The Nats are just short of camping and sleeping with the Oravida staff – but according to Bryce Edwards, the Govt is being “pragmatic”, which must be a Right Wingers’ synonym for “cronyism” or “corruption”.
If it was Labour doing this, the public would be asking for heads to roll.
A beautiful example of PR front footing – power bills rise, John Key points at up grades to national grid, Transpower say isn’t us, for some reason it comes across as David Shearer is supporting the PM with his Private Members Bill…. nothing is said at all about recent power asset sell off!
And the latest rort from John Key’s privatising profiteers at Genesis….. The account arrives and is to be paid within four days or the 10% late payment tax is imposed.
Electricity has become like water to people. Water is an essential life source and is provided at no (well, ratepayers mostly) cost. Imagine if people started drinking less water because it cost too much….. there would be all manner of uproar.
Well, electricity has become the same. In many places we are not allowed to burn wood etc for heating and cooking. So to warm ourselves and feed ourselves we are required to use electricity. This is the place that electricity has taken in society – an essential. Absolutely essential for survival.
As such, electricity cannot be left to the vagaries of the “free market” to supply such, like plastic buckets and undies can be. Lack of plastic buckets and undies are not threatening to life, so they can stay with the slave labour suppliers in the east. But not electricity.
Electricity is an essential to life survival in Aotearoa and as such must be supplied in the appropriate manner to us. Free market supply is utterly wrong for this reason.
Thanks for the access to the interviews. Cunliffe did well to not dwell on the media beatups of him in the last week or so, and to not accept the untrustworthy smear.
… but i do wish Morning Report would not waste time on the flag issue….it is such a USA Republican Party red herring and diversion by John Key from the real issues facing this country
….Simon Mercep should not be buying into this and giving it air time….we want the real issues!…
The perception of a conflict of interest, Judith Collins acting in Her capacity as the Minister of Justice visits Oravida in China later claiming under questioning that this was simply a spur of the moment decision to drop in for a cuppa,
Lies???, you bet, a letter released under the Official Information Act shows the visit was not one of a spur of the moment nature which leaves Collins open to accusations of Ministerial conflicts of interest and having deliberately mislead the Parliament,
Spin???, so fast your eyeballs will nearly roll out of your head trying to follow the trajectory, up pops the Herald’s David Fisher a veritable unknown who appears to have the dubious ‘honor’ of being that in-august ‘rags’ senior reporter of the year,
In a piece in today’s Herald online Fisher gives every impression of a display that would have the ‘senior reporter of the year’ title replaced with ‘well past His used by date’ and i have to wonder if the story as presented to the public is a verbatim copy of the words of Steven Joyce or simply a precis of an earlier phone call,
Prevaricate, by spreading Collins’s shit in a wide arc across the National Party listing every man and his dog as having ‘visited’ Oravida in Auckland,(do not muse aloud about the depth of this particular companies pockets with what appears to be the whole spectrum of the ‘Right’ lining up with their hands out),
Disregard, the intelligence of everybody by attempting to cover Collins tracks by not mentioning that it is Her actions while on an official visit to another country that are in question,
Wheel out, a tame ‘expert’ in the form of Dr Bryce Edwards ‘a political scientist’ to pronounce over the corpse of the National Government ‘pragmatism’ in the vein of a priest giving the rites of absolution,
Lie by omission, treat the readers as if their intellectual level has been seriously devalued by previous readings of the Herald by not including the ‘fact’ that the wheeled out ‘political scientist’ in the form of Edwards is a paid hack for the ‘rag’,
Can the Herald stoop much lower looking for excuses for Collins and National’s ‘pragmatic’ Hands Out political management in what gives every appearance of a ‘grease my palm with ten pieces of silver and all your fortunes will bask in the warmth of the Sun’ explanation which paints all of them in the same light,
You bet, the Herald jonolists have barely scratched the surface in their attempts to paint the innocent actions of one simply helping a friend into something far darker than that while painting the ‘Hands Out’ politics in the National Parties approach to business as simple pragmatism…
Probably been invited to a few more clever dinner parties of late. Seems they all go that way. Look at Edwards the Elder. No more analysis. Just commentary on the “game” and declaration of “winners” – effective congratulations to the the winners they declare. No matter how scurvy.
When change comes (of neccesity it will…….or choose civil unrest) there are going to be some worried yuppies……….
Winston’s the only one who really calls them for what they are.
Flag referendum. Classic boycott material on the basis that it’s an expensive piece of patently unnecessary bullshit devised by ShonKey Python to distract in election year. Since it’s for his benefit alone let him pay for it alone – he’s got 50 mill’ – a drop in the bucket to him. Maybe an Antoine’s coffee and muffin would spread the burden……..update the already bestowed honour to “Sir…….whatever-his-name-is”.
I really cannot see why we need to change the goddamn thing. I like our current flag. I am not all that worried about the Union Jack — after all, rightly or wrongly, that is our heritage. The Hawaiian flag also has UJ on it, and it had much looser links with the Empire, I dont see anyone there jumping up and down.
As for people getting our flag mixed up, I dont think it bothers the people of Poland, Indonesia, Chad, Moldova, Romania, Senegal and Cameroon that much?
Though, if there has to be a change, the United Tribes flag seems the most appropriate choice, given that it was the flag of a truly independent New Zealand.
Xox. I’ve been disappointed that Bryce Edwards has leant more to the right as he gets more mainstream media coverage. I suppose this is how the MSM works. You give them what they want and they ask you back. You scratch my back…
Ianmac, you mean the flag is not more important as fairness, employment, better wages and working conditions, freedom and opportunity, education, health and social inclusion, peace and shared prosperity?
I wonder whether a nice nationalist issue like flag-waving is not a cunning plan to get right wing voters into the polling booth and voting?
Interesting. Patrick Gower has a whole column on Scoop (Politics) transcribing his interview with John Key on The Nation. Haven’t seen that before. Could it possibly be because there were complaints about is interview with Cunliffe on The Nation ? ? I haven’t bothered to include the link – its easy enough to find on Scoop – because I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of having something up on The Standard.
JK, perhaps tho people, even the Alfred E. Nuemann of televised political jonolism, can change, the proof of such of course can only be found in Gowers future reporting,
If Gower can find ‘political balance’, a fine line to have to walk daily, then i think He deserves a small modicum of applause,
Gower’s setting of Slippery the Prime Ministers feet on fire with the interview on the Nation was possibly the most telling against the PM in His 5 odd years of holding the office, all the more so because i don’t for a moment believe that the PM could believe Gower had the temerity to pull Him apart in such a manner,
Credit where credit is due, IF Gower can stick to the facts while reporting the politics then i would suggest He may become the working man’s Kim Hill of political reporting, the deep intellect may not be apparent but the ability to slice and dice, using the truth to do so, are certainly evident…
I cant believe the nonsense coming out of Radio NZ this morning about changing the flag. why dont they ask which if any country has ever changed its flag. The answer is none. all the pretentious greybeards trying to sound like constituional intellectuals when they are more like tired old sots.This is a bigger red herring than 1981 and the country is just sitting back and swallowing it. I just about give up when this stuff is paraded as a serious question. An old chinese confucian saying is that choice cases confusion and shifty key and his minions are in the business of creating confusion so their neo-liberal agenda slips past while the ninnies run around debating crap.
We report that a brief exposure to the American flag led to a shift toward Republican beliefs, attitudes, and voting behavior among both Republican and Democratic participants, despite their overwhelming belief that exposure to the flag would not influence their behavior. In Experiment 1, which was conducted online during the 2008 U.S. presidential election, a single exposure to an American flag resulted in a significant increase in participants’ Republican voting intentions, voting behavior, political beliefs, and implicit and explicit attitudes, with some effects lasting 8 months after the exposure to the prime. In Experiment 2, we replicated the findings more than a year into the current Democratic presidential term. These results constitute the first evidence that nonconscious priming effects from exposure to a national flag can bias the citizenry toward one political party and can have considerable durability.
It can just as easily result in separatist or other reactionary views, depending on national values, current events, and even flag culture. The flags of USA, France, and Denmark represent different ideals to their citizens.
The NZE doesn’t really stand for much in the public consciousness — certainly nothing that suggests clear political leanings.
Provoking the debate however, with it’s predictable divisiveness and unpredictable consequences, purely as a convenient distraction, is egregiously cynical enough without need for any bonus conspiracy.
[P.S. lprent — The post-with-edit-timer is brilliant. Perfect.]
+100 captain hook….. flag issue is John Keys ‘Red Herring Flag’….but stupid commentators are buying into this RED HERRING and treating it as if it is a serious issue for New Zealand voters ……they need to get their priorities sorted
Mr Pop are you talking to me ?…Calling me Simple little Chooky!?….if so …go get popped or poped or chicken pooped on! ….you are a Red Herring!
…the Flag issue is the least of NZ’s problems !……and surveys have shown most NZers want to keep the flag! ……it is a NON ISSUE…for msm simpletons to be taken in with and to dupe the population with !…it is a waste of time……..a Trickster diversion by Mr TricKey himself straight out of the right wing Republicans manual for subversion of genuine dialogue, dialectic, and democracy!
It is very important we hold the media to account. This election must be held on the debate of real issues…and not subverted by red herrings
Nah chooky don’t it too personally. Pop’s just not afraid to be catty. I’d like to see the flag change. It’s certainly a cunning move by Key, though. He’s a slippery dude all right.
@ Arfamo ..i didnt take it personally…he is a silly old Pop
….at least the Left leaders are seeing the flag issue for what it is ….a red herring … and are not falling for the Bait….just wish the media would do the same
….we dont want this election diverted by Trickey’s cunning machinations away from the REAL issues
“..Colorado Recreational Weed Sales Top $14 Million In First Month..”
“..During the first month of recreational marijuana sales –
Colorado’s licensed dispensaries generated a total of more than $14 million –
putting about $2 million of tax revenue into state coffers in the process..”
