‘Here is what the NZ Herald and Stuff decided was more important than a corporate coup removing NZs economic and political sovereignty the day after the TPPA was signed.
Sports gamblers panicking that the All Blacks won’t win the Rugby World Cup.
A porn renovation TV show might make some more money than they first thought.
A boat falls off a trailer.
A bad bus trip.
The world didn’t end after a religious prophecy
A radio host wears the same togs as the Kylie Jenner.
An Apartment that got flooded by a fish tank was sold.
Government spends $600 000 on flowers
A dog gets put down.
That’s right folks, the single biggest erosion of our political and economic sovereignty for US corporate interests has to struggle to get any attention amongst a sea of Sports gambling feeling depresses, porn renovation TV shows, boats falling off trailers, bad bus trips, world not ending, radio hosts wearing togs, flooded apartments, spending money on flowers and dogs being put down.
This is why we are a nation of sheep.’
Anne posted this excellent synopsis from Paul Buchanan on Key’s trip to Iraq on Daily Review yesterday. Worth reposting.
Highlights.
‘Although all of the coverage was vacuous, that of a print reporter from Wellington takes the cake for most ignorantly obsequious. Among other gems, she claimed more than once in her reports that the PM as well as herself where outfitted in “full body armour.” Photos of the visit suggest otherwise, since Key is seen on base in a flak jacket, shirt, pants and a baseball cap. Most of the military personnel around him were dressed in basic uniforms with no armour or helmets, save Iraqi recruits running drills and his personal protection force (30 “non-deployed” SAS soldiers, which is a bit of overkill when it comes to that sort of thing and makes one wonder from where they were sourced since 30 is a significant chunk of the unit). There is even one photo of Key walking along with some guy in a suit.
According to this particular reporter, her “full body armour” consisted of a flak jacket and a helmet. I reckon that she needs to be briefed on what being fully body armoured entails. And the guy in the suit may want to consider his status if everyone but him in the entourage were given helmets and flak jackets.
The entire gaggle of NZ media regurgitated the line that the NZDF was making a difference and the training was a success. This, after a day at the base and, judging from the tone of their reports, never talking independently with anyone on it (the NZ media were accompanied by “minders” at all times).
In any event what is clear is this. With the complicity of major media outlets, Mr. Key has added troop visits to his pandas and flags repertoire of diversions. ‘
Pablo on the PM's Iraq visit: "This was a PR exercise/photo op/sound bite exercise of the first and crassest order." http://t.co/NWtahR1VfI— Lew (@LewSOS) October 8, 2015
Pablo on the PM's Iraq visit: "This was a PR exercise/photo op/sound bite exercise of the first and crassest order." http://t.co/NWtahR1VfI— Lew (@LewSOS) October 8, 2015
I am reminded of Helen Clark’s visit to the Middle East in 2003. We were told in advance she was going but not given details of the itinerary. There was one film clip showing her strolling with the then Defence Chief, Bruce Ferguson and some of the soldiers. No “full body armour” or even flak jackets – just dressed in fatigues as was appropriate. No breathless spin or side issue stories – just a straightforward factual account of the visit.
this government has mastered the art of wearing as much protective equipment as possible in order to make viewers think they’re actually doing something. All the fluoro vests at ChCh post-quake press conferences, for example.
Really, if they need to wear any of that shit they shouldn’t be dicking around in front of cameras in that place.
Paul you would have thought that many security staff, with hangers on, would be more dangeress Just goes too show , he’s not a donkey, but a show pony.
This would be the same reporter from Wellington and Key fangirl who, when Key came to our town, explicitly instructed her accompanying photographer not to take any photos which included the sizeable protest crowd who had also turned up to greet the PM.
Hero images only of Dear Leader, please.
And so public opinion is manipulated, right under our noses.
I can only conclude they are waiting to see detail of the deal, which obviously leads to the conclusion it’s possible Labour will support the TPP.
Leadership is lacking sadly.
Then why not state that rather than making inconsistent comments?
The inconsistency in the statements being touted are far from the united, competent, professional look they are trying to portray. Leaving a number questioning their credibility and where they actually stand?
Oh piss off, the leader of the opposition works 18 hour days and never gets to see his family. It’s a brutal, relentless job. Let the man see his bloody wife and kids.
Yes it’s been awfully quiet on such an important and long ranged deal…basically taking us forward a generation in policy.
I’m not filled with confidence.
“Then why not state that rather than making inconsistent comments?”
From what I can tell Labour internal structures allow MPs to speak to the public without talking to each other or having a coherent plan. They have a great deal of independence in terms of expressing their own opinions. We’ve seen this many times with Labour (remember Shane Jones running off at the mouth about whatever he wanted?).
It seems odd to me. I don’t know the exact structural details but it’s rare to see the Green Party presenting this kind of inconsistency, they generally have a clear message and channels for communicating it. I can’t imagine a GP MP thinking that their own personal opinion was more important than communicating what the party had decided. It’s not that it hasn’t happened but it’s rare, whereas for Labour it seems to be their base line of operation.
Peeni Henare is another of late that comes to mind, publicly announcing support for a particular charter school.
Labour need a far more coordinated front. So much for dealing to the perception (which National depicted so well in the election) of them rowing in different directions.
Labour can’t even get their own party to tow the line, let alone show they can work in coalition.
They really need to up their game. The clock is ticking.
“Peeni Henare is another of late that comes to mind, publicly announcing support for a particular charter school.”
Indeed, although from what I remember it wasn’t so much a public announcement as him going to a fundraiser for the local iwi initiative. Someone in the MSM got up to mischief and Labour fell right into that trap with a few days of contradictory statements from Henare and Little. It’s like they’re not in the same room and can’t have a conversation about how to present to the public something that is intended to damage Labour (the MSM story) before they leave the room. So the sorting out the message happens in public and leads to those things you name about perception.
I really don’t get it but it does tie in nicely with that idea that people won’t vote for Labour because they look incompetent irrespective of the policy.
“They really need to up their game. The clock is ticking.”
Some of us have stopped expecting them to change 😉 When Cunliffe was leader there was a saying on the standard, just give them a few more months and they’ll sort themselves out. It was entirely sarcastic.
It is possible to say you will not support the TPP in opposition, and in government refuse to be bound by it. In each case you’d have to weigh up your options, which is what Robertson was saying. This is Labour’s position. None of this is inconsistent in any way. I heard Annette give an interview on the radio where she outlined this clearly.
Sure, media will report different bits. People here just seem desperate to attack Labour over the TPP because, like other parties actually, they’re not declaring their opposition yet to something they haven’t seen the detail of.
“It is possible to say you will not support the TPP in opposition, and in government refuse to be bound by it.”
Yes. However, the inconsistency lays with Ardern saying Labour will face the consequences (implying Labour will refuse to be bound by it) and Robertson saying Labour will weigh up the consequences. Implying if the consequences are to severe, Labour will breach their 5 bottom lines. And therefore support the TPP
So why not the whole thing? Because they are deliberately building a particular and slanted viewpoint of the deal, otherwise they would release the whole thing.
I just read the IT fact sheet. It refers to additional costs but no detail and that are offset against the benefits of the TPP. IT is a PR Fact Sheet. Groser must know broadly speaking what the costs will be, just as he can say what the benefits will be (financially).
A few weeks ago I got a note from Fairfax explaining the price was going up. I have stuck with it because it has always enabled me to spend a good leisurely w hours on a Sunday, relaxed and reading through all kinds of interesting articles.
The last few weeks the news section has been tiny. 12 pages last Sunday, 4 of which were full page ads and another page was rugby reporting. 3 more half page ads.
It’s the incredible shrinking newspaper, with a higher price tag.
It’s interesting to read the TPP views being peddled by the other signatories to the deal.
Each is playing the propaganda game and I would expect that.
What I also expect is my party, a party of the left, to have a view that reflects that, not this constant vague and ill defined language.
Surely we have seen in Britain how people are looking to the left for answers to a clearly under performing world economy and war without end.
One genuine problem is that in the rush to finish a deal, any deal, many details are unclear to the countries themselves. This alone is sufficient reason to reject this deal until there is full clarity.
Yes, the Fact Sheets released by Groser are pre pared (obviously) and part of a well-planned charm offensive. VERY hard for opponents (including LIttle) to oppose without the potential to have egg on their faces ( which I think National is hoping for) when the final detail is released.
National will have released those Fact Sheets to selected people before today so they are ready and primed with supportive noise
In that case Little should be praised for learning, remember when John Key played down the last budget and Little said how bad it would be and oops a daisy suddenly some benefits were raised…Little fell right into that trap so at least hes avoiding this one
I think this is a perceptive remark in that a soft deal is signed, that is acceptable publicly, and then the work of a death by a thousand cuts begins.
I simply don’t believe Pharmac is acceptable over the long term within a deal like this.
I suspect most people know that.
You’ve got lefties saying its the end of democracy (it clearly isn’t) and you’ve got the right saying its the best thing since sliced bread (its probably not) so the end result will be somewhere in the middle where the gains outweigh the losses, not by as much as hoped but by a decent amount and in the next few years people will be wondering what the big fuss was about…if they remember it at all
I think perhaps you are underestimating the serious economic deficiency worldwide over the last seven years.
We have a tremendous deflationary bias going on, not to mention war without an end in sight.
The end of the world is hyperbolic and illustrative, but serious difficulties is accurate.
Workers and the poor bear the brunt.
As an aside democracy always has limits and those limits are fluid. Greece as an example.
Not all the Right PR. That’s the thing about this. Republicans in the USA (who are not left by any standard) do not like it either. So when Wayne Mapp says, all self righteously,that it is only the hard left that disapprove, he is not quite right. Now, the reasons for opposition may differ between the two groups but mostly it’s the lawyer in me, never agree to something unless you have read it.
I know Key and Groser have read it but even Key’s supporters say they like him but they don’t believe things he says…
So, if it were as easy to undo as Hooton is suggesting whenever he can (based at present on a 2005 version of the draft), then I wouldn’t be as oppositional.
and yet it’s not just the left who don’t “believe” what he says PR.
If you read below you will see that Kelsey (who Mapps says is just a hard left FTA hater, praises our IT negotiators.
The Republicans are protectionists PR, always have been. They want to be able to trade with other countries but keep USA free of competition from outside, that is why they oppose the TPP
Just curious tracey but based on the little thats been released and not on anyone lese conjecture, do you think the this deal will (even if its not by very much) be of net benefit to NZ?
I don’t know PR. I am only today having time to read the stuff that is coming out from other countries to get an idea of content. I have read all Timmy’s Fact Sheets but they are not all that elucidating due to the obvious focus on $$$ gain and when loss is noted, not figures are given.
I have two work deadlines today (not that you could tell from my posting here 😉 ) – Have just finished one, and maybe this weekend if the sun doesn’t shine I can read much more.
The thing is, to me it cannot be just about adding the money columns. Impacts are always more than just the spreadsheet and that is less tangible and harder to judge.
Despite what some think I WANT the TPP to be great for all NZers. I don’t want it to be a flop that hurts us. But how do we judge it? It can’t be just by GDP because GDP has been predominantly great for over 30 years and yet our disabled citizens (those born that way) are surviving on handouts and subsistence level welfare. Hardly the measure of a thriving society.
So that’s where I come from, how will this benefit our vulnerable, and when.
There are many examples of corporations suing countries using the Investor-State Dispute Settlement procedure.
‘Since the mid 90’s, however, the ISDS has been increasingly exploited by multi-national corporations to bully governments who are trying to protect their environment or people, like Australia. In the early nineties, there were hardly any ISDS cases filed; today there are nearly 60 cases filed annually and over 500 are currently in arbitration.’
‘For example, The Renco Group, owned by U.S billionaire Ira Rennert, filed an ISDS against the government of Peru after they shut down a metal smelter in the town of La Oroya because the company had delayed environmental improvements. La Oroya has been listed as one of the most polluted towns in the world, which has proven harmful to its citizens, especially children. Renco has used the ISDS as a bargaining tool, and as of 2012 got the Peruvian government to allow the smelter to restart its zinc operations.’
‘Another recent example comes between Germany and Sweden. After the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011, the German government, well known for its renewable energy programs, decided to shut down its nuclear power plants to focus on clean renewable, something that every government should be doing for the futures sake. Vattenfall, a Swedish utility company that had operated two nuclear plants in Germany, has sued for compensation through an ISDS provision.’
For more, look here Matthew.
And please. Stop spinning.
You quote the Daily Kos and ask someone else to stop spinning???
Do you have a good reason why Vattenfall shouldn’t be compensated after all the commitments given to it by the German government?
“Do you have a good reason why Vattenfall shouldn’t be compensated after all the commitments given to it by the German government?”
Yes. A democratic decision was made by the German government based on reconsideration of the energy environment and the consequences for public health which meant it was beholden to embark upon a change in policy direction in the public interest. That change in policy direction meant that the German government set a course to phase out the nuclear power plant industry.
I’m assuming, further, that at no time did the German government say to Vattenfall that it would – and had the power to – suspend its national sovereignty to ensure that the commitments would be met into the distant future.
