when I ask him whether he will support a bill or not he openly considers it in association with UF policy. Not with the policy of any other party.
I am still trying to work out Petey if you are a terribly sophisticated CT plant receiving advice from CIA and Kremlin experts in propaganda and misinformation or if you actually believe what you type …
You are an expert at running away from a debate and then making out as if it is everyone’s elses fault. Such expertise is either evidence of very sophisticated training or evidence that you exist in a different dimension to the rest of us.
You still did not answer my original proposition, nor Felix’s. Yet you accuse us of peddling misinformation. How does that work?
And I am curious, which of my lines is Labour not pushing? I would prefer that you answer my first question first though. Just to show that you are actually interested in engaging in a proper debate and not doing politics as usual …
I didn’t think your first question justified an answer, it was a very dumb question.
Did the coiffured one promise hand on heart that no matter how stupid or ludicrous the privatisation proposal was he would back it no matter what? If this is what you are saying then it is the dumbest policy ever support by a political party.
Maybe PG has been inspired by CERN findings and imagines himself a âquantum commenterâ, squiggling about, able to be in two or more places at once.
Pete’s Groupie Dunne’s groupie.Pontificating Guile .
Your leaving no room for any one else’s opinion.
You haven’t learned that less is more when it comes to politics.
Does the youth of New Zealand understand what Austerity is?
When food is controlled by a Ration Book. Petrol is rationed. Clothing is either rationed or just not available. Many people are dependant on Rain Water, collected from the house roof.
Our standard of living has improved tremendously over the last 100 years but where does one “draw the line”? We cannot all lead the life of an English Gentleman. Someone has to play the part of a servant.
I agree john72, but it’s not just the ‘youth of New Zealand’ who have no idea what austerity or real hardship is. I think I have a better idea about it but my generation (baby boomers) is the first of the lucky generations so it’s just based on what I’ve learned from previous generations.
Life is still tough for many people, even some in New Zealand, but relative to the past we’ve never had things so good – and possibly never appreciated what we do have so little.
Actually, no.
“Austerity” is when there is more than enough food, but most people can’t afford it.
“Rationing” is when the government ensures that nobody gets more than their fair share, so as few people as possible miss out.
     Â
Issues like child welfare and inequality aren’t races, where you’ve done well if you get a podium finish. They’re issues of constant self-improvement, like maintaining an ideal weight or exercising or minimising the sodium in your diet if that’s an issue. Why do we care? 1: they are bad. 2: like obesity or smoking, if they go on too long they fester in society and cause heart failure and collapse.
   Â
Maybe it was worse in your day. Not the issue. The issue is that it’s worse in our day: we can do much better, but we just don’t care. Like a diabetic gorging on chocolate eclairs.Â
When food is controlled by a Ration Book. Petrol is rationed. Clothing is either rationed or just not available. Many people are dependant on Rain Water, collected from the house roof.
Sounds like life as a labourer in rural NZ. Long hours working outside, but work somewhat blends into life in general (because natural systems don’t listen to or attract people with flow charts and arbitrary deadlines); wages aren’t so great, so food is rationed by budget, so is petrol and because of wage levels and relative isolation, so are clothes. Water supply is from tanks filled by rain off the roof. Cost of trucking extra in over a dry summer often isn’t an option. Workplace employment laws and law in general doesn’t extend to them. It’s a melange of applied cultural beliefs and the wishes of the local “gentry”. Forget the expectation of medical assistance, unless you’re already half dead.
Lots of people live like this and they’re young. It’s all they’ve ever known. So I don’t know what the envy comment is about. Maybe it’s you who is envious of the resources of Yoof who could make you richer at their expense, but choose not to? The greedy are never happy.
Uturn It’s good to hear things spelt out like this and probably many farming people don’t know how bad it is for many of the workers, or choose not to know. Certainly townies don’t.
Have you read about the Tolpuddle Martyrs in South England. They were tried for setting up a farm workers union on a dodgy bit of law that wouldn’t have succeeded but for the fact that the law, the landed gentry and the church were united against them. There was fire in the bellies of poor people then trying to improve their lot and they massed with huge crowds and collected funds to bring them back, all alive, from their convict sentence in Australia.
I have had a lurking feeling for some time that it is a whole different ‘lifestyle’ for the low income in the rural areas. And I noticed that the roads there seem to be used mainly by young men a lot of whom seem to be loose cannons. Certainly there are a lot of road accidents usually after drugs, alcohol etc. Life there seems a bit brutish.
I have read about marjuana being grown with vicious defence traps, but not lately. I have read about a farmer who had been robbed and for a second time some years later, took a pot shot and found that the second burglary was by the original perp who had gone to Australia, returned and gone back to stock up. He was wearing some of the farmer’s stolen clothes apparently. That was a while ago. I don’t think things have changed much, probably got worse but we aren’t hearing about it.
I have read about a man who had a project that he was spending time on, but every time he left his property parts of it were stolen. Theft like this means that you can’t create anything, make anything. It’s killing to improving your conditions and any initiative.
I have read about growing rustling. In the recent Guy case, Macdonald had been rustling deer, and what else? There is a nice comfy feeling about how helpful farmers are to each other and how they will come forward for neighbours in difficulties. But what do you do about neighbours or nearbys that are stealing from you? There are the good things but possibly just the obvious tip of an iceberg with depths of dishonesty or danger.
There isn’t much of a police presence for farmers, and I don’t think they have a good service at all, because there is such a weight of work on one or two officers it could be that rural people just don’t make formal complaints to them.
Is there a rural underclass that is growing quietly like mushrooms and is only noticed briefly when there is some bad outbreak? Such as the recent theft from tourists, who were fortunate they weren’t female (would they have been raped and perhaps then killed as has happened to other decent, trusting females expecting to be travelling in a civilised country). And perhaps women in particular should be warned about past happenings.
The outback of Australia has some feral males floating around who have committed awful crimes, and I thought we had higher standards but I’m not sure now.
Thanks UTurn for stating it how it is: I noted reading Trotters Bowalley Rd on the Guy trial that there is definitely an excessive rural income divide between farm owners and labourers (or so Trotter claims). He makes the point that the whole us/ them divide makes for ugly societal impacts.
Myself, I regularly employ people, every time I do its a million c.v’s, from sub 25 years olds, most of whom are in “training” (studying to be something they will never do and being saddled with a debt for the benefit of doing so) OR are working a part time minimum wage go nowhere job.
Meanwhile the “greedies” from Labour seem to think it would be a good idea to not pay superannuation for a couple of years till people are 67 because (with no evidence to support it) “we cannot afford it. Who are the “we” Mr Shearer?
Bored
And about that 65 to 67 years gap before the old age pension. If these older people can’t get a job that supports them fully, or can only do part-time work, or no work at all then the government should be paying them out of another benefit category, the unemployment or minimum income fund. That means that the government must afford it or have people begging even dying on the street.
And things got that way after Nats Ruth Richardson introduced her new slimmed down benefits and hospitals were turned into CHEs paring service centres. I seem to remember that someone was in hospital, their bed was needed so they were sent home by taxi about midnight and left by the side of the road. I think a woman had her baby by the road, or in a bus, which could always happen but is not the service we want for our vulnerable people. And poor people die before their time under the bean-counting approach to humanity.
If on unemployment these older people will have to abase themselves to these brutalised people in WINZ offices and possibly be ordered to attend courses to learn skills that if they didn’t know already, it would be too late to teach them. And then there are the draconian controls of the enemployed benefit (a Freudian slip – combining enemy and unemployed which is how attitudes are developing towards the strugglers). They need to be available to look for a job all the time, looking for a job becomes their job, yet they can’t go on holiday without asking permission which may not be granted. Particularly if your children have gone to Australia. You may have scrimped enough to get there but you have removed yourself from the job market. If your children sent you the fare and you went anyway, that money could be counted as increased income and your benefit docked to that amount. And you are registered as leaving the country when you go through the check-in so the Department finds out, and could stop your benefit. This system, allegedly caring for the low income, is equivalent to home detention though less rigid than for criminals and certainly not the treatment of the retired that is envisaged by the better off.
This is how I understand the system from anecdote and some personal experience. If someone knows differently or has an experience that sheds light on the benefit for older people, it would be interesting to read.
All sounds so familiar Prism. You get shitted on as you begin your working career, indebted up to the eyeballs with a useless “degree”. You work at Makkers to pay off that sum on minimum wages, then when your body gives out on you there is an expectation that an extra couple of years can be dragged out of you….St Peter dont you call me cos I cant go, I owe my soul to the company store” syndrome.
The real issue at hand is the failure of the economic system to provide sufficient jobs, and sufficient wage levels. In this country we generate sufficient wealth to do both, the problem we have is that we just seem far too good at distributing this wealth to the wrong people. My business’ market is shrinking because the amount of consumption drops with the number of people unemployed and the lower rates of pay: the corporate sector (including government) are buying business or overcharging my sector. Consequently I don’t employ as many people as I could.
Which is why I gave Shearer and Labour a serve: to blindly retort failed shibboleths of some Right wing think tank rather than addressing the real issues indicates Labour are still arse about face.
If on unemployment these older people will have to abase themselves to these brutalised people in WINZ offices and possibly be ordered to attend courses to learn skills that if they didnât know already, it would be too late to teach them
That’s sort of where I am now, although I have not yet turned 60… inasmuch as I’ve been informed that I have only a 20% chance of getting an office job because of my age (the leader of a course WINZ referred me to, told me that.)Â
I have the skills, I don’t have the yoof or the looks that are apparently required by any woman seeking an office job!
(Neither do I have leukaemia, which is another, weirder story.)
There is an interesting juxtaposition of offerings on Radionz this a.m . At 10.45 there is a serial play on the beneficiary getting into work by starting your own business thing. Very funny.
