In the Swiss Alps in 2005, Prince Charles was caught by TV microphones muttering to his young sons William and Harry: "These bloody people. I can't bear that man. I mean, he's so awful, he really is." The subject of his ire was the plummy-voiced professional toady Nicholas Witchell, who ispaid a king's ransom to fill the sinecure post of "BBC Royal and Diplomatic Correspondent." Unfortunately for Prince Charles and the rest of us, Witchell is still there, sixteen years later, still turning out BBC-quality journalism and commentary.
BBC News, 9 April 2021
HUW EDWARDS: Do you think the Queen will miss him?
Various Windsors remain the highest paid beneficiaries in the UK, I celebrated Margaret Thatcher’s demise, but this reactionary just outlived his era really.
I am not from the Commonwealth but Queen Elisabeth deserves our condolences and Prince Phillip our respect. He has not had an easy life when looking back to his childhood and has shown how to be strong through adversity. As everybody, he has had his faults, but there is no reason to disrespect and dishonor a person not even 24 hour after his dead. A character flaw.
In an act of sychophancy, not our character for him, John Key ordered the New Zealand flag on the Auckland Harbour Bridge to be lowered to half mast on the death of Saudi feudal tyrant Abdullah, father of the current awful Saudi hereditry autocrat known as MBS, infamous for ordering the heartless butchery of expat. Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi who entered the Saudi embassy in Turkey seeking to get a permit of annulment so he could marry his partner.
Everybody has to live their lives in the times and surrounds they are in.
Prince Phillip has been "a child of his time" as is the current generation and any other is and will be. He has contributed greatly to the stability of the Monarchy in Britain and the Commonwealth. Geopolitically this was and is still important as peace is not made by spitting in someone's face but by building bridges. Not a task to do in 10 minutes but perhaps 70 years of service.
This man was almost 100 years old, he has seen war, he had to fight and he had to take a side and conviction.
Those who are now so disrespectful, I wonder what they have done to ease the hunger, homelessness, inequality, loss of dignity for the old, providing education for all, preventing failure of the health system, corruption of democratic institutions etc… today or any other day. Not with words but deeds.
I just witness the death of common decency in this forum, to pay respect to a remarkable figure in our living history.
That was not a ‘critique’, it was an unoriginal rip-off of something that we have read many times in the press, mainly the British press. These are not even you own words. For example, where is your critical analysis showing that Nicholas Witchell is corrupt? Why this is even relevant to the death of DoE is a mystery to me.
The wording of that brief but (one hopes) trenchant critique was composed entirely by this writer, i.e., moi.
Funny that! When I Google ‘your’ words they look remarkable similar to writings by others in the British press!?
There was no trenchant critique! There was no analysis! There was just the usual Morrissey white noise & grey dust.
The point of my post was to point out an example of the servile and fawning British media coverage of Prince Philip and his ghastly descendants.
This is a point: .
Your ‘post’ was less than that; it was pointless.
My comment was a critique not of the Duke (R.I.P.)
Hmmm, maybe it was a critique of DoE …
Fair comment. I was, as you have kindly pointed out on many other occasions, careless in my choice of words. I should have left off with "parasitic."
Ok, come on then, argue your point. For example, why is it parasitic and not symbiotic? Put some thought and analysis in it, if you can. I doubt you will though, as it is too much of an intellectual effort to and for you 😉
I pointed out that Witchell's "job" is nothing more than a sinecure, and that he is a toady. I challenge you to seriously dispute either of those points.
There was no analysis!
I provided an example—an extremely up-to-date example—of his vacuousness. Of course, it's only fair to note that he was no worse on this occasion than his fellow state propagandist Huw Edwards.
For example, why is it parasitic and not symbiotic? Put some thought and analysis in it, if you can.
Now that is rigorous editing. Thanks for that. I'll up my game in future.
[Big deep sigh.
I pointed out that Witchell’s “job” is nothing more than a sinecure, and that he is a toady. I challenge you to seriously dispute either of those points.
At best, this is calling out. However, your insipient name-calling and lazy and negative labelling of others is not anywhere near critical analysis.
I provided an example—an extremely up-to-date example—of his vacuousness. Of course, it’s only fair to note that he was no worse on this occasion than his fellow state propagandist Huw Edwards.
Where is your analysis? All you do is copy & paste, the odd link to a YT clip, and some inane drivel you call your “oeuvre”. That ain’t analysis.
Now that is rigorous editing. Thanks for that. I’ll up my game in future.
You’ve been giving these pseudo-funny replies for years and you never up your game. I conclude it is not going to happen because you cannot or don’t want to up your game. Your comments in OM today (11 April) just emphasise and confirm this conclusion.
You seem to lack the intellectual nous to do any analytical thinking, critical analysis, or in-depth commentary. Instead, you bask in the halo of your intellectual heroes while disparaging others who are way above your league of dilettantes.
Please start up your own blog again and bore the shit out of people there, thanks – Incognito]
I have always liked reading his stuff and I have heard many others on The Standard express that same enjoyment, haven't you heard the saying "different stroke for different folks"? judging by your relentless harassment of anyone who does not fit within your very particular sense of taste or political slant, it would seem not.
[It feels like you’re trying to run interference with moderation, but you wouldn’t do that, would you?
Your comment is pointless because it doesn’t address anything in Moderation note to Morrissey or the many notes before that.
If you want a free entertainment channel then I’d suggest that you try other sites that are more geared towards your needs.
This site’s kaupapa is robust debate, not a popularity contest for most ‘enjoyable’ commenter.
Anybody who keeps posting vacuous comments here claiming to be critical of this or that without providing any original thought, analysis, or view can indeed expect some pushback from other commenters and when it reaches a certain critical point, from Moderators.
For example, claiming that one has written a comment that “was composed entirely” by the commenter when it is obviously a lie (HT to Google) is not something I personally enjoy. However, if you love this sort of shit then we have to agree to disagree.
As far as “relentless harassment” goes, are you referring to your own crusade against everybody you consider non-Left or not-Left-enough here and elsewhere? Including naming and trying to shame other commenters of this site? Including a TS Author? Personal attack, after attack, after attack. It got so bad I had to resort to Pre-Mod tools to prevent the worst of your personal insults without stifling the fragile debate here or what’s left of it.
According to you, if one has not spoken out against something or somebody, one cannot claim the be a Leftie. The Leftie badge has to be earned by attacking the right people, of course. Failing to do so loses one points. In fact, it earns one RW points!? No matter if one is a card-carrying Leftie, if they say the wrong thing here, or fail to say the right thing, according to the Adrian Thornton Doctrine, then they automatically become card-carrying RWs. Your stale slogan is also highly symptomatic of your stale mind process.
You know how tedious your comments and personal attacks have become here? You seem to have no idea or just don’t give a shit.
Please go tilt at other windmills somewhere else, e.g. at KB – Incognito]
Considering that the government is not going to do much about this, i hope people who still have some cash to spare will give to some charities over winter, cause its going to be a hard winter for many, and above all for kids.
More preschoolers are turning up to school hungry and in ill-fitting clothes – and some aren't showing up at all.
Two children's charities say they have waitlists to respond to cries for help in the Bay of Plenty, but are struggling to keep up with demand.
Older kids are having a hard time too, with families unable to afford the basics as housing costs soar and difficult decisions need to be made that sometimes see children bear the brunt.
There are 18 early childhood centres in the Bay of Plenty on the waitlist for KidsCan's under 5's programmes, three times more than the waitlist at the same time last year.
The centres waiting are in Rotorua, Tauranga, Whakatāne, Ōpōtiki and Te Puke.
Due to rising economic hardship, the charity now supports 15 early learning centres in the region, seven of which are new this year.
and just in case, these hungry kids don't get fed in school as they are Pre-schoolers.
Hours after Kelly gave birth by emergency c-section, she was ordered to get up and change her own maternity pad.
She’d just had invasive abdominal surgery, was bleeding, and could not stand up. But Kelly, 37, says a harried Wellington Hospital nurse pointed her to a stack of pads, and told her she’d need to change them herself every four hours. “I was so shocked, I just didn’t know what to do,” she says. “For the next 12 hours I had no help and I just wanted to go home, but I couldn’t move.”
The morning after she gave birth to her first baby, Palmerston North mum Julie [not her real name] was told her discharge papers were ready. “I was terrified,” the 22-year-old says. “I didn’t even know how to look after my baby.”
Her hospital notes mentioned her previous suicide attempts, and her struggles with depression and anxiety. “I don’t know if they weren’t told, or if they just didn’t read anything.”
Struggling with a diagnosis of a high-risk pregnancy, Lower Hutt mum Kirsten Van Newtown couldn’t get an urgent obstetric appointment and was instructed to simply call an ambulance if she started haemorrhaging.
Kirsten van Newtown was told to call an ambulance if she started bleeding.
“It got to the point where I was just like ‘I’m going to go to the hospital, and camp out.’ It’s not good enough, women die because of this.”
yep, caring is a small part of the budget – well it is, but if no one gets to read the plans and if no one knows where the money is …..what should that be called? Incompetence, or callous negligent malevolence?
A Maternity Action Plan was written in late 2018, to be attached to the paper.
This document received $35m of funding in last year’s Budget, with $8.75m to be spent on its implementation in the year to May 2021.
Dr John Tait: “There are now major problems, and hospitals are struggling.”
MONIQUE FORD/STUFF
Dr John Tait: “There are now major problems, and hospitals are struggling.”
But no-one outside of the ministry has seen it. The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the Perinatal and Maternal Mortality Review Committee (PMMRC), and the New Zealand College of Midwives
are among those questioning where the money has gone, and when the plan will be made public.
Salty and angry yes, indeed, at the failures of this government to do the right thing.
Btw, did you know that hter is currently a 6 month old baby here in NZ, that at two month become a domestic violence survivor? I spoke about this child a few weeks ago. Now that child was left temporarily blind and totally deaf by its sperm donor, and it was born wiht a cleft palate. A poor little urching if ever there was one. This child was on a 4 month waiting list to have a test done to see if somehow hearing could be restored via a cochlar implant and hte first steps of surgey was to be done in regards to the cleft palate.
Well guess what Sacha, that baby now is again on a 4 month waiting list for cleft palate surgery, never mind the deafness.
Her forstermum is at pains to feed the little urchins as the feeding tube was removed cause surgery – never mind that it did not happen.
If you are not angry by right now then well bully you.
But i would really leave the mysoginist words of 'depressed women, angry women, bitter woem n etc in the past and go on with the 2021.
I am salty. I am so salty that a liter of milk could not possible make me palatable.
This government is useless. I hope everyone enjoyed the Americas Cup tho. Cause we do have priorities and our hungry homeless and uncared children is not one of them.
Little Lucca Topp is only three but has already had four open-heart operations.
But a fifth surgery to address his rare condition has been delayed four times because of a lack of suitable beds at Auckland’s Starship Hospital, leaving him having seizures, going blue and regularly tired from a lack of oxygen.
Adding to the anguish of his parents Gabrielle and Mike Topp, his little brother Rocco almost died when he was born eight weeks ago, having to be resuscitated twice after his C-section birth was delayed by a week because of another bed shortage.
Are you OK Sacha? Your comment could be seen as a form of passive aggressive gaslighting of Sabine for her eminently sane and rational response to the crap going on out there. Keep it up Sabine and don’t lose the passion
Excuse me? To me, this was a genuine commenter reaching out to another in good faith and with good intentions and you come here and piss all over it!? It does seem like Sabine took it the way it was intended.
What's with this [Genter's Cabinet paper titled ‘Maternity System Transformation’, designed to highlight the problems facing maternity services and chart a path forward]:
But the cabinet paper hit a brick wall. After going out to other ministers and a raft of Government departments for consultation, it was shelved in early 2020.
Genter still doesn’t know why. She told Stuff she could not understand why Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's office was not receptive to it, and why Ardern did not discuss it at Cabinet. The issues in it were well-documented, she says.
“There was never a logical explanation … I honestly couldn’t tell you why, the whole thing was one of the most bizarre things I went through as a minister. I didn’t understand what the problem was.”
New Zealand's K-shaped Covid recovery: the well-off have bounced back by remote working and increasing their savings, while those on low incomes have faced increased job instability and rising rental prices. We're seeing people living in two different worlds in New Zealand, and Covid has only exacerbated this trend.
There is a Budget approaching on May 20. This is the Government's chance to have a transformational impact on generations of New Zealanders. I hope they take it.