Unless Vattenfall had not done due diligence about the concept of national sovereignty they surely should not have been surprised that such a risk existed? Or were they naive about the concept?
Almost everyone else is entirely familiar with the concept of national sovereignty but, who knows, maybe the board and managers of the company have lived a sheltered life in blissful ignorance of it? If so, it sounds like the company needs a better board and better managers.
All services actually delivered, I presume, will be paid for.
“IF YOU wanted to convince the public that international trade agreements are a way to let multinational companies get rich at the expense of ordinary people, this is what you would do: give foreign firms a special right to apply to a secretive tribunal of highly paid corporate lawyers for compensation whenever a government passes a law to, say, discourage smoking, protect the environment or prevent a nuclear catastrophe. Yet that is precisely what thousands of trade and investment treaties over the past half century have done …“
Yes, I am aware ISDS exists and is used. Why do you think it is a bad thing that companies can seek compensation when governments mislead them into making investments and then change the rules? Domestic companies can seek compensation under those circumstances.
“Companies have learnt how to exploit ISDS clauses, even going as far as buying firms in jurisdictions where they apply simply to gain access to them. Arbitrators are paid $600-700 an hour, giving them little incentive to dismiss cases out of hand; the secretive nature of the arbitration process and the lack of any requirement to consider precedent allows plenty of scope for creative adjudications.”
Like when a government considers a zone change to schools due to growing numbers of pupils in certain areas. Those with money and access to talking heads can get that stopped while the poor with no money and no heady netowrks to engage have to accept decisions made for them.
Interesting you take the side of the mega- corporations of the world.
I guess they have the deepest pockets and as a mercenary, you’ll spin for them then.
I’m not taking sides. But why shouldn’t, say, Zespri, be able to sue the US Federal Government if it regulates to restrict kiwifruit imports from New Zealand for no good scientific reason? You need to make a case why that is wrong. You may also not be aware that the ISDS provisions in TPP require the three adjudicators to be appointed by agreement by the countries in dispute, from countries not involved in the dispute, and for the hearings to be public. What is wrong with this?
‘First, only investors may sue governments in ISDS tribunals; the reverse is not possible. (If Australia wanted to sue Phillip Morris for public health expenses due to smoking-related cancer, for instance, it wouldn’t be able to do so in ISDS courts.) “ISDS sets up a parallel judicial system available only to foreign corporations,” said John Hilary, the executive director of War on Want, a British anti-poverty organization.
This amounts to special rights for investors, according to Scott Sinclair of the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives, who studies ISDS cases brought under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). “Why should foreign investors have the right to bypass ordinary courts, which have been evolving for hundreds of years as part of our democratic system of justice?” he said. “Investors can win, but the best that governments can do is avoid paying damages.” (Sinclair found that the majority of ISDS claims against Canada under NAFTA have been over environmental protection regulations.)
ISDS courts, unlike normal courts in most democracies worldwide, are for-profit institutions in which practicing lawyers and industry experts, not professional judges, sit as arbitrators. This means “for-profit arbitrators decide whether public policies implemented by democratically elected governments are right or wrong,” said Olivet.
According to Van Harten, ISDS arbitration thus “lacks all safeguards of independence and impartiality … The penalty could cripple a country economically. That a government would face so much unpredictability with so much public money — you have to understand the power of it.”
I’m not taking sides. But why shouldn’t, say, Zespri, be able to sue the US Federal Government if it regulates to restrict kiwifruit imports from New Zealand for no good scientific reason?
Don’t be an ass Matthew, the ISDS tribunals are under no compulsion to consider”good scientific reason.”
NZ is going to be on the losing end of this; further Zespri doesn’t have the resources or expertise to take effective ISDS action. Only billion dollar trans-nationals have any hope.
This transatlantic trade deal is a full-frontal assault on democracy
George Monbiot.
‘he purpose of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership is to remove the regulatory differences between the US and European nations. I mentioned it a couple of weeks ago. But I left out the most important issue: the remarkable ability it would grant big business to sue the living daylights out of governments which try to defend their citizens. It would allow a secretive panel of corporate lawyers to overrule the will of parliament and destroy our legal protections. Yet the defenders of our sovereignty say nothing.
The mechanism through which this is achieved is known as investor-state dispute settlement. It’s already being used in many parts of the world to kill regulations protecting people and the living planet.’
‘Investor-state rules could be used to smash any attempt to save the NHS from corporate control, to re-regulate the banks, to curb the greed of the energy companies, to renationalise the railways, to leave fossil fuels in the ground. These rules shut down democratic alternatives. They outlaw leftwing politics.’
‘Here’s what one of the judges on these tribunals says about his work. “When I wake up at night and think about arbitration, it never ceases to amaze me that sovereign states have agreed to investment arbitration at all … Three private individuals are entrusted with the power to review, without any restriction or appeal procedure, all actions of the government, all decisions of the courts, and all laws and regulations emanating from parliament.”‘
It is the original TPP. Helen Clark then got the Americans to agree to negotiate to enter it. Negotiations began on this basis. It would be astonishing if the withdrawal procedures have been changed, but we shall see.
well, stuff has changed Matthew. Admittedly mainly in the areas where stuff was leaked and the public and experts were able to mount challenges to it. Makes you wonder… if it hadn’t been leaked at all.
And the parts that you are choosing to pin your colours to are interesting. Almost like you feel you are on very safe ground making some of your assertions cos the final text will support you.
10 years seems a long time but as you have decided to hang your hat on this very point I tend to think you have good reason to be on strong ground… not that I am suggesting you know anything more than, say, I do. God forbid, right Matthew? (rhetorical)
I am reliably informed that the TPP will allow for unrestricted, unilateral withdrawal by any state with six months notice, just like the original TPP.
So if, for example, a future Labour government were to find it could not block land sales to foreigners, or the ISDS process was getting out of hand, New Zealand could send a letter to the other countries and we would be out six months later.
I should add, the provision for unrestricted, unilateral withdrawal by any TPP member with six months notice lasts forever, so even in 100 years a New Zealand government could choose to opt out of the new treaty for any reason.
Wish Hooton would actually read Monbiot’s article.
It’s obvious, even to a simpleton, that the TPP is not democratic.
But then, Hooton gets paid for his opinion.
And who pays him?
One of the interesting aspects of ISDS is the chilling aspect it has on legislation – where governments hesitate to enact laws because of possible consequences. Is it true that our own legislation to introduce plain packaging on cigarettes has been allowed to lie on the table awaiting the outcome of Phillip Morris vs Australia? If this is so, then ISDS is already having a effect on this country – and can we expect this to increase in the future?
‘The health select committee last year supported the bill but the Government has delayed bringing it back to the House pending the outcome of the challenges against the Australian law by the tobacco industry.’
‘Canberra is defending its law in two cases: before World Trade Organisation adjudicators in a case brought by tobacco-producing countries including the Dominican Republic, and at a United Nations commission’s Permanent Court of Arbitration in a case linked to Hong Kong and tobacco firm Philip Morris Asia.
Maori Party co-leader Te Ururoa Flavell rejected the Government’s waiting on the legal challenges. “Waiting for the World Trade Organisation decision means more people die or are sick from smoking-related illnesses. We’re tired of standing at the graveside of loved ones who have had their lives cut short from this highly addictive and poisonous drug.”‘
You don’t like what the present government is doing well tough there was a lot the last labour government did that I didn’t like and a lot of others didn’t like as well and eventually we managed to get enough seats to take power
You’re typical of the left in general in this country and thats whinge, moan and complain when you don’t get your own way
Suck it up
[lprent: I distinctly remember the right doing a “whinge, moan and complain when you don’t get your own way”. I had to listen to the idiots not only before the change of government, but also for many many years afterwards.
I strongly suspect you were one of them. I really don’t like people being hypocrites – so suck this up. 2 day ban.
Always remember the Gosman rule and its derivations. ]
Hey fuckhead my comment was about your lack of understanding and appreciation of democracy, of how ruling in favour of the corporate 0.01% is NOT democracy; it was not about this shitty government.
It’s good to see you back as I hadn’t spotted you around here for a while and was a bit worried.
Are you OK ?
I don’t tend to visit here much anymore as I find it a very depressing angry, shouty place with so many talking over each other and making very little sense – perhaps start your own blog ? i promise to visit !
While not wanting to draw the ire of the moderators, if bans are now going to be handed out for hypocrisy the site will be like a ghost town by the end of the day.
I thought you were talking about the SST until you said this.
” reading through all kinds of interesting articles”.
Has there ever been anything interesting in that rag?
Every so often I get offered free delivery of the SST for periods ranging from about 6 weeks to 6 months. I always accept as it makes a good lining for the neighbours cat litter trays.
After the trial period they always ring up and attempt to persuade me to take a paid subscription. My response is quite consistent. I tell them I will if the subscription is what the paper is worth. Then I add that what I have been paying, nothing, is the appropriate amount.
I don’t know why they keep offering these trials. Can’t they just mark my Dom/Post sub as not being one to promote the SST too?
I suggest you take out a subscription to The Economist.
A 3 year sub is currently $1,020 so it would be about twice the price of the SST but it is well worth the money.
If you only want 1 year it is about $400 and there is a 12 week offer for the digital edition at about $30 at the moment I believe.
Most of the articles are around a page and they are all superbly written. It keeps me informed for most of the week. I just pick it up, read an article and put it down again.
You might want to ignore what they say about Corbyn, but they can be just as harsh about Cameron on occasion.
There is very little about New Zealand of course but it covers the rest of the world.
The first thing I read is the obituary on the back page. I would love to know how they pick the person (or creature) covered.
The last few were
Claus Moser, statistician and culture lover
Max Beauvoir, biochemist and high priest of Haitian voodoo
Jackie Collins, novelist of Hollywood
Yogi Berra, champion baseball player and unwitting philosopher.
A couple of months ago they had one on a cat that was the honorary station master, and vice-president, of a Japanese Railway company.
I accepted 2 weeks of The Herald free a while ago. It took them 3 days to stop delivering to my neighbour instead of me. I acquired all the cat box liners I needed and when they rang to ask if I wanted to continue, I asked them if they still had the copy of the letter I wrote when I cancelled the sub several years ago.
They offer the trials so that they can up the circulation figures to give to advertisers.
If they relied on purely paid subscription figures, the charges would be considerably less. So they operate a rolling – free trial period – and provide free copies to educational facilities, libraries etc and voila! a higher circulation number.
[lprent: Generally you need to say why. Doing a raw link with a uninformative teaser is a troll pattern. In this case it appears to be a diversion from the post. Moving to OpenMike.
Read the policy and consider yourself having had your warning about diversion commenting. ]
Jane Kelsey and others are beginning to release some analyses.
Also, Ms Kelsey and I share a common beef. We both wonder why we can’t see the Government’s cost/benefit anaylsis on the TPP now, and months ago. They ad one, right?
“The request notes that ‘Given that the negotiations have concluded New Zealand’s position could not conceivably be jeopardised by its release; it is not information belonging to any other country in the TPPA negotiations; and the government is currently citing these figures in the current debate on the TPPA but not has not publishing the study on which it is based.’
The Minister’s office has acknowledged the request.
She has also repeated an earlier Official Information request made in January 2015 for ‘any cost-benefit study, impact asessment or similar analysis or evaluation of the proposed agreement as a whole, of specific provisions, or impacts on particular sectors or policies that have been conducted by or for the New Zealand government.’
In February the Minister refused to release any such information. It later transpired that this includes an NZIER study on the Labour Market Effects of TPP. The Ministry said its release during the negotiations would prejudice New Zealand’s ability to get the best outcome, a rationale which Professor Kelsey notes no longer applies.”
and to those who say Kelsey is nothing but a knee-jerking naysayer, peek at this
“New Zealand’s patent laws also apparently meet the final threshold set in the intellectual property chapter. While the transparency annex affecting Pharmac’s processes is problematic, it is not directly enforeable.
‘All that is good news for New Zealanders, although not some other TPPA countries. It will be a massive relief to the public health community and patients, although we still need to know the areas where the Minister says some additional expense will be incurred’.
However, other barriers to health policy remain, especially with investor-state dispute settlement. Even the weak public health exception does not apply to the investment chapter, and the tobacco exception appears to apply on a case-by-case basis only to certain kinds of investment claims, if a government chooses to invoke it, and not to the whole agreement.
Professor <b.Kelsey paid tribute to the pressure brought by doctors, the Australian government’s determination to fight on biologics, and New Zealand’s intellectual property negotiators .”
Also a piece written by Jane Kelsey which links to releases made by other countries. Japan’s is the most extensive but is, understandably, in Japanese.
Reminds me of the report launched in the investigation of MH17 shot down over Ukraine. A small group of victim countries were all involved, the Netherlands, Malaysia and Australia, as well as Ukraine. Russia was stonewalled out. Its a bit like getting a murder victims family to run the murder investigation. Worst of all they have the suspect, the Ukraine, in the investigation!
