About time. The problem with these simple minded slogan policies is that they such large amounts of resources away from programs that are actually in place and working.
In NZ fad slogans like national standards pulled money away from and effectively terminated programmes that were operational and effective like adult education to the reading and numerical. For what? The national standards don’t look like they are achieving anything apart from killing trees producing meaningless reports even in the schools and the now disillusioned parents that enthusiastically took it up.
How well is national standards actually doing? We don’t know. Because the idiots that pushed it into the system seem to have forgotten to put in any monitoring of the new system to find out if it is actually achieving anything.
Asset sell-off
Just what would the comeback be to those who are “promising” the majority of the 49% going to NZ and NZ mums and dads if that didn’t eventuate and they did finish up in foreign hands? Could those ministers with the respective portfolios be liable for prosecution?
What financial crisis…
Are we mugs or not? I can think of a few needs in New Zealand that could have been met if this profit had remained sloshing around in New Zealand owned banks – we used to have some – but instead has been sucked away to Australia and further afield.
I don’t understand how people fail to see how damaging it is to send this sort of profit off-shore.
Only a tiny portion of that money will ever make its way into the til of a New Zealand shopkeeper.
And now we’re going to do the exact same thing with the power companies: send the money off-shore to be spent in foreign shops, when it could be spent in the shops of Kiwis, who would then employ Kiwis and buy goods from other Kiwis (even if they were imported…but let’s not go there).
It boggles my mind that people don’t see the problem. How can you have increasing levels of wealth and prosperity for the masses when all your wealth gets shipped into the pockets of people overseas?
The majority of the NZ banking industry has pretty much always been in overseas hands. Three of the major banks ANZ/National (prior to the merger), and Westpac. The exception was BNZ and POSB. I exclude ASB because prior to the 1990’s it was not a big player nation wide.
Inmteresting though that some lefties were arguing that the introduction of Kiwibank somehow stopped the other banks from making extraordinary profits. How is this theory looking now? Mighty flawed I’d suggest.
Just more proof that we need to drop the private banks and go all national. Have banking as a state service as it should be rather than a rort that enriches only the few.
ome lefties were arguing that the introduction of Kiwibank somehow stopped the other banks from making extraordinary profits. How is this theory looking now? Mighty flawed I’d suggest.
KiwiBank as it stands now was but one step.
Putting the backing of Government behind KiwiBank would do it.
For once I agree with CV (I hope this not a trend…)- Kiwibank may not have drastically changed the fee landscape but on the margin it will have had some impact – who knows what would have happened without them
In fact when Kiwibank started my own fees went down by over $100 a month. Multiply that by all New Zealander’s business and private accounts. That is why the banking industry is so keen to get rid of Kiwibank. It keeps them partially honest.
Yep suddenly I had people ringing me from my bank suddenly noticing I was entitled to reduced fees, offering me a credit card with lower interest rates, asking me for my opinion on what they could do for me and knocking 1/4 percent off my mortgage.
Saved me quite a bit of money.
The struggle against climate change, and the struggle against autocracy, and for democracy are closely linked.
One of the fronts in the global battle against climate change is the Maldives.
The democratically elected president and global campaigner against climate change has been injured in a military and police coup.
President Mohammed Nasheed who was also a political prisoner of the previous autocratic dictatorship that ruled his country for 30 years. Says he will stand again if democratic elections are allowed by the new regime.
As the Climate Change Crisis deepens, events are showing, that the 1 percenters are prepared to, lie, conspire, and even kill, to protect their right to exploit both the human and natural environment to the point of collapse. (and beyond)
[lprent: Dickhead. Regardless of what you (or I or anyone) thinks of his business practices, remember that people including his family will google and find this tasteless and upsetting. I haven’t had to deal with you before so you get the introductory 1 week ban. ]
When the 1% reform, and desist from lying, conspiring and killing to further their control of society, then I’ll shed a tear. Until then I’ll celebrate the death of these animals. Evil doesn’t deserve compassion.
[lprent: Ah. You may – but not on our space. Ban increased to 2 weeks. And read the policy. ]
Writen like a true leftist despot in waiting. I can see you organising the ‘re-education’ camps now for those who dare disagree with the ‘mainstream’ views.
The silience of other lefties on this site to the above comment is telling….they either
1) Agree with TT
2) Are so biased that they refuse to critize a comrade
Or, as in my case, they didn’t even see it! (It was deleted some time ago) I gather it celebrated someone’s death, and that is never acceptable!
Right on TT. I really hope Gareth Morgan gets Aids and Bob Jones gets something really painfull like Ebola.
Fuck you.
[lprent: You just came off a ban for being a dick. And I see that you have moved on from wanting to shoot people to wanting them infected instead. /the-biggest-fraud/comment-page-1/#comment-413972 I will be generous and I won’t give you a year.. 4 weeks for being a reactive dumbarse. ]
I have no idea who or what she/he is. Only had 4 comments, 2 today (which picked up two bans).
The others were run of the mill extremist. Could be a wingnut trying to sound like one of their fantasies (it has been done before). Or as much of a moonbeam as he/she reads. But whatever; it will get educated about acceptable behaviour the same way everyone else does.
Apparently some doofus made a pretty loathsome comment and picked up a ban because of it. But because the guy was allegedly a lefty, apparently it’s proof that all the left are just as bitter and small-minded as some on the right.
Oh, and a whole bunch of tories believe that if they read a comment before the mods catch it, everyone else has, too.
It was pretty crass. I have no idea who he was talking about (apart from the company), but I think that families should be allowed to let their loved ones get laid to rest without reading about some idiot gloating about it.
“We do,” said US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland when asked by reporters, if Washington recognizes the new government as the legitimate government of the Maldives. Nuland called Waheed the president and Nasheed the former president.
Meanwhile, at the same time, as the US was busy cosying up to the coup leaders.
Nasheed, according to reports, has been threatened with arrest and ‘life in jail’ just days after he was forced to resign at gunpoint by renegade police and military forces.
I think you are overstating the current position of Climat Change. There is general consensus that the world is more likely to be cooling rather than warming. There has been no perceptible increase in sea levels. The ice caps are stable and the glaciers growing.
Using a unique pair of satellites that have monitored the disappearing ice over the entire surface of the globe, scientists estimated that some 1,000 cubic miles of ice has disappeared between 2003 and 2010 – enough to cover the US in one-and-a-half feet of water.
The survey found that the melting of the cryosphere has been responsible for raising sea levels by about half an inch over the same period, equivalent to a rise of about 1.5mm a year. This was on top of sea-level increases due to the thermal expansion of seawater caused by rising ocean temperatures.
The survey found that the melting of the cryosphere has been responsible for raising sea levels by about half an inch over the same period, equivalent to a rise of about 1.5mm a year. This was on top of sea-level increases due to the thermal expansion of seawater caused by rising ocean temperatures.
MILANO – L’attuale fase di riscaldamento globale almeno un lato positivo ce l’ha. La prossima era glaciale, il cui inizio era stato indicato tra circa 1.500 anni, è rinviata di alcune migliaia di anni. La fase interglaciale in cui stiamo vivendo, iniziata circa 12 mila anni fa dopo che 6 mila anni prima i ghiacci avevano raggiunto la massima espansione, è infatti un’anomalia in un periodo complessivamente freddo che dura da circa 1,2 milioni di anni e che negli ultimi 500 mila anni ha già fatto registrare quattro lunghe glaciazioni.
MILAN – The current phase of global warming has at least one positive side. The next ice age, the beginning of which was expected in about 1,500 years, is postponed for some thousands of years. The interglacial stage in which we live, which began about 12,000 years ago after 6 thousand years before the ice had reached its apex, is in fact an anomaly in a cold period that lasted a total of about 1.2 million years and that in the last 500 thousand years has already seen four long ice ages.
The underlying trend for the next 10k years is for cooling. That is the major solar cycles and orbital cycles. However that is being washed under by greenhousing the atmosphere.
Quite simply it is a effect that would have already made a difference if we hadn’t already been modifying the atmosphere fot tge last 5k years or so. Basically since we started pushing methane out.
Those cooling effects make no difference for the next few thousand years regardless what happens now. The last 200 years of CO2 releases will persist washing out underlying effects for at least that long. The question is how much worse we make it in pursuit of profits and SUVs
BTW the current ice age is easily traceable back to about 40Mya. Antarticia drifted fully into the polar position then and started to ice up. Our species developed in ice ages. It is unlikely we’d survive normal earth climates. In a few generations they will find out.
We have a thing called tides and weather that confuses the issue. Seeing cm’s of average rise over decades when sealevels normally change by meters daily is hard.
But of course there is no perceptible change in sea levels. Humans aren’t equipped to perceive it. Most cannot remember what they had for breakfast on the same day last year. That is why we rely on records of previous measurements. However contrary to your carefully worded statement, sealevels are measurably steadily rising, mostly at present from thermal expansion. In many locations this is probably not perceptible because people don’t remember well enough to perceive it.
A few (but not most) mountain glaciers are growing. It is what you expect to happen when you measure increased precipitation in their circes. It is a sign of shifting weather patterns and is actually something to worry about. Weather patterns don’t shift outside of cylic events unless there is significiant climate change. Glaciers are a complex mix of the rate that they get fed vs the rate that they melt. You are thinking of one without considering the other.