Even with that, the Department of Transportation in Texas did this analysis and said, “Fracking is doing about four billion dollars of damage to our road surfaces and bridges on a yearly basis. These eighty-thousand-pound trucks, of which it might take as many as almost twelve hundred to complete a single well—six hundred if you want to re-frack it—and those twelve hundred trucks weighting eighty thousand pounds filled with sand and water and fracking fluid and who knows what and giant diesels…
A local story here in Dunedin is a businessman who was all flash, owned three or four businesses, had great plans, etc. Now he’s skipped town owing large amounts of cash to staff and suppliers. And apparently he’s done it before elsewhere.
Key reminds me of this guy – he’s not going to be shiny forever, the media have been getting tetchy with him, and when they sense blood the fall will be sudden. And he’s the nact’s only pony, what with “conflict of interest” collins and “didn’t fix it” joyce and “didn’t even try to fix it” brownlee. And the rest of them are even worse.
we shall see. Confident that he won’t preside over the first national government that fails to win three elections? He’s not. He’s more “derp” than grin these days.
No, it’s a “win-double lose” situation: nact govt and you being insufferable, versus a leftish govt. Unless the supporters of people who want to reduce the rate of sick babies are as shallow as the supporters of people who increase the rate of sick babies, in which case it would be “double win-double lose”.
What a bunch of cry babies…myself, Shane Jones and Helen Clark all agree that the Greens should be nowhere near the levers of power so read into that what you will
Jones is following cullens shoes… really shld be in the national party.
Unlike you I understand that if we keep doing stuff the way we have for the last 30 years our children and grand children will have nothing to smile about unless they ARE amongst the 1%. You focus on winning at all costs and the rest of us will struggle thru the cost you burden us with.
Yes it’s a great site I agree, but can you link to the part where it made you “appreciative of Helen Clark in that she knew to keep the Greens away from power” please.
‘cept she didn’t do anything to the Greens, so your comments are just a wee bit odd. In fact HC came to have a good working relationship with the previous Greens leadership and was instrumental in getting them to give her Government confidence and supply in 2005 in exchange for the active promotion of some of their policies on energy and transport.
Here’s a piece from The Press for last weekend on money and ACT and money and John Whyte. And satire and the rich. From Martin van Beynen – I like this bit.
Let us look at the empirical basis for the contention that wealth does not make you happy. Show me a rich person who is unhappy. OK but they have lost their minds. If money did not make you happy, do you think the ACT party would exist? It exists because rich people want everyone to be rich as long as rich people don’t have to pay for it…
There is only one circumstance that justifies the Government intervening in the market. This is when the market is unkind to rich people. Then the Government must step in to prop up the happiness of rich people using the money of poor people if necessary.
George, the article you link to explains everything pretty well. Waters being tested and lines being drawn. Thanks, because that’s the clearest example I’ve seen of how the Labout/Gp relationship is going. Bodes well.
Propaganda: “The Dominant Grand Narrative Of Our Time”
by DAVID CROMWELL, Media Lens, 27 January 2014
‘Propaganda’ sounds like an old-fashioned word from a bygone era. It evokes images of the Nazis in WW2, particularly Reich Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda Joseph Goebbels, or Soviet leaders in the Cold War and dictators in ‘Third World’ countries. Propaganda is something spewed out by official enemies of the West, and surely not a vile practice indulged by ‘our’ politicians and business leaders. This is a convenient illusion that serves powerful Western elites very well indeed.
The Russian-born filmmaker Andre Vltchek, who has travelled the world extensively in making his documentaries, relates his experience of appearing in the media in different countries. He observes that when he speaks in China, he does so uncensored: “I was on CCTV – their National TV – and for half an hour I was talking about very sensitive issues. And I felt much freer in Beijing than when the BBC interviews me, because the BBC doesn’t even let me speak, without demanding a full account of what exactly I am intending to say.” (Noam Chomsky and Andre Vltchek, On Western Terrorism: From Hiroshima to Drone Warfare, Pluto Press, London, 2013, p. 31)
Vltchek continued: “People in the West are so used to thinking that we are so democratic in terms of the way our media is run and covers the stories. Even if we know it’s not the case, we still, subconsciously, expect that it’s still somehow better than in other places and it is actually shocking when we realize that a place like China or Turkey or Iran would run more unedited or uncensored pieces than our own mainstream media outlets. Let me put it this way: Chinese television and newspapers are much more critical of their economic and political system than our television stations or newspapers are of ours. Imagine ABC, CBS, or NBC coming on air and beginning to question the basics of capitalism or the Western parliamentary system.” (Ibid., p. 32)
A vanishingly rare example of the BBC propaganda system being blasted open was the special edition of the Radio 4 Today programme edited by the English musician PJ Harvey on January 2, 2014. In her opening statement, Harvey explained that she wanted to “do something unusual with the format and content of the programme.” She invited people whom she considers “to be highly articulate, stimulating and extremely interesting to listen to – people who challenge us and move us to examine our deepest beliefs and feelings.”
Harvey’s guests included John Pilger talking about the propaganda role of the corporate media; Denis Halliday, former UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq, on the urgent need to democratise the warmongering UN Security Council (here at around 49 mins); Ian Cobain and Phil Shiner on torture committed by UK forces (here at around 2 hrs : 34 mins); and Mark Curtis on how Britain’s arms trade fuels oppression around the world.
Harvey wanted her contributors to be unrestricted in what they could say, and she had asked the Today programme to agree to this before accepting the invitation to be a guest editor. She rightly noted that ‘a great deal’ of her edition of the programme was ‘about censorship in one way or another.’
Predictably, reactionary voices bewailed afterwards that the BBC had broadcast”‘left-wing tosh” and “liberal drivel”. Nick Robinson, the BBC’s “impartial” political editor, took particular exception to….
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden says the United States’ spy agency has helped find or create loopholes in New Zealand law to enable widespread spying.
In testimony to the European Parliament, the exiled former NSA worker said the agency’s Foreign Affairs Division put pressure on other countries to change laws to create legal gaps through which mass surveillance could be carried out.
He said lawyers at the United Kingdom’s GCHQ were also engaged in finding loopholes and both agencies slipped changes past unwitting politicians.
“In recent public memory, we have seen these FAD ‘legal guidance’ operations occur in both Sweden and the Netherlands, and also faraway New Zealand.”
Mr Snowden offered no further detail in his testimony about pressure placed on New Zealand. His written testimony was sent ahead of a EU debate on freezing data agreements with the US.
It has been linked to new legislation passed in New Zealand last year which changed the laws governing the electronic spying agency, the GCSB, to allow it to spy on Kiwis. The government also passed legislation which extended the bureau’s powers over intercepting information sent and received in New Zealand.
Mr Snowden told the EU: “One of the foremost activities of the NSA’s FAD, or Foreign Affairs Division, is to pressure or incentivise EU member states to change their laws to enable mass surveillance.
“These efforts to interpret new powers out of vague laws is an intentional strategy to avoid public opposition and lawmakers’ insistence that legal limits be respected, effects the GCHQ internally described in its own documents as ‘damaging public debate’.”
The changes were used to “justify indiscriminate, dragnet surveillance operations”, he said.
In listing New Zealand among countries targeted, he said: “Each of these countries received instruction from the NSA, sometimes under the guise of the US Department of Defense and other bodies, on how to degrade the legal protections of their countries’ communications.”
Cyber rights group Tech Liberty’s spokesman Thomas Beagle said the new laws introduced in New Zealand last year appeared surprisingly quickly.
“It was like someone had it sitting in a drawer ready to go. Who is really writing these laws.”
He said the greater concern was the lack of oversight. “It’s never being able to test what they are doing what they say.”
David Cunliffe’s youtube message just up. Kind of direct and low tech. Not so inspirational though. But some good points about “the big end of town” etc.
Slippery the Prime Minister gets caught showing that He and speaking the truth are at best only known to each other on a fleeting basis,
Caught out again, by none other than TV3’s Alfred E. Nuemann, after slicing and dicing the Prime Minister on the Nation on the weekend Patrick Gower seems to have got a taste for a spot of ‘real Journalism’,
How long this will last and whether or not Gower’s new found enthusiasm will spread among His peers in the industry is yet to be seen, but, Gower in my estimation has just risen from sitting at the kerb to having a pew at the bus stop,
Slippery’s claim that the Cabinet Office had had translated the endorsement/promotion of Orivada’s products in their Chinese language magazine which allowed that Office to clear Collins of any supposed conflict of interest from such an endorsement/promotion while on offical Government business turns out to have been Utter Bullshit,
Just another lie from the Prime Minister and Gower proved such by asking the Cabinet Office a simple question,
Did they get an English language translation of the Chinese language magazine???, NO, definitely not said the Office of the Cabinet,
Gower is making easy work of making Slippery the Prime Minister look every bit the Liar and hypocrite that we all believe Him to be, in doing so He,(Gower), is starting to show, after an abysmal start, that he could become one of the greats in a thin field of political journalists in this country,
Scoring 2 direct hits on Slippery in a week is more than any other journalist has accomplished in 5 years,
Gower again goes up in my estimation, it’s the truth which we want Paddy, and, it’s pretty easy with a small amount of digging to expose the fact that our Prime Minister on any given day plays fast and loose with that truth…
Rt Hon John Key: Is the Minister aware of whether the Cabinet Office has provided any advice on whether the Minister’s visit to Oravida’s premises in China is in any way a breach of the Cabinet Manual?
Hon JUDITH COLLINS: Yes, the Cabinet Office, I understand, has advised the Prime Minister that my visit in no way contravened the Cabinet Manual.
The devious way of misleading here is staggering!..
On Monday Key told media the Cabinet Office had cleared Collins of a conflict of interest after translating comments on Oravida’s website which stated that she had praised its products.
But today Key’s office confirmed that the Cabinet office had only read the English language version on the website, which did not contain those references.
A spokesperson for Key said the Cabinet Office had been asked for guidance on the issue and its advice was clear that there was no conflict of interest and no endorsement.
“As the advice referred to the material on the company’s website, the prime minister took that advice to apply to both the English and the Chinese translation.”
He had become aware last night, however, that was not the case.
Exactly. But they way it was done in the House, without Key actually stating the lie himself, strongly suggests an intent to deceive, – without either actually directly stating the untruth the House. ie, based on a verbal technicality, they both cannot be reprimanded for misleading the House.
