Gilmore has been under fire for his treatment of a waiter in Hanmer Springs last month, and his accounts since of what happened.
Key stepped up the pressure yesterday. “If he can’t reconcile what happened on that night in the way that he’s described it to me then the answer would have to be yes,” he said.
“In the end to make a contribution you have to have integrity, and to have integrity there has to be a directness and fullness in your answers.”
—
How does he say this shit with a straight face?
Integrity, directness and fullness in answers?
Obviously a big believer in do as I say, not as I do.
The one who should be under massive pressure to resign should be Key. Gilmore, as the last man on the list and without support, is dispensable. Key is quite prepared to throw him to the wolves to assuage public taste.
To quote Bomber Bradbury: “What a piece of work our prime minister is.”
I wondered also Karol, but it’s a no-win. Gilmore is making Key look impotent as a leader. I rather suspect instead the media are more interested in this grubby story than the big issues.
I hope Gilmore stays. He’s not done anything worth firing (name dropping is a punishing offence, if he’d acted on it that’s firing stuff).
Yeah, some quote about “looking NZers in the face”.
Some people are compulsive liars. Gilmore is just modelling himself on the master of it all.
The corporate media are quite capable of distracting the folk of NZ without Key’s help.
Why now, thanks to the Herald, we have a new talking point. ……George Pie. The NZ Herald look like they’re operating as McDonald’s PR and marketing tool now.
This is from the archives. It shows that not much has changed over the last three years….
Radio NZ newsreader openly expresses disgust at Israeli propaganda
Tuesday 13 July 2010
I listened to Lloyd Scott read the 5 a.m. news on National Radio. Scott is a sensitive and intelligent man, and he was clearly affected by having to read the following: “An Israeli military investigation into its own killing of nine peace workers has found there were errors of planning, intelligence and coordination but the killings were justified. It also rejected calls for an independent inquiry, saying that it would have been biased.” As he read this last sentence out, his voice rose in dismay.
He read some more items and then the weather forecast. Then, several minutes later, Scott returned to the item about the “inquiry” into the murder of nine peace activists. He said: “That last bit really gets me, you know. Especially the last sentence: ‘An independent inquiry would have been biased.’ Does that mean the Israeli report into their own killing of peace activists was NOT biased?’
Scott’s open disagreement with the content of his script was unusual. Other newsreaders and journalists on New Zealand radio and television often indicate their dissent at having to read out what are often little more than propaganda broadcasts and PR releases for Israel, but they are usually forced to be a little more circumspect. Greg Boyed on TV1 is adept at raising an eyebrow to undermine the nonsense he is forced to read out, and Peter Williams, Alastair Wilkinson, Cameron Bennett, Mark Crysell, Warwick Burke as well as many other newsreaders have clearly struggled to hide their visceral disgust at Israeli brutality and criminality while being forced to read words that have been crafted by others to disguise or excuse it.
More dependably servile this morning was the BBC’s Adam Mynott, who read out the official Israeli statement without betraying even a quiver of emotion.
Interestingly, the BBC’s news coverage of this latest Israeli outrage—not only murdering unarmed civilians, but murdering sense itself by calling the murderers “brave” and their unarmed victims “aggressors”—was followed, a couple of items later, by the announcement that Sudan’s President Bashir has a warrant out for his arrest—for war crimes and crimes against humanity. It is not insignificant that these items were separated—somebody at the BBC obviously decided it would have been too embarrassing for Israel to have the two items juxtaposed, therefore highlighting the absurd gulf in treatment of the two outlaw regimes.
One wonders if the BBC would read out a self-serving justification of the Janjaweed militia’s depredations in the same dutifully “neutral” manner as it read out Giora Eiland’s preposterous “report”.
As much as many on here are enjoying the Aaron Gilmore situation, it seems to me that we are unable to remove list Mp’s who prove themselves to be complete arseholes who seem to be solely in it for the ego trip and the pay packet. (Whilst I accept you could argue there are many unsuitable list Mp’s and who they are is probably dependent on which side of the spectrum you are on)
I would propose that we make list MP’s subject to employment law so in the case that someone behaves like a complete pillock there is a process where they can be removed or formally warned about there behavior.