– Bernie Smith is the CEO of the Monte Cecilia Housing Trust
In the event that I am reincarnated, I would like to return as a deadly virus, to contribute something to solving overpopulation. – Prince Philip, 1988
"The next phase in Biden’s plan is to spend a further $2tn on rebuilding America’s crumbling infrastructure. This will be funded by reversing some of Donald Trump’s cut to corporate tax rates, which will be opposed by Republicans in Congress but not by the IMF. When asked about the projected increase this week, the fund’s economic counsellor, Gita Gopinath, said Trump’s corporate tax cut had not done much to boost investment. Moreover, Gopinath was positively enthusiastic about the idea of a global minimum corporate tax rate, something the US has traditionally been wary of but which it now supports."
interesting to see the gender voter numbers. nats are now trying very hard to turn crusher into cushla, but female voters arent fooled.nats will be very wary about replacing collins with yet another old white guy. its time for maureen pugh to step up!! the south will rise again!(yeah right)
A 73-year long marriage is probably not something to be sniffed at – even if it is between 3rd cousins. But you have to feel sorry for the UK public – now enduring North Korean levels of media-saturating public hagiography. While none of the 100,000+ unnecessary Covid deaths received similar coverage. I guess it’s what feudalism felt like.
On that basis Sanctuary you must have a scathing commentary to share with us about Raul Castro "inheriting" his position as First Secretary of Cuba from big bro Fidel ??
"My feeling is that there’s a secret story of family rallying round to save homes, and that the banks know this."
Oh yes they know. They can turn young people into lifelong debt serfs and dispossess their parents as well. It's accumulation by dispossession – a far easier way to get rich than producing useful goods and services. As Piketty noted , we are back in Jane Austen's world where the size of your inheritance really matters.
No sooner had he interviewed the PM on his show, Mike declared that he didn’t want her back on his show thereby creating the first Schrodinger’s radio interviewee who is both present and not present while simultaneously bailing, running and waffling.
To summarise, Mike did, didn’t, does, doesn’t, will and won’t want to have the PM on his radio show.
He also accused the New Zealand media of being asleep at the wheel in failing to tackle the PM over the handling of MIQ facilities. This accusation triggered a unique media atmospheric event known as a brm (Barry reproaches Mike).
At least I know that Claire’s question isn’t linked to the question as to why NZ Bachelor winner Annie Theis isn’t pursuing a romance with Moses Mackay. That wasn’t behind the NZ Herald paywall. I wish it had been.
How can we stop this feckless behaviour that we know will destroy our land and water?
Ōwhiro Bay resident Jade Lorier was among those out collecting the waste from streets and front lawns, and said it was blowing into streams, drains and out to sea.
Photo: Supplied / Jade Lorier
Polystyrene is not biodegradable.
"I'm really worried about the health of our stream. We've got native eels, as well as fish, I'm worried about the wildlife in the marine reserve," Lorier said. "We're trying to protect and restore this area, and this is just an absolute nightmare for the south coast.
"I'd like this person to be held responsible, it's an environmental disaster. I'm furious."
The incident has led to an outcry on local Facebook groups for action against ongoing pollution blown from three nearby landfills on Happy Valley Road, and from unsecured loads being driven to them.
Lawyer Adam Holloway was among those cleaning up the polystyrene and said there was "constant fresh rubbish" being blown onto the street and the coastline. "It's disheartening," he said.
"I'm sure we didn't get them all, and next time it rains whatever is left over will flow into the gutters, and from there into the stream, and from the stream into the marine reserve."
He's among those who have called for councillors and staff to front up to a meeting to tell residents what powers they have to act,…
The sad truth is that a significant fraction of plastic waste is not recyclable. Until volumes of it are more responsible, we need safe ways to dispose of it. Maybe a use for some power plants moving away from coal in the short term.
twenty yrs ago, I worked on construction sites in sydney(just before olympics). even then ,all trucks HAD to have covered loads, and all uncovered(grass stripped off,back to topsoil) sites HAD to have catchment systems in place to stop dirt,rubbish runoff into stormwater drains. the fines levied for non compliance were eye watering, and WERE enforced. had a visit from lidcomb council(between parramatta and city central) official because neighbouring building had a layer of dust from out site. either we paid to have warehouse and 50 workers cars waterblasted or a ten thousand dollar a day fine until it was done, and we still had to pay up for cleaning. no ifs, no buts. $50,000 later ,our boss let us know what he thought of our attempts to stop dust, runoff etc…
Gosh. But I guess this is just part of the externalities of having a smart modern political and economic system doing groundbreaking building high-in-the-sky apartments!
Things can't be perfect in any system and you do get action, things get done, not like with the dozy government putting stupid, time-wasting regulations in place with dozy, nit-picking inspectors demanding expensive, time-wasting this and that so they can be seen to do something to earn their excessive salaries.
I bet the above was a common chant some decades back, from those with big ideas to get big bulges in their wallets and elsewhere because they were just such great movers and shakers.
"Currently, they spend increasing amounts on housing support – things like rent subsidies, grants, and emergency housing – which as a result saw the bill total nearly $1 billion between last September and December, up nearly $30 million on the previous quarter."
Every second cent of that payout by government is an admission that the system isn't working and yet they will pay out because it fits within the twisted economic system that they want to remain true to, and perhaps are now forced to by big business which threatens to impose sanctions on the country and government if they are deprived in any way. That is depraved, and Treasury economists were so when they induced Douglas and the Gang to usher in the swingeing management methods that would make us the darlings of the financial world, the wee experiment in an isolated laboratory with us as the hapless animals.
Cheers Grey – it intrigues me that recent NZ governments of all colours have done so little to address inequality and/or poverty. And in a wealthy country too.
NZ could be more progressive on poverty – a leader even, imho.
I got into looking up Wisconsin Works which we followed – just suited our screwed up lords and ladies in parliament. Ruthless and the others must despise whole swathes of people.
Anyway here is an interesting The Atlantic piece (they always seem to do really good long journalism that I have seen). It is all about how Wisconsin wants to grind the supposed rough edges off people, and then they let them smoothly slip through their fingers into a little round hole. With Metiria Turei's sterling efforts in mind it seems that we are as hollow in our commitment and appreciation of giving people the help and skills they need to be self-reliant in WW as is their stated aim.
By the way Red Logix I should say thanks for that vid. I haven't seen them before, (I see there are more) and it is so well done, amazing and shocking to see the scenario.
Perceptions around safety will and do play a role. Safety comes first, also, and perhaps especially so, in anything related to our health and medical interventions.
As always, an informed and educated population will make better decisions. As always, the mainstream media play a role in this. Emerging stories about blood clots possibly linked to Covid vaccines will worry people, especially those who have diabetes and who are, coincidentally, more likely to suffer complications from the disease when they get it.
New Zealand has purchased 10 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine, enough for everyone in NZ (and given refusers in NZ, there will be some to share around with our Pacific neighbours).
So far I have only heard of blood clots being a possible concern in relation to AstraZeneca/Oxford and the Janssen/J&J, not Pfizer
The side effects I've heard of so far for the Pfizer vaccine are allergic reactions (roughly 11 incidences of anaphylaxis per million doses), believed to be related to the polyethylene glycol used as a stabiliser, and swollen lymph nodes that may show on mammograms. As far as I can tell, these reactions have all been temporary with no permanent effects detected. I would certainly expect NZers with a history of allergic reactions to be offered an alternative vaccine to the Pfizer if they don't want to risk anaphylaxis.
There are other possible side effects linked to the Pfizer vaccine that also seem to involve blood clotting. However, they seem to have attracted much less attention in/from the media. I’m not in a position to speculate. Nevertheless, even if/when these links are causative ones, the benefits of these vaccines outweigh the risks by a huge factor.
Well so far no mass death have occurred in the US or the UK who both have rolled out both vaccines. And in the US they have managed to vaccine up to 4 million a day.
? And this is another time i don't understand your english? Get of the grass? Are you insinuating that i am breaking the law by ingesting an illegal substance? If you did, i would appreciate that you don't. thanks.
As for the deep state, i leave these theories to the usual suspects of whom there are already quite a few on this page. I peddle in facts rather then assumptions.
Fact is that plenty million people on this planet have had various different vaccines now, from the US, Russia, China, etc and so far we have yet to hear of mass dying or mass injuries.
So yeah, NZ bring on the vaccine, before the unspeakable happens because again we be full of 'She'll be right, mate' until she is not.
"get off the grass" is kiwi slang, scornfully rejecting an idea put forward. In this specific instance, there appear to be multiple levels to it, with a hefty dig at conspiracy theorists (I don’t see a dig at you, Sabine).
It was common in the 80s, but I can't recall hearing it much since returning from the US in '99.
Ooh, that brings back memories. I have indeed been told to "get off the grass" by Paul Callaghan. Several times, IIRC.
My first encounter with his communication style was at a first year physics lab, and I was struggling with getting some optics stuff working correctly. He asked how I was going, and I said "My head hurts", and he said "Good. That's supposed to happen".
Just had my first vaccination today in the medical centre in my small (750 pop) town in the top of the South Island. There were a couple of hundred people vaccinated today – it was a well oiled machine! Second vaccination appointment made as well for 3 weeks time, plus given a card with dates, batch number etc.
Nope. People in the SI having to wait for others would be contentious. Similarly, people in Group 3 having to wait until vaccination of Groups 1 and 2 has been fully completed would be contentious. Sliding and overlapping is the most practical way to roll out the vaccine to the whole nation in a timely fashion.
Ash Sarkar is marvellous, a positive treasure and a rising star of a left movement that will replace the British Labour party with something else within 20 years unless that party can somehow rid itself of focus group driven professional politics and ultra centrism.
4/06/1996 — Address to the Fifth Annual Hayek Memorial Lecture … Roger (now Sir Roger) Douglas, Minister of Finance in the Labour … As for the tax reforms, the flattening and lowering of income-tax rates … The extent of the reforms in New Zealand was so great that it is difficult to describe them in short compass.
.
Do not try to advance a step at a time. Define your objectives clearly and move towards them in quantum leaps. … Once the programme begins to be implemented, do not stop until you have completed it. The fire of opponents is much less accurate if they have to shoot at a rapidly moving target.
Roger Douglas, former New Zealand Minister of Finance, in Douglas 1993: 67
.
IN A NEW WORLD, NEW THINKING IS REQUIRED – Krieger … https://sites.krieger.jhu.edu › iae › files › 2021/01 PDF
Why the Prioritization of Resources is Crucial to New Zealand's Economic … Roger Douglas[deleted; please no e-mail addresses in comments as this will attract bots], as Minister of Finance in New Zealand, won an … He has done a considerable amount of work internationally, for The World Bank … Director of their PhD Program, where he was awarded Best Teacher Prizes.
Sorry – these high fliers love their links, also didn't know about bots and emails – can't get some PDFs I don't seem set up to get them. So just took the heading and summary off google.
Another Poot critic offs himself in mysterious circumstances and the oligarch's booty continues to pour into the UK. Number 10's carpets must be sodden.
The prominent Kremlin critic Nikolai Glushkov was strangled at his home in south-west London by an unknown assailant who wrapped a dog lead around his neck in a crude attempt to “simulate” the appearance of suicide, an inquest heard
[…]
A postmortem, however, found signs Glushkov had been murdered. These included fractures to his larynx and hyoid bones, as well as superficial injuries to his face. A paramedic who came to the scene, Dominic Beil, said he immediately called the police because he felt the scene was suspicious.
Beil said that in suicide cases the ladder was typically kicked over but in this case remained upright. He said he found Glushkova sobbing in the kitchen. Glushkov was dressed in a green polo shirt and tracksuit bottoms and was clearly dead, he said.
The inquest was told Glushkov’s murderer had ambushed him from behind and had rapidly subdued his victim. There were no signs of “prolonged grappling”. Glushkov had taken mild sedatives and a glass of alcohol but this had not played a role in what a coroner ruled on Friday was an “unlawful killing”.
The article was written by the respected and thoroughly professional Luke Harding, I see. So we can believe everything in it. Is he any relation to the unfortunate fellow humiliating himself in the following classic clip?
Reminding people that Luke Harding is possibly the most discredited journalist in the western world—more discredited even than Jonathan Freedland, Jayson Blair and Judith Miller combined—is hardly "ad hom." I did not attack his appearance or his accent or anything like that; my judgement of him is based on the fact that he has been exposed irrefutably as a liar and a conspiracy theorist.
You have said precisely nothing that makes sense. I see you used the word "epistemic"; I suggest you get in touch with Kim Hill, who blithely announced a couple of weeks ago that she had "no idea what the word epistemological means."
Exactly. That's why I'm not interested in Luke Harding's appearance, or mannerisms, or hobbies, or his family. I care about the fact he has chosen to brazenly, and repeatedly, lie for the state.
I guess that means I'm discussing events rather than "ideas." Darn it, I'm not a "great mind" then, according to Mrs Roosevelt.
Just as well ER is dead because she’d have died a slow and painful death reading your boring comments; Vogon poetry is like a Thai massage compared to your commentary.
I did neither. I asked him to clarify his baffling post.
Ad =//= Kim Hill so WTF?
By sheer happenstance, the two of them happened to use the same big word. To give Ad his due, I suspect he actually understands what it means, unlike Ms. Hill.