I caught a bit of the PM’s flag speech at Vic Uni today on the replay of the news tonight. Jeez, is it me or is he the just the most god-awful public speaker in history?
It is about time that members of the MSM when asking questions of John Key, and he includes the words “it’s in the rules”, they should respond with, “Ah yes, Prime Minister, it might be playing by the rules but is it ethical?”
Ah but Crosby Fester has anticipated the logistic of such wild card probing on the part of one or two in the popular fiction creating/embracing and generally biddable Fart Estate.
The answer, delivered with the dreadfully dead eyes of the rote learner, would be a sour little homily about an ordered society and The Rule of Law completely supported and advanced by every member of the National Party whom of course observe all the rules put in place in such a society and endorsed by all New Zealanders. Or some such effete shit. Then turn and light-foot /mince his way out.
The only real zap in that vein that I’ve ever seen was on the occasion of the recreational fisher schnapper quota stunt. Forget whom it was but a female reporter at the press conference pressed it just that bit further questioning that New Zealanders were more worried about schnapper than the GCSB – blow me down – there for all to see ShonKey Python shitting his pants and looking a complete and utter prize dork.
Typical of the ShonKey National Party and much in the vein of the “privatise the profits and socialise the losses” (non) ethics of the same.
‘Fia palagi’ (a preening wannabee caucasian) Peseta Sam Lotu-I’iga, ShonKey’s Minister of Pacific Island Affairs – you know the one, the shining lawyer boy dick who fantastically claimed on TV 3’s The Vote that $130,000 as a first home buyer’s 20% deposit on your more or less average Auckland house was more or less within reach – here he is putting out an official ‘Office of the Minister…..’ press statement claiming credit for a “new” Pasefika Anti-Violence prison programme.
Except that it’s been on foot for 10 years and he and the National Party had nothing to do with it. It was down to NZ First MP Anetasi and a number of other inspired, caring, Pacific Island people. Not Sammy nor ShonKey. But here he is taking the credit and steering it the way of ShonKey by implication.
Interesting to listen to Pasefika people when they hear some fia palagi claiming the credit for stuff they never were involved with. Very upfront and unforgiving in my experience. Tune in to their talkback.
Maybe fia palagi Sammy should pay attention to the comments of members of his own aiga (which I’ve personally witnessed) about the woeful state of his own (now deceased I recall) grandfather’s house in the village of Fasito’o-Uta on the coast road between Faleolo Airport and Apia town.
Not the shining boy he and ShonKey try to make out. Just a mainchance fia palagi really.
Liar Liar TricKEY’s pants are on fire. And somehow I don’t think that it’s just the media that he’s been lying to. Hmmm TricKEY being TricKEY with the truth.
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Salvation Army’s State of the Nation 2025 report highlights falling living standards, the highest unemployment rates since the 1990s and half of all Pacific children going without food. There are reports of hundreds if not thousands of people are applying for the same jobs in the wake of last year’s ...
Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Correction: On the article The Condundrum of David Seymour, Luke Malpass conducted joint reviews with Bryce Wilkinson, the architect of the Regulatory Standards Bill - not Bryce Edwards. The article ...
Tomorrow the council’s Transport, Resilience and Infrastructure Committee meet and agenda has a few interesting papers. Council’s Letter of Expectation to Auckland Transport Every year the council provide a Letter of Expectation to Auckland Transport which is part of the process for informing AT of the council’s priorities and ...
All around in my home townThey're trying to track me down, yeahThey say they want to bring me in guiltyFor the killing of a deputyFor the life of a deputySongwriter: Robert Nesta Marley.Support Nick’s Kōrero today with a 20% discount on a paid subscription to receive all my newsletters directly ...
Hi,I think all of us have probably experienced the power of music — that strange, transformative thing that gets under our skin and helps us experience this whole life thing with some kind of sanity.Listening and experiencing music has always been such a huge part of my life, and has ...
Business frustration over the stalled economy is growing, and only 34% of voters are confidentNicola Willis can deliver. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, February 12 are:Business frustration is growing about a ...
I have now lived long enough to see a cabinet minister go both barrels on their Prime Minister and not get sacked.It used to be that the PM would have a drawer full of resignations signed by ministers on the day of their appointment, ready for such an occasion. But ...
This session will feature Simon McCallum, Senior Lecturer in Engineering and Computer Science (VUW) and recent Labour Party candidate in the Southland Electorate talking about some of the issues around AI and how this should inform Labour Party policy. Simon is an excellent speaker with a comprehensive command of AI ...
The proposed Waimate garbage incinerator is dead: The company behind a highly-controversial proposal to build a waste-to-energy plant in the Waimate District no longer has the land. [...] However, SIRRL director Paul Taylor said the sales and purchase agreement to purchase land from Murphy Farms, near Glenavy, lapsed at ...
The US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has been a vital tool in combatting international corruption. It forbids US companies and citizens from bribing foreign public officials anywhere in the world. And its actually enforced: some of the world's biggest companies - Siemens, Hewlett Packard, and Bristol Myers Squibb - have ...
December 2024 photo - with UK Tory Boris Johnson (Source: Facebook)Those PollsFor hours, political poll results have resounded across political hallways and commentary.According to the 1News Verizon poll, 50% of the country believe we are heading in the “wrong direction”, while 39% believe we are “on the right track”.The left ...
A Tai Rāwhiti mill that ran for 30 years before it was shut down in late 2023 is set to re-open in the coming months, which will eventually see nearly 300 new jobs in the region. A new report from Massey University shows that pensioners are struggling with rising costs. ...
As support continues to fall, Luxon also now faces his biggest internal ructions within the coalition since the election, with David Seymour reacting badly to being criticised by the PM. File photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate ...
Not since 1988 when Richard Prebble openly criticised David Lange have we seen such a challenge to a Prime Minister as that of David Seymour to Christopher Luxon last night. Prebble suggested Lange had mental health issues during a TV interview and was almost immediately fired. Seymour hasn’t gone quite ...
Three weeks in, and the 24/7 news cycle is not helping anyone feel calm and informed about the second Trump presidency. One day, the US is threatening 25% trade tariffs on its friends and neighbours. The reasons offered by the White House are absurd, such as stopping fentanyl coming in ...
This video includes personal musings and conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Adam Levy. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). Wherever you look, you'll hear headlines claiming we've passed 1.5 degrees of global warming. And while 2024 saw ...
Photo by Heather M. Edwards on UnsplashHere’s the key news, commentary, reports and debate around Aotearoa’s politics and economy in the week to Feb 10 below. That’s ahead of live chats on the Substack App and The Kākā’s front page on Substack at 5pm with: on his column in The ...
Is there anyone in the world the National Party loves more than a campaign donor? Why yes, there is! They will always have the warmest hello and would you like to slip into something more comfortable for that great god of our age, the High Net Worth Individual.The words the ...
Waste and fraud certainly exist in foreign aid programs, but rightwing celebration of USAID’s dismantling shows profound ignorance of the value of soft power (as opposed to hard power) in projecting US influence and interests abroad by non-military/coercive means (think of “hearts and minds,” “hugs, not bullets,” “honey versus vinegar,” ...
Health New Zealand is proposing to cut almost half of its data and digital positions – more than 1000 of them. The PSA has called on the Privacy Commissioner to urgently investigate the cuts due to the potential for serious consequences for patients. NZNO is calling for an urgent increase ...
We may see a few more luxury cars on Queen Street, but a loosening of rules to entice rich foreigners to invest more here is unlikely to “turbocharge our economic growth”. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate ...
Let us not dance daintily around the elephant in the room. Our politicians who serve us in the present are not honest, certainly not as honest as they should be, and while the right are taking out most of the trophies for warping narratives and literally redefining “facts”, the kiwi ...
A few weeks ago I took a look at public transport ridership in 2024. In today’s post I’m going to be looking a bit deeper at bus ridership. Buses make up the vast majority of ridership in Auckland with 70 million boardings last year out of a total of 89.4 ...
Oh, you know I did itIt's over and I feel fineNothing you could say is gonna change my mindWaited and I waited the longest nightNothing like the taste of sweet declineSongwriters: Chris Shiflett / David Eric Grohl / Nate Mendel / Taylor Hawkins.Hindsight is good, eh?The clarity when the pieces ...
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on UnsplashHere’s what we’re watching in the week to February 16 and beyond in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty:Monday, February 10The Kākā’s weekly wrap-up of news about politics and the economy is due at midday, followed by webinar for paying subscribers in Substack’s ...
A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, February 2, 2025 thru Sat, February 8, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
Today, I stumbled across a Twitter Meme: the ending of The Lord of the Rings as a Chess scenario: https://x.com/mellon_heads/status/1887983845917564991 It gets across the basic gist. Aragorn and Gandalf offering up ‘material’ at the Morannon allows Frodo and Samwise to catch Sauron unawares – fair enough. But there are a ...
Last week, Kieran McAnulty called out Chris Bishop and Nicola Willis for their claims that Kāinga Ora’s costs were too high.They had claimed Kāinga Ora’s cost were 12% higher than market i.e. private devlopersBut Kāinga Ora’s Chair had already explained why last year:"We're not building to sell, so we'll be ...
Stuff’s Political Editor Luke Malpass - A Fellow at New Zealand IniativeLast week I half-joked that Stuff / The Post’s Luke Malpass1 always sounded like he was auditioning for a job at the New Zealand Initiative.Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. For a limited time, subscriptions are 20% off. Thanks ...
At a funeral on Friday, there were A4-sized photos covering every wall of the Dil’s reception lounge. There must have been 200 of them, telling the story in the usual way of the video reel but also, by enlargement, making it more possible to linger and step in.Our friend Nicky ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park from the Gigafact team in collaboration with members from our team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is methane the ...
The Government’s idea is that the private sector and Community Housing Providers will fund, build and operate new affordable housing to address our housing crisis. Meanwhile, the Government does not know where almost half of the 1,700 children who left emergency housing actually went. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong ...