The power to initiate proceedings could perhaps sit with the speaker or clerk and any Mp who felt the process was unfair could seek remedy in the employment court.
Someone like Gilmore could be for example removed for bringing parliament into disrepute whilst someone Brendan Horan would perhaps be able to remain as an independent as there have been no charges or anything provable that I am aware of.
Whilst we don’t want a party leader to be able to give a list mp the arse just because they disagree on something we do need a mechanism to remove one that proves to be entirely unsuitable. Parties would still be free to kick an mp out of the party but it would be out of their control as to whether or not they are allowed to remain as an independant.
hypothetical scenario time:
Perhaps a regulatory body could set up a little test for incoming MP’s, or those wanting to be. Undertaken by a suitably qualified Polygraph expert. 🙂
1: As an MP, Who do you work for?
2: In the House, will you vote for what is best for the Country or best for your Party?
3: Do you have the ability to work honestly on non-partisan issues?
perhaps others have some ideas for further questions ?
Hey 19. Still Mobile across the Atlantic
or riding a one-track Houston your Grace,
Crank it Up.Land Ho! for The handsome Changeling.
Basslines. simultaneous Doors with our names in Electrolites
Baling out before we meet The Reapers’ four whisker cuts
Sleeptalkin’, Sidewalkin’, J-Hawking
No More Heroes anymore, just a dear suck of the pong
Spinning The Circle Blackwards, Toogood
Page Who “only love can bring the rain”.
To The War In Spain. It Starts and Ends With You
per Suede;It’s so easy getting through these times
If you don’t have the answer you don’t have to lie”.
“Too many people going Underground”
“going 60 miles an hour”
So Fast So Numb
the scratch by twitching it! 😉
I would propose that we make list MP’s subject to employment law so in the case that someone behaves like a complete pillock there is a process where they can be removed or formally warned about there behavior.
Just need to bring back the Waka Jumping law then any list MP who misbehaves can be kicked out of the party and loses their seat at the same time.
Parties would still be free to kick an mp out of the party but it would be out of their control as to whether or not they are allowed to remain as an independant.
Someone who comes into parliament via the list is there because the party was voted for, not them. This means that if they stay on as an independent the party has lost part of the representation that it was voted which would be an injustice.
Then we need the power of recall so that electorate MPs can be kicked out by their constituents.
Agreed. I can’t see any good reason for a list MP to stay once they change party. In fact, this should probably apply to electorate MPs as well. I suspect most of them get in on a party vote. Recall would be a great idea, with maybe a 90 day option on beginner’s rates.
Exactly, Hence making it subject to employment law, Basically you have to be a complete tit that would in any reasonable case get the arse card. Simply disagreeing would not be one of those reasons…
But wouldn’t voting against one’s party’s legislation be akin to publicly and directly working against the wishes of one’s employer? It’s not about simply disagreeing with them, it’s about taking actions that fundamentally undermine your employer’s main business.
If the person can’t represent the party’s wishes then they probably shouldn’t be there anyway and kicking someone out is up to the party, not the leader of the party.
No, but under MMP with waka hopping legislation, and the suggestions being made here, she could have been forced out of parliament. The National Party would simply have kicked her out of the party.
Key blames MMP for not being able to sack Gilmore – if Gilmore was a FPP MP Would Key really truly sack the dickhead and force a bye election? Why doesn’t the media ask him that ?
Ok, news from the internal ranks are now that trying to dump Aaron has not quite worked and could have been better handled. If required, Key will take another angle, play it down and shrug it off. Aaron was getting talked to about shutting up and staying low. Key and Dipstick want next week to be about the budget.
“If you vote for a slogan, what do you expect?”
Unfortunately, thanks to a dysfunctional media, and aided and abetted by politicians and political parties, that’s all that many are capable of these days.
Brand Election
It ain’t gonna change till people get their “brand” spirit back as well as a few basic “learnings” * such as the value of protest, questioning and critique, and the realisation that (as someone once said) – democracy is only as good as its opposition.
* or until they’re directly affected by any adverse effects, the result of those they elected (or DIDN’t elect)
Well yeah, but in Gilmore’s case there’s the added wrinkle that he didn’t get in based on the vote on election day. He’s a legitimate MP, but he’s there because National sent Lockwood to London.