[lprent: Moved to OpenMike as diversionary. You know the policy. ]
That the USA did not sign up to Protocol I in 1977 makes me think they didn’t want to have their actions in Vietnam independently investigated, and sadly, they seem to have adhered to that view ever since.
Rightly or wrongly, two family members (now deceased) who served int he Pacific in WWII used to say that they fear the US forces far more than the “Japs”.
“Police would not let the group march on the road, so they walked down the footpath ahead of the bikes.
Mr Shaw said they copped some abuse from “smart alecs” in the crowd but most people were positive and open to discussion.
“People asked us, ‘What’s wrong with boobs?’ We’d explain it wasn’t about boobs, it was about the normalisation of pornography and the harm it causes.” ”
“About 50 people took part in the protest – as many as, or more than, participants in the parade.”
“He said the protest was a success because the group were able to take their message directly to a target audience of young men, who made up most of the people lining Queen St, to challenge their way of thinking.”
It is way past the time when Mr. Bruce cared what would become of his reputation if he speaks out against the establishment.
” Like me, Key went on to study at Canterbury University where our tuition fees were paid for by the state. When he finished his degree, he left university, as I did, largely free from debt.
Those things, in themselves gave both the Prime Minister and I a huge boost in life.
Yet today John Key leads a government that thinks of tertiary education as a commodity not a right and that social housing is a burden to be palmed off onto the Australians.
Why is it that our Prime Minister, who benefited hugely from the welfare state, no longer thinks the Government is morally obliged to do for today’s young people what it once did for him? And why is it that I, on the other hand, think we have betrayed our children and our grandchildren by denying them what we were once freely given?”
Yes please. I know people like Mr Key. They have convinced themselves that it is by their own hard work and intelligence that they have succeeded. They have managed to convince themselves they did it all independently. That is a a falsehood which is self evident to anyone with self awareness.
Take stock of today’s media. With a few exceptions, they come from the generation affected by student debt, yet their parents were given a debt-free education. You would think on that basis they would be well aware of the gross hypocrisy of Key’s (and other’s) argument as outlined by Bryan Bruce but no, they’re happy to go along with it and let this government off the hook. Why? Because each and everyone of them knows their continued employment and comfortable life-style is dependent on following the government line. Anyone who dares to step ‘out of line’ will eventually get the chop. The latest developments at the NZ Herald are testament to that!
The number of people taking their own life is rising to a record, even as more effort is put into preventing suicide.
Jacinda Ardern says “the statistics show the Government’s programmes aren’t making inroads.
At the moment it seems we are not joining all the dots… a more comprehensive focus on the links between suicide, deprivation and family violence/childhood abuse is called for.”
Our societal values that are pushed by politics and the media don’t really help either. We’re encouraged that earning more, getting the top job, getting into massive debt through education or a risky business, the flash house and car, going to the mall are the crucial things in life. Then we punish the people who are the furthest from this ideal. Anyone involved in any sort of crime, has mental illness, beneficiaries and generally anyone struggling in life – as in poor people are punished in our society. I don’t have facts to back this up, but if it was measurable we might fiind the costs of this culture are huge.
I had a discussion on a boat recently (a ferry) with someone in the know within Health. She commented that being on anti psychedlics (or similar, cant recall exactly) was shortening people’s lives by 25%? I did google at the time and maybe that is now outdated but what a choice…
Huffpost on how despite knowing how unsuitable their product Risperdal was for some uses the evil pricks said fuck it, we’ll pay the fines, and pushed on pushing it.
Antipsychotics Tracey, and your ‘someone in the know’ doesn’t have the foggiest idea what they’re talking about. Honestly that’s the kind of scaremongering I’d expect from the anti vaccinations lobby i honestly thought you would think twice before posting it here.
“Comparing data from year to year, the researchers found that among those patients who had 90 percent or better compliance with their medication schedules, the risk of death was 25 percent lower compared to those who were less than 10 percent compliant. Over the decade-long study period, taking medication did not increase the risk of death and there was a trend towards reducing the mortality rate. In addition, the researchers found that each additional visit per year to a mental health professional was linked to a 5 percent reduction in risk of death overall.”
well you should know the someone in the know is involved very high up in writing a report about the future of our DHB’s Doc.
Did you miss this rider
“I did google at the time and maybe that is now outdated but what a choice…”
Like you I can also google (I note that the study you refer to is about number 4 on the googled items)
Colton, C. (2006). Congruencies in increased mortality rates, years of potential life lost, and causes of death among public mental health clients in eight states. Preventing Chronic Disease 3 (April).
Joukmaa, M.; Heliovaara, M.; Knekt, P.; Aromaa, A.; Raitasalo, R.; & Lehtinen, V. (2006). Schizophrenia, neuroleptic medication and mortality. The British Journal of Psychiatry 188: 122-127 http://bjp.rcpsych.org/content/188/2/122.full (link is external)
Caplan, P.J. (2011). When Johnny and Jane Come Marching Home: How All of Us Can Help Veterans. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
The Hopkins researchers “did not rule out all links between increased mortality and antipsychotic drugs. For example, researchers found that people who took high doses of first-generation antipsychotic medication daily (1,500 mg or greater chlorpromazine equivalents) were 88% more likely to die. She says mortality rates possibly increased in this group because first-generation antipsychotics have been associated with cardiac disease risks, and among those who died while taking the larger doses, 53% died of cardiovascular disease.”
So what is that psycho-tropics act on there nsd? Often serotonin, yes? The uptake of it and what not. But, serotonin (and therefore its effect) has never been measured and cannot be measured. The whole brain candy/ happy pill industry was built off the back a throwaway line that was never intended to be anything beyond ‘thinking aloud’ – mere speculation.
Meanwhile, what about all those psychotropics that leave people feeling suicidally depressed or dead? Or the ones that come with warnings about prescribing to given age groups? Or the ones that are more or less impossible to come off? Or the suggestion that the side-effects for some people who attempt self withdrawal can be a ‘looping out’ with the most dire of consequences, both for themselves and sometimes for who-ever else happens to be ‘in the wrong place at the wrong time’?
And then we might move on to the so-called trials that would Volkswagen test technicians blushing at their own comparative inadequacy.
Or we might consider the history of the quackery that became modern psychiatry – you’ve got a thing about those things you consider quackery after-all, no?
Want to run through the list of ‘new diseases’ that the psychiatric ‘profession’ would have pills dispensed for these days? Y’know, things such as ‘moving house syndrome’ – not the actual terminology, but regardless, moving house sits in a distinct category now; one requiring medication.
Tracey made a comment that antipsychotics mortality by 25%. I refuted this with data to suggest that it is exactly the opposite situation.
She then goes on to quote from the same paper regarding 1st generation antipsychotics which were unpleasant medication with fairly vile side effects these have been replaced over the last 20 – 30 years with 2nd and 3rd generation products which have far less severe and lower numbers of side effects.
To suggest that serotonin and it’s effect cannot and has not been measured is drivel.
Regards your other points I agree that their has been an over medicalisation and treatment of normal life situations most especially in western society, however we were discussing antipsychotics which are used for disorders with related psychoses such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorders – Bill I suggest you go back to reading your L Ron Hubbard and manuals on how to make strawmen and defending quacks like your mate from Dunedin.
To suggest that serotonin and it’s effect cannot and has not been measured is drivel.
Really!? Okay then. Point to the studies or the literature or the tables indicating serotonin measurements having been taken from living, functioning brains.
“But, serotonin (and therefore its effect) has never been measured and cannot be measured.”
Which is drivel as you may or may not know, you then change the rules to “Point to the studies or the literature or the tables indicating serotonin measurements having been taken from living, functioning brains.”
I have provided a number of search results which I have not read which i would think would show that serotonin activity and receptor responses can be shown despite that not being your first question and you changing the goalposts.
Rather than continuing playing this game on a Friday evening when I’d prefer to sit down with a beer perhaps you could get to your actual point instead of feebly attacking your keyboard.
Edit from the first link
“These results are in keeping with 5-HT2A binding studies in depressed patients and impulsive animal research. Interestingly, both an increase and a decrease in 5-HT2A binding index seem to normalize with SSRI treatment.”
Rather than continuing playing this game on a Friday evening when I’d prefer to sit down with a beer perhaps you could get to your actual point instead of feebly attacking your keyboard.
You missed the point previously made. The fixation on serotonin comes from a piece of speculation that has (as far as I know, and for the reasons mentioned – eg, direct measurement) no empirical evidence to back it up.
The ‘imaging’ in your previous links is akin (in my mind at least) to mapping the movement of cars as though that could tell you anything about numbers of occupants or why said occupants were traveling.
Of course, if you’ve already decided that each car is carrying two passengers and they are all traveling for a specific predetermined reason (eg – supermarket shopping), then the mapping can claim to show all that you want it to show.
Hope you enjoy your beer and don’t fall prey to any inadvertent urinary dribblings.
Psychiatry is not my area of expertise Bill, however the clinical and scientific evidence for SDAs in the treatment of psychoses and mood disorders is pretty comprehensive as is the science of serotonin and dopamine receptors in mental health disorders.
I’d point you back to the beginning of this thread and the throw away comment regarding a 25% increase in mortality, this is a very poor thing to say in a public forum when there is no evidence to back it up and when the readers of such comments may be on such medications themselves or relay the information to others who are on such medications – I am sure you will accept that the consequence of someone stopping medications such as these without being under medical supervision might be disastrous.
Regarding your other comment – unfortunately benign prostatic hyperplasia is part of the territory at my age.
hey NSD, i come across a lot of people who hate swallowing the pills they are prescribed, hate the effects the pills have on their lives and cant wait to find ways to get off the shite.
Well the fact that they’re visiting a chiropractor suggests that a change of lifestyle may assist with lowering or removing the amount of prescribed medication they are on.
When you know as much about my areas of expertise as me, then I will endeavour to live up to your expectations in your areas of expertise.
Actually I won’t. The information is coming out via this post and that’s good. I don’t profess to know everything about everything (hence I put the rider in my comment which you chose to ignore)
Here is the author.
John Ballingall is deputy chief executive of the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research. Make your own mind up if he’s got vested interests. http://nzier.org.nz/people/john-ballingall/
This comment below is typical of the ones replying to the neo-liberal ideologue Ballingall.
‘Another uninformed article, and so many all at once in the Herald? This all seems part of a government drum-beat to imprint the idea things are good before they can be properly seen. Any person of sense will regret such an ethic, even if that is perhaps consistent with the kind of thing of the discredited prime minister models for innocent citizens.
At any rate one laments the subservience of a newspaper to its proprietors’ party interests. That road turns a journal into a party political organ.’
It would appear many NZers aren’t falling for the spin.
” the discredited prime minister models for innocent citizens.”
I suggest that innocent is not the right word. On looking over past decades and our slide downwards it has happened because of ‘neglectful’ citizens. We did not watch our assets, and now we have to watch our asses. Or someone will be biting us in the bum to put it crudely but truly.
But observant readers notice their spin. This was one of the best comments to the anonymous Herald editorial.
“By and large, the Government has a good tale to tell about the TPP agreement. For the few disappointments, especially dairy access to the United States, Canada and Japan, there are strong gains in other areas”.
You just spent the entire article telling us that we don’t know whats in the fine print and then you say there are strong gains.
How can you say this if we don’t know whats in the document.
Even Hillary Clinton is against this deal.
More spin from the National Party’s media outlet the NZ Herald.”
The Herald has read the Fact Sheets, assumed they contain all the facts, and regurgitated them. For example in one Fact Sheet it states there will be losses (or costs) but doesn’t state how much. Funny they don’t know that number, just the “good” ones.
The Government is manipulating the information. Otherwise they would follow Japan’s lead and release summaries of all chapters running to 36 pages. If it is such a great deal, release everything, including the cost projections and cost/benefit analysis our entry was based on. But no, Groser is still refusing to release this.
Alex Swney is in prison for 5 years for his fraud on IRD and Heart of the City. He paid back a few hundred thousand (less than 500k I understand) and yet his children still attend a private school in Auckland and live in an expensive home in Herne Bay…
Allegedly Swney threw a party the night before his sentencing and some of the very well heeled of Auckland attended.
It’s not just DotCom with this mindset PR, it is an affliction shared by many of the wealthy in this country.
He’s already been moved to the new Wiri prison where he lives in a house and has had indications he will be out in 8 months on home detention…and could afford a QC at $800-1000 bucks an hour
1. How we treat Remorse expressions in terms of sentencing. Accepting letters, in my view, is problematic. Making defendants speak to their remorse in Court and to scutiny of that remorse by the Judge;
2. Offering reduction in terms if involved in a Rehabiitation programme
3. Offering more rehabilitation programmes and increasing availability of the programmes proven to reduce recidivism.
Recidivism costs us tens of millions (or more) a year.
4. Even with Home Detention orders a minimum of 1 month serve din a medium security prison should be a pre requisite to the Home Detention
One of the interesting things about this is that the Liberal rise first showed up in the Nanos daily tracking polls which were conducted by person-to-person phone calls. All the other automated/online polls were slower to record the shifting voter sentiment.