Oh, home, let me come homeHome is wherever I'm with youOh, home, let me come homeHome is wherever I'm with youSongwriters: Alexander Ebert / Jade Allyson CastrinosMorena,I’m on a tight time frame this morning. In about an hour and a half, I’ll need to pack up and hit the road ...
This is a post about the Mountain Tui substack, and small tweaks - further to the poll and request post the other day. Please don’t read if you aren’t interested in my personal matters. Thank you all.After oohing-and-aahing about how to structure the Substack model since November, including obtaining ...
This transcript of a recent conversation between the Prime Minister and his chief economic adviser has not been verified.We’ve announced we are the ‘Yes Government’. Do you like it?Yes, Prime Minister.Dreamed up by the PR team. It’s about being committed to growth. Not that the PR team know anything about ...
The other day, Australian Senator Nick McKim issued a warning in the Australian Parliement about the US’s descent into fascim.And of course it’s true, but I lament - that was true as soon as Trump won.What we see is now simply the reification of the intention, planning, and forces behind ...
Among the many other problems associated with Musk/DOGE sending a fleet of teenage and twenty-something cultists to remove, copy and appropriate federal records like social security, medicaid and other supposedly protected data is the fact that the youngsters doing the data-removal, copying and security protocol and filter code over-writing have ...
Jokerman dance to the nightingale tuneBird fly high by the light of the moonOh, oh, oh, JokermanSong by Bob Dylan.Morena folks, I hope this fine morning of the 7th of February finds you well. We're still close to Paihia, just a short drive out of town. Below is the view ...
It’s been an eventful week as always, so here’s a few things that we have found interesting. We also hope everyone had a happy and relaxing Waitangi Day! This week in Greater Auckland We’re still running on summer time, but provided two chewy posts: On Tuesday, a guest ...
Queuing on Queen St: the Government is set to announce another apparently splashy growth policy on Sunday of offering residence visas to wealthy migrants. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, February 7:PM Christopher ...
The fact that Waitangi ended up being such a low-key affair may mark it out as one of the most significant Waitangi Days in recent years. A group of women draped in “Toitu Te Tiriti” banners who turned their backs on the politicians’ powhiri was about as rough as it ...
Hi,This week’s Flightless Bird episode was about “fake seizure guy” — a Melbourne man who fakes seizures in order to get members of the public to sit on him.The audio documentary (which I have included in this newsletter in case you don’t listen to Flightless Bird) built on reporting first ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Karin Kirk The 119th Congress comes with a price tag. The oil and gas industry gave about $24 million in campaign contributions to the members of the U.S. House and Senate expected to be sworn in January 3, 2025, according to a ...
Early morning, the shadows still long, but you can already feel the warmth building. Our motel was across the road from the historic homestead where Henry Williams' family lived. The evening before, we wandered around the gardens, reading the plaques and enjoying the close proximity to the history of the ...
Thanks folks for your feedback, votes and comments this week. I’ll be making the changes soon. Appreciate all your emails, comments and subscriptions too. I know your time is valuable - muchas gracias.A lot is happening both here and around the world - so I want to provide a snippets ...
National’s cuts to disability support funding and freezing of new residential placements has resulted in significant mental health decline for intellectually disabled people. ...
The hundreds of jobs lost needlessly as a result of the Kinleith Mill paper production closure will have a devastating impact on the Tokoroa community - something that could have easily been avoided. ...
Today Te Pāti Māori MP for Te Tai Tokerau, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, released her members bill that will see the return of tamariki and mokopuna Māori from state care back to te iwi Māori. This bill will establish an independent authority that asserts and protects the rights promised in He Whakaputanga ...
The Whangarei District Council being forced to fluoridate their local water supply is facing a despotic Soviet-era disgrace. This is not a matter of being pro-fluoride or anti-fluoride. It is a matter of what New Zealanders see and value as democracy in our country. Individual democratically elected Councillors are not ...
Nicola Willis’ latest supermarket announcement is painfully weak with no new ideas, no real plan, and no relief for Kiwis struggling with rising grocery costs. ...
Half of Pacific children sometimes going without food is just one of many heartbreaking lowlights in the Salvation Army’s annual State of the Nation report. ...
The Salvation Army’s State of the Nation report is a bleak indictment on the failure of Government to take steps to end poverty, with those on benefits, including their children, hit hardest. ...
New Zealand First has today introduced a Member’s Bill which would restore decision-making power to local communities regarding the fluoridation of drinking water. The ‘Fluoridation (Referendum) Legislation Bill’ seeks to repeal the Health (Fluoridation of Drinking Water) Amendment Act 2021 that granted centralised authority to the Direct General of Health ...
New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill aimed at preventing banks from refusing their services to businesses because of the current “Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Framework”. “This Bill ensures fairness and prevents ESG standards from perpetuating woke ideology in the banking sector being driven by unelected, globalist, climate ...
Erica Stanford has reached peak shortsightedness if today’s announcement is anything to go by, picking apart immigration settings piece by piece to the detriment of the New Zealand economy. ...
Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. The intention was to establish a colony with the cession of sovereignty to the Crown, ...
Te Whatu Ora Chief Executive Margie Apa leaving her job four months early is another symptom of this government’s failure to deliver healthcare for New Zealanders. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Prime Minister to show leadership and be unequivocal about Aotearoa New Zealand’s opposition to a proposal by the US President to remove Palestinians from Gaza. ...
The latest unemployment figures reveal that job losses are hitting Māori and Pacific people especially hard, with Māori unemployment reaching a staggering 9.7% for the December 2024 quarter and Pasifika unemployment reaching 10.5%. ...
Waitangi 2025: Waitangi Day must be community and not politically driven - Shane Jones Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. ...
Despite being confronted every day with people in genuine need being stopped from accessing emergency housing – National still won’t commit to building more public houses. ...
The Green Party says the Government is giving up on growing the country’s public housing stock, despite overwhelming evidence that we need more affordable houses to solve the housing crisis. ...
Before any thoughts of the New Year and what lies ahead could even be contemplated, New Zealand reeled with the tragedy of Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming losing her life. For over 38 years she had faithfully served as a front-line Police officer. Working alongside her was Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson will return to politics at Waitangi on Monday the 3rd of February where she will hold a stand up with fellow co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. ...
Te Pāti Māori is appalled by the government's blatant mishandling of the school lunch programme. David Seymour’s ‘cost-saving’ measures have left tamariki across Aotearoa with unidentifiable meals, causing distress and outrage among parents and communities alike. “What’s the difference between providing inedible food, and providing no food at all?” Said ...
The Government is doubling down on outdated and volatile fossil fuels, showing how shortsighted and destructive their policies are for working New Zealanders. ...
Green Party MP Steve Abel this morning joined Coromandel locals in Waihi to condemn new mining plans announced by Shane Jones in the pit of the town’s Australian-owned Gold mine. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to strengthen its just-announced 2030-2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement and address its woeful lack of commitment to climate security. ...
Today marks a historic moment for Taranaki iwi with the passing of the Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill in Parliament. "Today, we stand together as descendants of Taranaki, and our tūpuna, Taranaki Maunga, is now formally acknowledged by the law as a living tūpuna. ...
Labour is relieved to see Children’s Minister Karen Chhour has woken up to reality and reversed her government’s terrible decisions to cut funding from frontline service providers – temporarily. ...
It is the first week of David Seymour’s school lunch programme and already social media reports are circulating of revolting meals, late deliveries, and mislabelled packaging. ...
The Green Party says that with no-cause evictions returning from today, the move to allow landlords to end tenancies without reason plunges renters, and particularly families who rent, into insecurity and stress. ...
The Government’s commitment to get New Zealand’s roads back on track is delivering strong results, with around 98 per cent of potholes on state highways repaired within 24 hours of identification every month since targets were introduced, Transport Minister Chris Bishop says. “Increasing productivity to help rebuild our economy is ...
The former Cadbury factory will be the site of the Inpatient Building for the new Dunedin Hospital and Health Minister Simeon Brown says actions have been taken to get the cost overruns under control. “Today I am giving the people of Dunedin certainty that we will build the new Dunedin ...
From today, Plunket in Whāngarei will be offering childhood immunisations – the first of up to 27 sites nationwide, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. The investment of $1 million into the pilot, announced in October 2024, was made possible due to the Government’s record $16.68 billion investment in health. It ...
New Zealand’s strong commitment to the rights of disabled people has continued with the response to an important United Nations report, Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston has announced. Of the 63 concluding observations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), 47 will be progressed ...
Resources Minister Shane Jones has launched New Zealand’s national Minerals Strategy and Critical Minerals List, documents that lay a strategic and enduring path for the mineral sector, with the aim of doubling exports to $3 billion by 2035. Mr Jones released the documents, which present the Coalition Government’s transformative vision ...
Firstly I want to thank OceanaGold for hosting our event today. Your operation at Waihi is impressive. I want to acknowledge local MP Scott Simpson, local government dignitaries, community stakeholders and all of you who have gathered here today. It’s a privilege to welcome you to the launch of the ...
Racing Minister, Winston Peters has announced the Government is preparing public consultation on GST policy proposals which would make the New Zealand racing industry more competitive. “The racing industry makes an important economic contribution. New Zealand thoroughbreds are in demand overseas as racehorses and for breeding. The domestic thoroughbred industry ...
Business confidence remains very high and shows the economy is on track to improve, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis says. “The latest ANZ Business Outlook survey, released yesterday, shows business confidence and expected own activity are ‘still both very high’.” The survey reports business confidence fell eight points to +54 ...
Enabling works have begun this week on an expanded radiology unit at Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital which will double CT scanning capacity in Hawke’s Bay to ensure more locals can benefit from access to timely, quality healthcare, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. This investment of $29.3m in the ...
The Government has today announced New Zealand’s second international climate target under the Paris Agreement, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand will reduce emissions by 51 to 55 per cent compared to 2005 levels, by 2035. “We have worked hard to set a target that is both ambitious ...
Nine years of negotiations between the Crown and iwi of Taranaki have concluded following Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill passing its third reading in Parliament today, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “This Bill addresses the historical grievances endured by the eight iwi ...