And Alex Mackay, who has just published a cookbook is a chef who talks at express train speed. Cookbook for Everybody, Everyday, published by Bloomsbury about $45.
His career was the result of hard work, and looking for opportunities and taking them. Being able to express yourself well would count too. He had to leave school voluntarily or the other way. So he got started as a dishwasher in restaurants here and ended up going to France on a one way ticket. At one place he worked he was in charge of pastry, left after everyone else and no transport home, a hotel four miles away was the only bed he could get, so had to walk there. Hotel was locked up so he had to climb over the garden wall and up to his second storey bedroom. Good story, whether it’s true. He certainly has Drrive.
Also at http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon
11:45 Off The Beaten Track with Kennedy Warne
The latest offering in the NZ Cycle Trails network â the Motu Trails, in the Bay of Plenty, which opened a couple of months ago. There are three interconnecting trails that take a rider between Opotiki on the coast and Matawai in the Raukumara Range.
Also have a look on the site at this beautiful bridge – Newly opened Pakowhai suspension bridge over the Otara River, Opotiki.
I am always intrigued by pics of the red planet, specially the one a while back of what looked like a human type figure running among rocks on the Planet Mars, (perhaps one of the underground inhabitants caught out-side),
Whats amusing is that we seem to know what makes up the Mars ‘atmosphere’ and soil types around the ‘voyager’,
It would seem a reasonably bright suggestion to attempt to recreate the same enviroment in a dome like structure here on Earth so as to be able to test what trees, plants, crops, might grow on Mars,
If something indicates under such an experiment that it might grow up there then perhaps they should be bombing the place with seeds, such in 1000 years may just go a little toward making the place habitable…
There are ethical issues, as well as practical.
  Â
Mars atmospheric pressure is much less that the pressure at which human blood boils – i.e. Â the pressure at twice the altitude of everest. And it’s pretty cold much of the time, too. So it won’t be Earth’s grain basket.
  Â
On the ethical flipside, there might still be enough water etc for bacteria to grow (not to mention the minute possibility of large subterranean life forms), and of course any seed bombardment could result in either of two “worst case scenarios”: the eradication of unique life forms; or outbreaks of untreatable alien diseases or even triffids. Either one is a bad outcome.
  Â
Not to mention the “climate change / peak oil will make it all futile!” perspective. Not entirely sure where I go to on that one yet.
 Â
Basically we’re probably looking at at least 100 years of exploration and  technology development (e.g. ion boosters or similar funky engines for inner-system navigability) to determine A) what’s there; B) what was once there; and C) if B is nothing lifelike or unpreservable, is there any point to putting anything there, anyway?
Anyone seen Mission to Mars? Fucking hilarious. One of the main characters spends a year living on Mars in a tent, flapping in the breeze, which he survives because he had plants.
Did they do the cunning hollywood get-around-the-laws-of-physics-with-one-line-of-dialogue ruse? A quick “lucky the pressure gauges on every single probe we sent here were wrongly calibrated, eh”?
Mars Climate Orbiter.Â
    Â
An Ariane 5 blew up because of a legacy (and unneeded) subsystem in some bodged-in Ariane 4 code.
   Â
I live in fear of such errors đÂ
I only went because it had Brian De Palma’s name attached as director.
The worst thing about the whole movie was when a couple of friends and I decided “fuck it, lets go” so we stood up and the credits started rolling. Man, I felt gypped.Â
MINORITY NATIONAL GOVERNMENT WANTS TO RAILROAD THROUGH CHANGES TO THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT ACT TO FURTHER SUIT CORPORATE INTERESTS!!
Here’s your chance to have your say!
PUBLIC MEETING: Botany MP Jami-Lee Rossâ public meeting is at 7pm on July 10 at Pakuranga Country Club, 199 Botany Road.
THINK THE AUCKLAND SUPERCITY IS A SUPER RIPOFF?
AGREE THAT THE ‘BOOKS SHOULD BE OPEN’ AND CITIZENS SHOULD GET THE ‘DEVILISH DETAIL’ ABOUT HOW MUCH PUBLIC MONIES ARE BEING SPENT ON ‘CORPORATE WELFARE’ (on consultants and private contractors – whose contracts have not been subject to any ‘cost-benefit’ analysis??
Submissions on The Local Government Act 2002 Amendment Bill close on July 26. Botany MP Jami-Lee Rossâ public meeting is at 7pm on July 10 at Pakuranga Country Club, 199 Botany Road.
In local paper explanation given by MSD insider via txt that half desks at winz office empty on a given workday due to morale and stress-related issues.hmmm.
Hello U-turn, prism, dtb olwyn drt bored et al. I sorta missed your thoughts but at the time weighed up the benefits of having a wee caesure from the aggression on the blog between some posters. Dogs, fleas and all that.
Never a dull moment watching the impending societal train-wreck though.
Saw this Hong Kong Chinese gentleman on BBC with thousands of accumulated or repatriated Chinese art at his property. Leaning here and there were pieces “valued” at 500m stirling etc.
And that was just one of the new chinese wealthy. Im glad I ceased to measure anything about myself by the rulers I have bought or traded for in the “market”.
The chinese and other east asian ubercapitalists are gonna eat up and spit out our local grass-reared capitalists all over their paddy fields and coal mine tailings.
Ol western whitey and his colonised adherents are wising up to the neccessity of “political” “relationships” to do “business” with the mass of mainland china.
The ol proddy scot wont wanna be puttin his hand too deep into the other mans pocket..
Sam Hall Sounds possible even probable. But Dr Feelgood says don’t think of more than one negative future scenario a day to ensure your mojo keeps alive!
penny bright.
did you listen to MIke Williams and Stephen Franks this morning on 9-noon.
Franks admitted that wodney had drawn up the akl super city plan on the back of an envelope and what has happened now is that elected councillors are left out of the loop.
the departments now consider they dont have to give info to councillors and the only one with any say is the mayor.
Our whole democracy is descending into the post modern equivcalent of the inferno and alice and wonderland combined.
those fuckers have gone crazy with power and they have diverted all avenues of disclosure so that they are sealed off from the gaze of their employers.Thats you and me and all other ratepayers.
Whats needed now is transparency.
But hey it used to be but now it has been taken away.
what the fuck is going on in Godzone.
The economic recovery is upon us, well nah if you want to consider Trademe as an economic indicator things have gone from really bad to really f**king bad,
Paula Benifit is wont to chastise us all with Trademe job figures, (that’s probably coz Paula has trouble with the more complicated household labour survey),
Does appear tho that employment ads on Trademe are UP like mega-big-time, but only IF you either live or are planning on shifting to Christchurch,
Job ads on the same web-site show Auckland is down 4% and Wellington down a massive 7%, who would have thunk that the Slippery led National Government could have wrought such an economic miracle in such a short time,
The score so far, 2 F’s, the government gets a failed and the economy is even more f**ked…
How long has Trademe been doing job ads? I know it’s been a while, but I’m wondering if it’s still in the growth phase as a job exchange, as opposed to say W&I or newspaper classifieds (although similarly the latter in particular might be going down with the ship)
I couldn’t say how long Trademe has been running job ads for, what i do know is that a large % of the advertised jobs on there are filled within a week but advertised for a month,
So using Trademe as economic data as Paula Benifit is wont to do is just another form of National Government mis-information, (there’s 8000 jobs advertised on Trademe you know), further demonizing the unemployed in the eyes of those without the intelligence to understand how such a site works,
When liars like Paula use such figures of 8000 jobs listed on Trademe , at any given time only 3000 of those jobs are vacant with the lower skilled vacancies the first to be filled and the brain surgeon types jobs staying vacant the longest,
As a raw data source of jobs advertised over a period tho, Trademe is possibly an easy mode of charting economic progress, or in the case of the latest figures, economic regression…
I had a go at Patrick Gower when he pulled that crap. It was deeply disappointing (especially since he had the sheer gall to *add together* the number of “vacancies” on TM and Seek like they were mutually exclusive listings), but also kinda screamed “guess which journo hasn’t had to seriously look for work in a while?”
The market says: Everything and everybody has a price, and is for sale. Faith says: The most valuable things in our lives — good health, safe food, strong families, a clean environment, a just economy, meaningful work, access to opportunity — are beyond price, and should by right be available to us all. Our faith communities (especially, but not always exclusively, the progressive ones) have always held this light up within our culture, and it’s never been needed more than it’s needed right now.
[In America,] where over 90% of everybody has some kind of God-belief — and the overwhelming majority of them ground their political decisions in that belief — abandoning the entire landscape of faith to the right wing amounts to political malpractice. For most Americans, our religious worldviews are the epistemological soil in which every other decision we make is rooted — the basic model of reality that we use to navigate the world. When we stopped engaging people’s basic model of moral order, we effectively ceded the entire moral landscape of the nation to our enemies. It was, in retrospect, perhaps the most self-destructive error we’ve made over the past 40 years (and that’s saying something).
To our credit, a lot of our best organizers and activists are starting to realize the magnitude of this mistake. We’re paying a lot more attention these days to learning to clearly articulate progressive values, to express ourselves in explicitly moral language, and to put forward more strongly progressive frames, narratives, and future visions to counter the bankrupt conservative worldview that’s brought us to this sorry place in history.
The market says: Everything and everybody has a price, and is for sale. Faith says: The most valuable things in our lives â good health, safe food, strong families, a clean environment, a just economy, meaningful work, access to opportunity â are beyond price, and should by right be available to us all
So, weather/climate people… what’s with the jet stream moving south being the blame for the UK’s exceedingly wet summer? I get that this is true, but is it climate or weather and is it a ‘normal’ shift? What makes a jet stream shift? If it’s moved south I guess this is also to blame for an exceedingly warm early summer in central Europe?
Open access notables A survey of interventions to actively conserve the frozen North, van Wijngaarden et al., Climatic Change:The frozen elements of the high North are thawing as the region warms much faster than the global mean. The dangers of sea level rise due to melting glacier ice, increased ...