National put him on the list, National knew he was next on the list when the sent Lockwood north.
they do that largely because they are sold the idea that the Party has a leadership which many folk assume to mean the Party has made an intelligent and reasoned selection of the best available candidates for the positions on the list.
This is proving to be an increasingly misguided understanding of what actually happens
Even if true, which you can’t know (there are some fucking tragics out there I tell you what), it doesn’t matter.
The fact is that MPs are elected off the list. They are duly elected MPs, like any other.
Saying the party should have a retroactive veto over an MP’s status is just as fucked up for list MPs as it is for electorate MPs. Most voters, I’d be prepared to wager, vote for electorate MPs based on their party affiliation. If that wasn’t the case, then we wouldn’t have safe seats, we wouldn’t see nationwide swings against a party reflected in electorate results, and we’d see more, (or indeed even some) independent MPs.
So the same aergument that applies to List MPs applies to electorate ones. If you can throw out a list MP because it turns out you don’t like them for some reason, then why not an electorate MP. this bullshit about how ‘oh but they were elected as an M<P off their own merits" is belied by history and reason.
When was the last time an electorate MP who was kicked out of the party, or not reselected, voted back in as an independent?
+1 PB. Slippery slope to start shoving out MPs who were fairly elected because we ‘don’t like’ them. Gilmore’s not committed a crime (apparently). Neither did Horan. The media has tried them. I hope Gilmore stays.
Because the owners of the media does not like MMP because it is too democratic ; sometimes this means it does not guarantee a pliant government for their continuing plunder of the country.
…Would Key really truly sack the dickhead and force a bye election?
Nope, because he can’t. He could, possibly, remove him from the party but that’s about it. Philip Field was removed from the party but Labour couldn’t remove him from parliament.
Key is just bitching about his inability to hold his MPs to account. It’s got nothing to do with MMP. Labour had a list MP resign from their position when they were accused of impropriety.
Sure, Key would find it easier if he could legally fire Gilmore but the fact is that the problem is Key’s lack of standing within National itself.
Yep. John Key sets the example of rorting the system, lying to get what you want, and generally playing everyone. Then he expects the narcissistic sociopaths he brings in as useful idiots to act with integrity and resign when things go pear-shaped.
The PM says the sale of assets has been a “triumph”.
113 000 people. 3% of the population.
Maybe he should have amended this to “a triumph for me, my rich mates and the corporations who put me in power.”
FIFY Mr Key.
Idly flicking through some of Sir Alex Ferguson’s best quotes and this one stood out. Talking to his former player Paul Ince, who had just got his first big managerial job, Fergie offered this piece of wisdom:
“The only advice I can give you is don’t let players take the mickey out of you.”
Think Key, think Gilmore.
In football, they talk about losing the dressing room; that is, the gaffer’s authority goes from absolute to absolutely zero the moment they start taking the piss out of him. I suspect Key lost the dressing room yesterday when Gilmore turned up in Parliament and Key couldn’t do a damn thing about it.
What nonsense. Key is as hamstrung by MMP as Fergie has been by player contracts.
What has Fergie done in the past when a player has behaved like a nob to the point he doesn’t want them around anymore. He puts them in the corner and ignores them untill their contract expires or they get the hint and fuck off.
Nice to see your ignorance extends to football, KK. Famously Ferguson actually sells or loans out players who annoy him ASAP. Check Cantona, Keane, Beckham, C. Ronaldo and a host of lesser lights. All gone in a heartbeat.
Ferguson doesn’t let them stink up the joint making him look bad. Which is my point about Key. He is stuck with the Gilmore curls in his particular dressing room, and has no way of getting him out. Gilmore is going to be a daily reminder to the rest of the blue team that Key has no effective power to discipline them, because the majority in Parliament is so tight, he can’t take the risk.
Field was told to resign from Parliament and expelled from the Labour Party, but Gilmore’s offence is political, not criminal, so the comparison has limited usefulness.
“Field was told to resign from Parliament and expelled from the Labour Party”. but lets be honest, it took wee while didn’t it. Not exactly following TRP’s model of fast determined leadership.