See the reply about overall cycles I made to someone else. But surfice into say that is you wanted to show how much of a stupid arse you are on the science of climate change, then your two observations (that I pointed out the half truths in above) made that amply clear.
Even you should have been able to see the idiotic flaws in the statements to anyone who’d done any science.
While i don’t condone illegal downloading is anyone else getting more uneasy with the Kim Dotcom fiasco?
I am getting the distinct impression that the NZ Government & Police will do anything to please the USA/FBI.
Heavy handed is an understatement.
There is also the instance of the British kid facing deportation to the US for the same thing. His revenue came from the advertisers on his site and as far as I know. I wonder how many other cases there are?
Briefly, they hold that a .org or .net address = US jurisdiction and that ‘inducing’ others to download copy right material (by running a link site) is enough of a reason to seek extradition and prosecute in the US. The fact that O’Dwyer did nothing illegal under UK law and had no US based servers is apparently irrelevant. So I guess the same goes for Dotcom with regards NZ law.
What is scary beyond the means of arrest is that there has been no evidence produced to substantiate the arrest and detention of Mr Dotcom. Surely it would be remarkable if you or I was arrested without any case having been made to the Courts. Uneasy? Yes.
I’ve been trying to collect all the links to the excellent ‘Divided Auckland’ series in the Herald this week (the website itself doesn’t seem to have them centrally located anywhere).
If anyone has missed any of these, they are well worth a read. A very comprehensive look at inequality and poverty in Auckland by the Herald’s social issues reporter Simon Collins. There is still one more part to go tomorrow, which is supposed to be about what can be done to improve this situation.
I know some on this site believe that Mediaworks are in the pocket of this government. I don’t think that. A large number of people in broadcasting (I’d argue MSM) are inherently conservative (learned from two decades around these people – I think it’s because they need to reach a mass audience meaning they lean right) so naturally they will support a government made of conservative elements.
More to the point, though, Mediaworks is largely devoid of decency. We saw this prior to the election where they were prepared to hand over an hour or programming to Mr Key even though it was obviously not in the interests of democracy. Here’s the latest stunt from one of their radio stations – surprise your spouse with a divorce on air. http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/valentines-day-2012/6394715/Radio-stations-divorce-promo-cowardly
The Rock also do the vile Wind Up Your Wife segment, where practical ‘jokes’ like telling a woman she took the wrong baby home from the hospital is par for the course.
And Mediaworks were behind that show that thought breaching airport security would be good for a laugh. When they appeared in court the culprits were all cowardly in the extreme – if you’re such rebels guys you go down fighting, not with a whimper.
And the government did a deal with these people to keep them in business?
I know some on this site believe that Mediaworks are in the pocket of this government.
Actually, I think it’s more that this government is in the pockets of the MSM.
I think it’s because they need to reach a mass audience meaning they lean right) so naturally they will support a government made of conservative elements.
The majority of people in the country are neither conservative nor right leaning. This would indicate that they have another reason for producing right leaning news.
“The majority of people in the country are neither conservative nor right leaning. This would indicate that they have another reason for producing right leaning news”
Nor as the election showed left leaning…..hence they must all be in the centre!
Does that include the 27% who didn’t vote? We can’t just assume that they would have voted in lock step with everyone else and research shows a) that it’s the poor who tend not to vote and b) that they would normally vote left if they did.
BTW, if we continue to accept Labour as a left-wing party then today’s centre is right-leaning.
A few factors at play here.
1. Senior journalism. It takes experience, intellect and good research backing it. Most have retired or left the industry, those that remain don’t get the resouces due to below.
2. Short attention span and cheap reality TV amongst others. Why bother crafting a well strctured 20 min piece on say the GFC when most folk can’t focus beyond the first 5 minutes and celebrity strip snooker sex darts on ice rates 5 times higher amd costs less….ka ching
3. Who’s your dadddy. Stories that upset the management/owners are never going to get focus…recall ‘the insider’ and GE’s influence on 60 minutes etc etc not to mention the links between mediawonks and a certain govt minister who brokered the interest free loan that renewed their licences.
4. Emotion’s a quick easy target over intellect, so dog whistle away.
5. those well crafted press releases look just journalism if you don’t look to hard and soo much cheaper than doing any actual research.
There’s others but you get the picture….and it’s SBW taking his shirt off again…awww swoon.
So Key says now that the returns from state assets are not as good Greens and Labour are saying, this of course
belies the obvious reality of peak oil naturally increasing the worth of renewables energy sources. So National is
willing to risk the irony that future state asset ledgers showing massive returns in the future, and Nationals future
economic competence is brought into question each year (when the state assets profits are declared to parliament),
the opposition parties will rise in a coarse and loud laughter, never let National sell your home! But what I find
find immediately funny is the uber investment salesman Key is talking down the state assets even as he is trying to
sell them. Can Key be any more ridiculous? National trying NOT to explain how peak oil will blow out profit as demand
rises in the face of peaks in oil price, and is in fact trying to damage the past history of dividend returns.
But as I have pointed out, governments cannot mislead foriegn investers because of free trade rules, but can mislead native investors. One problem core to world capitalism is boardrooms paying themselves huge bonuses despite selling shareholders down the river.
Free trade inevitably means a global elite of global firms and dynasties will emerge who can lobby native
governments to rip local tax payers off.
Imagine for a second government in one term buying land, building a dam and
then selling the dam immediately, if the market could not provide the funding at the time the dam was built then why
should the market be able to buy the dam once it has been built and makes a huge one off windfall profit (no innovation there!).
Especially when there are other instruments to offset debt without losing ownership, like selling off future returns
on product like Fonterra has. So the question is why is Key so purposefully clueless? Asset sales, even with iwi
agreement, is a bad deal for NZ, a best hopelessly incompetence, at worse against the long term interests of the nation.
And we have not even got to the question of standing, how will the government insure all Kiwis have first dibs at the
shares without provoking the ire of the free trade? Unless government admits that since tax payers already own the
assets! And if government does that then taxpayers have a right to take their case to the free trade judges and argue
that government intervention has to be in their best interest, and government cannot sell off assets without a
referendum of the people, the shareholders, like any company who has to take big decisions to the shareholders.
And treat them like any other investor!!!
Free trade works for “all” investors not just foriegn investors, otherwise it is unconscionable. Many people voted
National despite its asset sale policy, its naive of National to argue that every citizen that voted for them agreed
with every line of their manifesto – especially when their MPs have said as much in times past.
So Dunne says he supports the decision of the people, to sit with the National party, Dunne went to the electorate as
the voice of moderation in the centre, who has worked with all sides. Now National got less than 50% of the vote, and
the moderate position to take surely when there is a hanging chad situation (and time to sort out the issue) is to go
back and have some form of recount, like a referendum. So is Dunne going to suggest that he will vote for partial
asset sales if there is a referendum on such a significant national issue? Why should we have all this fog about
asset sales, as if they were now a foregone conclusion once iwi sign on them? Dunne can clear the way with one word,
referendum. Does Dunne like Key believe the voters would vote for them anyway, well then put up a referendum.
Its like Key getting off a plane from Hier Hitler waving a agreement to sell assets…
…was just a delaying tactic because Key lost by winning the last election with a smaller coalition.
Will Dunne go the way of Hide? Hide was unelectable when he covered up Garrett crime and punishment history, will Dunne go the same way by not forcing a referendum and going against his moderating center of politics. Can you image for a moment the Greens forcing a citizens referendum on asset sales after Dunne had been sitting on his hands?
Free trade protects (rightly) foreign investors equal treatment but if local investors cannot (or do not) gain access to WTO arbitration then over time without remedy too poor government policy (like asset sales) . Foreign investors have the incentive to lubricate the political elite to produce favorable policies (at the expense tax payers). What are Asset Sales but selling off dams built with tax payer money and returning very nice profits (and likely to get much better due to peak oil)? So if a company board were to fail to take a partial sell off of their company to a shareholder vote they’d be sued, but if the government fails to take partial asset sales a referendum at considerable lose (due to world governments printing money and prospects for the assets being so considerable in the peak oil future).
Key is currently trying to get rich from China not by emulating China but by selling our assets to China. This is a profound article on “State Capitalism” and why the free market will fail us..
Late last month, the Economist magazine published a debate on state capitalism, in which it proposed that state-led market economies are fast becoming a global rival to the old models of liberal, free market capitalism.
When you hear someone say the words ‘nanny state’, ask if they know the causes of Pike River
When you hear someone say we should cut red tape, ask if they know someone with a leaky home
When you hear someone say the words ‘nanny state’, ask if the know why the CTV building collapsed
When you hear someone say the market is the solution, ask if they know someone who lost all their savings from a finance company
It’s just a start….I imagine people can think of more
Now, why doesn’t the media ask those questions??
I guess Steven Joyce would say ” Each time we say ‘you can’t’ it carries a cost”
Maybe the media should ask him “What is the cost of saying “you can?”
The answer………….Pike River, leaky buildings, CTV, the 2008 crash….
Why are they so bad at their job?
They’re so bad at their job because they aren’t doing their job, they’re creating profit. The environment they do it in is irrelevent.