Bryce Edwards writes – New Zealandâs biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure. The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On ...
In 2015, then-Prime Minister John Key announced plans for a huge ocean sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands, banning fishing and mining from 15% of Aotearoa's EEZ. It was bold, it was ambitious, and it suggested that National might actually care about the environment. Except they fucked it up: Key failed ...
1. Who has just been given the accolade New Zealander of the Year?a. The Kokakob. The Cook Strait Ferryc. Fair God. Dr Jim Salinger 2. Which of these is an affront to decent society?a. Dame Edna Everageb. Mrs Doubtfire c. Dr. Frank-N-Furterd. Brian 3. Who is Penny Simmonds?a. The aspiring actress in Big ...
New Zealandâs biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure.The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On the face of it, the court found ...
Buzz from the Beehive Waves of rain are set to lash much of the North Island during Easter Weekend as a low-pressure system forms east of New Zealand, according to a weather forecast published in the past day or so. Niwa was warning of a âmoisture-ladenâ long weekend, with rain expected ...
Look around us…Nicola Willis’ promises of balancing the books, of cutting spending without reducing services, and of delivering game changing tax cuts are disappearing before her eyes.Everyday we see stories of violent crime ending in horrific injuries, or worse. The cost of living worsens, whereas the PM claimed renters would ...
TL;DR: My top six news of note on the morning of Thursday, March 28 include:The Government will have to borrow between $10 billion to $15 billion more than previously expected in order to make up for a slowing economy and to pay for $14.9 billion of tax cuts, according to ...
This story by Naveena Sadasivam and Kate Yoder was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. The long-awaited jobs board for the American Climate Corps, promised early in the Biden administration, will open next month, according to details shared exclusively ...
Should landlords be able to deduct the interest on the loans they take out to bankroll their property speculation? The US Senate Budget Committee and Bloomberg News don’t think this is a good idea, for reasons set out below. Regardless, our coalition government has been burning through a ton of ...
Treasury’s first report on the economy since the change of government presents a damning indictment of Labour’s economic management. The problem for National is that it is so damning that logically, coupled with a rapidly slowing economy, Finance Minister Nicola Willis should respond to it by postponing or even cancelling ...
Budget tensions are becoming evident within the Coalition Government. Winston Peters made numerous political points in his speech to the NZF annual conference. But the attack on his own governmentâs fiscal policies raised issues of substance. âToday in the Sunday Star Times, journalist and former advisor to the Labour ...
Buzz from the Beehive The media â sure enough â have been binging on Finance Minister Nicola Willisâ release of the Budget Policy Statement and a statement headed Government announces Budget priorities This assures us – or rather, this parrots the Luxon team mantra â that the Budget âwill deliver ...
The Ides of March brought me COVID followed by a bereavement. No wonder they tell you to be careful of them.I’m home now and have resumed the interrupted recuperation. Very much looking forward to getting back to regular things. Meanwhile, some thoughts…OneThis new Prime Minister guy just keeps getting more dire. ...
News that the Chinese ATP 40 cyber-hacking unit penetrated parliamentary internet networks in 2021 has renewed concerns about the PRC’s malign intentions in Aotearoa. But is the hack that significant given the length of time that has passed since its … Continue reading → ...
When Parliament passed the Intelligence and security Act in 2017, they assured us all that it was full of safeguards. Any intrusive surveillance of New Zealanders would be subject to a "triple lock", requiring the approval of the Minister and (supposedly independent) Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, as well as post-facto ...
Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing.  Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – Itâs becoming increasingly apparent that many perceive free speech to have become the preserve of the politically right wing, the religiously conservative, the libertarian fringe, the anti-trans, the anti-MÄori andâŠ. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you donât like and donât ...
Don Brash writes –Â As everybody who is not blind and deaf is aware, there is a huge political preoccupation with climate change at the moment, a widespread (though by no means unanimous) belief that global temperatures are rising mainly as a result of the greenhouse gases created ...
TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, March 27 include:Chris Bishop laid out his vision for filling Aotearoa-NZ’s $100 billion infrastructure deficit in a speech yesterday, emphasising user pays and private funding, but failed to say how to achieve bipartisanship on population, public borrowing and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that countryâs mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isnât already pretty well-off? Itâs as if protecting landlordsâ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of Nationalâs ...
 Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, itâs that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxonâs ...
Robert MacCulloch writes –Â The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this yearâs Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran OâSullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm â a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon â note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinsonâs analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana â or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. Itâs a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealandâs highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes –Â Â Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – âIt is often said that behind every great man is a great womanâ. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their âLadies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxonâ. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Petersâ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes â If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshubâs closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The cruelty of short-term memory loss is that each time you ask where she is, you get the fresh shock and grief of the news. That was Dad's day yesterday.Comfortingly, it seems to be less so today. Last night he looked crumpled, today he seems more settled. There's a card ...
Photo by Alvan Nee on UnsplashIt’s that new day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm. Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news ...
Buzz from the Beehive One minister is talking tough while a colleague â whose ministry had acted tough and drawn a barrage of flak â has shown an official softening. Some ministers are doing what Labour was good at, which is distributing public funds to causes regarded as worthy or ...
A ballot for 4 Member's Bills was held today, and the following bills were drawn: Insurance Contracts Bill (Duncan Webb) Income Tax (Clean Transport FBT Exclusion) Amendment Bill (Julie Anne Genter) Crimes (Increased Penalties for Slavery Offences) Amendment Bill (Greg Fleming) Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) ...
One of the strongest narratives about "our" spy agencies is that they are basically institutional traitors, working for foreign powers (or just themselves), without any control or oversight by the elected government. And today, we have yet another report from the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security which explicitly confirms this. ...
âIt is often said that behind every great man is a great womanâ. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their âLadies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxonâ. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April to meet the Prime Ministerâs ...
The Coalition Governmentâs plan to âget Auckland movingâ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities sheâs meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Governmentâs archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the Americaâs Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it wonât stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Memberâs Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labourâs change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand Firstâs State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared âco-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te PÄti MÄori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. âIâm calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to âtake back our countryâ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jonesâ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Governmentâs fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Governmentâs miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesnât act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. âIt was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. âThe Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend.  âThis travel will focus on a range of New Zealandâs traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,â Mr Peters says.  Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. âRoad safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. âOur relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliamentâs order paper. âThe Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,â Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams wonât be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. âThe coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. âDam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. âI have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. âThe Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023â24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the governmentâs finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Governmentâs Budget objectives. âThe coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says.                                        âThe Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says.  âThese changes are long overdue â the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealandâs growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Ministerâs Prizes for Space today. âNew Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealandâs concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. Â Â âThe Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Educationâs School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. âThere is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. âToday I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of Peopleâs Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. âThe use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,â Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. âWeâre sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealandâs ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. Â Â âI am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. âI have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commissionâs online consultation portal.â Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. âComprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. âI would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. âThis is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women donât ...
Good morning, itâs great to be here.  First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Governmentâs ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Governmentâs commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools MÄori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. âThe Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, Iâm proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of todayâs address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and Iâm sorry I canât be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the WhangÄrei site where the facility will be constructed. âNorthland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata MÄori 20 years ago, says MÄori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisationâs 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University Itâs Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether youâre a boomer, or an â80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fijiâs Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? â Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia Even in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems thereâs one luxury most Australians wonât sacrifice â their daily cup of coffee. Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have ...
Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a consent to suck the valuable metals vanadium and titanium from the Taranaki seafloor, as it apparently wagers on the Government’s new fast-track process. It had spent two-and-a-half days putting its case to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision-making committee, at ...
Contrary to the Associate Minister of Educationâs claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxonâs fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
Kiwis Against Seabed mining today slammed Australian owned would-be seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for abandoning its application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight. The company ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Attwell, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Months after COVID vaccines were introduced in 2021, governments and private organisations mandated them for various groups. Health and aged care workers were among the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dzurak, Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak, CEO and Founder of Diraq, UNSW Sydney Diraq For decades, the pursuit of quantum computing has struggled with the need for extremely low temperatures, mere fractions of a degree above absolute zero (0 Kelvin or ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne A national Essential poll, conducted March 20â24 from a sample of 1,150, gave the Coalition a 50â44 lead including undecided, a reversal ...
The Taxpayersâ Union has today made a formal request under the Regulations of the Peopleâs Republic of China on Open Government Information () for information held about how New Zealand Members of Parliament are spending taxpayer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Nelson, Honorary Principal Fellow, The University of Melbourne A Byzantine depiction of the Eucharist in Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv.Jacek555/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA A nasty quarrel arose in the 11th century over what kind of bread should be used in holy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Hesp, Professor, Flinders University Patrick Hesp In some parts of Australia, coastal dunes are retreating from the ocean at an alarming rate, as waves carve up the beach and wind blows the sand inland. But coastal communities are largely ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Heemsbergen, Senior Lecturer, Digital, Political, Media, Deakin University With an impressive 60% of the US smartphone market, Apple is undeniably big, but not a clear monopoly. Yet, years of innovation by Apple have effectively given the company its own exclusive ...
Whether youâre facing layoffs or are just an emotional junior staffer, itâs always a good idea to scout out a good crying place before you need it. Itâs an incredibly hard time for Wellington. Across the city, thousands of public servants are hearing tough news about redundancies and layoffs. Government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Miller-Jones, Professor, Curtin University Nuclear explosions on a neutron star feed its jets. Danielle Futselaar and Nathalie Degenaar, Anton Pannekoek Institute, University of Amsterdam, CC BY-SA How fast can a neutron star drive powerful jets into space? The answer, it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology Sydney Earlier this week, independent MP Andrew Wilkie accused the AFL of conducting âoff the booksâ illicit drug testing to identify players using substances of abuse, then inappropriately withdrawing them from matches ...