And in fact, up until yesterday they were all suggesting a Cons minority government or even a possible majority for Harper.
According to the Gobe & Mail today 67% of voters want a change of PM for Canada. The Liberals have made sizeable gains in both Ontario and Quebec where enough seats are in play to determine the outcome of the election.
Mr Trudeau has confounded the pundits by performing much more strongly than expected in the campaign and debates (the Munk debate on Foreign Policy was at a level we can only dream about in NZ). The Liberals have also out-played the NDP in the way that they have been able to articulate the desire for change. They broke with economic orthodoxy at the start of the campaign and pledged infrastructure spending that would result in modest deficits for 3 years, contrary to both the NDP and Cons promises to balance the budget at all costs. It seems to have paid off.
I have to admit that, at the time, I wasn’t Helen Clarks greatest supporter but with the benefit of hindsight and whats come after we’ve been fortunate in NZ that we’ve had Clark/Cullen followed by Key/English
Great frankly for that alone we should be the envy of the world
The Right and its supporters demonised Clark. They essentially stalked her sexuality and that of her husband, they used epithets like HelenGrad and some called her Alan Clark. her appearance was mocked
To say that you feel fortunate to hae had her as leader puts you at odds with those people who are only now singing her praises because they are using her to be a proponent for the TPP (privately I am sure none of them regret the constant direct and indirect attacks. It also makes me wonder how susceptible you are to the PR the right throws about (they’ve only been applauding her for a few days yet here you are)i
Well said Tracey, The same way Abbott and the right and their fellow travellers did the same misogynistic crap on Julia Gillard in Oz. I like the way Julia Gillard tackled Abbott in their parliament over this. It would be one of the best parliamentary speeches I have ever seen.
What a turnabout. Eight years ago she was the devil incarnate. Now, they can’t wait to get a photo with her. Could they be hedging their bets in case she is the new Secretary General?
Interested in what is happening in RW Canada? Tommorrow with Kim on Radionz.
8:12 Heather Mallick: Stephen Harper
Heather Mallick is a staff columnist for the Toronto Star, and has published two books: a diary, Pearls in Vinegar (Penguin), and a collection of essays, Cake or Death (Knopf). Her piece on Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, The Nixon of the North, appears in the latest issue of Harper’s magazine.
It’s starting to look more and more likely that Harper’s going to be turfed out as PM of Canada on October 19. Harper has said he will resign immediately if the Conservatives aren’t the largest party in the Commons on October 20th. Current polling suggest the Liberals are edging the seat count.
Nobody in NZ seems to be paying much attention. But it’s instructive for us nonetheless. Like other Westminster parliaments voters in Canada seem to have hit the 10 year fatigue level where they start to look for change. Also Harper was the first of the four conservative Commonwealth leaders to be elected in 2006. His time is up. Guess who’s next? Key was elected in 2008, Cameron in 2010 and Abbott in 2013.
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A computer is an electronic device that can be programmed to carry out a set of instructions. The basic components of a computer are the processor, memory, storage, input devices, and output devices. The Processor The processor, also known as the central processing unit (CPU), is the brain of the ...
Voice Memos is a convenient app on your iPhone that allows you to quickly record and store audio snippets. These recordings can be useful for a variety of purposes, such as taking notes, capturing ideas, or recording interviews. While you can listen to your voice memos on your iPhone, you ...
Laptop screens are essential for interacting with our devices and accessing information. However, when lines appear on the screen, it can be frustrating and disrupt productivity. Understanding the underlying causes of these lines is crucial for finding effective solutions. Types of Screen Lines Horizontal lines: Also known as scan ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Scout is our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Scout’s human, Avril, for her support. Dog name: Scout (named after the little girl in To Kill a Mockingbird – she inherited the independent spirit ...
Megan Alatini takes us through her life in TV, including ‘terrible’ daytime TV, the class of Carol Hirschfeld and her most embarrassing TrueBliss moment. When she responded to a vague newspaper ad asking “do you have what it takes to be a popstar?” 25 years ago, Megan Alatini never guessed ...
A new exhibition in Wellington showcases the faces behind your local goods and services. Back in 1977, when I was a fine arts student at the University of Canterbury, I took a series of photographs of Christchurch shopkeepers. The photos were for a calendar – a project for my end ...
Toomaj and his resistance to tyranny through his songs have become an icon for the youth of Iran, so his sentence has hit the nation hard. Toomaj Salehi is not the first artist to pay the price for standing with the people. ...
My cousin Dylan and I spotted these big eels under the bridge that summer. We watched them lounging under the dark weed, facing into the flow of water, their mouths frozen open. Dylan and I couldn’t stop thinking about those eels. The night we went down to the creek, we ...
Newsroom, home of satire. My long-running weekly satirical series The Secret Diary has moved to Newsroom and will appear every Saturday, with Victor Billot’s wildly popular satirical Odes continuing to appear every Sunday. Diaries, Odes – while serious political columnists toil at meaningful opinions and stroke their chins to an ...
Tara Ward unravels the many nuanced layers of a cartoon about talking dogs.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. It’s not often an episode of a children’s cartoon has adults sobbing into their sleeves, but that’s exactly what happened this week when ...
Working as a doctor in developing countries to help communities achieve better health outcomes is nothing short of a life goal for Jessica Tater. The University of Otago medical student has her sights firmly set on joining the international humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) when she qualifies ...
There’s an island in the far reaches of Auckland’s territory, sitting off the tip of the Coromandel Peninsula, 30 minutes by air from the city or four hours on the slow boat. Aotea Great Barrier is off-grid, it has a population of fewer than a thousand people … and most ...
Asia Pacific Report An Australian author and advocate, Jim Aubrey, today led a national symbolic one minute’s silence to mark the “blood debt” owed to Papuan allies during the Second World War indigenous resistance against the invading Japanese forces. “A promise to most people is a promise,” Aubrey said in ...
Asia Pacific Report The Freedom Flotilla is ready to sail to Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. All the required paperwork has been submitted to the port authority, and the cargo has been loaded and prepared for the humanitarian trip to the besieged enclave. However, organisers received word of an “administrative ...
Pacific Media Watch Palestine solidarity protesters today demonstrated at the Auckland headquarters of Television New Zealand, accusing the country’s major TV network of broadcasting “propaganda” backing Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. About 50 protesters targeted the main entrance to the TVNZ building near Sky Tower and also picketed a side ...
Opinion by Lynley Hood. Forty years on from my 1985 Fulbright Grant, my disquiet over the war in Gaza evoked some troubling questions. The answer to my first question – What is the primary purpose of the Fulbright Programme? – was on the Fulbright NZ website. It says: US Senator, ...
The ministers responsible for green-lighting major projects need to be open about potential conflicts of interest, says Transparency International. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University It has been a particularly distressing start to the year. There is little that can ease the current grief of individuals, families and communities who have needlessly lost a loved one to men’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Lichen, the first described example of symbiosis.AdeJ Artventure/Shutterstock Once known only to those studying biology, the word symbiosis is now widely used. Symbiosis is the intimate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kim Hemsley, Head, Childhood Dementia Research Group, Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute, College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University Olena Ivanova/Shutterstock “Childhood” and “dementia” are two words we wish we didn’t have to use together. But sadly, around 1,400 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Whiteford, Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The government’s Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee has just published its second report. It was set up by Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth in 2022 to provide: ...
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 The Queensland state election will be held in October. A YouGov poll for The Courier Mail, conducted April 9–17 from a sample ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Naeni, PhD candidate at Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University There’s been much talk in recent months about what a possible second Donald Trump presidency in the United States could mean for Europe, Russia’s war in Ukraine, the ...
A brief round-up of submissions on the controversial proposed law. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week, submissions on the controversial Fast-track Approvals Bill closed just hours after the government released a list of stakeholder organisations who were sent letters advising how they could ...
A poem from Robin Peace’s new collection Detritus of Empire: feather / grass / rock. Cereal giving I see a woman’s hands, see her curious hands break a stalk as she walks through the tall prairie, the savannah, the steppe, wherever it was. See her idly bite the grass that ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)A handsomely produced (debossed cover, lovely ...
The Commissioner's decision validates the longstanding efforts of the local community and ensures that Awataha Marae will be managed to serve the needs of the local community, particularly for hosting tangihanga. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tristan Salles, Associate professor, University of Sydney Examples of Australian landscapes.Unsplash Seventy thousand years ago, the sea level was much lower than today. Australia, along with New Guinea and Tasmania, formed a connected landmass known as Sahul. Around this time – ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Felicity Castagna, Lecturer, Creative Writing, Western Sydney University Day Day Market, ParramattaPhoto: Garry Trinh I live on the edge of Parramatta, Australia’s fastest-growing city, on the kind of old-fashioned suburban street that has 1950s fibros constructed in the post-war housing boom, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Ryan, Teaching Fellow in Economics, University of Waikato GettyImagesfatido/Getty Images There is an ongoing global debate over whether the high inflation seen in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic can be lowered without a recession. New Zealand is not ...
The ‘Wicked Game’ heartthrob is in his late 60s now. That didn’t stop him putting on a lively, goofy and very sparkly show. Apart from ‘Wicked Game’, which graces a sultry playlist of mine simply called 💋, my last sustained Chris Isaak listening session took place when I was about ...
Analysis - Two ministers were stripped of portfolios in a warning to Cabinet, drama broke out at the Waitangi Tribunal, and the gang patch ban bill ran into opposition. ...
Tara Ward makes an impassioned plea for some vital pop culture merch. In April 1999, I became obsessed with a new reality television show called Popstars. Every Tuesday night, five strangers transformed into music royalty before my very eyes as Joe, Keri, Carly, Erika and Megan were chosen to form ...
PNG Post-Courier In the early hours of ANZAC Day, aerial photographs captured an impressive gathering of Australians and Papua New Guineans at Isurava in the Northern (Oro) Province. The solemn dawn service yesterday was held at a site steeped in history, where some of the fiercest battles of World War ...
The PSA is shocked that Oranga Tamariki has used the cost cutting drive to downgrade its commitment to Te Ao Māori and remove many specialist Māori roles. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Kemish, Adjunct Professor, School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, The University of Queensland There can be no more powerful symbol of the relationship between Australia and Papua New Guinea than the prime ministers of these neighbouring countries walking together on the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sharon Robinson, Distinguished Professor and Deputy Director of ARC Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future (SAEF), University of Wollongong, University of Wollongong Andrew Netherwood Over the last 25 years, the ozone hole which forming over Antarctica each spring has started to shrink. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Viktoria Kahui, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Economics, University of Otago Getty Images/Amy Toensing Biodiversity is declining at rates unprecedented in human history. This suggests the ways we currently use to manage our natural environment are failing. One emerging concept focuses on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Colin Bednall, Associate Professor in Management, Swinburne University of Technology marvent/Shutterstock Finding the best person to fill a position can be tough, from drafting a job ad to producing a shortlist of top interview candidates. Employers typically consider information from ...
Wondering where to host your next BYO? Whether its a small gathering or a massive party, we’ve got some recommendations. I was first introduced to the concept of BYOs at Dunedin’s India Gardens, a legendary but sadly defunct establishment, which purveyed enormous quantities of mango chicken to Aotearoa’s drunkest future ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julien Cooper, Honorary Lecturer, Department of History and Archaeology, Macquarie University Julien Cooper The hyper-arid desert of Eastern Sudan, the Atbai Desert, seems like an unlikely place to find evidence of ancient cattle herders. But in this dry environment, my new ...
The sector says it’s hopeful her replacement Paul Goldsmith will be able to throw it a lifeline, after six months with a minister deemed missing in action, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign ...
The government can't just rely on axing public sector jobs and has to do more to cut spending, says the chief economist at a free market think tank. ...
Rock The Vote NZ, known for its advocacy for minor party unity and its role within the Freedoms NZ Coalition during the 2023 General Election, celebrates this merger as a strategic enhancement of its operational strength and outreach. ...
Nearly everyone has experienced the frustration of something you use breaking and being difficult or expensive to fix. Proposed legislation could change that. It’s been raining on and off all Sunday afternoon but people are lining up outside a building in a corner of Gribblehirst Park in Sandringham, Auckland. In ...
What does a forever relationship look like when you don’t believe in marriage? And how do you celebrate it? This essay is part of our Sunday Essay series, made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.I’m going to do it, right now. I’m going to say ...
The Prime Minister has committed to resuming direct flights to Thailand. But it’s not a promise he will be able to deliver on anytime soon. The post Prime Minister jumps the gun in Thailand appeared first on Newsroom. ...
It’s not that long ago Eliza McCartney was seriously wondering if the Paris Olympics would be her pole vaulting swansong. After years of being hounded by injury after injury, the Rio Olympics bronze medallist was still confident she would compete at her second Olympics in Paris in July, unless something ...
FICTION 1 Take Two by Danielle Hawkins (Allen & Unwin, $36.99) There’s commercial fiction, like this book, and then there’s quality fiction, quality writers, quality literature; the forthcoming Auckland Writers Festival is full of quality, and ReadingRoom has two tickets to give away to the following events: Paul Lynch (Dublin ...