His "quoted writing"? Harding is discredited. He did that to himself. I provided one of the most devastatingly embarrassing interviews in history, which you are quite able to click on and watch. I recommend you do just that.
"A postmortem, however, found signs Glushkov had been murdered. These included fractures to his larynx and hyoid bones, as well as superficial injuries to his face. A paramedic who came to the scene, Dominic Beil, said he immediately called the police because he felt the scene was suspicious."
Reporting facts that run counter to the narrative promoted by the kooks, cranks, tankies, second option bias fantasists, and other misinformation artists you have outsourced your opinion-forming to is not the same thing as 'discredited'.
I have read all of Luke Harding's books, and a great deal of his "reportage." Do I read a wide variety of sources? Yes. Do I evaluate what they write and say? Yes. I have not "outsourced" my opinions to anyone.
Your farrago of epithets directed at journalists of the calibre of Aaron Maté, Jeremy Scahill, Glenn Greenwald and John Pilger is not as colorful as your daily serves at Trump over the last four years, but it is equally rigorous.
Of course this lot cannot explain why most of the journalists mentioned, although regularly invited on Liberal MSM pre Trump, were/ still are completely shut down as soon as they easily dismantled the obvious fraud of Russiagate?…now you would think that any person using even just the tiniest itsy weeniest bit of their critical thinking capacity, would have, after a few months of the Russiagate story, started to wonder why there was NEVER any counter narrative? NEVER any pushback at all from anyone, anywhere ever, even from those very journalists that not that very long ago were the most revered journalist on the Left…but no, this lot would rather believe every word the MI6, CIA spoon feeds them, via the liberal media machine..why ask questions?, why ask for proof?, why test the narrative in open debate?..who needs it, right!!
As I mentioned last week ( https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-02-04-2021/#comment-1786400 ) it turns out that commenters on TS such as Andre’, Ad, Joe 90 etc have an incredibly similar world geo political view as the conservative UK foreign office..yes it seems just like the UK Conservative Party, our friends here on this very site just cannot get enough of regime change wars, sanctions, shutting down whistle blowers etc…yep, just like their friends in the UK Conservative Party, this lot are just a bunch of postmodern Imperialists nothing more or less.
I often wonder if they even realize how right-wing they have become themselves?, or whether they have just slipped there so slowly over time, that it has just become natural for them to think (not think) this way…whatever the reason it is quite a sad thing to witness this uncoupling of so many good comrades first to the centre and now to the actual right.
Though that being said, I always thought free market liberalism was just a gateway drug to the right…and so it has come to pass.
Another long rant from you that is essentially an ad hom. Not all people think like you, express themselves like you, and necessarily like the same stuff as you do. In fact, they may disagree with you, says things in ways that you dislike and/or disapprove of, and like stuff that you dislike and/or disapprove of. You cannot get your head around this fact and therefore you lash out and accuse them of being the ‘enemy’, because things are B & W in Adrian land; this is called projecting.
You’re rapidly becoming as boring and nonsensical as Morrissey as well as hypercritical, ultra-negative, and sometimes even outright aggressive towards other commenters 🙁
Morrissey exposed nothing! He simply provided a link to a 29-min long YT clip made by somebody else and as usual without anything intelligent added that could pass as analysis. Typical Morrissey style.
You seem to be cut from the same cloth; saying it does not make it so.
No, I did not watch the YT clip, for the simple reason that there was nothing enticing me to do so. In fact, it was the opposite, thanks to Mossie’s trenchant commentary.
Morrissey did not expose anything by linking to that YT clip. If anything, the people in and/or who made the YT clip may have exposed something, who knows?
Feel free to watch it and critique it, but I’m not holding my breath 🙄
In your opinion, of course. Which you formulated completely independently, of course.
So, this is your MO: find a YT clip or some writing that you vehemently disagree with (because of mysterious reasons that only a psychologist might understand) and then use it to have a swipe at the messenger/author. Then you claim (!) that it was trenchant critique and analysis of the content while in fact it was an attack on the messenger/author all along.
You clearly have no will to see where Morrissey might be coming from, by viewing and perhaps trying to understand the YT clip, and using that new information to make an assessment of the original post.
[As you know, it is expected on this site that when commenters link to a YT clip, especially a longer one, they provide an explanation why people should watch it. It is also expected that they provide some analysis and opinion of their own, you know, an original contribution, e.g. to start off constructive robust debate. Repeatedly failing to do so is considered a form of spamming, sometimes trolling, and will attract Moderators’ attention.
Why do you keep ignoring this and why are you doubling down on this? You’re now wasting Moderator time – Incognito]
Was there no context at all? He just dumped it on you, out of the blue?
Do you suggest I should ban Andre for wasting your time? I hate it when people deliberately waste my time; they’re usually trolls or spammers, the vermin of the blogosphere.
No. I'm saying posting YT videos is not a capital offence. I just ignore them like I ignored Andre's NZIER document.
[Another smart arse commenter telling us how to do and not do things here?
No. I’m saying posting YT videos is not a capital offence.
Please don’t bother re-writing the site’s Policy, as posting YT videos never has been a capital offence here. You’re disinformed.
Do you have anything useful to add or are you just trying to waste Moderator time as well? It seems to be the topic du jour. However, a piece of string is only as long its breaking point and a bubble pops when you pierce it one too many times – Incognito]
Here's a list of people supposed impartial political observer, Dr Bryce Edwards, quotes in his latest cut 'n' paste effort about the National Party leadership trysts:
Claire Trevett – National Party embedded journalist.
Richard Prebble – Former ACT MP and far right wing activist.
Tova O'Brien – Neutral, but only by dint of being about Tova and Tova alone.
David Farrar, twice – Sheesh. Farrar seems more quoted by Dr Bryce than any other.
Dan Satherley – Hardly noticed him before. Must be good.
Audrey Young – Noted right wing journalist with long National Party affiliations.
Heather Duplicity-Allen , also twice – Increasingly hard right wing shock jock.
Matthew Hooton – Oh, my, God.
Andrea Vance – See Tova O'Brien.
Luke Malpass – Australian right wing journalist.
Seven out of ten sources from the right and far right, and three relatively neutral. As a footnote, in the satire section, Dr Bryce entertained the only two entries which might be considered left wing voices.
So much for balanced media, and so much for balanced media critics.
Bryce Edwards is quoting experienced political reporters who have the qualifications and experience to be quoted.
Farrar and Hooten are some of the right's most trenchant critics, both roundly rejected by National's cliques.
Edwards himself is raising questions that plenty of other observers have been raising. Indeed National has changed its leaders three times in a year for the same reasons.
I don't think you read my comment. Bryce Edwards pretends to be an impartial observer yet he quotes no qualified person writing from the left's perspective.
Such a person might have explained that National's leadership issues run way deeper that the personalities involved. The core of the rot is in the Party itself, its moribund and corrupt leadership and membership alike.
There was a progressive thread to his writing, back in the day, but he was monstered by the other political writers at the Herald after a few well-researched columns.
Since that time he's produced drivel – compromised hack-work – and his progressive credibility, such as it was, is at zero.
(Beirut) – Syrian authorities are unlawfully confiscating the homes and lands of Syrians who fled Syrian-Russian military attacks in Idlib and Hama governorates, Human Rights Watch said today.
A pro-government militia and the government-controlled “Peasants’ Unions” were involved in seizing and auctioning these lands to government supporters.
“Peasants’ Unions are supposed to help protect farmers’ rights, but have become one more tool in the Syrian government’s systematic repression of its own people,” said Sara Kayyali, Syria researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Aid organizations should ensure that Peasants’ Unions are not providing assistance for farming on stolen land.”
They're more than a front, they're a tool. Ken Roth’s support for the extreme right coup in Bolivia and his contempt for the democratically elected government is akin to backing Franco over the Republican government in the 1930s.
Hi Stuart Munro if you are around. There is an historic account for a Stuart Young. an entrepreneur with Ron Davis in something called Interlock – clever chap. He lived in Breaker Bay from a boy, he knew on the fateful Wahine day on April 10, 1968 that there was trouble. The weather was worse than ever before.
It says about it 'At 6.30 am that day, Stuart and Jenny saw the Wahine in Chaffers Passage, on the Breaker Bay side of the reef, facing the houses (a sight witnessed by many in the bay but never accepted by the official court of inquiry). It was clear she was in serious trouble and Stuart immediately phoned the police.'
Why would the Court reject the witnesses' evidence? Why would the position of the boat be so important; if it was facing the houses then it would have been prow towards them and trying to beach wouldn't it?
Incidentally Young and Davis set up a business to be emulated today. They had to fight protective battles for their patents in Uk and Japan. The company patented all over the world so that they kept ahead of global competitors through invention and smart marketing. They operated a profit-sharing bonus system and a medical insurance scheme, arranged free influenza vaccinations for anyone who wanted them and offered opportunities for staff to train and retrain at all levels and employees were encouraged to make decisions and to raise any matter they wanted and be honest with each other; everyone was on first-name terms. Wow.
Why would the Court reject the witnesses' evidence?
Official positions, like those of MSA, the harbour master, and the officers of the vessels traditionally had a level of privilege that is hard to imagine now that video of such occurrences is in play to debunk the most egregious political distortions of such systems. The thirty million MSA spend on helicopter flights during the wreck of the Rena, for example, implied that they were not so much seamen, as troughers. Were they seamen they’d have done more work by boat.
Why would the position of the boat be so important; if it was facing the houses then it would have been prow towards them and trying to beach wouldn't it?
Without a full knowledge of events one cannot judge whether the ship's heading was appropriate or not – it might have steered into the wind to minimize leeway, or, as you say, to try to beach, or to avoid a hazard like Barret's Reef which they had misunderstood the position of. The wind may also have blown the bow around, off the desired course, and they might have been struggling to get back on track.
I used to have a pocket watch from the Wahine, that I found diving on Barret's Reef.
Thanks Stuart interesting and your first part possibly would refer also to the Mikhail Lermontov tragedy of one of Russia's premier ships being piloted by a Marlborough leading mariner to a watery grave. Was it political,, was it sabotage? Will we ever know and why pilot Jamieson got off lightly.
I was also wondering if the Wahine couldn't be said to have been steered towards land or the insurance might have placed personal blame on the Captain rather than the consideration of an Act of God causing the damage, or whatever cover was to be provided.
“Follow the money” is the classic directive to journalists trying to understand where power and influence lie in society. In terms of uncovering who influences various New Zealand political parties and governments, it therefore pays to look at who is funding them. The political parties are legally obliged to make ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Here is my subjective ranking on a “most-left” to “most-right” scale of most of our major NZ Universities, with some anecdotal (and at times amusing) evidence to back up the claim.Extreme Left Auckland University of TechnologyEvidenceThe ...
Eric Crampton writes – I hadn’t thought about this one until a helpful email showed up in my inbox.It’s pretty obvious that income tax thresholds should automatically index with inflation – whether to anchor the thresholds in percentiles of the income distribution, or to anchor against a real ...
Jacqui Van Der Kaay writes – Parliament’s speaker had no option but to refer Green MP Julie Anne Genter to the Privileges Committee for her behaviour in the House last Wednesday evening. The incident, in which she crossed the floor to wave a book and yell at National ...
Gary Judd writes – The Dean of the law school at the Auckland University of Technology is someone called Khylee Quince. I have been sent her social media posting in which she has, over the LawNews headline “Senior King’s Counsel files complaint about compulsory tikanga Maori studies for ...
Cleo Paskal writes – WASHINGTON, D.C.: ‘Many of us have received phone calls from [the opposing camp] telling them if they join the camp they will be given projects for their wards and $300,000 [around US$35,000] each’, says former Malaita Premier Daniel Suidani. The elections in Solomon Islands aren’t ...
With hindsight, it was inevitable that (a) Hamas would agree to the ceasefire deal brokered by Egypt and Qatar and that ( b) Israel would then immediately launch attacks on Rafah, regardless. We might have hoped the concessions made by Hamas would cause Israel to desist from slaughtering thousands more ...
Placards and mourners outside the Kilbirnie Mosque following the Christchurch terror attack: MSD has terminated the Kaiwhakaoranga service, which has been used by 415 families since the attacks. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The Government’s pledge to only cut ‘back office’ staff rather than ‘frontline’ services is on increasingly shaky ground, with ...
There’s been a few smaller public transport announcements over the last week or so that I thought I’d cover in a single post. Fareshare I’ve long called for Auckland Transport to offer a way to enable employer-subsidised public transport options. The need for this took on even more importance ...
Parliament’s speaker had no option but to refer Green MP Julie Anne Genter to the Privileges Committee for her behaviour in the House last Wednesday evening. The incident, in which she crossed the floor to wave a book and yell at National Minister Matt Doocey, reflects poorly on Genter and ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Who likes being sneered at? Nobody. Worse yet, when the sneerer has their facts all wrong, and might well be an idiot.The sneer in question is The adults are in charge now, and it is a sneer offered in retort to criticism of this new Government, no matter how well ...