As schools start back for 2025, there will be a relentless focus on teaching the basics brilliantly so all Kiwi kids grow up with the knowledge, skills and competencies needed to grow the New Zealand of the future, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “A world-leading education system is a key ...
Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson have welcomed Kāinga Ora’s decision to re-open its tender for carpets to allow wool carpet suppliers to bid. “In 2024 Kāinga Ora issued requests for tender (RFTs) seeking bids from suppliers to carpet their properties,” Mr Bishop says. “As part ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today visited Otahuhu College where the new school lunch programme has served up healthy lunches to students in the first days of the school year. “As schools open in 2025, the programme will deliver nutritious meals to around 242,000 students, every school day. On ...
Minister for Children Karen Chhour has intervened in Oranga Tamariki’s review of social service provider contracts to ensure Barnardos can continue to deliver its 0800 What’s Up hotline. “When I found out about the potential impact to this service, I asked Oranga Tamariki for an explanation. Based on the information ...
A bill to make revenue collection on imported and exported goods fairer and more effective had its first reading in Parliament, Customs Minister Casey Costello said today. “The Customs (Levies and Other Matters) Amendment Bill modernises the way in which Customs can recover the costs of services that are needed ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Department of Internal Affairs [the Department] has achieved significant progress in completing applications for New Zealand citizenship. “December 2024 saw the Department complete 5,661 citizenship applications, the most for any month in 2024. This is a 54 per cent increase compared ...
Reversals to Labour’s blanket speed limit reductions begin tonight and will be in place by 1 July, says Minister of Transport Chris Bishop. “The previous government was obsessed with slowing New Zealanders down by imposing illogical and untargeted speed limit reductions on state highways and local roads. “National campaigned on ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has announced Budget 2025 – the Growth Budget - will be delivered on Thursday 22 May. “This year’s Budget will drive forward the Government’s plan to grow our economy to improve the incomes of New Zealanders now and in the years ahead. “Budget 2025 will build ...
For the Government, 2025 will bring a relentless focus on unleashing the growth we need to lift incomes, strengthen local businesses and create opportunity. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today laid out the Government’s growth agenda in his Statement to Parliament. “Just over a year ago this Government was elected by ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour welcomes students back to school with a call to raise attendance from last year. “The Government encourages all students to attend school every day because there is a clear connection between being present at school and setting yourself up for a bright future,” says Mr ...
The Government is relaxing visitor visa requirements to allow tourists to work remotely while visiting New Zealand, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis, Immigration Minister Erica Stanford and Tourism Minister Louise Upston say. “The change is part of the Government’s plan to unlock New Zealand’s potential by shifting the country onto ...
The opening of Kāinga Ora’s development of 134 homes in Epuni, Lower Hutt will provide much-needed social housing for Hutt families, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I’ve been a strong advocate for social housing on Kāinga Ora’s Epuni site ever since the old earthquake-prone housing was demolished in 2015. I ...
MONDAYSheriff Seymour rode slowly down the main street of Dodge on his faithful white horse Atlas Network.He liked what he saw.Children were being fed free lunches prepared by kind people who collected the scraps from an offal rendering plant.“Very strongly flavoured liver, such as ox liver, can be soaked overnight ...
Once upon a time it was all about being an astronaut, a firefighter or doctor; but these days kids have their sights set on becoming vloggers or YouTubers.That’s according to a 2019 study by Lego that surveyed 3000 children between the ages of eight to 12 from the US, the ...
Madeleine Chapman reflects on the week that was. From the moment I started high school and realised almost every other girl in my year was at least partially interested in what the boys were up to, I realised that I would be single for life. The feeling wasn’t one of ...
The Pacific profiles series shines a light on Pacific people in Aotearoa doing interesting and important work in their communities, as nominated by members of the public. Today, Selina Alesana Alefosio.All photos by Geoffery Matautia.On a bright Sunday morning from her grandparent’s home in Pito-one, I spoke with ...
The White Lotus star reflects on her life in TV, including the local ad reference that doesn’t work in Australia, and her bananas co-star on Neighbours.Morgana O’Reilly was scrolling her phone next to her sleeping son on an idle Saturday morning when she got the call confirming that she ...
Claire Mabey explores the pros and cons of puff quotes on book covers.In January, Publishers Weekly put out an article by Sean Manning – publisher of Simon & Schuster’s flagship US imprint – in which he said he’d “no longer require authors to obtain blurbs for their books”.The ...
New Zealand’s Entomological Society is hosting its annual bug of the year contest. Here are some of the insects in the running. For some reason – perhaps humans’ inherent competitiveness, the idealisation of democracy, the need to demarcate winners and losers – one of the best ways to get people ...
A journey along the border, with words and illustrations by Bob Kerr.The Spinoff Essay showcases the best essayists in Aotearoa, on topics big and small. Made possible by the generous support of our members.The Sunset Limited leaves Union Station New Orleans on time at nine in the morning. We ...
Neville Peat is the 2024 recipient of the Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement in nonfiction. He’s written 56 books, mostly on natural history; this excerpt is from The Falcon and the Lark: A New Zealand High Country Journal, first published in 1992. The falcon wintering on the Rock and ...
It was a light-hearted gesture Greta Pilkington will be forever grateful for – thanks to an Aussie rival who jumped in when the Olympic sailor couldn’t be at her own graduation.Pilkington, then 20, had been leading a double life – while qualifying for the 2024 Paris Olympics in the ILCA ...
I was born in the back of my grandfather’s ute, by an overgrown windbreak in a remote place called Wahi-Rakauyou can’t find on a map. I was born a girl but given the man’s name Harvey, as my dad always wanted a violent-minded boy to one day help him ...
“We’re not here to interfere in people’s property rights,” Ngāi Tahu’s Te Maire Tau has told the High Court.Tau, a historian, Upoko (traditional leader) of Ngāi Tūāhuriri, and a university professor of history, is the lead witness in a case designed to force the Crown to recognise the tribe’s rangatiratanga ...
Pacific Media Watch Trump administration officials barred two Associated Press (AP) reporters from covering White House events this week because the US-based independent news agency did not change its style guide to align with the president’s political agenda. The AP is being punished for using the term “Gulf of Mexico,” ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific Presenter/Bulletin editor France’s top diplomat in the Pacific region says talks around the “unfreezing” of New Caledonia’s highly controversial electoral roll are back on the table. The French government intended to make a constitutional amendment that would lift restrictions prescribed under the Nouméa Accord, which ...
By bringing these global voices to the fight for free expression in New Zealand, we’ll continue to protect and expand our culture of free speech, says Nathan Seiuli, the Free Speech Union's Events Manager. ...
The issue is no longer a hypothetical one. US President Donald Trump will not explicitly suggest death camps, but he has already consented to Israel’s continuing a war that is not a war but rather a barbaric assault on a desolate stretch of land. From there, the road to annihilation is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cecelia Cmielewski, Research Fellow, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University To be selected as the artist and curator team to represent Australia at the Venice Biennale is considered the ultimate exhibition for an artistic team. To have your selection rescinded, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steve Turton, Adjunct Professor of Environmental Geography, CQUniversity Australia Severe Tropical Cyclone Zelia is bearing down on the northwest coast of Australia and is likely to make landfall early Friday evening. It’s a monster storm of great concern to Western Australia. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Danielle Ireland-Piper, Associate Professor, ANU National Security College, Australian National University A Victorian government decision to allow dingo culling in the state’s east until 2028 has reignited debate over what has been dubbed Australia’s most controversial animal. Animals Australia, an animal welfare ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hassan Vally, Associate Professor, Epidemiology, Deakin University Overnight, Robert F. Kennedy Jr was confirmed as the secretary of the US Health and Human Services Department. Put simply, this makes him the most influential figure in overseeing the health and wellbeing of more ...
Everything you missed from day five of the Treaty principles bill hearings, when the Justice Committee heard eight hours of submissions.Read our recaps of the previous hearings here.It was another work from home day for the Justice Committee, the only people in Room 3 being security guards, committee ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milad Haghani, Associate Professor & Principal Fellow in Urban Risk & Resilience, The University of Melbourne Juris Teivans/Shutterstock In Australia, fatal road crashes are climbing again, especially since the pandemic, and despite years of attempts to reduce road trauma, the numbers ...
In its eagerness to appease supporters of Israel, the media is happy to ride roughshod over due process and basic rights. It’s damaging Australia’s (and New Zealand’s?) democracy.COMMENTARY:By Bernard Keane Two moments stand out so far from the Federal Court hearings relating to Antoinette Lattouf’s sacking by the ...
“The reality is we’re getting poorer. The government this year is leaning heavy on chasing economic growth, which is absolutely the right thing to do.” ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 The Vegetarian by Han Kang (Granta, $28) Han Kang’s astounding novel was based on an ...
This new docuseries about two single comedians looking for love is also a joyful celebration of female friendship. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. “How many people do you think are boning right now?” Kura Forrester asks Brynley Stent as the bright ...
A new poem by Freya Turnbull. Hunger Song – After Kaveh Akbar (Untitled With Hunger And Matcheads) I hold my age in ripped fishnet hold an empty vessel oldyoung body cracks like gunshot like killa i was a father ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dominik Koll, Honorary Lecturer, Australian National University View of the Pacific Ocean from the International Space Station.NASA Earth must have experienced something exceptional 10 million years ago. Our study of rock samples from the floor of the Pacific Ocean has found ...
Troy Rawhiti-Connell reviews Kia Tupu Te Ara, a documentary chronicling the meteoric rise of Aotearoa’s groundbreaking metal band. “Two brothers attempt to storm the world of thrash metal with the Māori language, despite the fact they’re both still teenagers,” reads the synopsis of Kent Belcher’s documentary, Kia Tupu Te Ara. ...
Three freelance writers have been awarded grants to work on their ambitious journalism projects. In January, The Spinoff announced the Vince Geddes In-Depth Journalism Fund, supported by the Auckland Radio Trust (ART). The fund was established to provide much-needed financial and editorial support to talented freelance journalists, empowering them to ...