What environment are you applying to labour? Fast acting determined leadership ie Man U as detailed by TRP. Or the Carter / Field scenario as detailed by history?
In Key’s National party, he sits above the fray saying there’s nothing he can do, while National party minions feed the press with threats of what will come out next if he doesn’t resign, making mention of the guy’s family.
It was a very long time indeed.
As a matter of fact he never did resign from Parliament and remained an MP until he was defeated in the 2008 election.
So much for a “determined” Helen Clark getting him to do anything.
He got kicked out of the party and that was all that could be done. The problem that you’re identifying is that the electorate couldn’t kick him out until the next election which they subsequently did hence the need for recall.
You are quite right that that was all that could be done.
However I would note that it took at least a year before even that was done and it appeared at the time to be an enraged reaction from HC to the fact that Field had upstaged an announcement she was going to make by saying he would stand against Labour in the next election.
On the other hand I note that at about midday today you seem to be saying that Key’s inability to do what she failed to do is “Excuses, excuses” See your own post at 6.1.2 just below this.
Key’s blaming MMP and that isn’t the problem at all. The immediate problem is that Key or the caucus has no control of an individual MP which is a matter of standing within that party. Labour had a similar issue and they got their list MP to resign so it can be done it’s just that Key/National can’t do it.
TRP, how long will it take for the nation’s dressing room to lose confidence in the PM?
Fascinating to see Colin King, the National MP for Kaikoura, and another poor performer, laughing with Gilmore in the House yesterday. (I wonder, as an aside, whether Colin King sent a message of sympathy to his threatened and disrespected constituent in Hanmer? If I was that hotel worker seeing his MP laughing with his abuser, I’d be highly pissed off.) Gilmore was also laughing with another MP to the seat to his left.
It did not look like Gilmore had been sent to Coventry by his colleagues- either that, or a new spirit of generous forgiveness has overtaken the National back bench.
Contrast that with John Key in interview saying that Gilmore’s return to caucus or membership of the list or party could scarcely be tolerated.
Well spotted, mac1. I note too that Tau Henare, another disaffected Nat, has been acting as Gilmore’s minder in the house.
It can’t have escaped the attention of Key’s MP’s that chiding Gilmore for being shifty is a bit rich coming from a bloke whose every utterance is untrustworthy. And there will be a few of them who don’t even understand what Gilmore did wrong in the first place, given that he was just behaving as a born to rule Tory is supposed to when being given cheek by their lessers.
As for the country’s confidence, well, I’d say Key has now moved into Arsene Wenger territory; still respected but tarnished by his failure to actually win anything worth winning in recent years. Taxi for Mr Key?
1. She supported the retention of capital punishment
2. She destroyed the country’s manufacturing industry
3. She voted against the relaxation of divorce laws
4. She abolished free milk for schoolchildren (“Margaret Thatcher, Milk Snatcher”)
5. She supported more freedom for business (and look how that turned out)
6. She gained support from the National Front in the 1979 election by pandering to the fears of immigration
7. She gerrymandered local authorities by forcing through council house sales, at the same time preventing councils from spending the money they got for selling houses on building new houses (spending on social housing dropped by 67% in her premiership)
8. She was responsible for 3.6 million unemployed – the highest figure and the highest proportion of the workforce in history and three times the previous government. Massaging of the figures means that the figure was closer to 5 million
9. She ignored intelligence about Argentinian preparations for the invasion of the Falkland Islands and scrapped the only Royal Navy presence in the islands
10. The poll tax
11. She presided over the closure of 150 coal mines; we are now crippled by the cost of energy, having to import expensive coal from abroad
12. She compared her “fight” against the miners to the Falklands War
13. She privatised state monopolies and created the corporate greed culture that we’ve been railing against for the last 5 years
14. She introduced the gradual privatisation of the NHS
15. She introduced financial deregulation in a way that turned city institutions into avaricious money pits
16. She pioneered the unfailing adoration and unquestioning support of the USA
17. She allowed the US to place nuclear missiles on UK soil, under US control
18. Section 28
19. She opposed anti-apartheid sanctions against South Africa and described Nelson Mandela as “that grubby little terrorist”