When in government, Labour pushed to extend the Parliamentary term to four years, to reduce accountability and our ability to vote out a bad government. And now, they're trying to do it through the member's ballot, with a Four-Year Parliamentary Term Legislation Bill. The bill at least requires a referendum ...
A ballot for a single Member's Bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill (Hūhana Lyndon) The bill would prevent the government from stealing Māori land in breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. It ...
Simeon Brown, alongside Wayne Brown, is favouring a political figleaf now in exchange for loading up tens of millions in extra interest costs on Auckland ratepayers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s is pushing back hard at suggestions from Local Government Minister Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown ...
Buzz from the Beehive One headline-grabber from the Beehive yesterday was the OECD’s advice that the government must bring the Budget deficit under control or face higher interest rates. Another was the announcement of a $1.9 billion “investment” in Corrections over the next four years. In the best interests of ...
Chris Trotter writes – Had Zheng He’s fleet sailed east, not west, in the early Fifteenth Century, how different our world would be. There is little reason to suppose that the sea-going junks of the Ming Dynasty, among the largest and most sophisticated sailing vessels ever constructed, would have failed ...
David Farrar writes – Two articles give a useful contrast in balance. Both seek to be neutral explainer articles. This one in the Herald on Social Investment covers the pros and cons nicely. It links to critical pieces and talks about aspects that failed and aspects that are more ...
The tikanga regulations will compel law students to be taught that a system which does not conform with the rule of law is nevertheless law which should be observed and applied…Gary Judd KC writes – I have made a complaint to Parliament’s Regulation ...
The future of Te Huia, the train between Hamilton and Auckland, has been getting a lot of attention recently as current funding for it is only in place till the end of June. The government initially agreed to a five year trial, through to April 2026, but that was subject ...
TL;DR: Hamas has just agreed to Israel’s ceasefire plan. Nelson hospital’s rebuild has been cut back to save money. The OECD suggests New Zealand break up network monopolies, including in electricity. PM Christopher Luxon’s news conference on a prison expansion announcement last night was his messiest yet.Here’s my top six ...
A homicide in Ponsonby, a manhunt with a killer on the run. The nation’s leader stands before a press conference reassuring a frightened nation that he’ll sort it out, he’ll keep them safe, he’ll build some new prison spaces.Sorry what? There’s a scary dude on the run with a gun ...
Hi,I know it’s been awhile since there’s been any Webworm merch — and today that all changes!Over the last four months, I’ve been working with New Zealand artist Jess Johnson to create a series of t-shirts, caps and stickers that are infused with Webworm DNA — and as of right ...
The OECD’s chief economist yesterday laid it on the line for the new Government: bring the deficit under control or face higher Reserve Bank interest rates for longer. And to bring the deficit under control, she meant not borrowing for tax cuts. But there was more. Without policy changes—introducing a ...
After a hiatus of over four months Selwyn Manning and I finally got it together to re-start the “A View from Afar” podcast series. We shall see how we go but aim to do 2 episodes per month if possible. … Continue reading → ...
In 2008, the UK Parliament passed the Climate Change Act 2008. The law established a system of targets, budgets, and plans, with inbuilt accountability mechanisms; the aim was to break the cycle of empty promises and replace it with actual progress towards emissions reduction. The law was passed with near-universal ...
Buzz from the Beehive Local Water Done Well – let’s be blunt – is a silly name, but the first big initiative to put it into practice has gone done well. This success is reflected in the headline on an RNZ report:District mayors welcome Auckland’s new water deal with ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate ConnectionsA farmworker cleans the solar panels of a solar water pump in the village of Jagadhri, Haryana Country, India. (Photo credit: Prashanth Vishwanathan/ IWMI) Decisions made in India over the next few years will play a key role in global ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – The Children’s Minister, Karen Chhour, intends to repeal Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 because it creates conflict between claimed Crown Treaty obligations and the child’s best interests. In her words, “Oranga Tamariki’s governing principles and its act should be colour ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. ...
Brian Easton writes – This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be (I will report on them ...
TL;DR:Winston Peters is reported to have won a budget increase for MFAT. David Seymour wanted his Ministry of Regulation to be three times bigger than the Productivity Commission. Simeon Brown is appointing a Crown Monitor to Watercare to protect the Claytons Crown Guarantee he had to give ratings agencies ...
The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. Carr had made highly ...
I could be a florist'Round the corner from Rye LaneI'll be giving daisies to craziesBut, baby, I'll wrap you up real safe Oh, I can give you flowers At the end of every dayFor the center of your table, a rainbowIn case you have people 'round to stay Depending on ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to May 12 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Finance Minister Nicola Willis will give a pre-budget speech on Thursday.Parliament sits from Question Time at 2pm on ...
The price of the foreign affairs “reset” is now becoming apparent, with Defence set to get a funding boost in the Budget. Finance Minister Nicola Willis has confirmed that it will be one of the few votes, apart from Health and Education and possibly Police, which will get an increase ...
A listing of 26 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 28, 2024 thru Sat, May 4, 2024. Story of the week "It’s straight out of Big Tobacco’s playbook. In fact, research by John Cook and his colleagues ...
Yesterday I received come lovely feedback following my Star Wars themed newsletter. A few people mentioned they’d enjoyed reading the personal part at the beginning.I often begin newsletters with some memories, or general thoughts, before commencing the main topic. This hopefully sets the mood and provides some context in which ...
April 30 was going to be the day we’d be calling Mum from London to wish her a happy birthday. Then it became the day we would be going to St. Paul's at Evensong to remember her. The aim of the cathedral builders was to find a way to make their ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Can’t remember the last book by a Kiwi author you read? Think the NZ government should spend less on the arts in favor of helping the homeless? If so, as far as Newsroom is concerned, you probably deserve to be called a cultural ignoramus ...
Eric Crampton writes – Grudges are bad. Better to move on. But it can be fun to keep a couple of really trivial ones, so you’re not tempted to have other ones. For example, because of the rootkit fiasco of 2005, no Sony products in our household. ...
A new report warns an estimated third of the adult population have unmet need for health care.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāHere’s the six key things I learned about Aotaroa’s political economy this week around housing, climate and poverty:Politics - Three opinion polls confirmed support for PM Christopher Luxon ...
Today is May the fourth. Which was just a regular day when my mother took me to see the newly released Star Wars at the Odeon in Rotorua. The queue was right around the corner. Some years later this day became known as Star Wars Day, the date being a ...
Buzz from the Beehive Much more media attention is being paid to something Winston Peters said about former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr than to a speech he delivered to the New Zealand China Council. One word is missing from the speech: AUKUS. But AUKUS loomed large in his considerations ...
Is the economy in another long stagnation? If so, why?This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be ...
The annual list of who's been bribing our politicians is out, and journalists will no doubt be poring over it to find the juiciest and dirtiest bribes. The government's fast-track invite list is likely to be a particular focus, and we already know of one company on the list which ...
In the weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Southern Israel I wrote about the possible 2nd, 3rd and even 4th order effects of the conflict. These included new fronts being opened in the West Bank (with Hamas), Golan … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is one of the oldest truisms that there is never a good time for MPs to get a pay rise. This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Hon Willie Jackson has been invited by the Oxford Union to debate the motion “This House Believes British Museums are not Very British’ on May 23rd. ...
Green Party MP Hūhana Lyndon says her Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill is an opportunity to right some past wrongs around the alienation of Māori land. ...
A senior, highly respected King’s Counsel with decades of experience in our law courts, Gary Judd KC, has filed a complaint about compulsory tikanga Māori studies for law students - highlighting the utter depths of absurdity this woke cultural madness has taken our society. The tikanga regulations will compel law ...
The Government needs to be clear with the people of the Nelson Marlborough region about the changes it is considering for the Nelson Hospital rebuild, Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
New research on the impacts of extreme weather on coastal marine habitats in Tairāwhiti and Hawke’s Bay will help fishery managers plan for and respond to any future events, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. A report released today on research by Niwa on behalf of Fisheries New Zealand ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters will lead a broad political delegation on a five-stop Pacific tour next week to strengthen New Zealand’s engagement with the region. The delegation will visit Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and Tuvalu. “New Zealand has deep and ...
There has been a material decline in gas production according to figures released today by the Gas Industry Co. Figures released by the Gas Industry Company show that there was a 12.5 per cent reduction in gas production during 2023, and a 27.8 per cent reduction in gas production in the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins tonight announced the recipients of the Minister of Defence Awards of Excellence for Industry, saying they all contribute to New Zealanders’ security and wellbeing. “Congratulations to this year’s recipients, whose innovative products and services play a critical role in the delivery of New Zealand’s defence capabilities, ...
Welcome to you all - it is a pleasure to be here this evening.I would like to start by thanking Greg Lowe, Chair of the New Zealand Defence Industry Advisory Council, for co-hosting this reception with me. This evening is about recognising businesses from across New Zealand and overseas who in ...
It is a pleasure to be speaking to you as the Minister for Digitising Government. I would like to thank Akolade for the invitation to address this Summit, and to acknowledge the great effort you are making to grow New Zealand’s digital future. Today, we stand at the cusp of ...
New Zealand is urging both Israel and Hamas to agree to an immediate ceasefire to avoid the further humanitarian catastrophe that military action in Rafah would unleash, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The immense suffering in Gaza cannot be allowed to worsen further. Both sides have a responsibility to ...
A new online data dashboard released today as part of the Government’s school attendance action plan makes more timely daily attendance data available to the public and parents, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. The interactive dashboard will be updated once a week to show a national average of how ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced Rosemary Banks will be New Zealand’s next Ambassador to the United States of America. “Our relationship with the United States is crucial for New Zealand in strategic, security and economic terms,” Mr Peters says. “New Zealand and the United States have a ...
The Government is considering creating a new tier of minerals permitting that will make it easier for hobby miners to prospect for gold. “New Zealand was built on gold, it’s in our DNA. Our gold deposits, particularly in regions such as Otago and the West Coast have always attracted fortune-hunters. ...
Minister for Trade Todd McClay today announced that New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will commence negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA). Minister McClay met with his counterpart UAE Trade Minister Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi in Dubai, where they announced the launch of negotiations on a ...
New Zealand Sign Language Week is an excellent opportunity for all Kiwis to give the language a go, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. This week (May 6 to 12) is New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) Week. The theme is “an Aotearoa where anyone can sign anywhere” and aims to ...
Six tertiary students have been selected to work on NASA projects in the US through a New Zealand Space Scholarship, Space Minister Judith Collins announced today. “This is a fantastic opportunity for these talented students. They will undertake internships at NASA’s Ames Research Center or its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where ...
New Zealanders will be safer because of a $1.9 billion investment in more frontline Corrections officers, more support for offenders to turn away from crime, and more prison capacity, Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell says. “Our Government said we would crack down on crime. We promised to restore law and order, ...
The OECD’s latest report on New Zealand reinforces the importance of bringing Government spending under control, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The OECD conducts country surveys every two years to review its members’ economic policies. The 2024 New Zealand survey was presented in Wellington today by OECD Chief Economist Clare Lombardelli. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Responding to an Auditor-General's report slamming failures in the administration of the 2023 General Election, Taxpayers’ Union Policy and Public Affairs Manager, James Ross, said: ...
The Taxpayers’ Union says the Beehive need to lead by example, following reports of more than $50,000 spent upgrading video conferencing equipment and furniture in the Prime Minister’s office. Taxpayers’ Union Campaign Manager, Connor Molloy, ...
An objective list of the 50 most powerful people in New Zealand, as judged by the Spinoff Editorial Board. It’s power list season, baby, and we want in on the action. Sure, there’s the rich list and the powerful “c-suite” list and the young people with power (hmmm) but here, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Thalia Anthony, Professor of Law, University of Technology Sydney ShutterstockThis article contains information on deaths in custody and the names of deceased people, and describes ongoing colonial violence towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. First Nations people in Australia ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alex Simpson, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, Macquarie University Netflix Baby Reindeer’s phenomenal success has much to do with its writer and lead, Richard Gadd, who plays Donny in a tender semi-autobiographical account of sexual abuse, harassment and stalking. Gadd’s story has ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Collins, Laureate Professor in Nutrition and Dietetics, University of Newcastle KarolinaGrabowska/Pexels If you didn’t have food allergies as a child, is it possible to develop them as an adult? The short answer is yes. But the reasons why are much ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul Moon, Professor of History, Auckland University of Technology Ans Westra, self-portrait, c. 1963. National Library ref AWM-0705-F They try but invariably fail – those writers who believe they are capable of encapsulating in prose or verse the essence of ...