The Governmentâs announcement that it will scrap plans for a vast marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands is âshamefulâ and will make it impossible for Aotearoa New Zealand to meet its international commitments, says the World Wide Fund for Nature ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland Shutterstock The federal government has bowed to pressure from the car industry, announcing it will relax proposed emissions rules for utes and vans and delay enforcement of the new standards ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suzanne Rutland, Professor Emerita, University of Sydney In his latest book, Jewish Life in Medieval Spain, Jonathan Ray focuses on the tumult of the 14th century in Spain â a time of the plague, civil strife and war between the two largest ...
While creating a slate of world-class shows, Whakaata MÄori also developed a generation of world-class creatives. Television is an odd word. It mixes the Ancient Greek and Latin languages, and its most literal meaning is âfar-off sightâ. In the contemporary and living language of te reo MÄori, âwhakaataâ as a ...
Yesterday the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israelâs war on Gaza. This significant step and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza prompted an urgent debate in the New Zealand Parliament. Leader ...
The Governmentâs decision to reduce access to continuous glucose monitors (CGM) not only threatens the lives of children with type 1 diabetes and increases the potential for âDead in Bedâ syndrome, but also threatens the health of their parents an ...
Apples are available year-round, but the wide variety on offer involves intensive scientific research â and large-scale commercialisation. Whatâs beautiful, red, sweet and crunchy? Tony Martinâs favourite kind of apple: Sassy. The CEO of apple and pear breeding organisation Prevar, Martinâs fondness for Sassy represents professional success as well as ...
Family violence specialist service Shine is calling on employers to stop asking for proof of domestic violence in order for employees to access domestic violence leave. The call comes five years after the introduction of the Domestic Violence ...
The Deputy Chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee is calling for public submissions on the Budget Policy Statement 2024. The Budget Policy Statement 2024 (BPS) sets out the Government's priorities for the 2024 Budget. It explains the approach ...
Brutal government spending cuts that will see the size of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples slashed by 40% will hit Pasifika communities hard, the PSA says. The Ministry has told staff that it is seeking voluntary redundancies, and to redeploy and reassign ...
I live with five people I mostly love, but our different ideas about generosity are starting to really irk me.Want Heraâs help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,This is a bit of a random one but here goes. Iâm 22 and work an OK job (OK meaning I get paid ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maria Nicholas, Senior Lecturer in Language and Literacy Education, Deakin University Earlier this month, the New South Wales government announced it would roll out programs for gifted students in every public school in the state. This comes amid concerns gifted school ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Rudge, Law lecturer, University of Sydney Massachusetts General Hospital In a world first, we heard last week that US surgeons had transplanted a kidney from a gene-edited pig into a living human. News reports said the procedure was a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tombs, Howard Paterson Chair of Theology and Public Issues, University of Otago The 5th-century Maskell panel showing Jesus in a loincloth.British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA When Jesus is shown on the cross, he is almost always depicted wearing a loincloth around ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University Shutterstock When you think about a red object, you might picture a red carpet, or the massive ruby in the Queenâs crown. Indeed, Western monarchies and marketing from brands such ...
COMMENTARY:Jewish Voice for Peace The UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza on Monday â and for the first time since the beginning of the Israeli militaryâs genocide of Palestinians, the United States abstained rather than vetoing it. Security Council resolutions are legally binding, ...
Asia Pacific Report A New Zealand investigative journalist and author says the US spy system hosted by the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) appears to be a controversial intelligence system used in global capture-kill operations. Writing a commentary for RNZ News today, Nicky Hager, author of Secret Power, a 1996 ...
While Nicola Willis wouldnât give any details on its size, she said a package of tax cuts is definitely still coming in this yearâs budget, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoffâs morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
The Taxpayersâ Union is welcoming the investigation into the Department of Internal Affairs after it was revealed that the Departmentâs Chief Executive personally reached out to expedite a DJs passport application. Taxpayersâ Union Campaigns ...
Finance minister Nicola Willis delivers her first budget statement, and unwittingly helps Joel MacManus save his relationship. Nicola Willis strode into the Beehive Theatrette. Around me, on the green foldout seats, were the countryâs top business and political journalists. They were all here to see her announce the Budget Policy ...
Twenty years ago today, MÄori Television launched after much controversy. Jamie Tahana looks back on its survival and impact across two decades. Chad Chambers stepped onto the stage, the brim of his cap casting a shadow across his face. His smile beamed as bright as his white freezing works gumboots, ...
Tauranga, Rotorua, Wellsford, Onehunga, Westhaven marina â Gavin Strawhan walks the meanish streets of New Zealand in his entertaining debut novel The Call, almost sure to roar into the number 1 position on the Nielsen bestseller chart, its front cover bearing a rave from somebody: “A really good and genuinely ...
On a Thursday in February, at Wellingtonâs Conservation House, the Conservation Authority, a statutory body advising the eponymous department and minister, Tama Potaka, opened its 195th meeting. Under consideration that afternoon was an agenda item written by Tim Bamford, chief advisor in the Department of Conservationâs biodiversity, heritage and visitors ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Thursday 28 March appeared first on Newsroom. ...
A lengthy response to the recently released draft Government policy statement on transport will soon be delivered from Auckland Council to Minister of Transport Simeon Brown. A submission raising concerns about funding distribution and the planâs treatment of Auckland passed through the councilâs transport committee on Wednesday, despite some councillors ...
The unidentified foreign intelligence operation discussed in a scathing report by New Zealandâs Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) last week appears to be a controversial United States intelligence system. The IGIS report said the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) decision to host a foreign system from 2012-2020 was âimproperâ ...
As a young gymnast, Aimee Didierjean was always conscious of making sure her underwear wasnât showing on the competition floor. A peek of a bra strap, or briefs if a leotard rode up, would cost a gymnast points in her routines. âWhen I was growing and going through puberty, it ...
Jubi/West Papua Daily Repeated cases of Indonesian military (TNI) soldiers torturing civilians in Papua have been evident, as seen in the viral video depicting the torture of civilians in the Puncak Regency allegedly done by soldiers of Raider 300/Brajawijaya Infantry Battalion. There is a pressing need for stringent law enforcement ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra In 2023, Anthony Albanese was shooting for the moon, his eyes on the Voice referendum. On one view, he looked like the idealist reflecting his left-wing roots. In 2024, weâre seeing a pragmatic, determined, ...
The House - The principle that all MPs are honourable and that they should be taken at their word has been tested multiple times this week in Parliament. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Helen Dickinson, Professor, Public Service Research, UNSW Sydney Drazen Zigic/Shutterstock Since the review of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) released its recommendations in December, there has been a series of Town Hall events to discuss them around the country ...
Asia Pacific Report Two of the global Freedom Flotilla ships are being prepared in Turkey and almost ready for the upcoming humanitarian mission to Gaza. It is expected that the flotilla will include a New Zealand medical team. Kia Ora Gaza is a member of the international Freedom Flotilla Coalition ...
“I can’t quite believe it,” Mrs Johnson said. “I am so thrilled that the biscuits are back.
“Nearly 15,000 people voted for the biscuit’s return after Upper Hutt mother Amber Johnson started a Facebook page titled Get Griffin’s To Bring Back Choco-ade”
NZH, and the average Kiwi – Example of why progress is so difficult in this country!
this will cheer you up muzza, or send you postal,
( i find those emotions overlap so often these days )
http://www.funnyjunk.com/funny_pictures/3228913/Facebook/
Hilarious, Freedom! I shared it on Facebook… đ
The odious Garth McVicar and the Sensible Sentencing Trust are going to review the Scott Guy Murder case.
The interview (not on line yet) involved McVicar hinting darkly at the right to silence and how this is an impediment to the course of Justice. Â There is one slight problem with this comment, Ewen McDonald spent hours talking to the police about the case. Â This was all recorded and shown to the jury. Â So not only did he not exercise his right to silence but he even admitted some offending to boot.
He also hinted darkly at evidence being excluded and has promised the people of New Zealand a full review.
The obvious tenor of McVicar’s comments was that justice demanded and required a result. Â No matter how weak the Crown case was.
Sounds like more McVicar and the Sensible Sentencing Trust talking up false hopefor those who want a legal outcome (especially for victims), completely contrary to sound legal practice.
I hated the tone of unrestrained glee McVicar had on National Radio this morning.
Like he had to wipe saliva off his mouth every second breath.
Surely the right place for anything further would be a civil action?
I can only expect after this he will be courted to stand by New Zealand First. Or National.
Amazing how quiet he was on the matter of his mate Graham Caphill’s trial, eh.
Nor does he seem to have hung around outside the courthouse to court the Korean man who was run over by a white banker. And let us not forget his defense of the man who stabbed a little tagger to death in South Auckland. This guy is actually an opponent of sound legal practice, favouring an “us versus them” approach, and is very rarely called to account for it. Last night I saw an episode of 60 Minutes in which Greg king was interviewed (I cannot link it because it does not appear to be up yet). He was asked to account for himself every step of the way, which he did very ably. In comparison, McVicar is generally left free to rant against every principle upon which the legal system is based.
McVicar and his awful “Trust” are perpetually courted by the media for “expert opinion”, and thus unfortunately encouraged. I am sorry for any family that calls upon him for support (or did he foist himself upon them?) Believe it or not, true experts are available, if only people and media will seek them out.
The difference is that the true experts can’t afford to put themselves in the media as they’re actually doing important stuff with the limited funds they have. The SST’s funding is, on the other hand, almost entirely for massaging the media so that they get heard. Which means that when people do need expert help in criminal matters they go to the one they’ve heard of – the SST – which probably doesn’t have a single expert in it.
pop or was that david garretts
I heard about that on the radio this morning. What on earth? What does he think gives him the right?