The Nats are just short of camping and sleeping with the Oravida staff – but according to Bryce Edwards, the Govt is being “pragmatic”, which must be a Right Wingers’ synonym for “cronyism” or “corruption”.
If it was Labour doing this, the public would be asking for heads to roll.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11217337
that column from (acceptable-gatekeeper-wannabe) edwards-the-younger –
..he has basically become a mouthpiece/apologist for the right..
..and as such..
..should be studiously ignored/denigrated at will..
..(and him an ‘academic’..eh..?
..is he dunedin university’ steve hoadley..?..)
phillip ure..
Yeah – I reckon, Phil.
Well, National and the MSM would be screaming from the roof tops for heads to roll anyway.
this is what pete george/farrar/williams/edwards-the-younger/politicheck/the taxpayers union –
are up to/attempting to do..
“..China to train leaders to manage online public opinion..”
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/10/china-online-opinion-training-programme-sina-weibo
phillip ure..
this is what we need here..
“..Mythopedia: The Website To Debunk Right-Wing Lies
“..Watchdog group Media Matters has launched a website –
cataloguing conservative propaganda..”
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/mythopedia-website-debunk-right-wing-lies
(and the first entry for a local version..could be edwards-the-youngers’ latest rightwing-roundup/exercise in slanting/opinion-managing..)
phillip ure..
A beautiful example of PR front footing – power bills rise, John Key points at up grades to national grid, Transpower say isn’t us, for some reason it comes across as David Shearer is supporting the PM with his Private Members Bill…. nothing is said at all about recent power asset sell off!
And the latest rort from John Key’s privatising profiteers at Genesis….. The account arrives and is to be paid within four days or the 10% late payment tax is imposed.
and no real reaction to the news yesterday..
..that the poorest..(forced into pre-paid power-payments by their suppliers..)..
..are then forced to pay up to 60% more for their electricity..
..how is this..in any way..fair/’a level playing field’ (that claimed-destination of the right/free-market..)
..the market is ‘free’ alright..
..’free’ for these scumbag power-companies to cruelly exploit/profiteer off..the poorest/sickest/weakest in our country..
..am i the only one enraged by this..?
..what are lab/grns going to do about this..?
..about this ‘specifically’..?
..(and why not a class-action-suit..?..to force these scumbags to pay back what they have stolen..
..from the poorest..)
..phillip ure..
Electricity has become like water to people. Water is an essential life source and is provided at no (well, ratepayers mostly) cost. Imagine if people started drinking less water because it cost too much….. there would be all manner of uproar.
Well, electricity has become the same. In many places we are not allowed to burn wood etc for heating and cooking. So to warm ourselves and feed ourselves we are required to use electricity. This is the place that electricity has taken in society – an essential. Absolutely essential for survival.
As such, electricity cannot be left to the vagaries of the “free market” to supply such, like plastic buckets and undies can be. Lack of plastic buckets and undies are not threatening to life, so they can stay with the slave labour suppliers in the east. But not electricity.
Electricity is an essential to life survival in Aotearoa and as such must be supplied in the appropriate manner to us. Free market supply is utterly wrong for this reason.
+1 vto
+1111
Russell Norman & Dave Cunliffe on radio nz this, both sounding really good!
Go Left!
Russ:
http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/mnr/mnr-20140311-0640-election_2014_the_green_party_says_spring_is_a_time_for_change-048.mp3
Dave:
http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/mnr/mnr-20140311-0709-labour_says_it_can_turn_around_support_in_time_for_election-048.mp3
And right now Winston just let loose a great tirade on phony John Key!
Thanks for the access to the interviews. Cunliffe did well to not dwell on the media beatups of him in the last week or so, and to not accept the untrustworthy smear.
Sounding positive.
+100….both Cunliffe and Peters sounding great!
… but i do wish Morning Report would not waste time on the flag issue….it is such a USA Republican Party red herring and diversion by John Key from the real issues facing this country
….Simon Mercep should not be buying into this and giving it air time….we want the real issues!…
Mercep is useless
National is proposing a water standard that would allow 4 times the level of nitrates in our rivers that are in the Yangtze River in China??
Oh joy 2 headed fish territory. Oh TricKEY TricKEY TricKEY
Hmm TricKey what a good name that is – I have already started using it since reading your comment, thanx
Be my guest.
The perception of a conflict of interest, Judith Collins acting in Her capacity as the Minister of Justice visits Oravida in China later claiming under questioning that this was simply a spur of the moment decision to drop in for a cuppa,
Lies???, you bet, a letter released under the Official Information Act shows the visit was not one of a spur of the moment nature which leaves Collins open to accusations of Ministerial conflicts of interest and having deliberately mislead the Parliament,
Spin???, so fast your eyeballs will nearly roll out of your head trying to follow the trajectory, up pops the Herald’s David Fisher a veritable unknown who appears to have the dubious ‘honor’ of being that in-august ‘rags’ senior reporter of the year,
In a piece in today’s Herald online Fisher gives every impression of a display that would have the ‘senior reporter of the year’ title replaced with ‘well past His used by date’ and i have to wonder if the story as presented to the public is a verbatim copy of the words of Steven Joyce or simply a precis of an earlier phone call,
Prevaricate, by spreading Collins’s shit in a wide arc across the National Party listing every man and his dog as having ‘visited’ Oravida in Auckland,(do not muse aloud about the depth of this particular companies pockets with what appears to be the whole spectrum of the ‘Right’ lining up with their hands out),
Disregard, the intelligence of everybody by attempting to cover Collins tracks by not mentioning that it is Her actions while on an official visit to another country that are in question,
Wheel out, a tame ‘expert’ in the form of Dr Bryce Edwards ‘a political scientist’ to pronounce over the corpse of the National Government ‘pragmatism’ in the vein of a priest giving the rites of absolution,
Lie by omission, treat the readers as if their intellectual level has been seriously devalued by previous readings of the Herald by not including the ‘fact’ that the wheeled out ‘political scientist’ in the form of Edwards is a paid hack for the ‘rag’,
Can the Herald stoop much lower looking for excuses for Collins and National’s ‘pragmatic’ Hands Out political management in what gives every appearance of a ‘grease my palm with ten pieces of silver and all your fortunes will bask in the warmth of the Sun’ explanation which paints all of them in the same light,
You bet, the Herald jonolists have barely scratched the surface in their attempts to paint the innocent actions of one simply helping a friend into something far darker than that while painting the ‘Hands Out’ politics in the National Parties approach to business as simple pragmatism…
I’m sure that they will find away to do so.
radio just said key is gonna announce a ref regarding changing the flag…. WOW im so excited= NOT!
what a waste of $
Probably been invited to a few more clever dinner parties of late. Seems they all go that way. Look at Edwards the Elder. No more analysis. Just commentary on the “game” and declaration of “winners” – effective congratulations to the the winners they declare. No matter how scurvy.
When change comes (of neccesity it will…….or choose civil unrest) there are going to be some worried yuppies……….
Winston’s the only one who really calls them for what they are.
Flag referendum. Classic boycott material on the basis that it’s an expensive piece of patently unnecessary bullshit devised by ShonKey Python to distract in election year. Since it’s for his benefit alone let him pay for it alone – he’s got 50 mill’ – a drop in the bucket to him. Maybe an Antoine’s coffee and muffin would spread the burden……..update the already bestowed honour to “Sir…….whatever-his-name-is”.
Starting now – Boycott Boycott Boycott !
Can we have a flag issue ban on the Standard from today please?
Such a waste of this blog-National’s game is to make us talk about the flag not the real issues.
“I wanna bit o’ cloff vat will show my values” . How about a pic of a toilet on a shit brown background TricKEY. That’ll show your values
Some cheesy corporate logo.
I really cannot see why we need to change the goddamn thing. I like our current flag. I am not all that worried about the Union Jack — after all, rightly or wrongly, that is our heritage. The Hawaiian flag also has UJ on it, and it had much looser links with the Empire, I dont see anyone there jumping up and down.
As for people getting our flag mixed up, I dont think it bothers the people of Poland, Indonesia, Chad, Moldova, Romania, Senegal and Cameroon that much?
Though, if there has to be a change, the United Tribes flag seems the most appropriate choice, given that it was the flag of a truly independent New Zealand.
Xox. I’ve been disappointed that Bryce Edwards has leant more to the right as he gets more mainstream media coverage. I suppose this is how the MSM works. You give them what they want and they ask you back. You scratch my back…
Used to read him.
Gave up when he joined the Herald.
New Zealans does not need a new flag it needs new prime minister.
something seriously wrong is happening in this country.
+100
Of course the flag debate is not meant as a deflection from the important issues is it? Surely not!
Ianmac, you mean the flag is not more important as fairness, employment, better wages and working conditions, freedom and opportunity, education, health and social inclusion, peace and shared prosperity?
I wonder whether a nice nationalist issue like flag-waving is not a cunning plan to get right wing voters into the polling booth and voting?
Interesting. Patrick Gower has a whole column on Scoop (Politics) transcribing his interview with John Key on The Nation. Haven’t seen that before. Could it possibly be because there were complaints about is interview with Cunliffe on The Nation ? ? I haven’t bothered to include the link – its easy enough to find on Scoop – because I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of having something up on The Standard.
JK, perhaps tho people, even the Alfred E. Nuemann of televised political jonolism, can change, the proof of such of course can only be found in Gowers future reporting,
If Gower can find ‘political balance’, a fine line to have to walk daily, then i think He deserves a small modicum of applause,
Gower’s setting of Slippery the Prime Ministers feet on fire with the interview on the Nation was possibly the most telling against the PM in His 5 odd years of holding the office, all the more so because i don’t for a moment believe that the PM could believe Gower had the temerity to pull Him apart in such a manner,
Credit where credit is due, IF Gower can stick to the facts while reporting the politics then i would suggest He may become the working man’s Kim Hill of political reporting, the deep intellect may not be apparent but the ability to slice and dice, using the truth to do so, are certainly evident…
Smart politics that would probably swing the vote Labour’s way 1#,
Announce in the middle of the first televised leaders debate the refining of the plan to raise the age of entitlement to superannuation,
Point out the three favored options, raise the age, means test the entitlement against income from all sources, or, leave the entitlement as it is,
Promise a referendum at the 2017 election to decide the issue,
The current Labour superannuation policy was a vote loser in 2011 and it still is…
+100…agreed.. “The current Labour superannuation policy was a vote loser in 2011 and it still is”…
Labour does not need to go there …and it can not afford to go there if it wants to win this election!