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You can’t have missed the Gallipoli story as the movies, documentaries, essays and books capture what it was like for New Zealand troops in their eight-month campaign on the Peninsula. But this Anzac Day the Auckland War Memorial Museum has published a book that sheds light on a little-known aspect of the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra In the free-for-all between the Australian government and Big Tech boss Elon Musk this week, the government had to be on a winner. Most people would have little sympathy with Musk’s vociferous opposition to ...
Asia Pacific Report Chief Mandla Mandela, a member of the National Assembly of South Africa and Nelson Mandela’s grandson, has joined the Freedom Flotilla in istanbul as the ships prepare to sail for Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. Mandela is also the ambassador for the Global Campaign to Return to ...
Pacific Media Watch Journalists who report on environmental issues are encountering growing difficulties in many parts of the world, reports Reporters Without Borders. According to the tally kept by RSF, 200 journalists have been subjected to threats and physical violence, including murder, in the past 10 years because they were ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra BagzhanSadvakassov/Upsplash, CC BY-SA Australia’s inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and it’s now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. ...
From the Daily Blog, Bomber Bradbury writes.
‘Here is what the NZ Herald and Stuff decided was more important than a corporate coup removing NZs economic and political sovereignty the day after the TPPA was signed.
Sports gamblers panicking that the All Blacks won’t win the Rugby World Cup.
A porn renovation TV show might make some more money than they first thought.
A boat falls off a trailer.
A bad bus trip.
The world didn’t end after a religious prophecy
A radio host wears the same togs as the Kylie Jenner.
An Apartment that got flooded by a fish tank was sold.
Government spends $600 000 on flowers
A dog gets put down.
That’s right folks, the single biggest erosion of our political and economic sovereignty for US corporate interests has to struggle to get any attention amongst a sea of Sports gambling feeling depresses, porn renovation TV shows, boats falling off trailers, bad bus trips, world not ending, radio hosts wearing togs, flooded apartments, spending money on flowers and dogs being put down.
This is why we are a nation of sheep.’
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2015/10/08/why-the-tppa-is-a-corporate-coup-and-stories-the-nz-mainstream-media-thought-were-more-important/
‘
Agree it is exactly why so many people really are ignorant of important matters that go on around and without them
Most people really have no idea
Why does the Herald do this? Would it happen to be owned by a foreign investor perhaps? ….
The NZ Herald – conflicted to hell
WikiLeaks – The US strategy to create a new global legal and economic system: TPP, TTIP, TISA.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rw7P0RGZQxQ
Anne posted this excellent synopsis from Paul Buchanan on Key’s trip to Iraq on Daily Review yesterday. Worth reposting.
Highlights.
‘Although all of the coverage was vacuous, that of a print reporter from Wellington takes the cake for most ignorantly obsequious. Among other gems, she claimed more than once in her reports that the PM as well as herself where outfitted in “full body armour.” Photos of the visit suggest otherwise, since Key is seen on base in a flak jacket, shirt, pants and a baseball cap. Most of the military personnel around him were dressed in basic uniforms with no armour or helmets, save Iraqi recruits running drills and his personal protection force (30 “non-deployed” SAS soldiers, which is a bit of overkill when it comes to that sort of thing and makes one wonder from where they were sourced since 30 is a significant chunk of the unit). There is even one photo of Key walking along with some guy in a suit.
According to this particular reporter, her “full body armour” consisted of a flak jacket and a helmet. I reckon that she needs to be briefed on what being fully body armoured entails. And the guy in the suit may want to consider his status if everyone but him in the entourage were given helmets and flak jackets.
The entire gaggle of NZ media regurgitated the line that the NZDF was making a difference and the training was a success. This, after a day at the base and, judging from the tone of their reports, never talking independently with anyone on it (the NZ media were accompanied by “minders” at all times).
In any event what is clear is this. With the complicity of major media outlets, Mr. Key has added troop visits to his pandas and flags repertoire of diversions. ‘
http://www.kiwipolitico.com/2015/10/another-dog-and-pony-show/
The coverage has been an excitement-fest of giddy reporters effusing over their perceived life threatening trip.
Trending …
trending…
I am reminded of Helen Clark’s visit to the Middle East in 2003. We were told in advance she was going but not given details of the itinerary. There was one film clip showing her strolling with the then Defence Chief, Bruce Ferguson and some of the soldiers. No “full body armour” or even flak jackets – just dressed in fatigues as was appropriate. No breathless spin or side issue stories – just a straightforward factual account of the visit.
What a difference.
this government has mastered the art of wearing as much protective equipment as possible in order to make viewers think they’re actually doing something. All the fluoro vests at ChCh post-quake press conferences, for example.
Really, if they need to wear any of that shit they shouldn’t be dicking around in front of cameras in that place.
+1
If they need to wear that shit then they’re getting in the way.
Paul you would have thought that many security staff, with hangers on, would be more dangeress Just goes too show , he’s not a donkey, but a show pony.
This would be the same reporter from Wellington and Key fangirl who, when Key came to our town, explicitly instructed her accompanying photographer not to take any photos which included the sizeable protest crowd who had also turned up to greet the PM.
Hero images only of Dear Leader, please.
And so public opinion is manipulated, right under our noses.
I actually don’t know who the reporter is.
Can you enlighten me?
Tracy Watkins?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/72791643/john-key-in-dramatic-iraq-troop-visit
Just so nobody forgets …..
The TPP will deliver a 1% gain in 15 years time …..
ha ha
fail
Lots here on Investor State clause
TTIP similar to TPP
TTIP: A Wolf In Sheeps Clothing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVs0aGCGEAk
TPP
Ardern said Labour will face the consequences.
Robertson said Labour will weigh up the consequences.
King said Labour had made it clear it would not support the TPP if it did not meet their bottom lines.
Confused?
Why the inconsistency?
I can only conclude they are waiting to see detail of the deal, which obviously leads to the conclusion it’s possible Labour will support the TPP.
Leadership is lacking sadly.
Then why not state that rather than making inconsistent comments?
The inconsistency in the statements being touted are far from the united, competent, professional look they are trying to portray. Leaving a number questioning their credibility and where they actually stand?
Just curious but what has the leader of Labour said? We’ve heard from the others but whats Little saying?
He’s on holiday with his family. Stephanie posted this when I begged him to front the newly merged Union…
Key leaves the country for a photo Op and Little is on hols.
Well its important to get your priorities right
Oh piss off, the leader of the opposition works 18 hour days and never gets to see his family. It’s a brutal, relentless job. Let the man see his bloody wife and kids.
Yes it’s been awfully quiet on such an important and long ranged deal…basically taking us forward a generation in policy.
I’m not filled with confidence.
“Then why not state that rather than making inconsistent comments?”
From what I can tell Labour internal structures allow MPs to speak to the public without talking to each other or having a coherent plan. They have a great deal of independence in terms of expressing their own opinions. We’ve seen this many times with Labour (remember Shane Jones running off at the mouth about whatever he wanted?).
It seems odd to me. I don’t know the exact structural details but it’s rare to see the Green Party presenting this kind of inconsistency, they generally have a clear message and channels for communicating it. I can’t imagine a GP MP thinking that their own personal opinion was more important than communicating what the party had decided. It’s not that it hasn’t happened but it’s rare, whereas for Labour it seems to be their base line of operation.
Peeni Henare is another of late that comes to mind, publicly announcing support for a particular charter school.
Labour need a far more coordinated front. So much for dealing to the perception (which National depicted so well in the election) of them rowing in different directions.
Labour can’t even get their own party to tow the line, let alone show they can work in coalition.
They really need to up their game. The clock is ticking.
“Peeni Henare is another of late that comes to mind, publicly announcing support for a particular charter school.”
Indeed, although from what I remember it wasn’t so much a public announcement as him going to a fundraiser for the local iwi initiative. Someone in the MSM got up to mischief and Labour fell right into that trap with a few days of contradictory statements from Henare and Little. It’s like they’re not in the same room and can’t have a conversation about how to present to the public something that is intended to damage Labour (the MSM story) before they leave the room. So the sorting out the message happens in public and leads to those things you name about perception.
I really don’t get it but it does tie in nicely with that idea that people won’t vote for Labour because they look incompetent irrespective of the policy.
“They really need to up their game. The clock is ticking.”
Some of us have stopped expecting them to change 😉 When Cunliffe was leader there was a saying on the standard, just give them a few more months and they’ll sort themselves out. It was entirely sarcastic.
Re Peeni Henare, this was as well as attending the fundraiser.
Does the Labour caucus have any plan at all about TPP?
I asked my Labour MP at the last LEC meeting. I was NOT impressed with the answer.
How many Labour MPs are not firmly opposed to TPPA?
In a vacuum there is only silence.
Yes. The leader is on schools holiday
“Does the Labour caucus have any plan at all about TPP?”
King said Labour would discuss its position at its caucus meeting.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/72855597/labours-annette-king-denies-internal-rift-over-tppa-deal
I don’t see what’s inconsistent.
It is possible to say you will not support the TPP in opposition, and in government refuse to be bound by it. In each case you’d have to weigh up your options, which is what Robertson was saying. This is Labour’s position. None of this is inconsistent in any way. I heard Annette give an interview on the radio where she outlined this clearly.
Sure, media will report different bits. People here just seem desperate to attack Labour over the TPP because, like other parties actually, they’re not declaring their opposition yet to something they haven’t seen the detail of.
“It is possible to say you will not support the TPP in opposition, and in government refuse to be bound by it.”
Yes. However, the inconsistency lays with Ardern saying Labour will face the consequences (implying Labour will refuse to be bound by it) and Robertson saying Labour will weigh up the consequences. Implying if the consequences are to severe, Labour will breach their 5 bottom lines. And therefore support the TPP
More details about the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement have been released by the Government
Read more: http://www.3news.co.nz/nznews/govt-releases-tppa-details-2015100817#ixzz3o0HOYSWM
So why not the whole thing? Because they are deliberately building a particular and slanted viewpoint of the deal, otherwise they would release the whole thing.
Part of team Key’s charm offensive?
I just read the IT fact sheet. It refers to additional costs but no detail and that are offset against the benefits of the TPP. IT is a PR Fact Sheet. Groser must know broadly speaking what the costs will be, just as he can say what the benefits will be (financially).
As I said to Lprent the other day:
http://thestandard.org.nz/tppa-deal-close/#comment-1078623
Is this misleading to readers?
“Under the agreement, which still needs to be passed by each respective country’s Parliaments,
Does that make it seem, to an ordinary reader, that if Parliament doesn’t approve, it doesn’t go through?
Interestingly the Fact Sheets don’t suggest any downside. That seems slightly odd in a large scale negotiation.
I see that manufacturing gets savings of $10 per year, one of the lowest savings and the lowest when measured against income generated.
Does anyone else read the Sunday Star Times?
A few weeks ago I got a note from Fairfax explaining the price was going up. I have stuck with it because it has always enabled me to spend a good leisurely w hours on a Sunday, relaxed and reading through all kinds of interesting articles.
The last few weeks the news section has been tiny. 12 pages last Sunday, 4 of which were full page ads and another page was rugby reporting. 3 more half page ads.
It’s the incredible shrinking newspaper, with a higher price tag.
It’s interesting to read the TPP views being peddled by the other signatories to the deal.
Each is playing the propaganda game and I would expect that.
What I also expect is my party, a party of the left, to have a view that reflects that, not this constant vague and ill defined language.
Surely we have seen in Britain how people are looking to the left for answers to a clearly under performing world economy and war without end.
Agree, all countries are on PR offensive, ours included. They have the luxury of 30 days unfettered opposition. It’s a Godsend i am sure.
One genuine problem is that in the rush to finish a deal, any deal, many details are unclear to the countries themselves. This alone is sufficient reason to reject this deal until there is full clarity.
Yes, the Fact Sheets released by Groser are pre pared (obviously) and part of a well-planned charm offensive. VERY hard for opponents (including LIttle) to oppose without the potential to have egg on their faces ( which I think National is hoping for) when the final detail is released.
National will have released those Fact Sheets to selected people before today so they are ready and primed with supportive noise
In that case Little should be praised for learning, remember when John Key played down the last budget and Little said how bad it would be and oops a daisy suddenly some benefits were raised…Little fell right into that trap so at least hes avoiding this one
I think this is a perceptive remark in that a soft deal is signed, that is acceptable publicly, and then the work of a death by a thousand cuts begins.
I simply don’t believe Pharmac is acceptable over the long term within a deal like this.
I suspect most people know that.
You’ve got lefties saying its the end of democracy (it clearly isn’t) and you’ve got the right saying its the best thing since sliced bread (its probably not) so the end result will be somewhere in the middle where the gains outweigh the losses, not by as much as hoped but by a decent amount and in the next few years people will be wondering what the big fuss was about…if they remember it at all
they wont remember it because it will only deliver 1% gain in 15 years
it is the most useless business deal I have ever seen
1% in 15 years is a frikkin’ joke
I think perhaps you are underestimating the serious economic deficiency worldwide over the last seven years.