Stewart Sowman-Lund looks at the growing concern around the world in this extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. What’s all this? When Covid-19 arrived on our shores in early 2020, some argued we were too slow, or crucially, ill-prepared for a pandemic. So ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Franco Montalto, Professor of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering and Director, Sustainable Water Resource Engineering Laboratory, Drexel University Water runs into a storm drain in a Los Angeles alley on Aug. 19, 2023, during Tropical Storm Hilary.Citizen of the Planet/Universal Images ...
The inquest into the death of Gore toddler Lachlan Jones has turned up a new witness who says he saw two teenagers and a small child in a high vis vest in the area where the boy’s body was found the day he died. Lachie’s body was discovered face up ...
Stories from the tenancy trenches, featuring spider infestations, cupboard rats and same-sex discrimination. Lucy’s brother was living in a damp 1930s building in Mt Eden where “he had to tie the cupboard doors closed so the rats didn’t get in”. Although he shared custody of his six-year-old son, his property ...
Simeon Brown, Chris Luxon, and Wayne Brown climbed into a hole and announced a plan to solve Auckland’s water woes. This is how it’ll work. New Zealand’s pipes are munted. They’re cracked and leaking, and struggling to handle all the extra poos excreted by our rising population. It’s a big, ...
After replacing a fifth of their caucus in just four months, the Greens’ opportunity to reset, reshuffle and refocus on the Government is quickly slipping away The post Persistent Green Party scandals delay caucus reset appeared first on Newsroom. ...
I knew Taika Waititi quite well when he was a kid. His mother lived in a tall narrow house in Aro St, and my youngest sister had a similar house two doors along. They were both single mums, they each had a son aged seven. Taika and my nephew Stepan ...
Opinion: “As time passes, knowledge of the circumstances of the August 2016 outbreak will fade and its immediate impact will be lost.” This statement is from the 2017 report of the Official Inquiry into the Havelock North campylobacteriosis outbreak. The then National-led government established the inquiry after the outbreak left ...
Opinion: Nicholas Khoo looks at two key points in the high-stakes foreign policy pact debate – and asks if NZ can engage with as little drama as possible. The post Where to next for the Aukus ruckus? appeared first on Newsroom. ...
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Opinion: ‘Reference-class forecasting’ is at the heart of improving pricing a project and identifying the expected timeframe but it doesn’t appear to be in use here The post ‘Think fast and act slowly’ is failing big projects appeared first on Newsroom. ...
What do a sombrero in Argentina and cognitive driving tests have in common? Don’t worry, we’re not setting up a bad joke. Hinengaro Clinic dementia clinician Gregory Winkelman has the answer on today’s episode of The Detail. “We ask a patient’s spouse or son or daughter: If you went to ...
Wellington long jumper Phoebe Edwards is back and she’s having fun again. Until this year, Edwards, a top athlete in her teens, had never competed as a senior athlete in New Zealand. In March, the 26-year-old won a national long jump title in a lifetime best of 6.28m after ...
ANALYSIS:By Olli Hellmann, University of Waikato When New Zealanders commemorate Anzac Day today on April 25, it’s not only to honour the soldiers who lost their lives in World War I and subsequent conflicts, but also to mark a defining event for national identity. The battle of Gallipoli against ...
By Robin Martin, RNZ News reporter A New Zealand local authority, Whanganui District Council, has passed a motion calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, condemnation of all acts of violence and terror against civilians on both sides of the conflict and the immediate return of hostages. It comes as ...
Asia Pacific Report The Aotearoa chapter of the Women’s International league for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) has appealed to the New Zealand government to call out Israel over the “cruel and barbaric use of force” in Gaza and demand a permanent ceasefire. The league’s open letter was sent to Prime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Albanese government will invest $566 million over a decade on data, maps and other tools to promote exploration and development in Australia’s resources industry. The project will fund “the first comprehensive map of what’s ...
Asia Pacific Report Following an open letter by Auckland University academics speaking out in support of their students’ right to protest against the genocidal Israeli war on Gaza, a group of academics at Otago University have today also called on New Zealand academic institutions to “repair colonial violence” and end ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Linda J. Graham, Professor and Director of the Centre for Inclusive Education, Queensland University of Technology Ryan Tauss/ Unsplash, CC BY Two male students have been expelled from a Melbourne private school for their involvement in a list ranking female students. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The Reserve Bank is now assuming Australians will see no interest rate cuts this year – and quite possibly none before the next federal election, due next May. That’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Hayward, Emeritus Professor of Public Policy, RMIT University The Victorian budget offered more of the same on Tuesday, with the only change being how the budget papers were packaged. The usual shrink wrap was gone, hinting at savings in the pages ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Coalition is demanding extensive amendments to the government’s legislation targeting non-citizens who refuse to co-operate with their removal. In a dissenting report to the senate inquiry into the legislation, the Coalition says it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vanita Yadav, Senior Research Fellow, Urban Transformations Research Centre, Western Sydney University Brett Boardman/Belvoir The complex and grappling issue of violence against women takes centre stage in the soul-stirring solo dance drama Nayika: A Dancing Girl. During a dinner conversation ...
Disruption to patient care from a nationwide junior doctors strike is bordering on unsafe, a senior doctor claims, despite what health officials say. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Diepstraten, Senior Research Officer, Blood Cells and Blood Cancer Division, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute Ground Picture/Shutterstock The anti-cancer drug abemaciclib (also known as Vernezio) has this month been added to the Australian Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) to treat certain ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dominic McAfee, Postdoctoral researcher, marine ecology, University of Adelaide Robbie Porter, OzFish Unlimited Around Australia, hundreds of people are coming together to help a once-prized, but decimated and largely forgotten marine ecosystem. They’re busy restoring Australia’s native oyster and mussel reefs. ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rory Mulcahy, Associate Professor of Marketing, University of the Sunshine Coast Professional sports organisations regularly promote and develop initiatives to support diversity, equity and inclusion. While sport has the power to change attitudes by sparking conversations about political issues and social ...
Comment: The weekly Monday post-Cabinet press conference is a useful forum for observing Christopher Luxon and how he is developing into the job of Prime Minister. He attempts to convey the impression of a man of action, speaking fast, delivering memorised National Party strategies in a connect-the-slogans kind of way, ...
Double votes, missing ballot boxes, tired tech and stressed staff: how tick-tallying went astray at last year’s election. Cast your mind back to November 2023, that bleary-eyed post-election period duringwhichwewaited, andwaited, for a coalition deal to be hammered out. A distraction from the hotel-hopping of our ...
International audiences are starting to discover what New Zealand already knew about After the Party.When After the Party aired in New Zealand last year, the response was fast and furious. In his preview for Rec Room, Duncan Greive said it was a “gritty, wrenching and highly confronting” series. By ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shahram Akbarzadeh, Convenor of the Middle East Studies Forum (MESF), and Acting Director the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University Iran’s leadership has been a direct beneficiary of the months-long war in Gaza. With every missile that Israel fires ...
Claire Mabey reviews the haunting and sexy debut novel from Sinéad Gleeson, who is about to touch down in Aotearoa for a string of live events.When Irish writer Sinéad Gleeson was in Aotearoa in 2018 with her spectacular collection of essays, Constellations, she told me she was working on ...
PNG Post-Courier Bougainville Affairs Minister Manasseh Makiba has described the Post-Courier’s front page story yesterday regarding a meeting between Bougainville and national government leaders as “sensationalised” and without substance. The Autonomous Bougainville Government (AGB) had warned it might use “other avenues to gain its independence” should the PNG government “continue ...
Where some saw the worst press conference given by the government to date, Anna Rawhiti-Connell recognised girl maths game.Nicola Willis, recently exasperated by comparisons to Ruth Richardson, said she was “a bit sick of being compared with every female finance minister that’s ever been out there.”Some think that’s ...
The March results are reported against forecasts based on the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update 2023 (HYEFU 2023), published on 20 December 2023 and the results for the same period for the previous year. ...
Jamie Arbuckle, the district councillor who became an MP but decided to keep getting paid for both roles, will instead donate one salary to charity. ...
Adding gender to the Human Rights Act would simply make the implicit explicit. So why is it so controversial? Paul Thistoll explain. At present, Aotearoa’s 1993 Human Rights Act (HRA) includes sex, marital status, religious belief, ethical belief (meaning a lack of religious belief), colour, race, ethnicity or national origin, ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, an 18-year-old who’s studying and working in hospo shares their approach to spending and saving. Want to be part of The Cost of Being? Fill out the questionnaire here.Gender: Transmasc Age: 18 Ethnicity: Pākehā/Māori Role: Student, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jane Kelsey, Emeritus Professor of Law, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Getty Images Resources Minister Shane Jones has reportedly asked officials for advice on whether oil and gas companies could be offered “bonds” as compensation if drilling rights offered by ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Gleeson, Associate Professor of Law, Macquarie University Shutterstock The Albanese government is weighing up the costs of delivering an election promise to protect religious people from discrimination in Commonwealth law. Such protections were relatively uncontroversial when included in state anti-discrimination ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Yen Ying Lim, Associate Professor, Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health, Monash University Pexels/Andrea Piacquadio Dementia is often described as “the long goodbye”. Although the person is still alive, dementia slowly and irreversibly chips away at their memories and the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Judy Bush, Senior Lecturer in Urban Planning, The University of Melbourne Adam Calaitzis/Shutterstock I met with a friend for a walk beside Merri Creek, in inner Melbourne. She had lived in the area for a few years, and as we walked ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Throsby, Distinguished Professor of Economics, Macquarie University Arts companies and individual artists in Australia are supported by government arts agencies, philanthropists, industry bodies, private donors and patrons. However, it is frequently overlooked that a major source of support for the arts ...
Harm Reduction Coalition Aotearoa, a new incorporated society dedicated to ending harmful drug policies, officially launched today, seeks a new fit-for-purpose drug law for Aotearoa New Zealand, rooted in science, experience and evidence. ...
The Corrections Minister admits he "muddied the water" after he and the Prime Minister repeatedly provided incorrect information about a $1.9 billion prison spend-up. ...
Image for the week
https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/109548012/emma-cook-cartoons
The Duke is Dead, Long Live Nicholas Witchell
In the Swiss Alps in 2005, Prince Charles was caught by TV microphones muttering to his young sons William and Harry: "These bloody people. I can't bear that man. I mean, he's so awful, he really is." The subject of his ire was the plummy-voiced professional toady Nicholas Witchell, who is paid a king's ransom to fill the sinecure post of "BBC Royal and Diplomatic Correspondent." Unfortunately for Prince Charles and the rest of us, Witchell is still there, sixteen years later, still turning out BBC-quality journalism and commentary.
Various Windsors remain the highest paid beneficiaries in the UK, I celebrated Margaret Thatcher’s demise, but this reactionary just outlived his era really.
Bring on the republic of Aotearoa NZ
less is more
I for one find your contribution tasteless.
I am not from the Commonwealth but Queen Elisabeth deserves our condolences and Prince Phillip our respect. He has not had an easy life when looking back to his childhood and has shown how to be strong through adversity. As everybody, he has had his faults, but there is no reason to disrespect and dishonor a person not even 24 hour after his dead. A character flaw.
In an act of sychophancy, not our character for him, John Key ordered the New Zealand flag on the Auckland Harbour Bridge to be lowered to half mast on the death of Saudi feudal tyrant Abdullah, father of the current awful Saudi hereditry autocrat known as MBS, infamous for ordering the heartless butchery of expat. Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi who entered the Saudi embassy in Turkey seeking to get a permit of annulment so he could marry his partner.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/editorial-half-mast-flag-for-saudi-king-over-the-top/QCIF2SJ2GFHZAXSTTS36NTFZDQ/
I wonder if this act of symbolic forelock tugging to feudal monarchs will be continued on the death of the heir to the Greek Monarcho Fascists?
https://redflag.org.au/article/prince-philip-good-riddance-racist-elitist-fool
I think your reference is a bit a far drawn.
Everybody has to live their lives in the times and surrounds they are in.
Prince Phillip has been "a child of his time" as is the current generation and any other is and will be. He has contributed greatly to the stability of the Monarchy in Britain and the Commonwealth. Geopolitically this was and is still important as peace is not made by spitting in someone's face but by building bridges. Not a task to do in 10 minutes but perhaps 70 years of service.
This man was almost 100 years old, he has seen war, he had to fight and he had to take a side and conviction.
Those who are now so disrespectful, I wonder what they have done to ease the hunger, homelessness, inequality, loss of dignity for the old, providing education for all, preventing failure of the health system, corruption of democratic institutions etc… today or any other day. Not with words but deeds.
I just witness the death of common decency in this forum, to pay respect to a remarkable figure in our living history.
My comment was a critique not of the Duke (R.I.P.) but of the corrupt and parasitic Nicholas Witchell.