Ever wonder why the entertainment industry often turns out music, film and stories so awfully bad that you wonder how it happened? Then you read the credits and it’s like a telephone book of influencial friends? Because to make it in the entertainment world (or anywhere else that money collects) you must be, first and foremost, be a connected business person – not a competent craftsman. Musician, screen writer, builder, architect, manager, miner – business first, everything else way down the list. Until people realise money, political connections, “passion”, ambition and greed are not indicators of competency, we can expect a worsening of all crafts.
Ever wonder how it is that within any profession you choose, you’ll find a large percentage of the people as almost cookie cutter clones? Many aren’t doing their job. They’re living a persona generated to make profit.
In the last 2 weeks I have done flying trips to Germany, UK, Denmark Switzerland, and now Thailand. I have a few impressions.
1. Europe is bloody cold!!
2. Customs and immigration searches are getting over the top and much more invasive. The bastards at Heathrow (don’t go there) took my half empty bottle of contact lens solution (Helpfully telling me I could buy a new one in the transit lounge). With the ridiculous lengths they go to against bona fide travellers, I think the terrorists have already won. Notice how they don’t explosive search anyone even remotely looking like the might have a bomb – of course not!! If you searched a terrorist he might set it off – thats why you only see the hassling little old white ladies!
3. Swiss customs and cops don’t mess around – they are right into racial profiling. Arabic or black – you will be done over coming into the country and probably stopped at random in the street.
4. Picked up the inevitable cold but was delighted to find out that the only cold remedy at Dubai contained Pseudoephedrine. Needless to say, 24 hrs later I am cured. Looks like, in NZ the criminals have won, dooming us all to colds and flu that is impossible to get rid of!
5. iPads are the answer, no more lugging around the bloody laptop and with the bluetooth keyboard and iPad holder I bought duty free at Copenhagen, really useful.
6. The plane heading back to NZ is always the best flight!
Too bloody hot in Auckland at present. My brain starts misfiring from 2pm onwards ( programming makes you utterly aware if and when stupidity is setting in ). Roll on winter…
Re # 2: I disagree with you there. Being a person of indeterminate ethnic origin (I’m half PI and half English but I look vaguely Arabic, particularly if I haven’t shaved for a few days), I will ALWAYS get singled out for the carry-on bag swab and scan test. I don’t mind, they’re just doing their job. But I’m not kidding myself that I’m not being racially profiled. I’m yet to see any “little old white ladies” singled out.
I’ve been singled out (little white lady) – a few years ago carry-on bags were ‘randomly’ checked at Heathrow, and surprise – I was a ‘random’ checked at the U.S stopover as well. The added touch was extra questioning and luggage check by customs on arrival in Auckland.
After thinking about it, I guess buying tickets for a trip of only a few days, 2 days before the flight, gave me the profile of a drug smuggler (the trip was for a funeral).
Again an extra scan and bag checks at Heathrow just last month for no particular reason.
Re # 6: Yes it is, it’s always full of kiwis happy to be getting home or tourists happy to be heading here. And if you get an immigration officer that says to you “Welcome home”, that’s the icing on the cake.
I fekkin hate travelling through airports, the tyranny of the state becomes so obvious…we are all supposed to be scared that on our way between Auckland Wellington and Shakytown some Arab sympathiser iis going to set of a bomb in mid air. Or hijack us and fly us into the Beehive. For that I must be stoppped scanned, searched and deprived of metalic objects incase I use something as inocuous as a fishing reel as a weapon of mass destruction. Argghhhh!!!!!
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Former Waikato DHB CEO Nigel Murray allegedly misused public funds, spending more than $120,000 of public money on unjustified travel. He was forced to resign and the Serious Fraud Office began an investigation. But despite the SFO finding that the ...
Jeremy Corbyn, we are told, is being advised – not least by his deputy (as well as by some of his would-be successors) – that he must come “off the fence” on the Brexit issue if he wants to bolster ...
The End of Life bill has been read a second time and is now heading for the House for further debate. Personally, I support the proposal. I don't ever epect to take advantage of the Bill's provisions myself, but as ...
Before the substantive issue which this column is about – whether there has been a deterioration in the economic advice given to the government – a paragraph about the budget leaks.read more ...
Below is a translation of the editorial in the June 24 round of weekly workplace bulletins issued all over France by the revolutionary workers’ organisation Lutte Ouvriere. Last Saturday, 8,000 people took to the streets of Belfort (eastern France) to ...
Why hasn't Parliament followed the lead set by our local authorities and declared a climate emergency? The answer is the National Party:The Prime Minister’s admission that she is open to the idea of declaring a climate change emergency is nothing ...
Back in May the government released its Zero Carbon Bill. While much of the bill was welcome, there was one big exception: it contained a secrecy clause, requiring the Climate Change Commission to maintain secrecy over practically everything it does. ...
by Phil Duncan This past week has marked the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the Stonewall Inn riots in Christopher Street, New York, the event generally regarded as kicking off the gay liberation movement. Quite a few articles have ...
Southland - land of coal-burning dairy farmers - has become the first region in the country to explicitly vote against declaring a climate emergency. Their reason? They didn't want to "devalue" the word "emergency". Its an argument addressed powerfully in ...
New Zealand has a problem with police chases: officers going after fleeing drivers like rabid dogs, without any consideration for proportionality or public safety, often with fatal results. And according to an in-depth article in the Guardian today, the UK ...
Welcome to another heaping helping of research publications related to climate change drivers and mechanisms, the effects of climate change and how we might yet grope our way into systems approaches to dealing with the mess we're making, despite ourselves. ...
Holly Lawford-Smith is a senior lecturer in political philosophy at the University of Melbourne. She’s currently writing a book about radical feminism. This article appeared on Feminist Current Academics should be standing together in defence of universities’ fundamental values: the ...
The Otago Daily Times has an in-depth article about the future of wind energy in New Zealand, and it is looking bright:The news that wind will play the leading role in New Zealand’s energy future was put up in lights ...
If the sight of schoolkids striking for a future has been filling you with hope, good news: they want you to join them on September 27:Students will take to the streets again demanding action on climate change, and this time ...
The People's "Friend": In this masterpiece of revolutionary propaganda, the homicidal political psychopath, Jean-Paul Marat, has been transformed by Jacques-Louis David, the French Revolution's most accomplished artist, into a martyred hero of the ordinary people of Paris. Thanks to Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook, ...
The principle of one person, one vote doesn’t apply for local elections. In fact, you don’t even need to be a person to have voting rights. Welcome to the ratepayer roll. While the ratepayer roll accounts for less than 1% ...
I have been working my way through a 47,000 document tranche of declassified US government communications related to Argentina and the “Dirty War” of 1976-83. I grew up in Argentina in the period leading up to the March 24, 1976 ...
To express concern about foreign ownership and control in New Zealand is often to invite accusations of xenophobia and economic illiteracy. It is worthwhile, therefore, to rehearse the grounds for that concern, and to explore the various forms it can ...
It must be a day ending in Y because the Guardian - remember when it used to be a good paper1 - is running another spurious story about Corbyn's leadership being threatened over anti-Semitism.The headline the Guardian runs is: "MPs tell ...
A chronological listing of news articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Jun 23 through Sat, June 29, 2019 Editor's Pick When Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez met Greta Thunberg: 'Hope is contagious'Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and ...
When people slate the current Government for taking too long on certain issues, or not getting everything right, just check the outrage and quit helping National manufacture consent for their decade of Disaster Economics and much more. Bill couldn’t ...
Robots could soon replace many low-skill jobs, such as President of the United States. US Presidential hopeful and doomsday prophet Andrew Yang went to extreme lengths to make a point in the first round of Democratic primary debates today, replacing ...
More people have died in the shower this year than will die in a KiwiBuild home. KiwiBuild home owners are experiencing a surprise windfall this month, as the price of their houses have begun to rise dramatically, due to growing ...
First way – the state, Keynesian demand management, the working class as the base of support. Second way – free-market, reduce the scope of the state and cut taxes, relative indifference to social justice. Third Way – well that's the ...
E15 is a London-based housing campaign that arose from the eviction of a group of young working-class mothers from a homeless hostel in 2013. Cat Wiener, through her work with the Revolutionary Communist Group, helped get Focus E15 up and ...
Going Upstairs: If we accept the LGBTQI+ community’s untrammelled right to advance their understanding of love, then we must also accept Israel Folau’s right to articulate his own simplistic and inadequate interpretation of the Christian religion.ONE OF THE FIRST things ...
So, some Labour MPs and peers have written Corbyn a letter complaining about the re-admission of loudmouth MP Chris Williamson, who had been suspended over allegations he made anti-Semitic comments.Never mind the Guardian's typically biased headline that Corbyn is facing ...
When the NZDF was asked to release US information on Operation Burnham which would have revealed how the villagers died, they refused, claiming that the US objected. So, Nicky Hager and Deborah Manning requested it in the US, under that ...
Statistics New Zealand has released a new report on New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions, with a sectoral breakdown shown how much is caused by different sectors of the economy. The data is crystal clear: half our emissions are caused by ...
Another day, another IPCA report finding police misbehaviour, this time in relation to police beating a suspect in Huntly in 2017. But despite a finding that officers used excessive force, the police as usual refused to prosecute their own. But ...
Compare And Contrast: One of the reasons so many powerful forces combined to oust the Third Labour Government was its obvious determination to move beyond progressive rhetoric and embrace progressive action. When assessing the behaviour of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern ...