I just got told that I was guilty of some evil behaviour and had to do a recaptcha! Why? Please, this is the umpteenth time in weeks, it’s needs fixing!
meh – I think it’s linking that does it.Â
Quite a good idea – it stops the robots adding spam links, although it doesn’t stop failed united future candidates…
Â
In fact right now, they’re on 3 News right now, claiming that McDonald was silent! I didn’t follow the trial as I was fed up with it right from the start, but I read above that he wasn’t silent so ???
Peter Dunne had a chance to explain his (and United Future’s) position on asset sales on Q+A yesterday.
News report, video and transcript: http://yournz.org/2012/07/09/peter-dunne-on-qa/
Pete George, the energizer bunny of the blogosphere who keeps going and going and going and going …
This is a straw man argument Pete. Â The basic problem is that under economic, financial, environmental and security of energy supply considerations this is a really stupid policy. Â You can’t argue against that although you will probably try.
Did the coiffured one promise hand on heart that no matter how stupid or ludicrous the privatisation proposal was he would back it no matter what? Â If this is what you are saying then it is the dumbest policy ever support by a political party.Â
but micky, p.dunny knew asset sales was a shit policy and he is a hero for adding a tiny clause to the legislation. never mind the fact that his election campaign stated uf was against privatisation. the good folk of ohariu would all have read the uf small print, and thus they endorse the asset stripping of nz.
cue PG with
‘ but but but but but but but but it is a Mixed Ownership Model! That’s not privatisation! waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh why doesn’t anybody listen to me, oh and i want you all to know i am working hard on your behalf to change nothing in particular or achieve anything of any great importance but by gum i will let you know how difficult the challenges facing us are and if we all would just pull together and do exactly as i say then nothing will change but we will have lots of new ways to distract each other from the endless mountain of crap my efforts have created’
The coiffured one is effectively a NAT stooge just like Banks is and will do whatever he is told to do or lose the baubles of ministerial trappings, he has presided over the meanest and most dishonest government in memory who are selling us out with his support….say no more.
PG sort of reminds me of Oscar Wilde on fox hunting (the unspeakable in pursuit of the uneatable)…perhaps the implausible in defense of the ingenuous. Any advances?
What a load of shit, Pete.
I think the people have had far too much of politicians who say one thing before an election and then weasel word after it. In fact, I must be the only politician being criticised for keeping his word.”
The lying prick knows full well, as you do, that his electioneering material was very carefully crafted to loudly and boldly proclaim ‘WE WILL NEVER SELL WATER, KIWIBANK, OR RADIO NZ’, while whispering softly ‘but everything else is on the block, and ps when I say water I’m not counting the water in the hydro system ie most of our water’.
He’s not being criticised for keeping his word Pete, he’s being criticised precisely for weasel- wording. He’s a deceitful, manipulative weasel and a nasty piece of work.
I agree with everything you say.
But a minor question for 2014: would you prefer Peter Dunne to sustain a Labour-Green coalition, or that guy from Mana?
It may come to these odd choices.
I agree with felix too.
If a slightly leftish coalition needs dunne it is fucked. Much better to work with a true left movement like Mana that will put some backbone into them and hopefully move any coalition lefter.
If it came to that I’d prefer Mana. I don’t like everything that comes out Harawira’s mouth but at least you know what you’re getting.
And as marty says, any govt led by Labour will need its support parties pulling it leftward economically, not rightward, if it’s to achieve much.
I have concerns about some of Harawira’s conservative views on social issues but there are plenty of liberal voices in Labour, the Greens, and even in his own party to counter that.
Just get ready to hold your nose either way when the time comes.
Personally (because this morning I can forecast the future) I think we are heading for one of those 1996-type elections where the remaining minorities get to determine the fate of the larger parties’ reach for power.
which Mana policy gets up your nose ad or do you just dislike Hone?
For me personally beyond the Greens and Labour they’re all a bit too odd.
FWIW I prefer to be offended by someone with principle rather than a pointless shill. The elevation in class just makes the entire experience more enjoyably visceral.
God if only the majority in the Labour caucus thought like you. They don’t. Remember when Helen Clark spoke of the Maori party as “Not even last cab off the rank”?
would you prefer Peter Dunne to sustain a Labour-Green coalition, or that guy from Mana?
Good question Ad, I would prefer Hone any day of the week. At least he works from well understood principles and has the interests of ordinary people at heart …
I’ll address ad’s question in detail later..
Which means ‘I’ll waffle about some other crap tangentially related to Ad’s question and see if I can slip in a few nasty snipes at Labour and the Greens’.
+1 mickeysavage
Remember when Helen Clark spoke of the Maori party as âNot even last cab off the rankâ?
Correct me if I’ve got it wrong Ad, but are you suggesting the Maori Party and the Mana Party are on an equal ideological footing? Although Helen Clark was savaged by all and sundry for her comment “the last cab off the rank”, time has proved she was 100% correct. The Maori Party have shown themselves to be nothing more than brown Tories who were/are happy to betray their own people for a few personal baubles and beads.
IMO Hone Harawira’s stature has increased significantly since the formation of the Mana Party (the real Maori Party) and I note David Shearer has acknowledged as much in one or two recent comments. I think it is highly likely Labour would be happy to include the Mana Party in a Labour-led coalition government.
felix – but look at who’s criticising him. A few anonymous people on a blog. No evidence presented, just ‘opinions’ used in in attack that seemingly deliberately keep ignoring clear facts.
The Q+A researchers would have been aware of what he would claim and prepared no challenge. Shane Taurima didn’t challenge it. Stuff haven’t challenged it:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/7243462/Today-in-politics-Monday-July-9
I asked a different Felix (Marwick) a while ago why the MSM weren’t interested in smear campaigns on blogs.
Continued claims of things like “deceitful, manipulative weasel and a nasty piece of works” are in a small echo chamber here and reflect more on those who keep making unsubstantiated accusations.
Mate, the only small echo chamber here is you. And if TS is so lacking in influence, how come you carpet bomb the threads here every day? And one more question. If UF was in favour of asset sales, why didn’t they campaign on it? As you know, the UF literature and TV ads were silent on it and Dunne only made a couple of vague references to the issue in the entire campaign. He dishonestly allowed the belief that his one man party was opposed to the sales, when he knew that his salary depended on them going through. The man’s a weasel and a humbug.
Quite an echo-chamber for the highest-rating progressive site in the country, number three or four on the table of any blogsite, and from what I hear of Labour’s caucus, feared by all those in caucus who ought.
On cue my point is supported. Thanks.
A less patsy question would be “surely your support for the National Party’s asset sales, as they announced prior to the election, is contrary to your repeated position of keeping national in check. Or did that just apply to things National weren’t going to do anyway?”
UF (with some help from The Standard) kept National in check exactly as we said we would. UF negotiated a C&S agreement on minimum ownership (51%), National actually changed it through a cabinet decision to voting rights only, and UF enforced the agreement and had it changed back to ownership
http://yournz.org/2012/06/21/politicians-journalists-and-bloggers-fix-mom-bill/
Nice of Dunne to correct their grammar and punctuation for them.Â
Shame the essay is repulsive.Â
Remember also that Dunne wanted any single overseas owner to be able to own 15% of the shares.
The Nats, being apparently slightly less bloodthirsty than Dunne on this aspect of privatisation, managed to talk him down to 10%.
Pete, we’ve been over this plenty of times. Yes, if you look hard enough at the literal interpretation of the language you could conclude that Dunne supported privatising everything except water, kb, and rnz.
The focus however was always on saving three particular assets, not on selling the rest of them. The way this was presented is the very definition of weasel wording.
And I know you know this yourself, because it took you the best part of a day to find any references to his pro-privatisation policies when challenged.
Ah, yeah, that’s because the United Future emphasis was on United Future policy. I think you’ll find other parties tend to promote their own policies most too.
The reason why it took a while to find references was:
– it wasn’t a full time job, I fitted it in when I could
– there weren’t many references BECAUSE it was never an issue that was raised because it didn’t concern anyone then.
I have never seen any credible dispute of this. Even Ohariu People’s Power accepted this as indisputable.
If there was any evidence supporting your case don’t you think it would have been found and trumpeted loud and wide now?
You continue repeating your argument against known evidence and with no evidence to support your case.
You’re the one trying to weasel something out of nothing on this.
Pete, the evidence I’ve presented is the United Future campaign videos and print material. It is entirely consistent with everything I’ve said and you have entirely failed to even address my argument. Every time.
And enough of the bullshit about you “fitting it in” when you could. We all watched you run around madly trying to find references. You were doing it here, in public. I’ll save you the embarrassment of posting a link for now but I don’t recommend repeating such an obvious lie so soon after the event.
We all watched you run around madly trying to find references.
You’re making things up again felix. But it’s worth noting that I did find references. Something you have failed to do.
Did you go to any of Dunne’s campaign meetings? Any campaign meetings where there was a UF candidate? I expect if you had and you had evidence to back up what you keep repeating about you would have said it by now. But all you have uis your ‘opinion’.
I’m sure if Dunne was guilty of your accusations Charles Chauvel and Gareth Hughes would have been all over it, as would at least one Standard author.
But there’s nothing. Nothing from the parties. Nothing from the mainstream media. Nothing except a few anonymous repeating commenters.
I presented my evidence and my analysis and conclusions. If you disagree with my analysis then dispute the contentious aspects of it, dick.
ps I’m very pleased to learn that Pete George now considers posting on The Standard to be a waste of time and look forward to him backing up that opinion by fucking off forthwith and posthaste.
You’re making things up again felix. You’re again claiming something falsely or incorrectly.
You seem to have some intelligence and are sometimes are very pedantic with specific meanings of phrases, so my opinion tends towards deliberate misrepresentation, it’s hard to see it any other way.
It’s not a waste of time pointing this out.
pete continues yodelling in an echo-chamber…
he’ll probably do his version of bohemian rhapsody soon
Is this the real life?
Is this just fantasy?