We have a tremendous deflationary bias going on, not to mention war without an end in sight.
The end of the world is hyperbolic and illustrative, but serious difficulties is accurate.
Workers and the poor bear the brunt.
As an aside democracy always has limits and those limits are fluid. Greece as an example.
Not all the Right PR. That’s the thing about this. Republicans in the USA (who are not left by any standard) do not like it either. So when Wayne Mapp says, all self righteously,that it is only the hard left that disapprove, he is not quite right. Now, the reasons for opposition may differ between the two groups but mostly it’s the lawyer in me, never agree to something unless you have read it.
I know Key and Groser have read it but even Key’s supporters say they like him but they don’t believe things he says…
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/9085347/John-Keys-believability-low
So, if it were as easy to undo as Hooton is suggesting whenever he can (based at present on a 2005 version of the draft), then I wouldn’t be as oppositional.
Well I get the feeling that a lot of the dislike to the TPP in America is more dislike of Obama
Much like whatever Key announces in NZ is immediately disregarded by the left in NZ simply because its Key saying it
and yet it’s not just the left who don’t “believe” what he says PR.
If you read below you will see that Kelsey (who Mapps says is just a hard left FTA hater, praises our IT negotiators.
The Republicans are protectionists PR, always have been. They want to be able to trade with other countries but keep USA free of competition from outside, that is why they oppose the TPP
Just curious tracey but based on the little thats been released and not on anyone lese conjecture, do you think the this deal will (even if its not by very much) be of net benefit to NZ?
I don’t know PR. I am only today having time to read the stuff that is coming out from other countries to get an idea of content. I have read all Timmy’s Fact Sheets but they are not all that elucidating due to the obvious focus on $$$ gain and when loss is noted, not figures are given.
I have two work deadlines today (not that you could tell from my posting here 😉 ) – Have just finished one, and maybe this weekend if the sun doesn’t shine I can read much more.
The thing is, to me it cannot be just about adding the money columns. Impacts are always more than just the spreadsheet and that is less tangible and harder to judge.
Despite what some think I WANT the TPP to be great for all NZers. I don’t want it to be a flop that hurts us. But how do we judge it? It can’t be just by GDP because GDP has been predominantly great for over 30 years and yet our disabled citizens (those born that way) are surviving on handouts and subsistence level welfare. Hardly the measure of a thriving society.
So that’s where I come from, how will this benefit our vulnerable, and when.
It’s not a 2005 version of the draft, its the ratified TPP treaty between NZ, Singapore, Chile and Brunei.
There are many examples of corporations suing countries using the Investor-State Dispute Settlement procedure.
‘Since the mid 90’s, however, the ISDS has been increasingly exploited by multi-national corporations to bully governments who are trying to protect their environment or people, like Australia. In the early nineties, there were hardly any ISDS cases filed; today there are nearly 60 cases filed annually and over 500 are currently in arbitration.’
‘For example, The Renco Group, owned by U.S billionaire Ira Rennert, filed an ISDS against the government of Peru after they shut down a metal smelter in the town of La Oroya because the company had delayed environmental improvements. La Oroya has been listed as one of the most polluted towns in the world, which has proven harmful to its citizens, especially children. Renco has used the ISDS as a bargaining tool, and as of 2012 got the Peruvian government to allow the smelter to restart its zinc operations.’
‘Another recent example comes between Germany and Sweden. After the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011, the German government, well known for its renewable energy programs, decided to shut down its nuclear power plants to focus on clean renewable, something that every government should be doing for the futures sake. Vattenfall, a Swedish utility company that had operated two nuclear plants in Germany, has sued for compensation through an ISDS provision.’
For more, look here Matthew.
And please. Stop spinning.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/02/11/1361760/-When-Corporations-Sue-Countries-For-Profit#
You quote the Daily Kos and ask someone else to stop spinning???
Do you have a good reason why Vattenfall shouldn’t be compensated after all the commitments given to it by the German government?
The Trans-Pacific Partnership clause everyone should oppose.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/kill-the-dispute-settlement-language-in-the-trans-pacific-partnership/2015/02/25/ec7705a2-bd1e-11e4-b274-e5209a3bc9a9_story.html
Replying to Matthew Hooton (11:33am).
“Do you have a good reason why Vattenfall shouldn’t be compensated after all the commitments given to it by the German government?”
Yes. A democratic decision was made by the German government based on reconsideration of the energy environment and the consequences for public health which meant it was beholden to embark upon a change in policy direction in the public interest. That change in policy direction meant that the German government set a course to phase out the nuclear power plant industry.
I’m assuming, further, that at no time did the German government say to Vattenfall that it would – and had the power to – suspend its national sovereignty to ensure that the commitments would be met into the distant future.
Unless Vattenfall had not done due diligence about the concept of national sovereignty they surely should not have been surprised that such a risk existed? Or were they naive about the concept?
Almost everyone else is entirely familiar with the concept of national sovereignty but, who knows, maybe the board and managers of the company have lived a sheltered life in blissful ignorance of it? If so, it sounds like the company needs a better board and better managers.
All services actually delivered, I presume, will be paid for.
Interestingly, The Economist didn’t seem too keen on these ISDS provisions back in 2014 (I see the article has been linked to by tracey too):
“IF YOU wanted to convince the public that international trade agreements are a way to let multinational companies get rich at the expense of ordinary people, this is what you would do: give foreign firms a special right to apply to a secretive tribunal of highly paid corporate lawyers for compensation whenever a government passes a law to, say, discourage smoking, protect the environment or prevent a nuclear catastrophe. Yet that is precisely what thousands of trade and investment treaties over the past half century have done …“
The examples are verifiable, Matthew.
Will the examples provided by the Guardian suffice?
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jun/10/obscure-legal-system-lets-corportations-sue-states-ttip-icsid
Yes, I am aware ISDS exists and is used. Why do you think it is a bad thing that companies can seek compensation when governments mislead them into making investments and then change the rules? Domestic companies can seek compensation under those circumstances.
Matthew
“Companies have learnt how to exploit ISDS clauses, even going as far as buying firms in jurisdictions where they apply simply to gain access to them. Arbitrators are paid $600-700 an hour, giving them little incentive to dismiss cases out of hand; the secretive nature of the arbitration process and the lack of any requirement to consider precedent allows plenty of scope for creative adjudications.”
http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21623756-governments-are-souring-treaties-protect-foreign-investors-arbitration
Like when a government considers a zone change to schools due to growing numbers of pupils in certain areas. Those with money and access to talking heads can get that stopped while the poor with no money and no heady netowrks to engage have to accept decisions made for them.
The New Statesman also has examples.
http://www.newstatesman.com/business/2013/07/trade-deal-allows-corporations-sue-governments-not-about-recovery
Al- Jazeera
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/5/27/a-eu-us-trade-agreement-could-allow.html
Yes, but, again, what’s wrong with that?
Interesting you take the side of the mega- corporations of the world.
I guess they have the deepest pockets and as a mercenary, you’ll spin for them then.
I’m not taking sides. But why shouldn’t, say, Zespri, be able to sue the US Federal Government if it regulates to restrict kiwifruit imports from New Zealand for no good scientific reason? You need to make a case why that is wrong. You may also not be aware that the ISDS provisions in TPP require the three adjudicators to be appointed by agreement by the countries in dispute, from countries not involved in the dispute, and for the hearings to be public. What is wrong with this?
From the al-Jazeera article.
‘First, only investors may sue governments in ISDS tribunals; the reverse is not possible. (If Australia wanted to sue Phillip Morris for public health expenses due to smoking-related cancer, for instance, it wouldn’t be able to do so in ISDS courts.) “ISDS sets up a parallel judicial system available only to foreign corporations,” said John Hilary, the executive director of War on Want, a British anti-poverty organization.
This amounts to special rights for investors, according to Scott Sinclair of the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives, who studies ISDS cases brought under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). “Why should foreign investors have the right to bypass ordinary courts, which have been evolving for hundreds of years as part of our democratic system of justice?” he said. “Investors can win, but the best that governments can do is avoid paying damages.” (Sinclair found that the majority of ISDS claims against Canada under NAFTA have been over environmental protection regulations.)
ISDS courts, unlike normal courts in most democracies worldwide, are for-profit institutions in which practicing lawyers and industry experts, not professional judges, sit as arbitrators. This means “for-profit arbitrators decide whether public policies implemented by democratically elected governments are right or wrong,” said Olivet.
According to Van Harten, ISDS arbitration thus “lacks all safeguards of independence and impartiality … The penalty could cripple a country economically. That a government would face so much unpredictability with so much public money — you have to understand the power of it.”
Don’t be an ass Matthew, the ISDS tribunals are under no compulsion to consider”good scientific reason.”
NZ is going to be on the losing end of this; further Zespri doesn’t have the resources or expertise to take effective ISDS action. Only billion dollar trans-nationals have any hope.
This transatlantic trade deal is a full-frontal assault on democracy
George Monbiot.
‘he purpose of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership is to remove the regulatory differences between the US and European nations. I mentioned it a couple of weeks ago. But I left out the most important issue: the remarkable ability it would grant big business to sue the living daylights out of governments which try to defend their citizens. It would allow a secretive panel of corporate lawyers to overrule the will of parliament and destroy our legal protections. Yet the defenders of our sovereignty say nothing.
The mechanism through which this is achieved is known as investor-state dispute settlement. It’s already being used in many parts of the world to kill regulations protecting people and the living planet.’
‘Investor-state rules could be used to smash any attempt to save the NHS from corporate control, to re-regulate the banks, to curb the greed of the energy companies, to renationalise the railways, to leave fossil fuels in the ground. These rules shut down democratic alternatives. They outlaw leftwing politics.’
‘Here’s what one of the judges on these tribunals says about his work. “When I wake up at night and think about arbitration, it never ceases to amaze me that sovereign states have agreed to investment arbitration at all … Three private individuals are entrusted with the power to review, without any restriction or appeal procedure, all actions of the government, all decisions of the courts, and all laws and regulations emanating from parliament.”‘
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/04/us-trade-deal-full-frontal-assault-on-democracy
Matthew
Re: no good scientific reason. Please define. And in your definition take account of the current debate about climate change. TIA.
so it’s not even the treaty being discussed?
Hooton is paid by the multinationals to do their dirty work.
It is the original TPP. Helen Clark then got the Americans to agree to negotiate to enter it. Negotiations began on this basis. It would be astonishing if the withdrawal procedures have been changed, but we shall see.
well, stuff has changed Matthew. Admittedly mainly in the areas where stuff was leaked and the public and experts were able to mount challenges to it. Makes you wonder… if it hadn’t been leaked at all.
And the parts that you are choosing to pin your colours to are interesting. Almost like you feel you are on very safe ground making some of your assertions cos the final text will support you.
10 years seems a long time but as you have decided to hang your hat on this very point I tend to think you have good reason to be on strong ground… not that I am suggesting you know anything more than, say, I do. God forbid, right Matthew? (rhetorical)
Good Morning Tracey
I have some good news for you.
I am reliably informed that the TPP will allow for unrestricted, unilateral withdrawal by any state with six months notice, just like the original TPP.
So if, for example, a future Labour government were to find it could not block land sales to foreigners, or the ISDS process was getting out of hand, New Zealand could send a letter to the other countries and we would be out six months later.
Hope this satisfies some of your concerns.
I should add, the provision for unrestricted, unilateral withdrawal by any TPP member with six months notice lasts forever, so even in 100 years a New Zealand government could choose to opt out of the new treaty for any reason.
reliably informed.
qed
Hey dickhead, since when was rule by the corporate 0.01% against the wishes of the bottom 99% “democracy”?
Your comment clearly shows you have no fucking idea what “democracy” is so please stop talking about it.
Wish Hooton would actually read Monbiot’s article.
It’s obvious, even to a simpleton, that the TPP is not democratic.
But then, Hooton gets paid for his opinion.
And who pays him?
One of the interesting aspects of ISDS is the chilling aspect it has on legislation – where governments hesitate to enact laws because of possible consequences. Is it true that our own legislation to introduce plain packaging on cigarettes has been allowed to lie on the table awaiting the outcome of Phillip Morris vs Australia? If this is so, then ISDS is already having a effect on this country – and can we expect this to increase in the future?
Yes.
‘The health select committee last year supported the bill but the Government has delayed bringing it back to the House pending the outcome of the challenges against the Australian law by the tobacco industry.’
‘Canberra is defending its law in two cases: before World Trade Organisation adjudicators in a case brought by tobacco-producing countries including the Dominican Republic, and at a United Nations commission’s Permanent Court of Arbitration in a case linked to Hong Kong and tobacco firm Philip Morris Asia.