A new digital platform aims to make it easier for small businesses to access services from multiple government agencies, leaving them more time to focus on their own priorities. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Minister for Small Business Stuart Nash ...
Million-dollar start to gun collection eventsPolice Minister Stuart Nash says a solid start has been made to the gun buyback and amnesty after the first weekend of community collection events. “Gun owners will walk away with more than ...
Police Minister Stuart Nash has praised Police and gun owners after the first firearms collection event saw a busy turnout at Riccarton Racecourse in Christchurch. “Police officers and staff have put a tremendous effort into planning and logistics for the ...
Seventy-eight new Police constables are heading out to the regions following today’s graduation of a new recruit wing from the Royal New Zealand Police College. Police Minister Stuart Nash says the record high number of new Police officers being recruited, ...
The Motor Trade Association is welcoming the release of the Government’s new draft road safety strategy. MTA Chief Executive Craig Pomare says the association is pleased to see vehicle safety has been made a priority in the Road to Zero ...
The Department of Conservation continue to repeat the same old story about attacks on staff and how it is affecting their role in protecting our precious wildlife. NZ herald https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12249704 ...
The government's silence on the fact that the country's second-largest milk processor is on the brink of becoming 25% Chinese Government owned has been deafening. ...
School Strike 4 Climate NZ welcomes the coalition Government’s endeavour to take action on reducing agricultural emissions but is disappointed at the weak stance that the Government has taken on the issue. ...
The Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) has issued a formal warning under the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009 (AML/CFT Act) to seven reporting entities within the Regus Management Limited (RNZML) designated business ...
The Northland Regional Council (NRC) has voted to exclude all GM/GE precautionary provisions in its regional plan, despite years of community engagement showing support for such protection. There is a sense of betrayal following the way the NRC Chairman ...
New Zealand’s ‘mission-driven’ charities working in international aid are showing early signs of changing the way they work, in particular prioritising building the capacity and resilience of local communities to do their own development. ...
Teachers will have to wait until 11 September for pay increases won as part of their collective agreement negotiations settled in June, according to an update sent to schools today from Novopay. ...
July 16 (BusinessDesk) - Energy Minister Megan Woods says the government “won’t die in a ditch” if its goal of 100 percent renewable electricity generation isn't reached by 2035. ...
The Electricity Networks Association (ENA) is welcoming the Government’s response to the Interim Climate Change Committee (ICCC) Report released today. Graeme Peters, chief executive of the ENA, said one of the key recommendations, endorsed by the ...
An article* published this month in the Journal of Health Organization and Management raises questions over the way health board members are elected and whether the boards are even needed. ...
NZEI Te Riu Roa's kindergarten teacher members will vote on a proposed settlement to their collective agreement after four days of negotiations with the Ministry of Education and kindergarten employers. ...
Vector has today welcomed the ICCC’s report on Accelerated Electrification . Vector agrees that accelerating the electrification of transport and process heat will play a major role in reducing the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. Initiatives to ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is calling on the Porirua City Council to cancel its underwriting of a proposed Canadian-led privately owned adventure park slated for public land after a similar project created a huge liability for Christchurch ...
Youth climate change campaigners Generation Zero welcome the Interim Climate Change Committee’s (ICCC’s) reports: Accelerated Electrification and Action on agricultural emissions ; which were finally released by the Government today, almost three months ...
Fish & Game New Zealand notes the announcement today that the Government and the intensive agriculture leadership have reached a ‘historic consensus’ and are exploring using a formal sector-government agreement instead of bringing agriculture ...
The independent Interim Climate Change Committee’s report on Accelerated Electrification was released today by the Minister for Energy and Resources, Hon Dr Megan Woods. ...
The independent Interim Climate Change Committee’s report Action on agricultural emissions was released today by the Minister for Climate Change, Hon James Shaw and the Minister of Agriculture, Hon Damien O’Connor. ...
Please find attached embargoed copies of two media statements from the Interim Climate Change Committee http://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/1907/Embargoed_Interim_Climate_Change_Committee_Accelerated_electrification_MEDIA_STATEMENT.pdf ...
Greenpeace Executive Director, Dr Russel Norman, has reacted with disbelief that the Government’s latest climate proposal includes an option for dairy to voluntarily deal with their emissions over the next six years. ...
This week’s “Youth Parliament” is an expensive waste of time that promotes taxpayer-funded junketeering, says the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union . “We shouldn’t be training kids on the joys of the trough,” says Taxpayers’ Union spokesperson ...
Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones admitted on Q+A tonight that the state of New Zealand’s infrastructure planning is “dismal” and the government needs to get on with building “rather than writing more reports about it.” ...
DairyNZ has released its submission on the Zero Carbon Bill and is calling on the Government to revise the methane target in the Bill to one that does not put at risk New Zealand’s world-leading dairy sector. Farm profit could ...
July 15 (BusinessDesk) - Foreign Minister Winston Peters will have bi-lateral meetings with two of US president Donald Trump's most hawkish defence and security advisers in a five day trip to Washington D.C. ...
Youth climate change campaigners Generation Zero are calling for Members of Parliament to show political courage as the Zero Carbon Bill goes through the crucial Select Committee process. ...
Annual net migration was provisionally estimated at 50,200 (± 800) in the year ended December 2018 compared with 52,600 in the previous year, Stats NZ said today. ...
New Zealanders have the opportunity to contribute to the government’s Review of Retirement Income Policies, including questions around Superannuation and KiwiSaver. Submissions are now open for the Review, being run by the Commission for Financial ...
Yesterday at Mataatua Marae the Tamaki Makaurau Electorate of the Māori party congratulated Rangi Mclean who was appointed to the Vice president Tāne role of the party nation-wide executive. ...
The funding crisis facing the disability sector has become more urgent following the disturbing news that the Ministry of Health will not increase contract prices for providers this year, the New Zealand Disability Support Network said today. ...
The growing number of working poor is an alarming indicator that the regulatory Minimum Wage does not cut it said Closing the Gap spokesperson Peter Malcolm. ...
Historic hui gives overwhelming agreement for a Māori Inquiry The inquiry into state run Oranga Tamariki will be led by whanau, kaimahi and Māori leaders. ...
Drug infiltration into our maximum security prisons is putting prisoners and staff at unnecessary risk, and one tool that would be of huge benefit is a full body scanner. ...
The Socialist Equality Group is hosting a protest rally in Cuba Street, Wellington (at the intersection with Left Bank) on Sunday 14 July at 2:30pm to oppose the persecution of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and whistleblower Chelsea Manning, and to ...
Simon Shepherd: The National Party proposed its own medicinal cannabis scheme last year. Its Health Spokesperson, Michael Woodhouse, says it shouldn’t have been ignored. So I began by asking him what his problem is with the government’s proposed regime. ...
Countries around the world are also dealing with medicinal cannabis. Britain legalised it last year, but the uptake has been slow. Neurologist Professor Mike Barnes wrote the report that convinced UK lawmakers it was a good idea. He's coming here ...
Simon Shepherd: Green MP Chloe Swarbrick’s name has become synonymous with drug reform, so following years of campaigning for safe, public access to medicinal cannabis, what does she think of the government’s new plan? Well, Chloe Swarbrick joins me ...
Social Credit is calling for a Government enquiry into the Nelson Marlborough District Health Board over it's handling of the Sarah Preece attack in 2017 and its subsequent report. ...
An overwhelming response sees Māori from across the country pouring into Māngere today. The call for action came from Māori leadership concerned with the practice of tamariki removals by the state. Whānau, experts, and highly skilled Māori from ...
Responding the announcement of a $2.37 million loan from the Provincial Growth Fund to a Northland berry farm, New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says: “Why couldn’t this business get a loan from the bank? If no bank was ...
Multicultural NZ is delighted to congratulate former Gisborne Mayor, Meng Foon, who has been appointed as New Zealand’s Race Relations Commissioner. ...
Award-winning broadcaster, Waatea has been selected by North Island Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency to exclusively livestream the historic Māori-led Inquiry on Oranga Tamariki. ...
“The Peace Movement sends an urgent call to Winston Peters to reject any US demands for New Zealand participation in patrolling the Persian Gulf and Straits of Hormuz. New Zealand should have nothing to do with any war on the ...
More than 50 senior non-commissioned officers from militaries in the Asia-Pacific Region gathered this week in Auckland for a conference hosted by the New Zealand Army. ...
The addition of an absurd Treaty of Waitangi clause in the Plant Varieties Act raises the question whether “Maoridom” will claim royalties on new plant varieties, Hobson’s Pledge spokesperson Casey Costello said today. ...
What are we going to do about District Health Boards? News this week that the Government is looking at a further bail-out of cash-strapped Boards to help reduce their deficits has raised afresh questions about the sustainability of the current ...
Legal proceedings were filed in the Wellington High Court this week to have certain blocks of land at Shelly Bay returned to the ownership of Taranaki Whānui iwi. The land in issue is currently the proposed site for a high ...
The government’s reluctance to front up about support for mentally traumatised mosque shooting survivors has shined a spotlight on the limitations of ACC, writes RNZ’s Veronica Schmidt.The difficulty with being held up as a symbol of empathy and compassion is ...
Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk Two school girls from East Java, Aeshnina Azzahra (alias Nina), 12, and Zahira Zade, 11, have sent hand-written protest letters to US President Donald Trump over the dumping of toxic plastic waste in Indonesia. The ...
Jacinda Ardern needs to make a stand for the things she says her Government believes in, despite the public preference for strong, dominant and often otherwise repugnant politicians. ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s contentClimate change Zane Small (Newshub): Jacinda Ardern defends ‘laughable’ ...
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Options for getting agriculture into ETS unveiled, leading academic savages billion trees programme, and OIO approves Westland Milk sale. A historic day for climate change policy in New Zealand, with agriculture ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sumeet Walia, Senior Lecturer and Vice Chancellor’s Fellow, RMIT University What better way to build smarter computer chips than to mimic nature’s most perfect computer – the human brain? Being able to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anne Twomey, Professor of Constitutional Law, University of Sydney Debates about constitutional change in Australia inevitably raise the poor success rate of referendums. Only eight out of 44 attempts have ever succeeded ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Whitehouse, Bennett Chair of Autism, Telethon Kids Institute, Univeristy of Western Australia, University of Western Australia Therapies given to infants before they receive a diagnosis of autism may lead to important ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emily Fobert, Research Associate, Flinders University Clownfish achieved worldwide fame following Finding Nemo, but it turns out these fish don’t do so well in the spotlight. Our research, published in Biology Letters, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julien Pollack, Associate Professor, University of Sydney Someone we know recently told us about a team-building event that proved anything but. The chief executive who arranged it loved mountain biking. So he ...
Oskar Howell travels to Otorohanga to interview Danielle Hawkins, author of When It All Turns to Custard, over a delicious two-course home-cooked lunch. ...
Dreamed of traveling long term, but at a loss about how to afford it? Here’s how Kristin Hall and her partner managed it (spoiler: involves a lot of brown rice and cabbage).*Scroll to the end for an important note about ...
Daniel Ziffer’s rollicking account of Australia’s Royal Commission into banking is a jaw-dropping laundry list of scandals, heartbreaking stories, and ‘gotcha’ moments.The Haynes Commission was set up in 2017 to inquire into and report on misconduct in the Australian banking ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Harry Hobbs, Lecturer, University of Technology Sydney Queensland Deputy Premier Jackie Trad has announced that the state will begin a conversation about a pathway to treaty with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mair Underwood, Lecturer in Anthropology and Sociology, The University of Queensland Months after a public breakup with her husband, the politician Barnaby Joyce, Natalie Joyce made news when she displayed her “new” ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brittany Huber, Postdoctoral researcher, Swinburne University of Technology Most (80%) Australian parents worry children spend too much time with screens. But what children are doing on and off screen matters more than ...
A local photographer has posted emails from Warner Brothers NZ requesting they work “unpaid” on Married At First Sight NZ. A wedding photographer has posted emails from Warner Brothers NZ on Reddit after the production company requested that they work for ...
How ANZ Bank fought for more than three years to keep its role in New Zealand’s biggest Ponzi scheme quiet and stop a regulator telling out-of-pocket investors the details. ...
Sam Brooks reviews Mean Mums, the new sitcom from Three that manages to make putting a great show together look easy.When it premiered as part of Three’s Pilot Week last year, I called Mean Mums the winner of the bunch. Nearly ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Last week on this podcast we talked to Ken Wyatt about the government’s plan for a referendum – hopefully this parliamentary term – to recognise ...
Imagine if we treated our native birds with as little care as we do our precious fish stocks, writes ecologist Stella McQueen.Earlier this year, 900 at-risk native mudfish were relocated to make way for a wastewater development. But despite a ...
For when toast or cereal just doesn’t cut it, but you don’t have the time or inclination to do any actual cooking, try this. If I ever cook rice (or grains of any kind) for dinner, I often make extra to ...
For their latest ageing episode, Hilary Barry joins the On the Rag team to talk wrinkle creams, menopause and why people still think she is Jeremy Wells’ mum. This month’s episode of On the Rag is all about ageing. Time ravages ...
The Auditor-General's investigators are to look into the National Party's complaints about taxpayer funding being used to underwrite KiwiBuild homes. ...
Its rolling slate of cringey jokes and meaningless trivia is a familiar sight wherever there’s a captive audience – but what the hell is Giggle TV? Johnny Crawford looks into the tweet-stealing, wife joke-telling phenomenon.If you’ve spent any time in ...
COMMENTARY:By Yamin Kogoya in Auckland More than 50 years of “torture” has been inflicted on the Papuan people by the Indonesian government. With the complicity of Western governments, great fear has been put in the hearts and minds ...
It’s landlords who are finding themselves out in the cold as property managers begin to walk away from clients who haven’t insulated their rentals, reports Don Rowe.Two weeks after the first of New Zealand’s healthy homes deadlines, property managers are ...
Event date and time: Friday, July 26, 2019 – 17:00–18:30JOIN US for this Pacific Media Centre‘s smorgasbord “launch” mid-winter fono and celebration for: + Two new documentaries on climate change and media freedom + The ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Tuesday’s contentForeign affairs and trade Barry Soper (Newstalk ZB): US ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Monday’s contentOranga Tamariki, state care of children, adoption Bonnie Sumner (Newsroom): Māori ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Renaud Joannes-Boyau, Senior research fellow, Southern Cross University Humans’ distant ancestor Australopithecus africanus had a unique approach to raising their young, as shown in our new research published today in Nature. Geochemical ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland Curious Kids is a series for children. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskids@theconversation.edu.au You might ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joyce Y.M. Nip, Senior lecturer, Department of Media and Communications; Department of Chinese Studies, University of Sydney As China grows more powerful and influential, our New Superpower series looks at what this ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Trent Yarwood, Infectious Diseases Physician, Senior Lecturer, James Cook University and, The University of Queensland This year’s flu season is off to an early start, with 144,000 confirmed cases so far in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Todd Denham, PhD Candidate, School of Global, Urban & Social Studies, RMIT University Governments are looking to fast rail services to regional cities to relieve population pressures in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. ...
Open mike 10/02/2012 
The Interim Climate Change Committee's report on Action on agricultural emissions: Evidence, analysis and recommendations was finally released today, and as you might guess from the title, it is recommending that we actually act, rather than let farmers keep ...21 hours ago
On Sunday July 7, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Associate Health Minister Julie Anne Genter announced their intention to review the Ministry of Health’s Funded Family Care policy and repeal Part 4Aof the 2000 NZ Public Health and Disability Act. These are festering injustices ...22 hours ago
Belle is a lovely fifteen year-old border collie who belongs to our friends and neighbours at Bryan’s Beach, Michael and Judy Corboy. Belle, in her old age, can hardly see or hear, but – as a constant participant at social ...1 day ago
Later this month, thousands of people are expected to march to parliament as part of the #HandsOffOurTamaraki movement. At its heart, the movement is about preserving whānau and demanding that the state stop removing children from their whānau, hapū and iwi. ...2 days ago
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh The recent statements made by the former FARC commander, Carlos Lozada (legal name Julian Gallo), where, from his seat in Congress, he praised the Colombian Army demonstrate how low the farianos have sunk. Lozada began by ...3 days ago
A Woman’s Place is on the Podium was a public meeting in London on 10 July to discuss women’s sports and the impact of transwomen competing against women. The venue was sold out with a packed hall of 750 people. ...3 days ago
An occasional series where I will ponder allegations of anti-Semitism directed at the British Labour Party and its members.In this case, we are thinking about an allegedly anti-Semitic image shared by a Labour Party member. Its origins appear to be ...6 days ago
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Welcome to another heaping helping of research publications related to climate change drivers and mechanisms, the effects of climate change and how we might yet grope our way into systems approaches to dealing with the mess we're making, despite ourselves. ...2 weeks ago
The People's "Friend": In this masterpiece of revolutionary propaganda, the homicidal political psychopath, Jean-Paul Marat, has been transformed by Jacques-Louis David, the French Revolution's most accomplished artist, into a martyred hero of the ordinary people of Paris. Thanks to Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook, ...2 weeks ago
The principle of one person, one vote doesn’t apply for local elections. In fact, you don’t even need to be a person to have voting rights. Welcome to the ratepayer roll. While the ratepayer roll accounts for less than 1% ...2 weeks ago
I have been working my way through a 47,000 document tranche of declassified US government communications related to Argentina and the “Dirty War” of 1976-83. I grew up in Argentina in the period leading up to the March 24, 1976 ...2 weeks ago
Image Credit: Blog Writing Tips. I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the ... 2 weeks ago
When people slate the current Government for taking too long on certain issues, or not getting everything right, just check the outrage and quit helping National manufacture consent for their decade of Disaster Economics and much more. Bill couldn’t ...3 weeks ago
Robots could soon replace many low-skill jobs, such as President of the United States. US Presidential hopeful and doomsday prophet Andrew Yang went to extreme lengths to make a point in the first round of Democratic primary debates today, replacing ...3 weeks ago
More people have died in the shower this year than will die in a KiwiBuild home. KiwiBuild home owners are experiencing a surprise windfall this month, as the price of their houses have begun to rise dramatically, due to growing ...3 weeks ago