And if you think the TPP is a good idea. This from the country who is the main driver and whose corporations want us.
http://www.real-time-with-bill-maher-blog.com/index/2014/3/6/nun-the-wiser
I cant believe the nonsense coming out of Radio NZ this morning about changing the flag. why dont they ask which if any country has ever changed its flag. The answer is none. all the pretentious greybeards trying to sound like constituional intellectuals when they are more like tired old sots.This is a bigger red herring than 1981 and the country is just sitting back and swallowing it. I just about give up when this stuff is paraded as a serious question. An old chinese confucian saying is that choice cases confusion and shifty key and his minions are in the business of creating confusion so their neo-liberal agenda slips past while the ninnies run around debating crap.
why dont they ask which if any country has ever changed its flag
Canada, for one.
Anyway all the flag talk is due to this, I reckon… flag talk = conservative views
http://pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2011/07/08/0956797611414726
(Abstract – article is paywalled, but if you google flag + voter intentions there are plenty of reports on this study).
Who’s to say that the same exposure here may mean people vote for fairness and the left. What NZ really stands for, not get rich quick.
It can just as easily result in separatist or other reactionary views, depending on national values, current events, and even flag culture. The flags of USA, France, and Denmark represent different ideals to their citizens.
The NZE doesn’t really stand for much in the public consciousness — certainly nothing that suggests clear political leanings.
Provoking the debate however, with it’s predictable divisiveness and unpredictable consequences, purely as a convenient distraction, is egregiously cynical enough without need for any bonus conspiracy.
[P.S. lprent — The post-with-edit-timer is brilliant. Perfect.]
Are you serious? Countries change their flags all the time.
+100 captain hook….. flag issue is John Keys ‘Red Herring Flag’….but stupid commentators are buying into this RED HERRING and treating it as if it is a serious issue for New Zealand voters ……they need to get their priorities sorted
Most of us have brains complex enough to thnk about more than one thing at a time – I’m sorry if you don’t
Mr Pop are you talking to me ?…Calling me Simple little Chooky!?….if so …go get popped or poped or chicken pooped on! ….you are a Red Herring!
…the Flag issue is the least of NZ’s problems !……and surveys have shown most NZers want to keep the flag! ……it is a NON ISSUE…for msm simpletons to be taken in with and to dupe the population with !…it is a waste of time……..a Trickster diversion by Mr TricKey himself straight out of the right wing Republicans manual for subversion of genuine dialogue, dialectic, and democracy!
It is very important we hold the media to account. This election must be held on the debate of real issues…and not subverted by red herrings
Nah chooky don’t it too personally. Pop’s just not afraid to be catty. I’d like to see the flag change. It’s certainly a cunning move by Key, though. He’s a slippery dude all right.
@ Arfamo ..i didnt take it personally…he is a silly old Pop
….at least the Left leaders are seeing the flag issue for what it is ….a red herring … and are not falling for the Bait….just wish the media would do the same
….we dont want this election diverted by Trickey’s cunning machinations away from the REAL issues
https://www.greens.org.nz/
for anyone wanting to help the Greens in their electioneering delivering pamphlets etc etc etc
🙂
“..Colorado Recreational Weed Sales Top $14 Million In First Month..”
“..During the first month of recreational marijuana sales –
Colorado’s licensed dispensaries generated a total of more than $14 million –
putting about $2 million of tax revenue into state coffers in the process..”
(cont..)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/10/colorado-marijuana-tax-revenue_n_4936223.html
phillip ure..
Frikkin Fracking….just been reading http://www.resilience.org/stories/2014-03-10/the-oil-revolution-story-is-dead-wrong and wondered about the real cost of fracking in NZ, the things that the frakkers don’t actually pay for……
Even with that, the Department of Transportation in Texas did this analysis and said, “Fracking is doing about four billion dollars of damage to our road surfaces and bridges on a yearly basis. These eighty-thousand-pound trucks, of which it might take as many as almost twelve hundred to complete a single well—six hundred if you want to re-frack it—and those twelve hundred trucks weighting eighty thousand pounds filled with sand and water and fracking fluid and who knows what and giant diesels…
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/9810796/Hughes-a-mollyhawk-Jones
Jones is doing very well at the moment
Whereas Key/English are doing very poorly
I guess that explains why Keys popularity is dropping and cunliffes is rising…no wait hang on its not
Yeah the boy next door popularity contest will trump the over-hyped rock-star that failed to make it to the concert venue.
I guess we’ll not see you again after 20 Sept 🙁
Oh you’ll be seeing me alright, gotta come back and gloat after all
On the flipside, your sulking absence would add a certain icing to a labour victory
Look at the polls. People like key…
Takes the mind off
Growing deficits
Shrinking tax takes
interest on way up and
rising govt debt
earthquake rebuild is masking a great deal about this elvis impersonator economy
A local story here in Dunedin is a businessman who was all flash, owned three or four businesses, had great plans, etc. Now he’s skipped town owing large amounts of cash to staff and suppliers. And apparently he’s done it before elsewhere.
Key reminds me of this guy – he’s not going to be shiny forever, the media have been getting tetchy with him, and when they sense blood the fall will be sudden. And he’s the nact’s only pony, what with “conflict of interest” collins and “didn’t fix it” joyce and “didn’t even try to fix it” brownlee. And the rest of them are even worse.
“he’s not going to be shiny forever”
yeah keep running that line as its worked out so well for the left so far
we shall see. Confident that he won’t preside over the first national government that fails to win three elections? He’s not. He’s more “derp” than grin these days.
So no matter what its a win-win when I come back 🙂
No, it’s a “win-double lose” situation: nact govt and you being insufferable, versus a leftish govt. Unless the supporters of people who want to reduce the rate of sick babies are as shallow as the supporters of people who increase the rate of sick babies, in which case it would be “double win-double lose”.
Well it’s good to hear you will be voting Lab/Green in order to ‘gloat’.
One thing about this site is its made me appreciative of Helen Clark in that she knew to keep the Greens away from power
That you are paranoidically scared of the greens makes me more certain voting for them is the right thing to do.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/9814728/Greens-complain-about-Jones-attack
What a bunch of cry babies…myself, Shane Jones and Helen Clark all agree that the Greens should be nowhere near the levers of power so read into that what you will
I dont know where you get that I am crying.
Jones is following cullens shoes… really shld be in the national party.
Unlike you I understand that if we keep doing stuff the way we have for the last 30 years our children and grand children will have nothing to smile about unless they ARE amongst the 1%. You focus on winning at all costs and the rest of us will struggle thru the cost you burden us with.
You’re not the cry baby but the Greens are
Yes it’s a great site I agree, but can you link to the part where it made you “appreciative of Helen Clark in that she knew to keep the Greens away from power” please.
Its not in the link, its just a realization (on my part) that she was a better leader then I gave her credit for…
Cunliffe should take note of what she did to the Greens and follow suit
‘cept she didn’t do anything to the Greens, so your comments are just a wee bit odd. In fact HC came to have a good working relationship with the previous Greens leadership and was instrumental in getting them to give her Government confidence and supply in 2005 in exchange for the active promotion of some of their policies on energy and transport.
And IRD redundancies costly for Kiwis where “in 2012-13, IRD spent about $53m on contractors and consultants, down from $59m in 2008-09”.
Downward tracking is all good
BEST and I mean the Best damn opinion piece I have seen in ever – period.
Oh and if can’t handle swearing – don’t follow the link.
https://www.tytnetwork.com/2014/03/09/open-letter-middle-class-spoiler-alert-fck/
Here’s a piece from The Press for last weekend on money and ACT and money and John Whyte. And satire and the rich. From Martin van Beynen – I like this bit.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/opinion/columnists/9805315/Money-makes-us-happy-so-we-exist
questiontime commentary..
http://whoar.co.nz/2014/new-zealand-parliament-list-of-questions-for-oral-answer-tuesday-11-march-2014/
(excerpt..)
“..summary:..as i noted above..the encounter between key/cunnliffe should be mandatory-viewing for all in labour..
..as this could not be more of a rehearsal of how the upcoming leaders’-debates will go…
..if cunnliffe/labour do not denounce the neo-lib policies of that labour govt..(and present a strong progressive-alternative-vision..)
..they will be hung out to dry..on the record of that govt..
..and on that interaction i have to give key the performer-of-the-day accolade..
..for the ease in which he batted away the questions from cunnliffe/labour..”
and i can’t emphasise enough that question one from q-time today must be a wake-up and smell the future election-leaders-debates..for labour..
..you will ignore this warning at yr peril..
..phillip ure..
so..has anyone watched the replay..?
..am i right..?
..or am i right..?
..phillip ure..
Shane Jones is right. Why are the Greens so precious?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/9814728/Shane-Jones-slams-Greens
The Greens have lodged a formal complaint with Labour over outspoken MP Shane Jones’ attacks on the party.
isn’t the question more why is jones such a douchebag/promoter of continuing to screw over the environment..?
phillip ure..
George, the article you link to explains everything pretty well. Waters being tested and lines being drawn. Thanks, because that’s the clearest example I’ve seen of how the Labout/Gp relationship is going. Bodes well.
Isn’t it ironic.
Propaganda: “The Dominant Grand Narrative Of Our Time”
by DAVID CROMWELL, Media Lens, 27 January 2014
‘Propaganda’ sounds like an old-fashioned word from a bygone era. It evokes images of the Nazis in WW2, particularly Reich Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda Joseph Goebbels, or Soviet leaders in the Cold War and dictators in ‘Third World’ countries. Propaganda is something spewed out by official enemies of the West, and surely not a vile practice indulged by ‘our’ politicians and business leaders. This is a convenient illusion that serves powerful Western elites very well indeed.