Maori Party co-leader Te Ururoa Flavell rejected the Government’s waiting on the legal challenges. “Waiting for the World Trade Organisation decision means more people die or are sick from smoking-related illnesses. We’re tired of standing at the graveside of loved ones who have had their lives cut short from this highly addictive and poisonous drug.”‘
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11410127
You don’t like what the present government is doing well tough there was a lot the last labour government did that I didn’t like and a lot of others didn’t like as well and eventually we managed to get enough seats to take power
You’re typical of the left in general in this country and thats whinge, moan and complain when you don’t get your own way
Suck it up
[lprent: I distinctly remember the right doing a “whinge, moan and complain when you don’t get your own way”. I had to listen to the idiots not only before the change of government, but also for many many years afterwards.
I strongly suspect you were one of them. I really don’t like people being hypocrites – so suck this up. 2 day ban.
Always remember the Gosman rule and its derivations. ]
Thanks for proving that you don’t understand or give a shit about “democracy” so stop talking about it.
Hey fuckhead my comment was about your lack of understanding and appreciation of democracy, of how ruling in favour of the corporate 0.01% is NOT democracy; it was not about this shitty government.
Learn to read.
[lprent: Cool down. ]
Hi CV
It’s good to see you back as I hadn’t spotted you around here for a while and was a bit worried.
Are you OK ?
I don’t tend to visit here much anymore as I find it a very depressing angry, shouty place with so many talking over each other and making very little sense – perhaps start your own blog ? i promise to visit !
you are most kind; just busy organising work and life, thank you for your supportive comments 🙂
While not wanting to draw the ire of the moderators, if bans are now going to be handed out for hypocrisy the site will be like a ghost town by the end of the day.
I thought you were talking about the SST until you said this.
” reading through all kinds of interesting articles”.
Has there ever been anything interesting in that rag?
Every so often I get offered free delivery of the SST for periods ranging from about 6 weeks to 6 months. I always accept as it makes a good lining for the neighbours cat litter trays.
After the trial period they always ring up and attempt to persuade me to take a paid subscription. My response is quite consistent. I tell them I will if the subscription is what the paper is worth. Then I add that what I have been paying, nothing, is the appropriate amount.
I don’t know why they keep offering these trials. Can’t they just mark my Dom/Post sub as not being one to promote the SST too?
I’m getting old Alwyn, it could be a few years since it was any good 😉
BUT I definitely could read one page articles of proper reporting on soft and hard issues.
I also accept the Herald’s free issues offer so that when they ring to say would I like to sing up I tell them exactly why I won’t.
Online is no better, in fact online both publications are now nothing more than “Entertainment Tonight”. A programme I don’t watch but am aware of.
I suggest you take out a subscription to The Economist.
A 3 year sub is currently $1,020 so it would be about twice the price of the SST but it is well worth the money.
If you only want 1 year it is about $400 and there is a 12 week offer for the digital edition at about $30 at the moment I believe.
Most of the articles are around a page and they are all superbly written. It keeps me informed for most of the week. I just pick it up, read an article and put it down again.
You might want to ignore what they say about Corbyn, but they can be just as harsh about Cameron on occasion.
There is very little about New Zealand of course but it covers the rest of the world.
The first thing I read is the obituary on the back page. I would love to know how they pick the person (or creature) covered.
The last few were
Claus Moser, statistician and culture lover
Max Beauvoir, biochemist and high priest of Haitian voodoo
Jackie Collins, novelist of Hollywood
Yogi Berra, champion baseball player and unwitting philosopher.
A couple of months ago they had one on a cat that was the honorary station master, and vice-president, of a Japanese Railway company.
Thanks Alwyn
I will take a look.
I accepted 2 weeks of The Herald free a while ago. It took them 3 days to stop delivering to my neighbour instead of me. I acquired all the cat box liners I needed and when they rang to ask if I wanted to continue, I asked them if they still had the copy of the letter I wrote when I cancelled the sub several years ago.
They offer the trials so that they can up the circulation figures to give to advertisers.
If they relied on purely paid subscription figures, the charges would be considerably less. So they operate a rolling – free trial period – and provide free copies to educational facilities, libraries etc and voila! a higher circulation number.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/08/russia-pay-price-syrian-airstrikes-ashton-carter-us-defence-secretary
How ironic.
[lprent: Generally you need to say why. Doing a raw link with a uninformative teaser is a troll pattern. In this case it appears to be a diversion from the post. Moving to OpenMike.
Read the policy and consider yourself having had your warning about diversion commenting. ]
It did look a little “Nice muslim minority you got there Russia – shame if something happened that stirred them up.’
TPPA deal may jeopardise access to new generic medicines – See more at: http://foreignaffairs.co.nz/2015/10/09/tppa-deal-may-jeopardise-access-to-new-generic-medicines/#sthash.Ib8i33gG.dpuf
Jane Kelsey and others are beginning to release some analyses.
Also, Ms Kelsey and I share a common beef. We both wonder why we can’t see the Government’s cost/benefit anaylsis on the TPP now, and months ago. They ad one, right?
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1510/S00158/renewed-official-information-act-requests-for-tppa-analyses.htm
“The request notes that ‘Given that the negotiations have concluded New Zealand’s position could not conceivably be jeopardised by its release; it is not information belonging to any other country in the TPPA negotiations; and the government is currently citing these figures in the current debate on the TPPA but not has not publishing the study on which it is based.’
The Minister’s office has acknowledged the request.
She has also repeated an earlier Official Information request made in January 2015 for ‘any cost-benefit study, impact asessment or similar analysis or evaluation of the proposed agreement as a whole, of specific provisions, or impacts on particular sectors or policies that have been conducted by or for the New Zealand government.’
In February the Minister refused to release any such information. It later transpired that this includes an NZIER study on the Labour Market Effects of TPP. The Ministry said its release during the negotiations would prejudice New Zealand’s ability to get the best outcome, a rationale which Professor Kelsey notes no longer applies.”
Nothing to fear, nothing to hide
and to those who say Kelsey is nothing but a knee-jerking naysayer, peek at this
“New Zealand’s patent laws also apparently meet the final threshold set in the intellectual property chapter. While the transparency annex affecting Pharmac’s processes is problematic, it is not directly enforeable.
‘All that is good news for New Zealanders, although not some other TPPA countries. It will be a massive relief to the public health community and patients, although we still need to know the areas where the Minister says some additional expense will be incurred’.
However, other barriers to health policy remain, especially with investor-state dispute settlement. Even the weak public health exception does not apply to the investment chapter, and the tobacco exception appears to apply on a case-by-case basis only to certain kinds of investment claims, if a government chooses to invoke it, and not to the whole agreement.
Professor <b.Kelsey paid tribute to the pressure brought by doctors, the Australian government’s determination to fight on biologics, and New Zealand’s intellectual property negotiators .”
emphasis mine
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1510/S00117/continued-imbalance-of-tppa-information-indefensible.htm
Also a piece written by Jane Kelsey which links to releases made by other countries. Japan’s is the most extensive but is, understandably, in Japanese.
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2015/10/07/must-read-sober-reflections-on-the-tppa-deal-and-why-we-need-to-keep-fighting/
Ironically, Wayne Mapp and others will now be reading Kelsey to find out more detail, cos our government settled for PR driven Fact Sheets.
Reminds me of the report launched in the investigation of MH17 shot down over Ukraine. A small group of victim countries were all involved, the Netherlands, Malaysia and Australia, as well as Ukraine. Russia was stonewalled out. Its a bit like getting a murder victims family to run the murder investigation. Worst of all they have the suspect, the Ukraine, in the investigation!
[lprent: Moved to OpenMike as diversionary. You know the policy. ]
oops, a bit diversionary, that’s not an opening to have a debate on MH17!
That the USA did not sign up to Protocol I in 1977 makes me think they didn’t want to have their actions in Vietnam independently investigated, and sadly, they seem to have adhered to that view ever since.
Rightly or wrongly, two family members (now deceased) who served int he Pacific in WWII used to say that they fear the US forces far more than the “Japs”.
There was some discussion about protests, demonstrations and activism in general the other day.
This…http://www.nzherald.co.nz/northern-advocate/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503450&objectid=11525657 article from The Northern Advocate is about a bunch of activists from Kaikohe fronting up to the Boobs On Bikes porn peddlers
“Police would not let the group march on the road, so they walked down the footpath ahead of the bikes.
Mr Shaw said they copped some abuse from “smart alecs” in the crowd but most people were positive and open to discussion.
“People asked us, ‘What’s wrong with boobs?’ We’d explain it wasn’t about boobs, it was about the normalisation of pornography and the harm it causes.” ”
Very clever. Keep the message simple.
Respect.
Thanks for that Rosemary.
“About 50 people took part in the protest – as many as, or more than, participants in the parade.”
“He said the protest was a success because the group were able to take their message directly to a target audience of young men, who made up most of the people lining Queen St, to challenge their way of thinking.”
Good for them.
Yup
And more activism from Bryan Bruce….
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/opinion/72838016/bryan-bruce-how-the-neoliberalism-tail-wags-the-moral-dog
It is way past the time when Mr. Bruce cared what would become of his reputation if he speaks out against the establishment.
” Like me, Key went on to study at Canterbury University where our tuition fees were paid for by the state. When he finished his degree, he left university, as I did, largely free from debt.
Those things, in themselves gave both the Prime Minister and I a huge boost in life.
Yet today John Key leads a government that thinks of tertiary education as a commodity not a right and that social housing is a burden to be palmed off onto the Australians.
Why is it that our Prime Minister, who benefited hugely from the welfare state, no longer thinks the Government is morally obliged to do for today’s young people what it once did for him? And why is it that I, on the other hand, think we have betrayed our children and our grandchildren by denying them what we were once freely given?”
More, please.
Yes please. I know people like Mr Key. They have convinced themselves that it is by their own hard work and intelligence that they have succeeded. They have managed to convince themselves they did it all independently. That is a a falsehood which is self evident to anyone with self awareness.
Take stock of today’s media. With a few exceptions, they come from the generation affected by student debt, yet their parents were given a debt-free education. You would think on that basis they would be well aware of the gross hypocrisy of Key’s (and other’s) argument as outlined by Bryan Bruce but no, they’re happy to go along with it and let this government off the hook. Why? Because each and everyone of them knows their continued employment and comfortable life-style is dependent on following the government line. Anyone who dares to step ‘out of line’ will eventually get the chop. The latest developments at the NZ Herald are testament to that!
Prescription drugs the third leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer?
https://youtu.be/dozpAshvtsA
Very interesting
The number of people taking their own life is rising to a record, even as more effort is put into preventing suicide.
Jacinda Ardern says “the statistics show the Government’s programmes aren’t making inroads.
At the moment it seems we are not joining all the dots… a more comprehensive focus on the links between suicide, deprivation and family violence/childhood abuse is called for.”
Read more: http://www.3news.co.nz/nznews/suicide-prevention-not-working—labour-2015100705#ixzz3o1SyknyE
Has she considered looking at the affect of antidepressants (which apparently are becoming more widely used) and their impact on the suicide rate?
Our societal values that are pushed by politics and the media don’t really help either. We’re encouraged that earning more, getting the top job, getting into massive debt through education or a risky business, the flash house and car, going to the mall are the crucial things in life. Then we punish the people who are the furthest from this ideal. Anyone involved in any sort of crime, has mental illness, beneficiaries and generally anyone struggling in life – as in poor people are punished in our society. I don’t have facts to back this up, but if it was measurable we might fiind the costs of this culture are huge.
+1
I had a discussion on a boat recently (a ferry) with someone in the know within Health. She commented that being on anti psychedlics (or similar, cant recall exactly) was shortening people’s lives by 25%? I did google at the time and maybe that is now outdated but what a choice…
Chronic mental illness or a shortened life-span.
Huffpost on how despite knowing how unsuitable their product Risperdal was for some uses the evil pricks said fuck it, we’ll pay the fines, and pushed on pushing it.
http://highline.huffingtonpost.com/miracleindustry/americas-most-admired-lawbreaker/
Antipsychotics Tracey, and your ‘someone in the know’ doesn’t have the foggiest idea what they’re talking about. Honestly that’s the kind of scaremongering I’d expect from the anti vaccinations lobby i honestly thought you would think twice before posting it here.
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/media/releases/study_use_of_antipsychotic_drugs_improves_life_expectancy_for_individuals_with_schizophrenia
“Comparing data from year to year, the researchers found that among those patients who had 90 percent or better compliance with their medication schedules, the risk of death was 25 percent lower compared to those who were less than 10 percent compliant. Over the decade-long study period, taking medication did not increase the risk of death and there was a trend towards reducing the mortality rate. In addition, the researchers found that each additional visit per year to a mental health professional was linked to a 5 percent reduction in risk of death overall.”
well you should know the someone in the know is involved very high up in writing a report about the future of our DHB’s Doc.
Did you miss this rider
“I did google at the time and maybe that is now outdated but what a choice…”
Like you I can also google (I note that the study you refer to is about number 4 on the googled items)
Colton, C. (2006). Congruencies in increased mortality rates, years of potential life lost, and causes of death among public mental health clients in eight states. Preventing Chronic Disease 3 (April).