That was not a ‘critique’, it was an unoriginal rip-off of something that we have read many times in the press, mainly the British press. These are not even you own words. For example, where is your critical analysis showing that Nicholas Witchell is corrupt? Why this is even relevant to the death of DoE is a mystery to me.
That was not a ‘critique’, it was an unoriginal rip-off of something that we have read many times in the press…
The wording of that brief but (one hopes) trenchant critique was composed entirely by this writer, i.e., moi.
mainly the British press.
The point of my post was to point out an example of the servile and fawning British media coverage of Prince Philip and his ghastly descendants.
…where is your critical analysis showing that Nicholas Witchell is corrupt?
Fair comment. I was, as you have kindly pointed out on many other occasions, careless in my choice of words. I should have left off with "parasitic."
Funny that! When I Google ‘your’ words they look remarkable similar to writings by others in the British press!?
There was no trenchant critique! There was no analysis! There was just the usual Morrissey white noise & grey dust.
This is a point: .
Your ‘post’ was less than that; it was pointless.
Hmmm, maybe it was a critique of DoE …
Ok, come on then, argue your point. For example, why is it parasitic and not symbiotic? Put some thought and analysis in it, if you can. I doubt you will though, as it is too much of an intellectual effort to and for you 😉
There was no trenchant critique!
I pointed out that Witchell's "job" is nothing more than a sinecure, and that he is a toady. I challenge you to seriously dispute either of those points.
There was no analysis!
I provided an example—an extremely up-to-date example—of his vacuousness. Of course, it's only fair to note that he was no worse on this occasion than his fellow state propagandist Huw Edwards.
For example, why is it parasitic and not symbiotic? Put some thought and analysis in it, if you can.
Now that is rigorous editing. Thanks for that. I'll up my game in future.
[Big deep sigh.
At best, this is calling out. However, your insipient name-calling and lazy and negative labelling of others is not anywhere near critical analysis.
Where is your analysis? All you do is copy & paste, the odd link to a YT clip, and some inane drivel you call your “oeuvre”. That ain’t analysis.
You’ve been giving these pseudo-funny replies for years and you never up your game. I conclude it is not going to happen because you cannot or don’t want to up your game. Your comments in OM today (11 April) just emphasise and confirm this conclusion.
You seem to lack the intellectual nous to do any analytical thinking, critical analysis, or in-depth commentary. Instead, you bask in the halo of your intellectual heroes while disparaging others who are way above your league of dilettantes.
Please start up your own blog again and bore the shit out of people there, thanks – Incognito]
See my Moderation note @ 7:06 pm.
I have always liked reading his stuff and I have heard many others on The Standard express that same enjoyment, haven't you heard the saying "different stroke for different folks"? judging by your relentless harassment of anyone who does not fit within your very particular sense of taste or political slant, it would seem not.
[It feels like you’re trying to run interference with moderation, but you wouldn’t do that, would you?
Your comment is pointless because it doesn’t address anything in Moderation note to Morrissey or the many notes before that.
If you want a free entertainment channel then I’d suggest that you try other sites that are more geared towards your needs.
This site’s kaupapa is robust debate, not a popularity contest for most ‘enjoyable’ commenter.
Anybody who keeps posting vacuous comments here claiming to be critical of this or that without providing any original thought, analysis, or view can indeed expect some pushback from other commenters and when it reaches a certain critical point, from Moderators.
For example, claiming that one has written a comment that “was composed entirely” by the commenter when it is obviously a lie (HT to Google) is not something I personally enjoy. However, if you love this sort of shit then we have to agree to disagree.
As far as “relentless harassment” goes, are you referring to your own crusade against everybody you consider non-Left or not-Left-enough here and elsewhere? Including naming and trying to shame other commenters of this site? Including a TS Author? Personal attack, after attack, after attack. It got so bad I had to resort to Pre-Mod tools to prevent the worst of your personal insults without stifling the fragile debate here or what’s left of it.
According to you, if one has not spoken out against something or somebody, one cannot claim the be a Leftie. The Leftie badge has to be earned by attacking the right people, of course. Failing to do so loses one points. In fact, it earns one RW points!? No matter if one is a card-carrying Leftie, if they say the wrong thing here, or fail to say the right thing, according to the Adrian Thornton Doctrine, then they automatically become card-carrying RWs. Your stale slogan is also highly symptomatic of your stale mind process.
You know how tedious your comments and personal attacks have become here? You seem to have no idea or just don’t give a shit.
Please go tilt at other windmills somewhere else, e.g. at KB – Incognito]
See my Moderation note @ 3:43 pm.
NZ a country with lots of hungry people.
Considering that the government is not going to do much about this, i hope people who still have some cash to spare will give to some charities over winter, cause its going to be a hard winter for many, and above all for kids.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/charities-struggle-to-match-demand-to-feed-children-going-without-food-and-other-basic-needs/237B25TQ4UXLWDAIQXFELLOB6A/
and just in case, these hungry kids don't get fed in school as they are Pre-schoolers.
Never mind the preschoolers, we don't care about the newborn, or the mum.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/300272895/a-woman-was-asked-to-change-her-own-pad-hours-after-surgery-wheres-the-35m-maternity-plan
yep, caring is a small part of the budget – well it is, but if no one gets to read the plans and if no one knows where the money is …..what should that be called? Incompetence, or callous negligent malevolence?
Sabine are you OK? Your comments have seemed kind of depressed and angry lately.
Salty and angry yes, indeed, at the failures of this government to do the right thing.
Btw, did you know that hter is currently a 6 month old baby here in NZ, that at two month become a domestic violence survivor? I spoke about this child a few weeks ago. Now that child was left temporarily blind and totally deaf by its sperm donor, and it was born wiht a cleft palate. A poor little urching if ever there was one. This child was on a 4 month waiting list to have a test done to see if somehow hearing could be restored via a cochlar implant and hte first steps of surgey was to be done in regards to the cleft palate.
Well guess what Sacha, that baby now is again on a 4 month waiting list for cleft palate surgery, never mind the deafness.
Her forstermum is at pains to feed the little urchins as the feeding tube was removed cause surgery – never mind that it did not happen.
If you are not angry by right now then well bully you.
But i would really leave the mysoginist words of 'depressed women, angry women, bitter woem n etc in the past and go on with the 2021.
I am salty. I am so salty that a liter of milk could not possible make me palatable.
This government is useless. I hope everyone enjoyed the Americas Cup tho. Cause we do have priorities and our hungry homeless and uncared children is not one of them.
Other then that i am OK.
Here Sacha,
another tiny toddlered reason to be angry.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/124788092/anguish-as-intensive-care-bed-shortages-force-toddlers-vital-heart-surgery-to-be-cancelled-four-times
Are you OK Sacha? Your comment could be seen as a form of passive aggressive gaslighting of Sabine for her eminently sane and rational response to the crap going on out there. Keep it up Sabine and don’t lose the passion
Gaslighting? Puhleese.
Excuse me? To me, this was a genuine commenter reaching out to another in good faith and with good intentions and you come here and piss all over it!? It does seem like Sabine took it the way it was intended.
Glad Stuff covered this (again).
What's with this [Genter's Cabinet paper titled ‘Maternity System Transformation’, designed to highlight the problems facing maternity services and chart a path forward]:
– Bernie Smith is the CEO of the Monte Cecilia Housing Trust
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/bernie-smith-budget-a-chance-to-address-insufficient-income-support/VHYTXK6W6XIPNS4CQCWKDZMZHE/
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/jun/21/quotes-by-prince-philip
.
I would like to get a tattoo of myself, only bigger
.
Is the 'Washington consensus' being rewritten?
"The next phase in Biden’s plan is to spend a further $2tn on rebuilding America’s crumbling infrastructure. This will be funded by reversing some of Donald Trump’s cut to corporate tax rates, which will be opposed by Republicans in Congress but not by the IMF. When asked about the projected increase this week, the fund’s economic counsellor, Gita Gopinath, said Trump’s corporate tax cut had not done much to boost investment. Moreover, Gopinath was positively enthusiastic about the idea of a global minimum corporate tax rate, something the US has traditionally been wary of but which it now supports."
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/apr/08/economic-orthodoxies-covid-crisis-states-taxes-budgets
The usual poll caveats, but doesn’t this point to Judith being in real trouble?
http://www.roymorgan.com/findings/8679-nz-national-voting-intention-march-2021-202104090133
Simon, the two Chris’s, Nicola, are all circling.
interesting to see the gender voter numbers. nats are now trying very hard to turn crusher into cushla, but female voters arent fooled.nats will be very wary about replacing collins with yet another old white guy. its time for maureen pugh to step up!! the south will rise again!(yeah right)
Got to feel sorry for the Queen, imagine losing your husband and favourite cousin on the same day.
A 73-year long marriage is probably not something to be sniffed at – even if it is between 3rd cousins. But you have to feel sorry for the UK public – now enduring North Korean levels of media-saturating public hagiography. While none of the 100,000+ unnecessary Covid deaths received similar coverage. I guess it’s what feudalism felt like.
Would you have a gaffe of some sort ready for the Maori King when he passes away? It is disrespectful in any language.
Probably. You can’t be a socialist and also pick and mix your approved aristocracies. I dislike inherited privilege regardless of location or colour.
On that basis Sanctuary you must have a scathing commentary to share with us about Raul Castro "inheriting" his position as First Secretary of Cuba from big bro Fidel ??
A bit unnecessary Sanctuary. Yes, they had a great, great grandmother in common. Far enough removed not to be a problem.
Yeah, but that bunch of German sausage suckers hardly count for much in my book.
Hear hear Sanctuary. So, Phil the Greek is dead. One less beneficiary for the poor of England to subsidise!
– Rob Stock
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/opinion-analysis/124785651/parents-are-silent-coborrowers-on-their-childrens-megamortgages
"My feeling is that there’s a secret story of family rallying round to save homes, and that the banks know this."
Oh yes they know. They can turn young people into lifelong debt serfs and dispossess their parents as well. It's accumulation by dispossession – a far easier way to get rich than producing useful goods and services. As Piketty noted , we are back in Jane Austen's world where the size of your inheritance really matters.
And Jane Austin's era finished with two global conflicts and major and bloody peoples' revolutions. Something to look forward to.
Some commenters here would prefer to concentrate on how Jane Austin's era made people wealthy…
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/yesterdaze-bailing-running-and-waffling-at-the-wheel
good stuff Sacha….and accurate
funny and accurate.
Brilliant.
Found one of these Cooks Petrels on a busy road as described and from looking at Facebook this is more common than you think. And after some time was able to fly off, lovely bird reading about it.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=3827745847306623&id=104318996316012
How can we stop this feckless behaviour that we know will destroy our land and water?
Ōwhiro Bay resident Jade Lorier was among those out collecting the waste from streets and front lawns, and said it was blowing into streams, drains and out to sea.
Photo: Supplied / Jade Lorier
Polystyrene is not biodegradable.
"I'm really worried about the health of our stream. We've got native eels, as well as fish, I'm worried about the wildlife in the marine reserve," Lorier said. "We're trying to protect and restore this area, and this is just an absolute nightmare for the south coast.
"I'd like this person to be held responsible, it's an environmental disaster. I'm furious."
The incident has led to an outcry on local Facebook groups for action against ongoing pollution blown from three nearby landfills on Happy Valley Road, and from unsecured loads being driven to them.
Lawyer Adam Holloway was among those cleaning up the polystyrene and said there was "constant fresh rubbish" being blown onto the street and the coastline. "It's disheartening," he said.
"I'm sure we didn't get them all, and next time it rains whatever is left over will flow into the gutters, and from there into the stream, and from the stream into the marine reserve."
He's among those who have called for councillors and staff to front up to a meeting to tell residents what powers they have to act,…
The sad truth is that a significant fraction of plastic waste is not recyclable. Until volumes of it are more responsible, we need safe ways to dispose of it. Maybe a use for some power plants moving away from coal in the short term.
twenty yrs ago, I worked on construction sites in sydney(just before olympics). even then ,all trucks HAD to have covered loads, and all uncovered(grass stripped off,back to topsoil) sites HAD to have catchment systems in place to stop dirt,rubbish runoff into stormwater drains. the fines levied for non compliance were eye watering, and WERE enforced. had a visit from lidcomb council(between parramatta and city central) official because neighbouring building had a layer of dust from out site. either we paid to have warehouse and 50 workers cars waterblasted or a ten thousand dollar a day fine until it was done, and we still had to pay up for cleaning. no ifs, no buts. $50,000 later ,our boss let us know what he thought of our attempts to stop dust, runoff etc…
Sounds draconian. What would they have done about CTV building I wonder – doesn't sound as if they would suck their thumb like we did?
you have to remember that aus is the 51st state of u.s. and lawsuits are a way of life.
You may be surprised….or perhaps not…they havnt dealt with it much better than us.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-24/mascot-towers-apartment-owners-still-living-in-limbo/12911968
Gosh. But I guess this is just part of the externalities of having a smart modern political and economic system doing groundbreaking building high-in-the-sky apartments!