3 weeks ago
Statistics New Zealand has released a new report on New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions, with a sectoral breakdown shown how much is caused by different sectors of the economy. The data is crystal clear: half our emissions are caused by ...3 weeks ago
3 weeks ago
A new digital platform aims to make it easier for small businesses to access services from multiple government agencies, leaving them more time to focus on their own priorities. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Minister for Small Business Stuart Nash ...1 day ago
The Motor Trade Association is welcoming the release of the Government’s new draft road safety strategy. MTA Chief Executive Craig Pomare says the association is pleased to see vehicle safety has been made a priority in the Road to Zero ...22 mins ago
The government’s reluctance to front up about support for mentally traumatised mosque shooting survivors has shined a spotlight on the limitations of ACC, writes RNZ’s Veronica Schmidt.The difficulty with being held up as a symbol of empathy and compassion is ...29 mins ago
Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk Two school girls from East Java, Aeshnina Azzahra (alias Nina), 12, and Zahira Zade, 11, have sent hand-written protest letters to US President Donald Trump over the dumping of toxic plastic waste in Indonesia. The ...1 hour ago
Jacinda Ardern needs to make a stand for the things she says her Government believes in, despite the public preference for strong, dominant and often otherwise repugnant politicians. ...1 hour ago
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Options for getting agriculture into ETS unveiled, leading academic savages billion trees programme, and OIO approves Westland Milk sale. A historic day for climate change policy in New Zealand, with agriculture ...4 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sumeet Walia, Senior Lecturer and Vice Chancellor’s Fellow, RMIT University What better way to build smarter computer chips than to mimic nature’s most perfect computer – the human brain? Being able to ...4 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Whitehouse, Bennett Chair of Autism, Telethon Kids Institute, Univeristy of Western Australia, University of Western Australia Therapies given to infants before they receive a diagnosis of autism may lead to important ...5 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emily Fobert, Research Associate, Flinders University Clownfish achieved worldwide fame following Finding Nemo, but it turns out these fish don’t do so well in the spotlight. Our research, published in Biology Letters, ...5 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julien Pollack, Associate Professor, University of Sydney Someone we know recently told us about a team-building event that proved anything but. The chief executive who arranged it loved mountain biking. So he ...5 hours ago
The government is proposing a new road safety strategy called Road to Zero, aiming to cut road deaths by 40 percent in the next decade. ...5 hours ago
Oskar Howell travels to Otorohanga to interview Danielle Hawkins, author of When It All Turns to Custard, over a delicious two-course home-cooked lunch. ...6 hours ago
Highland dancing's lone male competitor, Angus Hendry, dominated the sport's national championships in Marlborough. ...6 hours ago
Jacinda Ardern’s comments jar with advice over extending ACC cover to mentally injured terror attack victims. ...6 hours ago
Auckland's lava caves offer a glimpse of volcanic activity on this planet and others - but they may be at risk. ...6 hours ago
Dreamed of traveling long term, but at a loss about how to afford it? Here’s how Kristin Hall and her partner managed it (spoiler: involves a lot of brown rice and cabbage).*Scroll to the end for an important note about ...6 hours ago
Daniel Ziffer’s rollicking account of Australia’s Royal Commission into banking is a jaw-dropping laundry list of scandals, heartbreaking stories, and ‘gotcha’ moments.The Haynes Commission was set up in 2017 to inquire into and report on misconduct in the Australian banking ...6 hours ago
The latest immigration figures paint a picture of headaches and heartbreaks. ...6 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Harry Hobbs, Lecturer, University of Technology Sydney Queensland Deputy Premier Jackie Trad has announced that the state will begin a conversation about a pathway to treaty with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ...17 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mair Underwood, Lecturer in Anthropology and Sociology, The University of Queensland Months after a public breakup with her husband, the politician Barnaby Joyce, Natalie Joyce made news when she displayed her “new” ...17 hours ago
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Obama waiving “No Child Left Behind”, Law. Tide going against National Stndards
It that supposed to be a haiku (it isn’t), or were you trying to communicate something?
About time. The problem with these simple minded slogan policies is that they such large amounts of resources away from programs that are actually in place and working.
In NZ fad slogans like national standards pulled money away from and effectively terminated programmes that were operational and effective like adult education to the reading and numerical. For what? The national standards don’t look like they are achieving anything apart from killing trees producing meaningless reports even in the schools and the now disillusioned parents that enthusiastically took it up.
How well is national standards actually doing? We don’t know. Because the idiots that pushed it into the system seem to have forgotten to put in any monitoring of the new system to find out if it is actually achieving anything.
Well spotted Monique. Sadly the new Minister of Ed has declared onwards and downwards.
I didnt think you would be the type of person to oppose National standards….
Asset sell-off
Just what would the comeback be to those who are “promising” the majority of the 49% going to NZ and NZ mums and dads if that didn’t eventuate and they did finish up in foreign hands? Could those ministers with the respective portfolios be liable for prosecution?
http://www.pundit.co.nz/content/asset-sales-–-where-are-mum-and-dad’s-shares
What financial crisis…
Are we mugs or not? I can think of a few needs in New Zealand that could have been met if this profit had remained sloshing around in New Zealand owned banks – we used to have some – but instead has been sucked away to Australia and further afield.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/6394291/Banks-take-3b-profit-overseas
Yep, just think what we could have done in R&D with $3b to throw at it. Instead it’s been wasted in profit.
I don’t understand how people fail to see how damaging it is to send this sort of profit off-shore.
Only a tiny portion of that money will ever make its way into the til of a New Zealand shopkeeper.
And now we’re going to do the exact same thing with the power companies: send the money off-shore to be spent in foreign shops, when it could be spent in the shops of Kiwis, who would then employ Kiwis and buy goods from other Kiwis (even if they were imported…but let’s not go there).
It boggles my mind that people don’t see the problem. How can you have increasing levels of wealth and prosperity for the masses when all your wealth gets shipped into the pockets of people overseas?
Shonkey and his corrupt crew don’t want wealth and prosperity for the masses they want it ALL for themselves.
That tired old politics of envy meme. You must be a riot at parties Marsman.
Ah, look, Gosman is here to protect his masters greed again, how cute.
Gosman plays the Politics of Greed.
And defends foreign masters emptying NZ of financial and investment capital.
Oh how cute! You two are like a double team like Abbott and Costello, Morcambe and Wise, Tweedledum and Tweedledumber…
+1
The majority of the NZ banking industry has pretty much always been in overseas hands. Three of the major banks ANZ/National (prior to the merger), and Westpac. The exception was BNZ and POSB. I exclude ASB because prior to the 1990’s it was not a big player nation wide.
Inmteresting though that some lefties were arguing that the introduction of Kiwibank somehow stopped the other banks from making extraordinary profits. How is this theory looking now? Mighty flawed I’d suggest.
Just more proof that we need to drop the private banks and go all national. Have banking as a state service as it should be rather than a rort that enriches only the few.
KiwiBank as it stands now was but one step.
Putting the backing of Government behind KiwiBank would do it.
For once I agree with CV (I hope this not a trend…)- Kiwibank may not have drastically changed the fee landscape but on the margin it will have had some impact – who knows what would have happened without them
In fact when Kiwibank started my own fees went down by over $100 a month. Multiply that by all New Zealander’s business and private accounts. That is why the banking industry is so keen to get rid of Kiwibank. It keeps them partially honest.
Yep suddenly I had people ringing me from my bank suddenly noticing I was entitled to reduced fees, offering me a credit card with lower interest rates, asking me for my opinion on what they could do for me and knocking 1/4 percent off my mortgage.
Saved me quite a bit of money.
Welcome to the new dystopian future.
The struggle against climate change, and the struggle against autocracy, and for democracy are closely linked.
One of the fronts in the global battle against climate change is the Maldives.
The democratically elected president and global campaigner against climate change has been injured in a military and police coup.
President Mohammed Nasheed who was also a political prisoner of the previous autocratic dictatorship that ruled his country for 30 years. Says he will stand again if democratic elections are allowed by the new regime.
Common Dreams .org Headlines
“President of Maldives, Climate Crusader, Ousted in Coup”
As the Climate Change Crisis deepens, events are showing, that the 1 percenters are prepared to, lie, conspire, and even kill, to protect their right to exploit both the human and natural environment to the point of collapse. (and beyond)
[deleted]
[lprent: Dickhead. Regardless of what you (or I or anyone) thinks of his business practices, remember that people including his family will google and find this tasteless and upsetting. I haven’t had to deal with you before so you get the introductory 1 week ban. ]
Disgraceful comment, Lloyd was a great businessman and a top chap – moderators can you please expunge the comment above.
this comment crosses the line of human decency
You are a seriously sad and deranged person TT.
When the 1% reform, and desist from lying, conspiring and killing to further their control of society, then I’ll shed a tear. Until then I’ll celebrate the death of these animals. Evil doesn’t deserve compassion.
[lprent: Ah. You may – but not on our space. Ban increased to 2 weeks. And read the policy. ]
Writen like a true leftist despot in waiting. I can see you organising the ‘re-education’ camps now for those who dare disagree with the ‘mainstream’ views.
The silience of other lefties on this site to the above comment is telling….they either
1) Agree with TT
2) Are so biased that they refuse to critize a comrade
Don’t be silly. They wait for a moderator to spot it. That can be several hours away depending on work.
It is really only the hysterical from the sewer and the like that assume that we should read every comment as it arrives.