Joukmaa, M.; Heliovaara, M.; Knekt, P.; Aromaa, A.; Raitasalo, R.; & Lehtinen, V. (2006). Schizophrenia, neuroleptic medication and mortality. The British Journal of Psychiatry 188: 122-127 http://bjp.rcpsych.org/content/188/2/122.full (link is external)
Caplan, P.J. (2011). When Johnny and Jane Come Marching Home: How All of Us Can Help Veterans. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
The Hopkins researchers “did not rule out all links between increased mortality and antipsychotic drugs. For example, researchers found that people who took high doses of first-generation antipsychotic medication daily (1,500 mg or greater chlorpromazine equivalents) were 88% more likely to die. She says mortality rates possibly increased in this group because first-generation antipsychotics have been associated with cardiac disease risks, and among those who died while taking the larger doses, 53% died of cardiovascular disease.”
So what is that psycho-tropics act on there nsd? Often serotonin, yes? The uptake of it and what not. But, serotonin (and therefore its effect) has never been measured and cannot be measured. The whole brain candy/ happy pill industry was built off the back a throwaway line that was never intended to be anything beyond ‘thinking aloud’ – mere speculation.
Meanwhile, what about all those psychotropics that leave people feeling suicidally depressed or dead? Or the ones that come with warnings about prescribing to given age groups? Or the ones that are more or less impossible to come off? Or the suggestion that the side-effects for some people who attempt self withdrawal can be a ‘looping out’ with the most dire of consequences, both for themselves and sometimes for who-ever else happens to be ‘in the wrong place at the wrong time’?
And then we might move on to the so-called trials that would Volkswagen test technicians blushing at their own comparative inadequacy.
Or we might consider the history of the quackery that became modern psychiatry – you’ve got a thing about those things you consider quackery after-all, no?
Want to run through the list of ‘new diseases’ that the psychiatric ‘profession’ would have pills dispensed for these days? Y’know, things such as ‘moving house syndrome’ – not the actual terminology, but regardless, moving house sits in a distinct category now; one requiring medication.
Then there is the debate about whether the anti-psychotics cause brain shrinkage
Interesting article here
http://www.madinamerica.com/2013/06/antipsychotics-and-brain-shrinkage-an-update/
Tracey made a comment that antipsychotics mortality by 25%. I refuted this with data to suggest that it is exactly the opposite situation.
She then goes on to quote from the same paper regarding 1st generation antipsychotics which were unpleasant medication with fairly vile side effects these have been replaced over the last 20 – 30 years with 2nd and 3rd generation products which have far less severe and lower numbers of side effects.
To suggest that serotonin and it’s effect cannot and has not been measured is drivel.
Regards your other points I agree that their has been an over medicalisation and treatment of normal life situations most especially in western society, however we were discussing antipsychotics which are used for disorders with related psychoses such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorders – Bill I suggest you go back to reading your L Ron Hubbard and manuals on how to make strawmen and defending quacks like your mate from Dunedin.
Frankly I expected far better from Tracey
Really!? Okay then. Point to the studies or the literature or the tables indicating serotonin measurements having been taken from living, functioning brains.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17091615
https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00059046
http://jnm.snmjournals.org/content/51/10/1495.full
http://www.researchgate.net/publication/6704889_Review_article_Functional_imaging_serotonin_and_the_suicidal_brain
First link – “Direct post-mortem research demonstrated…” (my emphasis.
All the others are imaging transporter proteins or whatever. None of them measure – and none claim to measure – actual amounts of serotonin.
Bill your original comment was
“But, serotonin (and therefore its effect) has never been measured and cannot be measured.”
Which is drivel as you may or may not know, you then change the rules to “Point to the studies or the literature or the tables indicating serotonin measurements having been taken from living, functioning brains.”
I have provided a number of search results which I have not read which i would think would show that serotonin activity and receptor responses can be shown despite that not being your first question and you changing the goalposts.
Rather than continuing playing this game on a Friday evening when I’d prefer to sit down with a beer perhaps you could get to your actual point instead of feebly attacking your keyboard.
Edit from the first link
“These results are in keeping with 5-HT2A binding studies in depressed patients and impulsive animal research. Interestingly, both an increase and a decrease in 5-HT2A binding index seem to normalize with SSRI treatment.”
You missed the point previously made. The fixation on serotonin comes from a piece of speculation that has (as far as I know, and for the reasons mentioned – eg, direct measurement) no empirical evidence to back it up.
The ‘imaging’ in your previous links is akin (in my mind at least) to mapping the movement of cars as though that could tell you anything about numbers of occupants or why said occupants were traveling.
Of course, if you’ve already decided that each car is carrying two passengers and they are all traveling for a specific predetermined reason (eg – supermarket shopping), then the mapping can claim to show all that you want it to show.
Hope you enjoy your beer and don’t fall prey to any inadvertent urinary dribblings.
Psychiatry is not my area of expertise Bill, however the clinical and scientific evidence for SDAs in the treatment of psychoses and mood disorders is pretty comprehensive as is the science of serotonin and dopamine receptors in mental health disorders.
I’d point you back to the beginning of this thread and the throw away comment regarding a 25% increase in mortality, this is a very poor thing to say in a public forum when there is no evidence to back it up and when the readers of such comments may be on such medications themselves or relay the information to others who are on such medications – I am sure you will accept that the consequence of someone stopping medications such as these without being under medical supervision might be disastrous.
Regarding your other comment – unfortunately benign prostatic hyperplasia is part of the territory at my age.
hey NSD, i come across a lot of people who hate swallowing the pills they are prescribed, hate the effects the pills have on their lives and cant wait to find ways to get off the shite.
Just sayin’.
Well the fact that they’re visiting a chiropractor suggests that a change of lifestyle may assist with lowering or removing the amount of prescribed medication they are on.
Just sayin’
When you know as much about my areas of expertise as me, then I will endeavour to live up to your expectations in your areas of expertise.
Actually I won’t. The information is coming out via this post and that’s good. I don’t profess to know everything about everything (hence I put the rider in my comment which you chose to ignore)
I don’t believe I comment on your areas of expertise (law).
There is also a rather horrific connection between Big Agrichemical and Big Pharma.
When I’ve time I will dig out some aging articles….if the Corporations of Death have not had them expunged from the google.
It will be interesting to see what you can muster up, Rosemary.
Another piece of propaganda in the Herald shilling for the corporate coup, sometimes known as the TPPA.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11526067
Here is the author.
John Ballingall is deputy chief executive of the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research. Make your own mind up if he’s got vested interests.
http://nzier.org.nz/people/john-ballingall/
This comment below is typical of the ones replying to the neo-liberal ideologue Ballingall.
‘Another uninformed article, and so many all at once in the Herald? This all seems part of a government drum-beat to imprint the idea things are good before they can be properly seen. Any person of sense will regret such an ethic, even if that is perhaps consistent with the kind of thing of the discredited prime minister models for innocent citizens.
At any rate one laments the subservience of a newspaper to its proprietors’ party interests. That road turns a journal into a party political organ.’
It would appear many NZers aren’t falling for the spin.
” the discredited prime minister models for innocent citizens.”
I suggest that innocent is not the right word. On looking over past decades and our slide downwards it has happened because of ‘neglectful’ citizens. We did not watch our assets, and now we have to watch our asses. Or someone will be biting us in the bum to put it crudely but truly.
The Herald tries to pretend it is balanced.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11526003
But observant readers notice their spin. This was one of the best comments to the anonymous Herald editorial.
“By and large, the Government has a good tale to tell about the TPP agreement. For the few disappointments, especially dairy access to the United States, Canada and Japan, there are strong gains in other areas”.
You just spent the entire article telling us that we don’t know whats in the fine print and then you say there are strong gains.
How can you say this if we don’t know whats in the document.
Even Hillary Clinton is against this deal.
More spin from the National Party’s media outlet the NZ Herald.”
The Herald has read the Fact Sheets, assumed they contain all the facts, and regurgitated them. For example in one Fact Sheet it states there will be losses (or costs) but doesn’t state how much. Funny they don’t know that number, just the “good” ones.
The Government is manipulating the information. Otherwise they would follow Japan’s lead and release summaries of all chapters running to 36 pages. If it is such a great deal, release everything, including the cost projections and cost/benefit analysis our entry was based on. But no, Groser is still refusing to release this.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11525979
Mr Ruffin also asked the defendant why he had not used money from living costs to pay for the experts he claimed he needed.
“If I wanted to be homeless and sack all my staff and kick my kids out of school I could’ve done that, yes,” Dotcom said.
Quick someone set up a givealittle page for Kim!
Alex Swney is in prison for 5 years for his fraud on IRD and Heart of the City. He paid back a few hundred thousand (less than 500k I understand) and yet his children still attend a private school in Auckland and live in an expensive home in Herne Bay…
Allegedly Swney threw a party the night before his sentencing and some of the very well heeled of Auckland attended.
It’s not just DotCom with this mindset PR, it is an affliction shared by many of the wealthy in this country.
At least Swneys in prison though
He’s already been moved to the new Wiri prison where he lives in a house and has had indications he will be out in 8 months on home detention…and could afford a QC at $800-1000 bucks an hour
Well my view would be people do the full length of their conviction but thats just me
My view is we review
1. How we treat Remorse expressions in terms of sentencing. Accepting letters, in my view, is problematic. Making defendants speak to their remorse in Court and to scutiny of that remorse by the Judge;
2. Offering reduction in terms if involved in a Rehabiitation programme
3. Offering more rehabilitation programmes and increasing availability of the programmes proven to reduce recidivism.
Recidivism costs us tens of millions (or more) a year.
4. Even with Home Detention orders a minimum of 1 month serve din a medium security prison should be a pre requisite to the Home Detention
Liberals 127 Conservatives 124 in latest Canadian averaged poll.
One of the interesting things about this is that the Liberal rise first showed up in the Nanos daily tracking polls which were conducted by person-to-person phone calls. All the other automated/online polls were slower to record the shifting voter sentiment.
And in fact, up until yesterday they were all suggesting a Cons minority government or even a possible majority for Harper.
According to the Gobe & Mail today 67% of voters want a change of PM for Canada. The Liberals have made sizeable gains in both Ontario and Quebec where enough seats are in play to determine the outcome of the election.
Mr Trudeau has confounded the pundits by performing much more strongly than expected in the campaign and debates (the Munk debate on Foreign Policy was at a level we can only dream about in NZ). The Liberals have also out-played the NDP in the way that they have been able to articulate the desire for change. They broke with economic orthodoxy at the start of the campaign and pledged infrastructure spending that would result in modest deficits for 3 years, contrary to both the NDP and Cons promises to balance the budget at all costs. It seems to have paid off.
Two NZ leaders: https://twitter.com/honbillenglish/status/652309190115901440/photo/1
I have to admit that, at the time, I wasn’t Helen Clarks greatest supporter but with the benefit of hindsight and whats come after we’ve been fortunate in NZ that we’ve had Clark/Cullen followed by Key/English
Great frankly for that alone we should be the envy of the world
Unless, of course, you’re a kid growing up in post-rogernomics poverty.
The Right and its supporters demonised Clark. They essentially stalked her sexuality and that of her husband, they used epithets like HelenGrad and some called her Alan Clark. her appearance was mocked
To say that you feel fortunate to hae had her as leader puts you at odds with those people who are only now singing her praises because they are using her to be a proponent for the TPP (privately I am sure none of them regret the constant direct and indirect attacks. It also makes me wonder how susceptible you are to the PR the right throws about (they’ve only been applauding her for a few days yet here you are)i
Lest we forget PR, to be doomed to repeat.
Well said Tracey, The same way Abbott and the right and their fellow travellers did the same misogynistic crap on Julia Gillard in Oz. I like the way Julia Gillard tackled Abbott in their parliament over this. It would be one of the best parliamentary speeches I have ever seen.
Didn’t she make Abbott look the prat he is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihd7ofrwQX0
What a turnabout. Eight years ago she was the devil incarnate. Now, they can’t wait to get a photo with her. Could they be hedging their bets in case she is the new Secretary General?
Interested in what is happening in RW Canada? Tommorrow with Kim on Radionz.
8:12 Heather Mallick: Stephen Harper
Heather Mallick is a staff columnist for the Toronto Star, and has published two books: a diary, Pearls in Vinegar (Penguin), and a collection of essays, Cake or Death (Knopf). Her piece on Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, The Nixon of the North, appears in the latest issue of Harper’s magazine.
It’s starting to look more and more likely that Harper’s going to be turfed out as PM of Canada on October 19. Harper has said he will resign immediately if the Conservatives aren’t the largest party in the Commons on October 20th. Current polling suggest the Liberals are edging the seat count.
Nobody in NZ seems to be paying much attention. But it’s instructive for us nonetheless. Like other Westminster parliaments voters in Canada seem to have hit the 10 year fatigue level where they start to look for change. Also Harper was the first of the four conservative Commonwealth leaders to be elected in 2006. His time is up. Guess who’s next? Key was elected in 2008, Cameron in 2010 and Abbott in 2013.
We live in hope Scott GN, but I think we need to help hope along.