20. She support the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia and sent the SAS to train their soldiers
21. She allowed the US to bomb Libya in 1986, against the wishes of more than 2/3 of the population
22. She opposed the reunification of Germany
23. She invented Quangos
24. She increased VAT from 8% to 17.5%
25. She had the lowest approval rating of any post-war Prime Minister
26. Her post-PM job? Consultant to Philip Morris tobacco at $250,000 a year, plus $50,000 per speech
27. The Al Yamamah contract
28. She opposed the indictment of Chile’s General Pinochet
29. Social unrest under her leadership was higher than at any time since the General Strike
30. She presided over interest rates increasing to 15%
31. BSE
32. She presided over 2 million manufacturing job losses in the 79-81 recession
33. She opposed the inclusion of Eire in the Northern Ireland peace process
34. She supported sanctions-busting arms deals with South Africa
35. Cecil Parkinson, Alan Clark, David Mellor, Jeffrey Archer, Jonathan Aitkin
36. Crime rates doubled under Thatcher
37. Black Wednesday – Britain withdraws from the ERM and the pound is devalued. Cost to Britain – £3.5 billion; profit for George Soros – £1 billion
38. Poverty doubled while she opposed a minimum wage
39. She privatised public services, claiming at the time it would increase public ownership. Most are now owned either by foreign governments (EDF) or major investment houses. The profits don’t now accrue to the taxpayer, but to foreign or institutional shareholders.
40. She cut 75% of funding to museums, galleries and other sources of education
41. In the Thatcher years the top 10% of earners received almost 50% of the tax remissions
42. 21.9% inflation
In the midst of dwindling city budgets, Detroit is still in need of city maintenance. Community members are stepping up and volunteering more actively to keep their city clean and running.
The Electoral Commission has published the 2012 donation returns from registered political parties. They appear to reveal a major breach of electoral law by the Labour Party.
Donations over $15,000 only have to be disclosed annually, but donations over $30,000 must be disclosed within 10 working days of receipt.
Labour’s return shows they received $430,259.33 from the estate of Brian Dalley (ironically a professional property investor who made his riches from capital gains) between April and July 2012. They were required to disclose this to the Electoral Commission within 10 working days, but the Commissions say they were only notified on 9 May 2013. Their disclosure is 12 months late.
Very sorry to have offended you Pascal. Duly noted. Will make sure I do that next time.
Yes, it is unusual to be eager here at The Standard. Perhaps you could do that for all eager posts without references in your polite manner and we will all learn to behave.
Sure Colonial. As much as I don’t like John Banks and I do believe he knew about the donations, this oversight of some $400k makes life difficult for Labour to walk the moral high ground. And I seriously wonder wtf is wrong with the lot of them. I believe that all this nonsense that is thrown around in the mainstream media just turns voters off, hence I think as I have said before it encourages apathy as a virtue. Unless something drastic happens in the next 18 months I doubt that voter turnout is going to improve at the next election.
My husband decided a couple of years ago to become apolitical as he was over it. To the point that during local body elections he gives me the form to fill out and I had to make him go and vote last election.
Voters will rally behind politicians with great convictions. That we do not have at the moment from any party.
“Yes, it is unusual to be eager here at The Standard. Perhaps you could do that for all eager posts without references in your polite manner and we will all learn to behave.”
Do you understand the difference (technically and ethically) between posting without references, and plagiarism?
Yes I do. It was an error and I apologise. Happens to the best sometimes too. Perhaps you too could help everyone behave by pointing these things out every time they happen. Have a great weekend.
What a joke, there are two options, either they are so incompetent and thick that it didnt occur that it may be considered a donation and should be declared within the ten days or they decided to try and hide it deliberately. Presumably they are just incompetent and thick which is only slightly better than being deliberate. With this and Shrearer forgetting his US account Labour have lost any integrity critiquing Banks, in both cases it could hardly be worse, it wasn’t a back bench MP that forgot to put something on the register it was the leader, and it wasn’t a small donation a little over the limit it was 400k+, I’m astonished they just can’t get the basics right and while they keep messing it up they give the NATZ free rein to wreck havoc, pathetic.
Local Boy Tim Flannery on Climate Change.