Or, as in my case, they didn’t even see it! (It was deleted some time ago) I gather it celebrated someone’s death, and that is never acceptable!
True, best to celebrate a person’s life and this was a pretty remarkable one.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10784603
Right on TT. I really hope Gareth Morgan gets Aids and Bob Jones gets something really painfull like Ebola.
Fuck you.
[lprent: You just came off a ban for being a dick. And I see that you have moved on from wanting to shoot people to wanting them infected instead. /the-biggest-fraud/comment-page-1/#comment-413972 I will be generous and I won’t give you a year.. 4 weeks for being a reactive dumbarse. ]
Meh, TT is another Right Wing troll. Talk about shooting at your own set up targets.
Sad to see that Morrison has passed on well before his time. He’s made a massive difference to the community in the too short a time that he was here.
I have no idea who or what she/he is. Only had 4 comments, 2 today (which picked up two bans).
The others were run of the mill extremist. Could be a wingnut trying to sound like one of their fantasies (it has been done before). Or as much of a moonbeam as he/she reads. But whatever; it will get educated about acceptable behaviour the same way everyone else does.
I have just got back to my computer. What on earth has been going on?
Apparently some doofus made a pretty loathsome comment and picked up a ban because of it. But because the guy was allegedly a lefty, apparently it’s proof that all the left are just as bitter and small-minded as some on the right.
Oh, and a whole bunch of tories believe that if they read a comment before the mods catch it, everyone else has, too.
It was pretty crass. I have no idea who he was talking about (apart from the company), but I think that families should be allowed to let their loved ones get laid to rest without reading about some idiot gloating about it.
A big loss, one smart hard working operator who saved the Pheonix. Regards to his family he’s left quite a hole.
Good grief.
It must be a record.
Unbelievably the US government has rushed to recognise the new military rulers of the Maldives.
Common Dreams .org, Headlines:
“US Recognizes Maldives Government That Ousted Democratically Elected Nasheed”
“We do,” said US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland when asked by reporters, if Washington recognizes the new government as the legitimate government of the Maldives. Nuland called Waheed the president and Nasheed the former president.
Meanwhile, at the same time, as the US was busy cosying up to the coup leaders.
I think you are overstating the current position of Climat Change. There is general consensus that the world is more likely to be cooling rather than warming. There has been no perceptible increase in sea levels. The ice caps are stable and the glaciers growing.
You can sleep easy.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/billions-of-tons-of-water-lost-from-worlds-glaciers-satellite-reveals-6672129.html
No doubt that’s intended to be a refutation of what Grumpy said above. However, I noted with both bemusement and some amusement, an article in Corriere della Sera recently that said gaily that the consensus is we’re heading for cooling – which, they said, is all good, as it will cancel out anthropogenic global warming!
http://www.corriere.it/ambiente/12_gennaio_09/prossima-era-glaciale_b323775e-3acc-11e1-8a43-34573d1838c1.shtml
The underlying trend for the next 10k years is for cooling. That is the major solar cycles and orbital cycles. However that is being washed under by greenhousing the atmosphere.
Quite simply it is a effect that would have already made a difference if we hadn’t already been modifying the atmosphere fot tge last 5k years or so. Basically since we started pushing methane out.
Those cooling effects make no difference for the next few thousand years regardless what happens now. The last 200 years of CO2 releases will persist washing out underlying effects for at least that long. The question is how much worse we make it in pursuit of profits and SUVs
BTW the current ice age is easily traceable back to about 40Mya. Antarticia drifted fully into the polar position then and started to ice up. Our species developed in ice ages. It is unlikely we’d survive normal earth climates. In a few generations they will find out.
Paolo Virtuani can make all the gay assertions he likes. It is afterall, his column. And he’s expected to offer an opinion.
We have a thing called tides and weather that confuses the issue. Seeing cm’s of average rise over decades when sealevels normally change by meters daily is hard.
But of course there is no perceptible change in sea levels. Humans aren’t equipped to perceive it. Most cannot remember what they had for breakfast on the same day last year. That is why we rely on records of previous measurements. However contrary to your carefully worded statement, sealevels are measurably steadily rising, mostly at present from thermal expansion. In many locations this is probably not perceptible because people don’t remember well enough to perceive it.
A few (but not most) mountain glaciers are growing. It is what you expect to happen when you measure increased precipitation in their circes. It is a sign of shifting weather patterns and is actually something to worry about. Weather patterns don’t shift outside of cylic events unless there is significiant climate change. Glaciers are a complex mix of the rate that they get fed vs the rate that they melt. You are thinking of one without considering the other.
See the reply about overall cycles I made to someone else. But surfice into say that is you wanted to show how much of a stupid arse you are on the science of climate change, then your two observations (that I pointed out the half truths in above) made that amply clear.
Even you should have been able to see the idiotic flaws in the statements to anyone who’d done any science.
While i don’t condone illegal downloading is anyone else getting more uneasy with the Kim Dotcom fiasco?
I am getting the distinct impression that the NZ Government & Police will do anything to please the USA/FBI.
Heavy handed is an understatement.
There is also the instance of the British kid facing deportation to the US for the same thing. His revenue came from the advertisers on his site and as far as I know. I wonder how many other cases there are?
Here’s a couple of links on O’Dwyers case and the actions/logic of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency. http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/07/big-content-unveils-latest-antipiracy-weapon-extradition.ars and http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/jul/03/us-anti-piracy-extradition-prosecution
Briefly, they hold that a .org or .net address = US jurisdiction and that ‘inducing’ others to download copy right material (by running a link site) is enough of a reason to seek extradition and prosecute in the US. The fact that O’Dwyer did nothing illegal under UK law and had no US based servers is apparently irrelevant. So I guess the same goes for Dotcom with regards NZ law.
Absolutely yes! It’s scary…
What is scary beyond the means of arrest is that there has been no evidence produced to substantiate the arrest and detention of Mr Dotcom. Surely it would be remarkable if you or I was arrested without any case having been made to the Courts. Uneasy? Yes.
I’ve been trying to collect all the links to the excellent ‘Divided Auckland’ series in the Herald this week (the website itself doesn’t seem to have them centrally located anywhere).
If anyone has missed any of these, they are well worth a read. A very comprehensive look at inequality and poverty in Auckland by the Herald’s social issues reporter Simon Collins. There is still one more part to go tomorrow, which is supposed to be about what can be done to improve this situation.
Friday – Education
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10784481
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10784480
Thursday – Health
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10784293
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10784294
Wednesday – Housing
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10784060
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10784058
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10784056
Tuesday – Tax and benefits
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/simon-collins/news/article.cfm?a_id=135&objectid=10783837
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/simon-collins/news/article.cfm?a_id=135&objectid=10783835
Monday – The widening gap
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/simon-collins/news/article.cfm?a_id=135&objectid=10783692
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/simon-collins/news/article.cfm?a_id=135&objectid=10783636
I know some on this site believe that Mediaworks are in the pocket of this government. I don’t think that. A large number of people in broadcasting (I’d argue MSM) are inherently conservative (learned from two decades around these people – I think it’s because they need to reach a mass audience meaning they lean right) so naturally they will support a government made of conservative elements.
More to the point, though, Mediaworks is largely devoid of decency. We saw this prior to the election where they were prepared to hand over an hour or programming to Mr Key even though it was obviously not in the interests of democracy. Here’s the latest stunt from one of their radio stations – surprise your spouse with a divorce on air.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/valentines-day-2012/6394715/Radio-stations-divorce-promo-cowardly
The Rock also do the vile Wind Up Your Wife segment, where practical ‘jokes’ like telling a woman she took the wrong baby home from the hospital is par for the course.
And Mediaworks were behind that show that thought breaching airport security would be good for a laugh. When they appeared in court the culprits were all cowardly in the extreme – if you’re such rebels guys you go down fighting, not with a whimper.
And the government did a deal with these people to keep them in business?
Actually, I think it’s more that this government is in the pockets of the MSM.
The majority of people in the country are neither conservative nor right leaning. This would indicate that they have another reason for producing right leaning news.
“The majority of people in the country are neither conservative nor right leaning. This would indicate that they have another reason for producing right leaning news”
Nor as the election showed left leaning…..hence they must all be in the centre!
Does that include the 27% who didn’t vote? We can’t just assume that they would have voted in lock step with everyone else and research shows a) that it’s the poor who tend not to vote and b) that they would normally vote left if they did.
BTW, if we continue to accept Labour as a left-wing party then today’s centre is right-leaning.
A few factors at play here.
1. Senior journalism. It takes experience, intellect and good research backing it. Most have retired or left the industry, those that remain don’t get the resouces due to below.
2. Short attention span and cheap reality TV amongst others. Why bother crafting a well strctured 20 min piece on say the GFC when most folk can’t focus beyond the first 5 minutes and celebrity strip snooker sex darts on ice rates 5 times higher amd costs less….ka ching
3. Who’s your dadddy. Stories that upset the management/owners are never going to get focus…recall ‘the insider’ and GE’s influence on 60 minutes etc etc not to mention the links between mediawonks and a certain govt minister who brokered the interest free loan that renewed their licences.
4. Emotion’s a quick easy target over intellect, so dog whistle away.
5. those well crafted press releases look just journalism if you don’t look to hard and soo much cheaper than doing any actual research.