Caught in a landslide,
No escape from reality
Open your eyes,
Look up to the skies and see,
I’m just a poor boy, I need no sympathy,
Because I’m easy come, easy go,
Little high, little low,
Any way the wind blows doesn’t really matter to
me, to me
marty mars
Any way the wind blows doesnât really matter to
me, to me
It does if its a fart.
But I like your choice of verse. It’s a different way to being terse.
Commenting in rhyme
Â
Might be sublime,Â
 Â
But it’s not as cathartic
 Â
As just abandoning concepts such as rhythm and style and just swearing at some fucking obtuse moronic trool.
Now THAT’S poetry.
Sure Pete.
But if this place is just an echo chamber and nothing of any consequence happens as a result of anything written here, why bother correcting me?
Becasue you keep giving me the opportunity. Thanks.
Wow. Sometimes I think you’re just taking the piss, but I’m beginning to wonder if you really aren’t aware of all these inherently contradictory statements you keep making.
How does it feel to willing spend so much time writing in a pointless meaningless echo chamber for no purpose?
“You’re making things up again felix.” Besides wishing for PGs absence, which would not make the heart grow fonder, can you think of some viable relief?
Peters Groupie You can’t even get your idol’s facts right obviuosly you didn’t watch Q&A.
Wait until I tell Dunny.
Dunny said that he had been pushing that policy in ohairyu for the past 3 elections.
Not 3 years .
Been off the air for a while….in which time I contemplated a number of mindsets that keep the rank and file in line with received wisdom no matter how unreal it is.
I saw a bit of Max Keiser on a MSM hosted talk show being accused of being a “ conspiracy theorist” for pointing out the very obvious fraudulent behavior of the Wall St bankers. Labeling somebody a conspiracy theorist is the ultimate smokescreen for the avoidance of reality by the mainstream media. And Joe Average is so bloody dumb he takes the easy route of not questioning but agreeing. Its a form of abrogation of personal responsibility to question: political power certainly does not want Joe questioning.
Then there is the pukesome Godwin crap. I see a f**scist yet I cant call them on it. Give me a break.
Yes, it seems that the only defense for the establishment is to use the CT call as some sort of way to throw the sheep off the scent, it seems to be working still, and the message was obviously given to Key, as he used the term multiple times of late.
The Keiser comments are interesting in that it shows explicitly who is really pulling the strings in the background. The cross over of finance and media working together to label as a, conspiracy theorist, Max Keiser, for commentating on the crumbling financial systems, the destruction ofwhich is the result of the greatest conspiracy every being pulled off. The irony of the MSM comments are immense, not to mention the hypocracy!
Keiser did not “invent” the stories, they are in fact happening in real time. People who use the term conspiracy theory, lack the intelligence, and or the mental strength/self esteem, to question what is in front of their face.
Jeez, various site statistics at the Standard blog hardly portray a âsmall echo chamberâ Pete, quite the reverse.
The obsequious Dunne will not be judged well in history by many New Zealanders for his sell out self serving actions.
To clarify – The Standard is a significant and significantly sized forum, the largest catering for mainly leftish views.
The âsmall echo chamberâ comment refers to a vocal but small subset of The Standard commentariat.
So it’s a small echo chamber in a large forum?
  Â
Wouldn’t that make it a cone of silence?
đ
“The âsmall echo chamberâ comment refers to a vocal but small subset of The Standard commentariat.”
Given that something like less than 1% of readers actually comment, it doesn’t matter if it’s only a “small vocal subset” of people that post any particular content here, because there’s a large readership.
Surely that’s why you keep peddling your crap here. Although I would hope that a lot of readers do what I do and skim, or skip, your comments entirely.
Petey, Petey, Petey, Petey …
Â
Your original comment this morning has generated considerable response that essentially can be categorised into two different types:
Â
1. The coiffured one may have well indicated support for MOM type privatisation but this does not mean he had to sign up to every single MOM privatisation proposal, especially the really silly ones.
Â
2. There may have been this policy in the fine print but whenever the coiffured one spoke he made it sound like he was against privatisation of strategically important assets. He then turns lap dog and lets them go through.
Â
You as a self confessed opponent of “politics as usual” and talk about “smear tactics” but then denigrate various commentators, presumably including myself, as being part of a “small echo chamber” suggesting that their thoughts are not their own without addressing their concerns.
Â
See the problem?
The problem is micky – you’ve got it wrong. You’re a part of the small echo chamber here that keeps peddling misinformation that isn’t taken seriously elsewhere.
The more you do it the more you confirm your own futility. Important people in Labour don’t even push your lines.
Can’t you try something that will actually help Labour rebuild and prepare for government? Surely that’s a party priority?
Surely you should direct your petey powers of polling perspicacity towards helping United Future achieve 1% at election time? Oh, you did. How did that go for you?
UF maintained the same number of seats and gained influence from the last election. How did that go for Labour?
I’d like to see UF support increase next time, I think that would add to the balance of parties in parliament.
I’d also like to see Labour get their act together and build a viable capability towards running the next government from 2014 or 2017 – that’s far more important for the country as a whole. So I have an interest in that too. Do you think I shouldn’t?
Labour did about 20 or 30 times better than UF, even with a reduction in support.
      Â
If anything, I think that your “interest” should be monitored as sort of a reverse pit-canary: as soon as you start extensively approving of anything controversial Labour does, they should immediately apologise and reverse course. As long as you keep providing helpful advise on how Labour should change to improve its popularity, they can’t be too far wrong.
Same as if the NBR, John Armstrong or Fran O’Sullivan start praising Labour and its policies as being “pragmatic”, “realistic”, “sensible” and “moderate”.
I do recall an Alliance comrade saying that he really knew Lab4 was off the rails when the ODT started running positive editorials about their economic policies.
Meanwhile… over at kiwiblog… Pete finally admits that he’s proper right wing….
“Of all the commenters here DPF would be as close as just about anyone to my views and aims”
Ah, but of Labour politicians I think I’m closest to David Shearer. I’d rate Kevin Hague and Julie Anne Genter, amongst those in the Greens I’ve had anything to do with. And I like Pita Sharples. I’d be happy to work with any of them.
Make what you want of that.
I make that you’re delusional.
What about current MPs excluding Dunne?
So bearing that in mind, if you sat in a room with say Farrah, Shearer, Hauge, Genter & lets throw Key in there too, which would be as close as just about anyone to your views and aims?
“I have an interest in that too”
Do you see yourself in Parliment as a labour member pete?
I think it’s unlikely I’ll be in Parliament with any party.
When I decided to get more into politics I first approached Labour. After initial contact I volunteered some outside real world experience and they didn’t get back to me.
I doubt I’ll join Labour unless they change their approach substantially, and I doubt I’m the sort of person they’d chose as a candidate, I’ve got too much practical life and business experence.
I certainly wouldn’t fit into the current Labour culture of being a negative talking point repeater.
Â
A typically hypocritical statement.
You are such a crack up Pete.
Hate to break it to you but your inability to argue and your rather strange world views would not get you within a million miles of a Labour party nomination. You are right that you are not the sort of person who would be chosen as a candidate.
As for “being a negative talking point repeater” you should read this and hundreds of other threads you have strangled the life out of and then reconsider your statement.
Pete George; “I’ve got too much practical life and business experience.”
What a hoot ! You do have too much pomposity, too much passive aggression, and too much of a view of the wonder of you. That’s about it though Petey.
lol – I just saw his line:
 Â
I suspect he was correctly identified as waaaaaaay outside the real world, hence their lack of follow-up. “oh noes, I accidentally lost his phone number”[rips paper into very small pieces]
Peters Groupie you are obviously trying to grease up the labour party so the follicle freaks can have another MP outside cabinet with the remuneration that goes with it.
PGroupie.
You could change the name of your party to .
P ontificating
U nbridled
F uckwits &
F ools&
E ndangered
R idiculed
Y awns
“UF maintained the same number of seats and gained influence from the last election.”
Bullshit. He maintained the same number of seats from the election and maintained precisely the same amount of influence from the post-election negotiations, not from the election.
ps for all this supposed influence you’ve still never listed all the awesome things he’s achieved (things that National weren’t going to do anyway) and you’ve still never listed all the Govt bills that he’s voted against, despite being asked several times.
Probably close to zero in both cases, but set the record straight anytime you like.
nononononono felix, Dunne stamped his foot over the typo in the asset sales after other people had pointed it out.
There were two bills in the last week that parliament sat that I’m aware of that Dunne supported and National didn’t:
– Phil Twyford’s depleted uranium bill
– David Clark’s holiday Mondayisation bill
But I don’t follow every vote. Do you? Or are you making things up again based on no facts?
From the Q+A interview:
And this is what happens in my experience, when I ask him whether he will support a bill or not he openly considers it in association with UF policy. Not with the policy of any other party.
I am still trying to work out Petey if you are a terribly sophisticated CT plant receiving advice from CIA and Kremlin experts in propaganda and misinformation or if you actually believe what you type …
You are an expert at running away from a debate and then making out as if it is everyone’s elses fault. Such expertise is either evidence of very sophisticated training or evidence that you exist in a different dimension to the rest of us.
You still did not answer my original proposition, nor Felix’s. Yet you accuse us of peddling misinformation. How does that work?
And I am curious, which of my lines is Labour not pushing? I would prefer that you answer my first question first though. Just to show that you are actually interested in engaging in a proper debate and not doing politics as usual …
I didn’t think your first question justified an answer, it was a very dumb question.
Not to my knowledge – it’s a stupid suggestion.
And I haven’t said anything like that.
“Not to my knowledge â itâs a stupid suggestion. “
And yet…
Oh for another PFDâPete Free Day.
Maybe PG has been inspired by CERN findings and imagines himself a âquantum commenterâ, squiggling about, able to be in two or more places at once.
Pete’s Groupie Dunne’s groupie.Pontificating Guile .