He has that relaxed conversational style aussies are good at but describes some sobering facts about the great changes happening on our Planet:
2012 political party donation returns were released yesterday, and while I glanced over them, I didn’t think there was anything unusual: the Greens were funded by MP’s tithes, Labour got a large bequest, and National was funded by property developers and a foreign corporation laundering its donations through an NZ front. It took DPF’s sharp eyes to notice the problem: Labour had hidden a $430,000 donation for a year:
Donations over $15,000 only have to be disclosed annually, but donations over $30,000 must be disclosed within 10 working days of receipt.
Labour’s return shows they received $430,259.33 from the estate of Brian Dalley (ironically a professional property investor who made his riches from capital gains) between April and July 2012. They were required to disclose this to the Electoral Commission within 10 working days, but the Commissions say they were only notified on 9 May 2013. Their disclosure is 12 months late.
The penalty for failing to comply with s210C without reasonable excuse is a $40,000 fine. Labour needs to tell us why they were so slack about complying with their legal obligations. And if their reason isn’t good enough, they need to be prosecuted. The integrity of our electoral system depends on it.
Quoted in full as it was short enough.
Going to have to agree with I/S on that. It is unacceptable and Labour better cough up one way or the other.
Perhaps it is time for a central processor for party donation deposits. Run the whole thing through Kiwi Bank which has full integration with all necessary banking services. People cruise in, pick up their Party Donation card, fill in the details as per anonymity/disclosure rules and whambam a much more open and accountable system. Party event bucket collections and donations of smaller figures can be processed as they currently are, as block donations, and are deposited usually within a few days of collection anyway. All larger donations are transferred or deposited via the register as they arrive. On line Banking of course makes it even simpler. Even the great PayWave [the RFID scammers wunderkind] can be easily adopted to the process.
Each registered Party supplies the central body with one bank account number and all funds get deposited into that specific account. The account deposit details are cross fed to a public register that is automatically updated. This simple operation already exists in all banking/payment transaction services, so the systems are in place to do it. The question is does the will exist?
Why will people poo poo this common sense resolution to transparency in our democracy?
Simply because there is no good reason for it not to be implemented.
Perhaps it is time for a central processor for party donation deposits.
Good idea but doubt it will happen. Such a system surely would require some outside auditing. Imagine the Nat consternation knowing some of their shadiest donation deals might become known and get into the public arena. They would crawl over broken glass with bare feet and hands to stop any law requiring such a system.
My best answer to what happened is similar to the revelation a couple of years ago that Labour did not have a secure email system and the ‘slimy one’ ended up with members’ personal details. In other words, the left hand still doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.
To be fair it’s another example why political parties need to be funded from the public purse. It’s well known Labour’s Head Office is under-funded and under-staffed.
with an open donation deposit scheme such as outlined above the auditing is as straightforward as it gets. One account per party, regardless of where the money comes from, is an auditor’s dream. It matters not if the deposits are physical or electronic, there is no way to avoid the required protocols, regardless of amount, the depositor or the Party.
Update: According to NewstalkZB’s Felix Marwick, the Electoral Commission has accepted Labour’s excuse of “confusion as to whether a bequest counts as a donation” and there will be no referral to police. So the law means nothing again. What is the point of electoral law if it is never enforced?
Labour plays the same game as NAct and Farrar is just jealous because he thinks his Tories are entitled to that money. I don’t expect Labour to be paragons of virtue, but I would like them to get an inspiring leader so they can contribute to the next coalition government.
But yeah, this is an unforgivable level of incompetence.
You know, this was definitely a time when the left wanted the media to stop hammering Key’s lying bullshit. Providing another gobsmacking example of the Labour Party’s inability to manage money will totally win back those centrist voters.
There are serious attempts by the NAct Govt to promote Northland as a “mecca” for gold and silver mining, plus oil drilling in the seas off the coastline. We believe both will have a disastrous effect on the environment in the north, and could well be very damaging to the farming and tourism industries already in existence. The following article – published the other day in the local daily paper – gives you some idea of what we are up against. And with our current govt changing first The Crown Minerals Act, and next the Resource Management Act, to make it much, much easier for mining companies to come in and do their work without regard for the environment, or for the adverse social consequences that will flow on from there, we have quite a battle on our hands.