The Russian-born filmmaker Andre Vltchek, who has travelled the world extensively in making his documentaries, relates his experience of appearing in the media in different countries. He observes that when he speaks in China, he does so uncensored: “I was on CCTV – their National TV – and for half an hour I was talking about very sensitive issues. And I felt much freer in Beijing than when the BBC interviews me, because the BBC doesn’t even let me speak, without demanding a full account of what exactly I am intending to say.” (Noam Chomsky and Andre Vltchek, On Western Terrorism: From Hiroshima to Drone Warfare, Pluto Press, London, 2013, p. 31)
Vltchek continued: “People in the West are so used to thinking that we are so democratic in terms of the way our media is run and covers the stories. Even if we know it’s not the case, we still, subconsciously, expect that it’s still somehow better than in other places and it is actually shocking when we realize that a place like China or Turkey or Iran would run more unedited or uncensored pieces than our own mainstream media outlets. Let me put it this way: Chinese television and newspapers are much more critical of their economic and political system than our television stations or newspapers are of ours. Imagine ABC, CBS, or NBC coming on air and beginning to question the basics of capitalism or the Western parliamentary system.” (Ibid., p. 32)
A vanishingly rare example of the BBC propaganda system being blasted open was the special edition of the Radio 4 Today programme edited by the English musician PJ Harvey on January 2, 2014. In her opening statement, Harvey explained that she wanted to “do something unusual with the format and content of the programme.” She invited people whom she considers “to be highly articulate, stimulating and extremely interesting to listen to – people who challenge us and move us to examine our deepest beliefs and feelings.”
Harvey’s guests included John Pilger talking about the propaganda role of the corporate media; Denis Halliday, former UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq, on the urgent need to democratise the warmongering UN Security Council (here at around 49 mins); Ian Cobain and Phil Shiner on torture committed by UK forces (here at around 2 hrs : 34 mins); and Mark Curtis on how Britain’s arms trade fuels oppression around the world.
Harvey wanted her contributors to be unrestricted in what they could say, and she had asked the Today programme to agree to this before accepting the invitation to be a guest editor. She rightly noted that ‘a great deal’ of her edition of the programme was ‘about censorship in one way or another.’
Predictably, reactionary voices bewailed afterwards that the BBC had broadcast”‘left-wing tosh” and “liberal drivel”. Nick Robinson, the BBC’s “impartial” political editor, took particular exception to….
Read more….
http://www.medialens.org/index.php/alerts/alert-archive/2014/753-propaganda-the-dominant-grand-narrative-of-our-time.html
Snowden: US helped create loopholes in New Zealand law
by DAVID FISHER, New Zealand Herald, Tuesday Mar 11, 2014
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11217797
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden says the United States’ spy agency has helped find or create loopholes in New Zealand law to enable widespread spying.
In testimony to the European Parliament, the exiled former NSA worker said the agency’s Foreign Affairs Division put pressure on other countries to change laws to create legal gaps through which mass surveillance could be carried out.
He said lawyers at the United Kingdom’s GCHQ were also engaged in finding loopholes and both agencies slipped changes past unwitting politicians.
“In recent public memory, we have seen these FAD ‘legal guidance’ operations occur in both Sweden and the Netherlands, and also faraway New Zealand.”
Mr Snowden offered no further detail in his testimony about pressure placed on New Zealand. His written testimony was sent ahead of a EU debate on freezing data agreements with the US.
It has been linked to new legislation passed in New Zealand last year which changed the laws governing the electronic spying agency, the GCSB, to allow it to spy on Kiwis. The government also passed legislation which extended the bureau’s powers over intercepting information sent and received in New Zealand.
Mr Snowden told the EU: “One of the foremost activities of the NSA’s FAD, or Foreign Affairs Division, is to pressure or incentivise EU member states to change their laws to enable mass surveillance.
“These efforts to interpret new powers out of vague laws is an intentional strategy to avoid public opposition and lawmakers’ insistence that legal limits be respected, effects the GCHQ internally described in its own documents as ‘damaging public debate’.”
The changes were used to “justify indiscriminate, dragnet surveillance operations”, he said.
In listing New Zealand among countries targeted, he said: “Each of these countries received instruction from the NSA, sometimes under the guise of the US Department of Defense and other bodies, on how to degrade the legal protections of their countries’ communications.”
Cyber rights group Tech Liberty’s spokesman Thomas Beagle said the new laws introduced in New Zealand last year appeared surprisingly quickly.
“It was like someone had it sitting in a drawer ready to go. Who is really writing these laws.”
He said the greater concern was the lack of oversight. “It’s never being able to test what they are doing what they say.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11217797
Article in The Guardian on the flag referendum has Key with the Australian flag. Ironic or intentional?
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/11/new-zealand-to-hold-referendum-on-new-post-colonial-flag
Well spotted. It’s from here.
David Cunliffe’s youtube message just up. Kind of direct and low tech. Not so inspirational though. But some good points about “the big end of town” etc.
Be part of the movement to change the government.
Also Cunliffe is asking people to tell Labour “My EQC story”.
Slippery the Prime Minister gets caught showing that He and speaking the truth are at best only known to each other on a fleeting basis,
Caught out again, by none other than TV3’s Alfred E. Nuemann, after slicing and dicing the Prime Minister on the Nation on the weekend Patrick Gower seems to have got a taste for a spot of ‘real Journalism’,
How long this will last and whether or not Gower’s new found enthusiasm will spread among His peers in the industry is yet to be seen, but, Gower in my estimation has just risen from sitting at the kerb to having a pew at the bus stop,
Slippery’s claim that the Cabinet Office had had translated the endorsement/promotion of Orivada’s products in their Chinese language magazine which allowed that Office to clear Collins of any supposed conflict of interest from such an endorsement/promotion while on offical Government business turns out to have been Utter Bullshit,
Just another lie from the Prime Minister and Gower proved such by asking the Cabinet Office a simple question,
Did they get an English language translation of the Chinese language magazine???, NO, definitely not said the Office of the Cabinet,
Gower is making easy work of making Slippery the Prime Minister look every bit the Liar and hypocrite that we all believe Him to be, in doing so He,(Gower), is starting to show, after an abysmal start, that he could become one of the greats in a thin field of political journalists in this country,
Scoring 2 direct hits on Slippery in a week is more than any other journalist has accomplished in 5 years,
Gower again goes up in my estimation, it’s the truth which we want Paddy, and, it’s pretty easy with a small amount of digging to expose the fact that our Prime Minister on any given day plays fast and loose with that truth…
What is interesting is the level of duplicity. Key made statements to the media, but avoided saying the same in the House.
Collins answered for him, kind of supporting Key’s statements to the media. Last Wednesday, Grant Robertson questioned Collins in Question Time: John Key jumped in with a supplementary.
The devious way of misleading here is staggering!..
Stuff’s report on it tonight:
A lie based on a lie!
Exactly. But they way it was done in the House, without Key actually stating the lie himself, strongly suggests an intent to deceive, – without either actually directly stating the untruth the House. ie, based on a verbal technicality, they both cannot be reprimanded for misleading the House.
PS, feel free to use the Hansard quote, micky – or anyone else. I don’t have the energy to do a post on it.
I caught a bit of the PM’s flag speech at Vic Uni today on the replay of the news tonight. Jeez, is it me or is he the just the most god-awful public speaker in history?
Yes. Makes you wonder how he got to be PM, or registers any kind od popularity.
It is about time that members of the MSM when asking questions of John Key, and he includes the words “it’s in the rules”, they should respond with, “Ah yes, Prime Minister, it might be playing by the rules but is it ethical?”
Has John Key a conscience?
Ah but Crosby Fester has anticipated the logistic of such wild card probing on the part of one or two in the popular fiction creating/embracing and generally biddable Fart Estate.
The answer, delivered with the dreadfully dead eyes of the rote learner, would be a sour little homily about an ordered society and The Rule of Law completely supported and advanced by every member of the National Party whom of course observe all the rules put in place in such a society and endorsed by all New Zealanders. Or some such effete shit. Then turn and light-foot /mince his way out.
The only real zap in that vein that I’ve ever seen was on the occasion of the recreational fisher schnapper quota stunt. Forget whom it was but a female reporter at the press conference pressed it just that bit further questioning that New Zealanders were more worried about schnapper than the GCSB – blow me down – there for all to see ShonKey Python shitting his pants and looking a complete and utter prize dork.
Who was that real journalist ?
This is interesting:
http://pacificguardians.org/2014/03/11/accused-govt-exploit-pacific-prisoners-for-political-gain/.html
Typical of the ShonKey National Party and much in the vein of the “privatise the profits and socialise the losses” (non) ethics of the same.
‘Fia palagi’ (a preening wannabee caucasian) Peseta Sam Lotu-I’iga, ShonKey’s Minister of Pacific Island Affairs – you know the one, the shining lawyer boy dick who fantastically claimed on TV 3’s The Vote that $130,000 as a first home buyer’s 20% deposit on your more or less average Auckland house was more or less within reach – here he is putting out an official ‘Office of the Minister…..’ press statement claiming credit for a “new” Pasefika Anti-Violence prison programme.
Except that it’s been on foot for 10 years and he and the National Party had nothing to do with it. It was down to NZ First MP Anetasi and a number of other inspired, caring, Pacific Island people. Not Sammy nor ShonKey. But here he is taking the credit and steering it the way of ShonKey by implication.
Interesting to listen to Pasefika people when they hear some fia palagi claiming the credit for stuff they never were involved with. Very upfront and unforgiving in my experience. Tune in to their talkback.
Maybe fia palagi Sammy should pay attention to the comments of members of his own aiga (which I’ve personally witnessed) about the woeful state of his own (now deceased I recall) grandfather’s house in the village of Fasito’o-Uta on the coast road between Faleolo Airport and Apia town.
Not the shining boy he and ShonKey try to make out. Just a mainchance fia palagi really.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/9816335/Key-misled-media-over-Collins-Chinese-link
Liar Liar TricKEY’s pants are on fire. And somehow I don’t think that it’s just the media that he’s been lying to. Hmmm TricKEY being TricKEY with the truth.