Your leaving no room for any one else’s opinion.
You haven’t learned that less is more when it comes to politics.
Does the youth of New Zealand understand what Austerity is?
When food is controlled by a Ration Book. Petrol is rationed. Clothing is either rationed or just not available. Many people are dependant on Rain Water, collected from the house roof.
Our standard of living has improved tremendously over the last 100 years but where does one “draw the line”? We cannot all lead the life of an English Gentleman. Someone has to play the part of a servant.
The envious will never be happy.
I agree john72, but it’s not just the ‘youth of New Zealand’ who have no idea what austerity or real hardship is. I think I have a better idea about it but my generation (baby boomers) is the first of the lucky generations so it’s just based on what I’ve learned from previous generations.
Life is still tough for many people, even some in New Zealand, but relative to the past we’ve never had things so good – and possibly never appreciated what we do have so little.
History will show your generation as the “luckiest generation”.
I take it guvnor, that you are not volunteering for the role?
Exactly.
Actually, no.
“Austerity” is when there is more than enough food, but most people can’t afford it.
“Rationing” is when the government ensures that nobody gets more than their fair share, so as few people as possible miss out.
     Â
Issues like child welfare and inequality aren’t races, where you’ve done well if you get a podium finish. They’re issues of constant self-improvement, like maintaining an ideal weight or exercising or minimising the sodium in your diet if that’s an issue. Why do we care? 1: they are bad. 2: like obesity or smoking, if they go on too long they fester in society and cause heart failure and collapse.
   Â
Maybe it was worse in your day. Not the issue. The issue is that it’s worse in our day: we can do much better, but we just don’t care. Like a diabetic gorging on chocolate eclairs.Â
Sounds like life as a labourer in rural NZ. Long hours working outside, but work somewhat blends into life in general (because natural systems don’t listen to or attract people with flow charts and arbitrary deadlines); wages aren’t so great, so food is rationed by budget, so is petrol and because of wage levels and relative isolation, so are clothes. Water supply is from tanks filled by rain off the roof. Cost of trucking extra in over a dry summer often isn’t an option. Workplace employment laws and law in general doesn’t extend to them. It’s a melange of applied cultural beliefs and the wishes of the local “gentry”. Forget the expectation of medical assistance, unless you’re already half dead.
Lots of people live like this and they’re young. It’s all they’ve ever known. So I don’t know what the envy comment is about. Maybe it’s you who is envious of the resources of Yoof who could make you richer at their expense, but choose not to? The greedy are never happy.
Uturn It’s good to hear things spelt out like this and probably many farming people don’t know how bad it is for many of the workers, or choose not to know. Certainly townies don’t.
Have you read about the Tolpuddle Martyrs in South England. They were tried for setting up a farm workers union on a dodgy bit of law that wouldn’t have succeeded but for the fact that the law, the landed gentry and the church were united against them. There was fire in the bellies of poor people then trying to improve their lot and they massed with huge crowds and collected funds to bring them back, all alive, from their convict sentence in Australia.
I have had a lurking feeling for some time that it is a whole different ‘lifestyle’ for the low income in the rural areas. And I noticed that the roads there seem to be used mainly by young men a lot of whom seem to be loose cannons. Certainly there are a lot of road accidents usually after drugs, alcohol etc. Life there seems a bit brutish.
I have read about marjuana being grown with vicious defence traps, but not lately. I have read about a farmer who had been robbed and for a second time some years later, took a pot shot and found that the second burglary was by the original perp who had gone to Australia, returned and gone back to stock up. He was wearing some of the farmer’s stolen clothes apparently. That was a while ago. I don’t think things have changed much, probably got worse but we aren’t hearing about it.
I have read about a man who had a project that he was spending time on, but every time he left his property parts of it were stolen. Theft like this means that you can’t create anything, make anything. It’s killing to improving your conditions and any initiative.
I have read about growing rustling. In the recent Guy case, Macdonald had been rustling deer, and what else? There is a nice comfy feeling about how helpful farmers are to each other and how they will come forward for neighbours in difficulties. But what do you do about neighbours or nearbys that are stealing from you? There are the good things but possibly just the obvious tip of an iceberg with depths of dishonesty or danger.
There isn’t much of a police presence for farmers, and I don’t think they have a good service at all, because there is such a weight of work on one or two officers it could be that rural people just don’t make formal complaints to them.
Is there a rural underclass that is growing quietly like mushrooms and is only noticed briefly when there is some bad outbreak? Such as the recent theft from tourists, who were fortunate they weren’t female (would they have been raped and perhaps then killed as has happened to other decent, trusting females expecting to be travelling in a civilised country). And perhaps women in particular should be warned about past happenings.
The outback of Australia has some feral males floating around who have committed awful crimes, and I thought we had higher standards but I’m not sure now.
Uturn
Sounds like Britain during the second World War.
I know – I lived with it in London – and we were healthier as a result.
Thanks UTurn for stating it how it is: I noted reading Trotters Bowalley Rd on the Guy trial that there is definitely an excessive rural income divide between farm owners and labourers (or so Trotter claims). He makes the point that the whole us/ them divide makes for ugly societal impacts.
Myself, I regularly employ people, every time I do its a million c.v’s, from sub 25 years olds, most of whom are in “training” (studying to be something they will never do and being saddled with a debt for the benefit of doing so) OR are working a part time minimum wage go nowhere job.
Meanwhile the “greedies” from Labour seem to think it would be a good idea to not pay superannuation for a couple of years till people are 67 because (with no evidence to support it) “we cannot afford it. Who are the “we” Mr Shearer?
Bored
And about that 65 to 67 years gap before the old age pension. If these older people can’t get a job that supports them fully, or can only do part-time work, or no work at all then the government should be paying them out of another benefit category, the unemployment or minimum income fund. That means that the government must afford it or have people begging even dying on the street.
And things got that way after Nats Ruth Richardson introduced her new slimmed down benefits and hospitals were turned into CHEs paring service centres. I seem to remember that someone was in hospital, their bed was needed so they were sent home by taxi about midnight and left by the side of the road. I think a woman had her baby by the road, or in a bus, which could always happen but is not the service we want for our vulnerable people. And poor people die before their time under the bean-counting approach to humanity.
If on unemployment these older people will have to abase themselves to these brutalised people in WINZ offices and possibly be ordered to attend courses to learn skills that if they didn’t know already, it would be too late to teach them. And then there are the draconian controls of the enemployed benefit (a Freudian slip – combining enemy and unemployed which is how attitudes are developing towards the strugglers). They need to be available to look for a job all the time, looking for a job becomes their job, yet they can’t go on holiday without asking permission which may not be granted. Particularly if your children have gone to Australia. You may have scrimped enough to get there but you have removed yourself from the job market. If your children sent you the fare and you went anyway, that money could be counted as increased income and your benefit docked to that amount. And you are registered as leaving the country when you go through the check-in so the Department finds out, and could stop your benefit. This system, allegedly caring for the low income, is equivalent to home detention though less rigid than for criminals and certainly not the treatment of the retired that is envisaged by the better off.
This is how I understand the system from anecdote and some personal experience. If someone knows differently or has an experience that sheds light on the benefit for older people, it would be interesting to read.
All sounds so familiar Prism. You get shitted on as you begin your working career, indebted up to the eyeballs with a useless “degree”. You work at Makkers to pay off that sum on minimum wages, then when your body gives out on you there is an expectation that an extra couple of years can be dragged out of you….St Peter dont you call me cos I cant go, I owe my soul to the company store” syndrome.
The real issue at hand is the failure of the economic system to provide sufficient jobs, and sufficient wage levels. In this country we generate sufficient wealth to do both, the problem we have is that we just seem far too good at distributing this wealth to the wrong people. My business’ market is shrinking because the amount of consumption drops with the number of people unemployed and the lower rates of pay: the corporate sector (including government) are buying business or overcharging my sector. Consequently I don’t employ as many people as I could.
Which is why I gave Shearer and Labour a serve: to blindly retort failed shibboleths of some Right wing think tank rather than addressing the real issues indicates Labour are still arse about face.
That’s sort of where I am now, although I have not yet turned 60… inasmuch as I’ve been informed that I have only a 20% chance of getting an office job because of my age (the leader of a course WINZ referred me to, told me that.)Â
I have the skills, I don’t have the yoof or the looks that are apparently required by any woman seeking an office job!
(Neither do I have leukaemia, which is another, weirder story.)
Um, so?
No we can’t and no we don’t. Only have to have servants in a dictatorial hierarchy.
As we keep pointing out: It’s not envy but pure, unadulterated, disgust with the greedy smucks whom you seem to worship.
There is an interesting juxtaposition of offerings on Radionz this a.m . At 10.45 there is a serial play on the beneficiary getting into work by starting your own business thing. Very funny.
And Alex Mackay, who has just published a cookbook is a chef who talks at express train speed. Cookbook for Everybody, Everyday, published by Bloomsbury about $45.
His career was the result of hard work, and looking for opportunities and taking them. Being able to express yourself well would count too. He had to leave school voluntarily or the other way. So he got started as a dishwasher in restaurants here and ended up going to France on a one way ticket. At one place he worked he was in charge of pastry, left after everyone else and no transport home, a hotel four miles away was the only bed he could get, so had to walk there. Hotel was locked up so he had to climb over the garden wall and up to his second storey bedroom. Good story, whether it’s true. He certainly has Drrive.
Also at http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon
11:45 Off The Beaten Track with Kennedy Warne
The latest offering in the NZ Cycle Trails network â the Motu Trails, in the Bay of Plenty, which opened a couple of months ago. There are three interconnecting trails that take a rider between Opotiki on the coast and Matawai in the Raukumara Range.
Also have a look on the site at this beautiful bridge – Newly opened Pakowhai suspension bridge over the Otara River, Opotiki.
A great pic of the Martian landscape.