There’s others but you get the picture….and it’s SBW taking his shirt off again…awww swoon.
So who are the real clowns?
So North American Indians are suing brewers
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10784587
How long before an Iwi takes on DB or Lion Nathan?
So Key says now that the returns from state assets are not as good Greens and Labour are saying, this of course
belies the obvious reality of peak oil naturally increasing the worth of renewables energy sources. So National is
willing to risk the irony that future state asset ledgers showing massive returns in the future, and Nationals future
economic competence is brought into question each year (when the state assets profits are declared to parliament),
the opposition parties will rise in a coarse and loud laughter, never let National sell your home! But what I find
find immediately funny is the uber investment salesman Key is talking down the state assets even as he is trying to
sell them. Can Key be any more ridiculous? National trying NOT to explain how peak oil will blow out profit as demand
rises in the face of peaks in oil price, and is in fact trying to damage the past history of dividend returns.
But as I have pointed out, governments cannot mislead foriegn investers because of free trade rules, but can mislead native investors. One problem core to world capitalism is boardrooms paying themselves huge bonuses despite selling shareholders down the river.
Free trade inevitably means a global elite of global firms and dynasties will emerge who can lobby native
governments to rip local tax payers off.
Imagine for a second government in one term buying land, building a dam and
then selling the dam immediately, if the market could not provide the funding at the time the dam was built then why
should the market be able to buy the dam once it has been built and makes a huge one off windfall profit (no innovation there!).
Especially when there are other instruments to offset debt without losing ownership, like selling off future returns
on product like Fonterra has. So the question is why is Key so purposefully clueless? Asset sales, even with iwi
agreement, is a bad deal for NZ, a best hopelessly incompetence, at worse against the long term interests of the nation.
And we have not even got to the question of standing, how will the government insure all Kiwis have first dibs at the
shares without provoking the ire of the free trade? Unless government admits that since tax payers already own the
assets! And if government does that then taxpayers have a right to take their case to the free trade judges and argue
that government intervention has to be in their best interest, and government cannot sell off assets without a
referendum of the people, the shareholders, like any company who has to take big decisions to the shareholders.
And treat them like any other investor!!!
Free trade works for “all” investors not just foriegn investors, otherwise it is unconscionable. Many people voted
National despite its asset sale policy, its naive of National to argue that every citizen that voted for them agreed
with every line of their manifesto – especially when their MPs have said as much in times past.
So Dunne says he supports the decision of the people, to sit with the National party, Dunne went to the electorate as
the voice of moderation in the centre, who has worked with all sides. Now National got less than 50% of the vote, and
the moderate position to take surely when there is a hanging chad situation (and time to sort out the issue) is to go
back and have some form of recount, like a referendum. So is Dunne going to suggest that he will vote for partial
asset sales if there is a referendum on such a significant national issue? Why should we have all this fog about
asset sales, as if they were now a foregone conclusion once iwi sign on them? Dunne can clear the way with one word,
referendum. Does Dunne like Key believe the voters would vote for them anyway, well then put up a referendum.
Its like Key getting off a plane from Hier Hitler waving a agreement to sell assets…
…was just a delaying tactic because Key lost by winning the last election with a smaller coalition.
Will Dunne go the way of Hide? Hide was unelectable when he covered up Garrett crime and punishment history, will Dunne go the same way by not forcing a referendum and going against his moderating center of politics. Can you image for a moment the Greens forcing a citizens referendum on asset sales after Dunne had been sitting on his hands?
Aero, if you want to do some sort of cut-and-paste for your comments, can you at least tidy it up so its readable? Cheers.
Free trade protects (rightly) foreign investors equal treatment but if local investors cannot (or do not) gain access to WTO arbitration then over time without remedy too poor government policy (like asset sales) . Foreign investors have the incentive to lubricate the political elite to produce favorable policies (at the expense tax payers). What are Asset Sales but selling off dams built with tax payer money and returning very nice profits (and likely to get much better due to peak oil)? So if a company board were to fail to take a partial sell off of their company to a shareholder vote they’d be sued, but if the government fails to take partial asset sales a referendum at considerable lose (due to world governments printing money and prospects for the assets being so considerable in the peak oil future).
Key is currently trying to get rich from China not by emulating China but by selling our assets to China. This is a profound article on “State Capitalism” and why the free market will fail us..
http://werewolf.co.nz/2012/02/why-state-capitalism-is-beating-the-free-market/
Dunno if this has been posted already, but there is now a Save Our Port fb page.
It’s:
https://www.facebook.com/saveourport?sk=wall
When you hear someone say the words ‘nanny state’, ask if they know the causes of Pike River
When you hear someone say we should cut red tape, ask if they know someone with a leaky home
When you hear someone say the words ‘nanny state’, ask if the know why the CTV building collapsed
When you hear someone say the market is the solution, ask if they know someone who lost all their savings from a finance company
It’s just a start….I imagine people can think of more
Now, why doesn’t the media ask those questions??
A good question…
I guess Steven Joyce would say ” Each time we say ‘you can’t’ it carries a cost”
Maybe the media should ask him “What is the cost of saying “you can?”
The answer………….Pike River, leaky buildings, CTV, the 2008 crash….
Why are they so bad at their job?
They’re so bad at their job because they aren’t doing their job, they’re creating profit. The environment they do it in is irrelevent.
Ever wonder why the entertainment industry often turns out music, film and stories so awfully bad that you wonder how it happened? Then you read the credits and it’s like a telephone book of influencial friends? Because to make it in the entertainment world (or anywhere else that money collects) you must be, first and foremost, be a connected business person – not a competent craftsman. Musician, screen writer, builder, architect, manager, miner – business first, everything else way down the list. Until people realise money, political connections, “passion”, ambition and greed are not indicators of competency, we can expect a worsening of all crafts.
Ever wonder how it is that within any profession you choose, you’ll find a large percentage of the people as almost cookie cutter clones? Many aren’t doing their job. They’re living a persona generated to make profit.
In the last 2 weeks I have done flying trips to Germany, UK, Denmark Switzerland, and now Thailand. I have a few impressions.
1. Europe is bloody cold!!
2. Customs and immigration searches are getting over the top and much more invasive. The bastards at Heathrow (don’t go there) took my half empty bottle of contact lens solution (Helpfully telling me I could buy a new one in the transit lounge). With the ridiculous lengths they go to against bona fide travellers, I think the terrorists have already won. Notice how they don’t explosive search anyone even remotely looking like the might have a bomb – of course not!! If you searched a terrorist he might set it off – thats why you only see the hassling little old white ladies!
3. Swiss customs and cops don’t mess around – they are right into racial profiling. Arabic or black – you will be done over coming into the country and probably stopped at random in the street.
4. Picked up the inevitable cold but was delighted to find out that the only cold remedy at Dubai contained Pseudoephedrine. Needless to say, 24 hrs later I am cured. Looks like, in NZ the criminals have won, dooming us all to colds and flu that is impossible to get rid of!
5. iPads are the answer, no more lugging around the bloody laptop and with the bluetooth keyboard and iPad holder I bought duty free at Copenhagen, really useful.
6. The plane heading back to NZ is always the best flight!
Too bloody hot in Auckland at present. My brain starts misfiring from 2pm onwards ( programming makes you utterly aware if and when stupidity is setting in ). Roll on winter…
Re # 2: I disagree with you there. Being a person of indeterminate ethnic origin (I’m half PI and half English but I look vaguely Arabic, particularly if I haven’t shaved for a few days), I will ALWAYS get singled out for the carry-on bag swab and scan test. I don’t mind, they’re just doing their job. But I’m not kidding myself that I’m not being racially profiled. I’m yet to see any “little old white ladies” singled out.
I’ve been singled out (little white lady) – a few years ago carry-on bags were ‘randomly’ checked at Heathrow, and surprise – I was a ‘random’ checked at the U.S stopover as well. The added touch was extra questioning and luggage check by customs on arrival in Auckland.
After thinking about it, I guess buying tickets for a trip of only a few days, 2 days before the flight, gave me the profile of a drug smuggler (the trip was for a funeral).
Again an extra scan and bag checks at Heathrow just last month for no particular reason.
Re # 6: Yes it is, it’s always full of kiwis happy to be getting home or tourists happy to be heading here. And if you get an immigration officer that says to you “Welcome home”, that’s the icing on the cake.
I fekkin hate travelling through airports, the tyranny of the state becomes so obvious…we are all supposed to be scared that on our way between Auckland Wellington and Shakytown some Arab sympathiser iis going to set of a bomb in mid air. Or hijack us and fly us into the Beehive. For that I must be stoppped scanned, searched and deprived of metalic objects incase I use something as inocuous as a fishing reel as a weapon of mass destruction. Argghhhh!!!!!
While the Occupy movement could justifiably be accused of killing grass, there has been even more evidence to show how the big four Aussie banks are killing our economy!
http://localbodies-bsprout.blogspot.co.nz/2012/02/banking-profits-vindicate-occupy-nz.html
Meanwhile, Yet a another Democratically elected Government that challenges the profits of the US oil industry is removed.
http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/778615/coup_in_maldives_threatens_ousted_president_mohamed_nasheed%2C_a_leading_voice_for_island_states_threatened_by_global_warming/#paragraph2
How many is that again.