Things can't be perfect in any system and you do get action, things get done, not like with the dozy government putting stupid, time-wasting regulations in place with dozy, nit-picking inspectors demanding expensive, time-wasting this and that so they can be seen to do something to earn their excessive salaries.
I bet the above was a common chant some decades back, from those with big ideas to get big bulges in their wallets and elsewhere because they were just such great movers and shakers.
"Currently, they spend increasing amounts on housing support – things like rent subsidies, grants, and emergency housing – which as a result saw the bill total nearly $1 billion between last September and December, up nearly $30 million on the previous quarter."
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/government-spending-almost-1-billion-every-three-months-housing-support?fbclid=IwAR0TANSXvyiVyaY-sZ6O7G2Iat95GYbiG6yHX6sA8M4Rv-OsHHp_MrS9Ado
$4 billion a year…and climbing….thats a lot of dosh that could (and should) be spent elsewhere.
Every second cent of that payout by government is an admission that the system isn't working and yet they will pay out because it fits within the twisted economic system that they want to remain true to, and perhaps are now forced to by big business which threatens to impose sanctions on the country and government if they are deprived in any way. That is depraved, and Treasury economists were so when they induced Douglas and the Gang to usher in the swingeing management methods that would make us the darlings of the financial world, the wee experiment in an isolated laboratory with us as the hapless animals.
This was the effect on people. https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/91005330/towns-full-of-weeping-women-rogernomics-30-years-later
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/03/new-zealand-neoliberalism-inequality-welfare-state-tax-haven/
New Zealand’s Neoliberal Drift By Branko Marcetic
Douglas was said to have made a lot of money lecturing and explaining how to manipulate the democracy – note Tony Blair the same.
Tony – https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/celebritymoney/article-2167655/Former-PM-Tony-Blair-alleged-earned-80million-2007.html
'$300,000 a speech!' Are the newshounds making up figures as they go? https://www.cityam.com/forget-politicians-salaries-its-afterwards-they-make-big-bucks/
I'm smiling because I'm free.
But then 'Freedom's just another word, for nothing left to lose'. Me and Bobby McG
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTHRg_iSWzM
"When your belly's empty you swallow anything they shove down your throat." – qft
https://justzilch.org.nz/
https://www.kfst.org.nz/post/food-grants-and-the-law-benefit-law-and-your-rights-with-msd
https://nzccss.org.nz/work/poverty/facts-about-poverty/
Thanks for those interesting links Drowsy M. Kram. I have only looked at half of them and found interesting lines of thought.
Cheers Grey – it intrigues me that recent NZ governments of all colours have done so little to address inequality and/or poverty. And in a wealthy country too.
NZ could be more progressive on poverty – a leader even, imho.
I got into looking up Wisconsin Works which we followed – just suited our screwed up lords and ladies in parliament. Ruthless and the others must despise whole swathes of people.
Anyway here is an interesting The Atlantic piece (they always seem to do really good long journalism that I have seen). It is all about how Wisconsin wants to grind the supposed rough edges off people, and then they let them smoothly slip through their fingers into a little round hole. With Metiria Turei's sterling efforts in mind it seems that we are as hollow in our commitment and appreciation of giving people the help and skills they need to be self-reliant in WW as is their stated aim.
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/07/life-after-welfare/490586/
By the way Red Logix I should say thanks for that vid. I haven't seen them before, (I see there are more) and it is so well done, amazing and shocking to see the scenario.
There are a number of reasons for the relatively slow start of the vaccine rollout in NZ.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018790937/new-tara-covid-19-vaccination-clinic-operating-at-20-capacity
Perceptions around safety will and do play a role. Safety comes first, also, and perhaps especially so, in anything related to our health and medical interventions.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/440087/covid-19-vaccine-is-safe-minister-for-pacific-peoples
As always, an informed and educated population will make better decisions. As always, the mainstream media play a role in this. Emerging stories about blood clots possibly linked to Covid vaccines will worry people, especially those who have diabetes and who are, coincidentally, more likely to suffer complications from the disease when they get it.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/world/2021/04/coronavirus-blood-clot-concerns-hit-johnson-johnson-s-covid-19-vaccine.html
New Zealand has purchased 10 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine, enough for everyone in NZ (and given refusers in NZ, there will be some to share around with our Pacific neighbours).
So far I have only heard of blood clots being a possible concern in relation to AstraZeneca/Oxford and the Janssen/J&J, not Pfizer
The side effects I've heard of so far for the Pfizer vaccine are allergic reactions (roughly 11 incidences of anaphylaxis per million doses), believed to be related to the polyethylene glycol used as a stabiliser, and swollen lymph nodes that may show on mammograms. As far as I can tell, these reactions have all been temporary with no permanent effects detected. I would certainly expect NZers with a history of allergic reactions to be offered an alternative vaccine to the Pfizer if they don't want to risk anaphylaxis.
There are other possible side effects linked to the Pfizer vaccine that also seem to involve blood clotting. However, they seem to have attracted much less attention in/from the media. I’m not in a position to speculate. Nevertheless, even if/when these links are causative ones, the benefits of these vaccines outweigh the risks by a huge factor.
Well so far no mass death have occurred in the US or the UK who both have rolled out both vaccines. And in the US they have managed to vaccine up to 4 million a day.
In unrelated news, 5G signal strength is getting stronger all across the US.
https://twitter.com/vancityreynolds/status/1377251952304750593
Get off the grass! We all know that Deep State buries bad news.
? And this is another time i don't understand your english? Get of the grass? Are you insinuating that i am breaking the law by ingesting an illegal substance? If you did, i would appreciate that you don't. thanks.
As for the deep state, i leave these theories to the usual suspects of whom there are already quite a few on this page. I peddle in facts rather then assumptions.
Fact is that plenty million people on this planet have had various different vaccines now, from the US, Russia, China, etc and so far we have yet to hear of mass dying or mass injuries.
So yeah, NZ bring on the vaccine, before the unspeakable happens because again we be full of 'She'll be right, mate' until she is not.
"get off the grass" is kiwi slang, scornfully rejecting an idea put forward. In this specific instance, there appear to be multiple levels to it, with a hefty dig at conspiracy theorists (I don’t see a dig at you, Sabine).
It was common in the 80s, but I can't recall hearing it much since returning from the US in '99.
It is also the title of a book by Shaun Hendy and Paul Callaghan.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/unlimited/innovation/9041281/Extract-Get-off-the-Grass
Ooh, that brings back memories. I have indeed been told to "get off the grass" by Paul Callaghan. Several times, IIRC.
My first encounter with his communication style was at a first year physics lab, and I was struggling with getting some optics stuff working correctly. He asked how I was going, and I said "My head hurts", and he said "Good. That's supposed to happen".
It was a subtle joke. Sorry for the confusion.
Just had my first vaccination today in the medical centre in my small (750 pop) town in the top of the South Island. There were a couple of hundred people vaccinated today – it was a well oiled machine! Second vaccination appointment made as well for 3 weeks time, plus given a card with dates, batch number etc.
Good to hear that. It raises the question whether so-called demographic differences play a big role. If so, Government and MoH have work to do.
To vaccinate anyone in a small town in the South Island before people in South Auckland is contentious.
Nope. People in the SI having to wait for others would be contentious. Similarly, people in Group 3 having to wait until vaccination of Groups 1 and 2 has been fully completed would be contentious. Sliding and overlapping is the most practical way to roll out the vaccine to the whole nation in a timely fashion.
Marvelous.
diversity bunting
https://twitter.com/DoubleDownNews/status/1380451648083013632
https://twitter.com/AyoCaesar
Thanks for sharing joe.
Ash Sarkar is marvellous, a positive treasure and a rising star of a left movement that will replace the British Labour party with something else within 20 years unless that party can somehow rid itself of focus group driven professional politics and ultra centrism.
Yeah, you must be doing something right if Spiked Online, Harry's Place, Guido Fawkes, UnHerd etc are all in their utter hatred of you.
Or you could be doing something wrong.
NZ and economics. Is economics just another word for nothing left to lose? A recap of Roger the Dodger.
New Zealand's remarkable reforms – Reserve Bank of New …
https://www.rbnz.govt.nz › speeches › speech1996-06-04
4/06/1996 — Address to the Fifth Annual Hayek Memorial Lecture … Roger (now Sir Roger) Douglas, Minister of Finance in the Labour … As for the tax reforms, the flattening and lowering of income-tax rates … The extent of the reforms in New Zealand was so great that it is difficult to describe them in short compass.
.
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057%2F9780230524439_3 Making Thatcher Look Timid: the Rise and Fall of the New Zealand Model
Roger Douglas, former New Zealand Minister of Finance, in Douglas 1993: 67
.
And a link to one that shows you can fool the people most of the time when you show them apparently clear graphs that illustrate the matter that you want to pin down. (Cartoonists gull this by turning graphs on the wall up or down depending who they are conversing with.) https://croakingcassandra.com/2017/06/08/roger-douglas-the-economy-and-an-option-for-reform/
.
IN A NEW WORLD, NEW THINKING IS REQUIRED – Krieger …
https://sites.krieger.jhu.edu › iae › files › 2021/01 PDF
Why the Prioritization of Resources is Crucial to New Zealand's Economic … Roger Douglas [deleted; please no e-mail addresses in comments as this will attract bots], as Minister of Finance in New Zealand, won an … He has done a considerable amount of work internationally, for The World Bank … Director of their PhD Program, where he was awarded Best Teacher Prizes.
[Too many links probably triggered Auto-Mod]
Sorry – these high fliers love their links, also didn't know about bots and emails – can't get some PDFs I don't seem set up to get them. So just took the heading and summary off google.
Another Poot critic offs himself in mysterious circumstances and the oligarch's booty continues to pour into the UK. Number 10's carpets must be sodden.
The prominent Kremlin critic Nikolai Glushkov was strangled at his home in south-west London by an unknown assailant who wrapped a dog lead around his neck in a crude attempt to “simulate” the appearance of suicide, an inquest heard
[…]
A postmortem, however, found signs Glushkov had been murdered. These included fractures to his larynx and hyoid bones, as well as superficial injuries to his face. A paramedic who came to the scene, Dominic Beil, said he immediately called the police because he felt the scene was suspicious.
Beil said that in suicide cases the ladder was typically kicked over but in this case remained upright. He said he found Glushkova sobbing in the kitchen. Glushkov was dressed in a green polo shirt and tracksuit bottoms and was clearly dead, he said.
The inquest was told Glushkov’s murderer had ambushed him from behind and had rapidly subdued his victim. There were no signs of “prolonged grappling”. Glushkov had taken mild sedatives and a glass of alcohol but this had not played a role in what a coroner ruled on Friday was an “unlawful killing”.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/apr/09/murder-kremlin-critic-london-made-look-like-suicide-nikolai-glushkov
The article was written by the respected and thoroughly professional Luke Harding, I see. So we can believe everything in it. Is he any relation to the unfortunate fellow humiliating himself in the following classic clip?
ad hom, ad nauseum
Reminding people that Luke Harding is possibly the most discredited journalist in the western world—more discredited even than Jonathan Freedland, Jayson Blair and Judith Miller combined—is hardly "ad hom." I did not attack his appearance or his accent or anything like that; my judgement of him is based on the fact that he has been exposed irrefutably as a liar and a conspiracy theorist.
It would only be a bother if you could discredit yourself any further.
But you can't. You are simply observed repeatedly bouncing like a rabbit from one epistemic disaster to the next.
You have said precisely nothing that makes sense. I see you used the word "epistemic"; I suggest you get in touch with Kim Hill, who blithely announced a couple of weeks ago that she had "no idea what the word epistemological means."
Exactly. That's why I'm not interested in Luke Harding's appearance, or mannerisms, or hobbies, or his family. I care about the fact he has chosen to brazenly, and repeatedly, lie for the state.
I guess that means I'm discussing events rather than "ideas." Darn it, I'm not a "great mind" then, according to Mrs Roosevelt.
Just as well ER is dead because she’d have died a slow and painful death reading your boring comments; Vogon poetry is like a Thai massage compared to your commentary.
Again, deflecting and diverting. Ad =//= Kim Hill so WTF?
Again, deflecting and diverting.
I did neither. I asked him to clarify his baffling post.
Ad =//= Kim Hill so WTF?
By sheer happenstance, the two of them happened to use the same big word. To give Ad his due, I suspect he actually understands what it means, unlike Ms. Hill.
As always, you aim for the person and don’t address anything in and of the content.
Your intellectual pomposity and arrogance is on full display here but, as such, it does not contribute anything to constructive debate. SSDD.
Immediately attacking the person rather than anything in their quoted writing. Nuf said.
His "quoted writing"? Harding is discredited. He did that to himself. I provided one of the most devastatingly embarrassing interviews in history, which you are quite able to click on and watch. I recommend you do just that.