Either that or national’s wet dream about conservation land đ
 Â
Good snap thoughÂ
I am always intrigued by pics of the red planet, specially the one a while back of what looked like a human type figure running among rocks on the Planet Mars, (perhaps one of the underground inhabitants caught out-side),
Whats amusing is that we seem to know what makes up the Mars ‘atmosphere’ and soil types around the ‘voyager’,
It would seem a reasonably bright suggestion to attempt to recreate the same enviroment in a dome like structure here on Earth so as to be able to test what trees, plants, crops, might grow on Mars,
If something indicates under such an experiment that it might grow up there then perhaps they should be bombing the place with seeds, such in 1000 years may just go a little toward making the place habitable…
‘human type figure’
Na, was just a rock formation
There are ethical issues, as well as practical.
  Â
Mars atmospheric pressure is much less that the pressure at which human blood boils – i.e. Â the pressure at twice the altitude of everest. And it’s pretty cold much of the time, too. So it won’t be Earth’s grain basket.
  Â
On the ethical flipside, there might still be enough water etc for bacteria to grow (not to mention the minute possibility of large subterranean life forms), and of course any seed bombardment could result in either of two “worst case scenarios”: the eradication of unique life forms; or outbreaks of untreatable alien diseases or even triffids. Either one is a bad outcome.
  Â
Not to mention the “climate change / peak oil will make it all futile!” perspective. Not entirely sure where I go to on that one yet.
 Â
Basically we’re probably looking at at least 100 years of exploration and  technology development (e.g. ion boosters or similar funky engines for inner-system navigability) to determine A) what’s there; B) what was once there; and C) if B is nothing lifelike or unpreservable, is there any point to putting anything there, anyway?
Anyone seen Mission to Mars? Fucking hilarious. One of the main characters spends a year living on Mars in a tent, flapping in the breeze, which he survives because he had plants.
Did they do the cunning hollywood get-around-the-laws-of-physics-with-one-line-of-dialogue ruse? A quick “lucky the pressure gauges on every single probe we sent here were wrongly calibrated, eh”?
Yes, he goes “it works”.Â
Nothing further in explanation was required.Â
lol
But i do recall a real mission to mars several years ago that failed because the had enteres the value for g in the wrong unit system.
Mars Climate Orbiter.Â
    Â
An Ariane 5 blew up because of a legacy (and unneeded) subsystem in some bodged-in Ariane 4 code.
   Â
I live in fear of such errors đÂ
One of the main characters spends a year living on Mars in a tent
More or less in real time from what I can remember of that soporific bit of cinema.
I only went because it had Brian De Palma’s name attached as director.
The worst thing about the whole movie was when a couple of friends and I decided “fuck it, lets go” so we stood up and the credits started rolling. Man, I felt gypped.Â
lols
Gorgeous! Wow, thanks…
BEWARE!
MINORITY NATIONAL GOVERNMENT WANTS TO RAILROAD THROUGH CHANGES TO THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT ACT TO FURTHER SUIT CORPORATE INTERESTS!!
Here’s your chance to have your say!
PUBLIC MEETING: Botany MP Jami-Lee Rossâ public meeting is at 7pm on July 10 at Pakuranga Country Club, 199 Botany Road.
THINK THE AUCKLAND SUPERCITY IS A SUPER RIPOFF?
AGREE THAT THE ‘BOOKS SHOULD BE OPEN’ AND CITIZENS SHOULD GET THE ‘DEVILISH DETAIL’ ABOUT HOW MUCH PUBLIC MONIES ARE BEING SPENT ON ‘CORPORATE WELFARE’ (on consultants and private contractors – whose contracts have not been subject to any ‘cost-benefit’ analysis??
“RATEPAYERS deserve assurances that councils are spending their money wisely on services that matter to them, says Botany MP Jami-Lee Ross.”
http://www.times.co.nz/news/mp-explains-law-change.html
Submissions on The Local Government Act 2002 Amendment Bill close on July 26. Botany MP Jami-Lee Rossâ public meeting is at 7pm on July 10 at Pakuranga Country Club, 199 Botany Road.
WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT PROPOSED CHANGES TO THE LOCAL GOVT ACT?
Here you go….
http://www.dia.govt.nz/pubforms.nsf/URL/RISBetterLocalGovernment-signed.pdf/$file/RISBetterLocalGovernment-signed.pdf
Penny Bright
‘Anti-corruption campaigner’
http://www.dodgyjohnhasgone.com
In local paper explanation given by MSD insider via txt that half desks at winz office empty on a given workday due to morale and stress-related issues.hmmm.
Hello U-turn, prism, dtb olwyn drt bored et al. I sorta missed your thoughts but at the time weighed up the benefits of having a wee caesure from the aggression on the blog between some posters. Dogs, fleas and all that.
Never a dull moment watching the impending societal train-wreck though.
Saw this Hong Kong Chinese gentleman on BBC with thousands of accumulated or repatriated Chinese art at his property. Leaning here and there were pieces “valued” at 500m stirling etc.
And that was just one of the new chinese wealthy. Im glad I ceased to measure anything about myself by the rulers I have bought or traded for in the “market”.
The chinese and other east asian ubercapitalists are gonna eat up and spit out our local grass-reared capitalists all over their paddy fields and coal mine tailings.
Ol western whitey and his colonised adherents are wising up to the neccessity of “political” “relationships” to do “business” with the mass of mainland china.
The ol proddy scot wont wanna be puttin his hand too deep into the other mans pocket..
Sam Hall Sounds possible even probable. But Dr Feelgood says don’t think of more than one negative future scenario a day to ensure your mojo keeps alive!
penny bright.
did you listen to MIke Williams and Stephen Franks this morning on 9-noon.
Franks admitted that wodney had drawn up the akl super city plan on the back of an envelope and what has happened now is that elected councillors are left out of the loop.
the departments now consider they dont have to give info to councillors and the only one with any say is the mayor.
Our whole democracy is descending into the post modern equivcalent of the inferno and alice and wonderland combined.
those fuckers have gone crazy with power and they have diverted all avenues of disclosure so that they are sealed off from the gaze of their employers.Thats you and me and all other ratepayers.
Whats needed now is transparency.
But hey it used to be but now it has been taken away.
what the fuck is going on in Godzone.
The economic recovery is upon us, well nah if you want to consider Trademe as an economic indicator things have gone from really bad to really f**king bad,
Paula Benifit is wont to chastise us all with Trademe job figures, (that’s probably coz Paula has trouble with the more complicated household labour survey),
Does appear tho that employment ads on Trademe are UP like mega-big-time, but only IF you either live or are planning on shifting to Christchurch,
Job ads on the same web-site show Auckland is down 4% and Wellington down a massive 7%, who would have thunk that the Slippery led National Government could have wrought such an economic miracle in such a short time,
The score so far, 2 F’s, the government gets a failed and the economy is even more f**ked…
How long has Trademe been doing job ads? I know it’s been a while, but I’m wondering if it’s still in the growth phase as a job exchange, as opposed to say W&I or newspaper classifieds (although similarly the latter in particular might be going down with the ship)
I couldn’t say how long Trademe has been running job ads for, what i do know is that a large % of the advertised jobs on there are filled within a week but advertised for a month,
So using Trademe as economic data as Paula Benifit is wont to do is just another form of National Government mis-information, (there’s 8000 jobs advertised on Trademe you know), further demonizing the unemployed in the eyes of those without the intelligence to understand how such a site works,
When liars like Paula use such figures of 8000 jobs listed on Trademe , at any given time only 3000 of those jobs are vacant with the lower skilled vacancies the first to be filled and the brain surgeon types jobs staying vacant the longest,
As a raw data source of jobs advertised over a period tho, Trademe is possibly an easy mode of charting economic progress, or in the case of the latest figures, economic regression…
I had a go at Patrick Gower when he pulled that crap. It was deeply disappointing (especially since he had the sheer gall to *add together* the number of “vacancies” on TM and Seek like they were mutually exclusive listings), but also kinda screamed “guess which journo hasn’t had to seriously look for work in a while?”
The market says: Everything and everybody has a price, and is for sale. Faith says: The most valuable things in our lives — good health, safe food, strong families, a clean environment, a just economy, meaningful work, access to opportunity — are beyond price, and should by right be available to us all. Our faith communities (especially, but not always exclusively, the progressive ones) have always held this light up within our culture, and it’s never been needed more than it’s needed right now.
[In America,] where over 90% of everybody has some kind of God-belief — and the overwhelming majority of them ground their political decisions in that belief — abandoning the entire landscape of faith to the right wing amounts to political malpractice. For most Americans, our religious worldviews are the epistemological soil in which every other decision we make is rooted — the basic model of reality that we use to navigate the world. When we stopped engaging people’s basic model of moral order, we effectively ceded the entire moral landscape of the nation to our enemies. It was, in retrospect, perhaps the most self-destructive error we’ve made over the past 40 years (and that’s saying something).
To our credit, a lot of our best organizers and activists are starting to realize the magnitude of this mistake. We’re paying a lot more attention these days to learning to clearly articulate progressive values, to express ourselves in explicitly moral language, and to put forward more strongly progressive frames, narratives, and future visions to counter the bankrupt conservative worldview that’s brought us to this sorry place in history.
Alternet: Six Reasons We Can’t Change The Future Without Progressive Religion
Awesome Ropata! Thanks so much..
The Government spends all its energy trying to “fix” education when it isn’t broken and ignores a real crisis! http://localbodies-bsprout.blogspot.co.nz/2012/07/housing-crisis-demands-immediate-action.html
So, weather/climate people… what’s with the jet stream moving south being the blame for the UK’s exceedingly wet summer? I get that this is true, but is it climate or weather and is it a ‘normal’ shift? What makes a jet stream shift? If it’s moved south I guess this is also to blame for an exceedingly warm early summer in central Europe?