Reporting facts that run counter to the narrative promoted by the kooks, cranks, tankies, second option bias fantasists, and other misinformation artists you have outsourced your opinion-forming to is not the same thing as 'discredited'.
I have read all of Luke Harding's books, and a great deal of his "reportage." Do I read a wide variety of sources? Yes. Do I evaluate what they write and say? Yes. I have not "outsourced" my opinions to anyone.
Your farrago of epithets directed at journalists of the calibre of Aaron Maté, Jeremy Scahill, Glenn Greenwald and John Pilger is not as colorful as your daily serves at Trump over the last four years, but it is equally rigorous.
Of course this lot cannot explain why most of the journalists mentioned, although regularly invited on Liberal MSM pre Trump, were/ still are completely shut down as soon as they easily dismantled the obvious fraud of Russiagate?…now you would think that any person using even just the tiniest itsy weeniest bit of their critical thinking capacity, would have, after a few months of the Russiagate story, started to wonder why there was NEVER any counter narrative? NEVER any pushback at all from anyone, anywhere ever, even from those very journalists that not that very long ago were the most revered journalist on the Left…but no, this lot would rather believe every word the MI6, CIA spoon feeds them, via the liberal media machine..why ask questions?, why ask for proof?, why test the narrative in open debate?..who needs it, right!!
As I mentioned last week ( https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-02-04-2021/#comment-1786400 ) it turns out that commenters on TS such as Andre’, Ad, Joe 90 etc have an incredibly similar world geo political view as the conservative UK foreign office..yes it seems just like the UK Conservative Party, our friends here on this very site just cannot get enough of regime change wars, sanctions, shutting down whistle blowers etc…yep, just like their friends in the UK Conservative Party, this lot are just a bunch of postmodern Imperialists nothing more or less.
I often wonder if they even realize how right-wing they have become themselves?, or whether they have just slipped there so slowly over time, that it has just become natural for them to think (not think) this way…whatever the reason it is quite a sad thing to witness this uncoupling of so many good comrades first to the centre and now to the actual right.
Though that being said, I always thought free market liberalism was just a gateway drug to the right…and so it has come to pass.
Another long rant from you that is essentially an ad hom. Not all people think like you, express themselves like you, and necessarily like the same stuff as you do. In fact, they may disagree with you, says things in ways that you dislike and/or disapprove of, and like stuff that you dislike and/or disapprove of. You cannot get your head around this fact and therefore you lash out and accuse them of being the ‘enemy’, because things are B & W in Adrian land; this is called projecting.
You’re rapidly becoming as boring and nonsensical as Morrissey as well as hypercritical, ultra-negative, and sometimes even outright aggressive towards other commenters 🙁
Luke (the spook) Harding is a fraud, which Morrissey exposed by providing evidence. You and Ad are the ones ad homming.
Morrissey exposed nothing! He simply provided a link to a 29-min long YT clip made by somebody else and as usual without anything intelligent added that could pass as analysis. Typical Morrissey style.
You seem to be cut from the same cloth; saying it does not make it so.
🙄 You never watched the video did you… therefore you have no clue what Morrissey might or might not have exposed.
He erroneously claimed it was a "YT" video. Like you, mauī, I doubt that he watched it.
The link to your embedded video: https://youtu.be/9Ikf1uZli4g
Is it not a youtube video?
Yes it is. Sorry, Incognito, I thought you meant it was a "Young Turks" video.
The mistake is mine, and I apologize.
Judge Judy sums up this writer, i.e. moi, perfectly….
Thank God for that! We don’t have to litigate what is and what isn’t a YT clip! FFS!
Shame that you had to spoil it again with another YT clip that is wasting more time and bandwidth here.
No, I did not watch the YT clip, for the simple reason that there was nothing enticing me to do so. In fact, it was the opposite, thanks to Mossie’s trenchant commentary.
Morrissey did not expose anything by linking to that YT clip. If anything, the people in and/or who made the YT clip may have exposed something, who knows?
Feel free to watch it and critique it, but I’m not holding my breath 🙄
It was hardly an attack.. Linking to someone's previous coverage of Russia while they cover another Russia topic is perhaps highly relevant?
The Morrissey ‘analysis’:
It was an attack on the messenger, plain and clear.
It was a reminder to everyone that the "messenger" is a discredited propagandist.
In your opinion, of course. Which you formulated completely independently, of course.
So, this is your MO: find a YT clip or some writing that you vehemently disagree with (because of mysterious reasons that only a psychologist might understand) and then use it to have a swipe at the messenger/author. Then you claim (!) that it was trenchant critique and analysis of the content while in fact it was an attack on the messenger/author all along.
This is a mindboggingly stupid way of debating 🙄
You clearly have no will to see where Morrissey might be coming from, by viewing and perhaps trying to understand the YT clip, and using that new information to make an assessment of the original post.
[As you know, it is expected on this site that when commenters link to a YT clip, especially a longer one, they provide an explanation why people should watch it. It is also expected that they provide some analysis and opinion of their own, you know, an original contribution, e.g. to start off constructive robust debate. Repeatedly failing to do so is considered a form of spamming, sometimes trolling, and will attract Moderators’ attention.
Why do you keep ignoring this and why are you doubling down on this? You’re now wasting Moderator time – Incognito]
See my Moderation note @ 8:37 pm.
Hi Incognito.
Just tonight Andre dumped a 52 page NZIER pdf document on me as evidence of argument without any dissection or analysis.
Just saying.
That’s terrible, I hope you didn’t get hurt.
Was there no context at all? He just dumped it on you, out of the blue?
Do you suggest I should ban Andre for wasting your time? I hate it when people deliberately waste my time; they’re usually trolls or spammers, the vermin of the blogosphere.
Just saying.
No. I'm saying posting YT videos is not a capital offence. I just ignore them like I ignored Andre's NZIER document.
[Another smart arse commenter telling us how to do and not do things here?
Please don’t bother re-writing the site’s Policy, as posting YT videos never has been a capital offence here. You’re disinformed.
Do you have anything useful to add or are you just trying to waste Moderator time as well? It seems to be the topic du jour. However, a piece of string is only as long its breaking point and a bubble pops when you pierce it one too many times – Incognito]
See my Moderation note @ 9:33 pm.
My how time flies.
https://twitter.com/ColleenBeattie_/status/1380229880055541766
https://thestandard.org.nz/i-thank-margaret-thatcher/
Here's a list of people supposed impartial political observer, Dr Bryce Edwards, quotes in his latest cut 'n' paste effort about the National Party leadership trysts:
Claire Trevett – National Party embedded journalist.
Richard Prebble – Former ACT MP and far right wing activist.
Tova O'Brien – Neutral, but only by dint of being about Tova and Tova alone.
David Farrar, twice – Sheesh. Farrar seems more quoted by Dr Bryce than any other.
Dan Satherley – Hardly noticed him before. Must be good.
Audrey Young – Noted right wing journalist with long National Party affiliations.
Heather Duplicity-Allen , also twice – Increasingly hard right wing shock jock.
Matthew Hooton – Oh, my, God.
Andrea Vance – See Tova O'Brien.
Luke Malpass – Australian right wing journalist.
Seven out of ten sources from the right and far right, and three relatively neutral. As a footnote, in the satire section, Dr Bryce entertained the only two entries which might be considered left wing voices.
So much for balanced media, and so much for balanced media critics.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/on-the-inside/440202/national-party-leadership-does-luxon-have-what-it-takes
Bryce Edwards is quoting experienced political reporters who have the qualifications and experience to be quoted.
Farrar and Hooten are some of the right's most trenchant critics, both roundly rejected by National's cliques.
Edwards himself is raising questions that plenty of other observers have been raising. Indeed National has changed its leaders three times in a year for the same reasons.
I don't think you read my comment. Bryce Edwards pretends to be an impartial observer yet he quotes no qualified person writing from the left's perspective.
Such a person might have explained that National's leadership issues run way deeper that the personalities involved. The core of the rot is in the Party itself, its moribund and corrupt leadership and membership alike.
He's a curious case, and came in for a bit of stick from LPrent a while back.
There was a progressive thread to his writing, back in the day, but he was monstered by the other political writers at the Herald after a few well-researched columns.
Since that time he's produced drivel – compromised hack-work – and his progressive credibility, such as it was, is at zero.
Muttonbird and Stuart M – I notice that BE seems strangely not-left, and so it might be a case of BCE.
Farrar a Nat critic? Where a tongue bath is a telling off, perhaps.
Assad's criming continues.
(Beirut) – Syrian authorities are unlawfully confiscating the homes and lands of Syrians who fled Syrian-Russian military attacks in Idlib and Hama governorates, Human Rights Watch said today.
A pro-government militia and the government-controlled “Peasants’ Unions” were involved in seizing and auctioning these lands to government supporters.
“Peasants’ Unions are supposed to help protect farmers’ rights, but have become one more tool in the Syrian government’s systematic repression of its own people,” said Sara Kayyali, Syria researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Aid organizations should ensure that Peasants’ Unions are not providing assistance for farming on stolen land.”
https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/04/08/syria-government-stealing-opponents-land
Unlawful according to who’s law?
And how do we know the land wasn't stolen from peasants in the first place? Perhaps Human Rights Watch could clear that up.
Israel have been doing far worse for decades now and no-one gives a shit, so meh.
TBF, lots on the left only seem to give a rats about Palestinian Arabs when they're victims of Israel.
On what evidence do you base that statement?
Perhaps Human Rights Watch could clear that up.
It's extremely depressing to have to say this, but that's unlikely.
https://twitter.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/1197471498665103360
I don't know much about HRW but sometimes they do seem a front for Western capitalist expansion.
They're more than a front, they're a tool. Ken Roth’s support for the extreme right coup in Bolivia and his contempt for the democratically elected government is akin to backing Franco over the Republican government in the 1930s.
Hi Stuart Munro if you are around. There is an historic account for a Stuart Young. an entrepreneur with Ron Davis in something called Interlock – clever chap. He lived in Breaker Bay from a boy, he knew on the fateful Wahine day on April 10, 1968 that there was trouble. The weather was worse than ever before.
It says about it 'At 6.30 am that day, Stuart and Jenny saw the Wahine in Chaffers Passage, on the Breaker Bay side of the reef, facing the houses (a sight witnessed by many in the bay but never accepted by the official court of inquiry). It was clear she was in serious trouble and Stuart immediately phoned the police.'
Why would the Court reject the witnesses' evidence? Why would the position of the boat be so important; if it was facing the houses then it would have been prow towards them and trying to beach wouldn't it?
Incidentally Young and Davis set up a business to be emulated today. They had to fight protective battles for their patents in Uk and Japan. The company patented all over the world so that they kept ahead of global competitors through invention and smart marketing. They operated a profit-sharing bonus system and a medical insurance scheme, arranged free influenza vaccinations for anyone who wanted them and offered opportunities for staff to train and retrain at all levels and employees were encouraged to make decisions and to raise any matter they wanted and be honest with each other; everyone was on first-name terms. Wow.
Apr.10/21 https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/124779833/obituary–entrepreneur-stuart-young-first-to-raise-the-alarm-about-the-ferry-wahine
Why would the Court reject the witnesses' evidence?
Official positions, like those of MSA, the harbour master, and the officers of the vessels traditionally had a level of privilege that is hard to imagine now that video of such occurrences is in play to debunk the most egregious political distortions of such systems. The thirty million MSA spend on helicopter flights during the wreck of the Rena, for example, implied that they were not so much seamen, as troughers. Were they seamen they’d have done more work by boat.
Why would the position of the boat be so important; if it was facing the houses then it would have been prow towards them and trying to beach wouldn't it?
Without a full knowledge of events one cannot judge whether the ship's heading was appropriate or not – it might have steered into the wind to minimize leeway, or, as you say, to try to beach, or to avoid a hazard like Barret's Reef which they had misunderstood the position of. The wind may also have blown the bow around, off the desired course, and they might have been struggling to get back on track.
I used to have a pocket watch from the Wahine, that I found diving on Barret's Reef.
Thanks Stuart interesting and your first part possibly would refer also to the Mikhail Lermontov tragedy of one of Russia's premier ships being piloted by a Marlborough leading mariner to a watery grave. Was it political,, was it sabotage? Will we ever know and why pilot Jamieson got off lightly.
I was also wondering if the Wahine couldn't be said to have been steered towards land or the insurance might have placed personal blame on the Captain rather than the consideration of an Act of God causing the damage, or whatever cover was to be provided.
I knew someone who investigated Lermentov. No proof, but an abiding sense that 'something wasn't right' was one observation. The Geo story covers it fairly well: The last cruise of Mikhail Lermontov | New Zealand Geographic (nzgeo.com)
There is a fairly full description of the wreck here.
https://youtu.be/qQfetkoGrpU