This message is just to let you know what is going on (ie all the people who read and post on The Standard). I will keep you informed of developments.
Jenny Kirk
Puhipuhi Mining Action Group
” Spectre of pollution ”
Nickie Muir
8th May 2013 Northern Advocate
“Last month far away in a village not unlike Whangarei, something extraordinary happened. The Argentine town of Esquel celebrated 10 years of community solidarity, sustainability and true democracy.
“Thousands of people came out onto the streets to remember an unlikely victory for a town of only 30,000 people, against toxic mining that had threatened their town water supply. To understand what is so remarkable about this is to know that Argentina was in economic meltdown and unemployment was three times as high as what Northland’s is today.
“In 2003 the massive open pit mine in Catamarca – the Alumbrera, in the north, was still being hailed as the gold bullet which would save the economy (it took until this February for a massive uprising of illiterate small holding farmers there to rebel against contamination in the air and waterways).
“Esquel is also at the other end of the country from where decisions get made.
“But Esquel proved problematic for the mining PR men mainly because unlike their countrymen to the north, the residents are the educated middle class escaping the capital to establish environmentally sustainable businesses around the natural resources there. Instead of taking the environmental impact report from the mining company at face value the residents hired scientists from the University of Patagonia and found that the original EIR was deeply flawed.
“They formed an apolitical neighbourhood association to better inform the community of the true costs of the mine as well as looking at a hard business case for it.
“Consultation with the company broke down over a lack of integrity in the discussions. Namely, the mine sued residents over a leaked tape of PR and mining execs discussing “hiring community leaders to sway opinion and persuade hard liners” to accept the mine and it’s proximity to the waterways despite the environmental risks. This upset more than a few and more than 8000 people turned out to protest. The mayor – sensing a tide change – called for a referendum to decide whether or not the mine would go ahead and 81 per cent of the people of Esquel voted against the mine and eventually passed a local bill banning all toxic mining in the province.
“Esquel’s solidarity inspired other small communities throughout Latin America but it also became a case study for mining companies to ensure that it didn’t happen again. There was too much lead time for the community to get informed – they were educated and organised. Esquel and its fishing, skiing and national parks are today a thriving centre of sustainable business based on the vision of the genuine community leaders from 10 years ago.
“De Grey has exploration rights now in two areas – the sparsely populated, arid and impoverished province of Santa Cruz in Argentina, and rights to 6000ha 30km north of Whangarei, in Puhipuhi.
“There has been no clear public information on whether this area is in the catchment for the town water supply. The Ngati Hau report on behalf of Fonterra states that the Waiariki Stream in Puhipuhi is already high in mercury “to a level that indicates that adverse effects of mercury on the biota living within the sediments could potentially occur frequently”. Ironic that De Grey’s info pack on Puhipuhi has dairy cows on the cover.
“There is no mention in Stephen Joyce’s Economic Activity Report on how toxic mining could affect the production of Northland’s real white gold – milk powder. Or that it regularly floods there.
” Instead, local politicians and PR men tell those who ask to “trust us – we know what we’re doing”. They told the residents of Catamarca and Esquel the same.”
Well done “Steve” + collegue from Work and Income Willis St, who was seen yesterday on the streets of Wellington asking those begging for money for food if Work and Income could help – your excellence is showing!
Thanks Anne but now I will have nightmares! That GCSB law change is very serious but we little people are easily riled by the Gilmores or the price of pies or milk but the enormity of what faces our NZ society is too hard to manage. Perhaps Mr Gilmore is running a deliberate deflection?
After listening to Manning and Trotter, I think we can more than safely say… now we know why John Key was so determined to have Ian Flectcher take on the role of the GCSB boss.
exactly, but they are all nice people in multinational corporations, they would never try to use information for influence or steal cultural or private institutions from people. I am sure Aotearoa has nothing to worry about in the TPPA, nothing at all
This is of course the neofeudal model: the financial aristocracy in the manor house own the rentier assets and the debt-serfs toil away to pay the rents and taxes. The financier class (i.e. those that benefit from the financialization of the economy) are as unproductive as feudal lords; they skim the profits generated by the debt-serfs while adding no productive value to the economy.
Given that MRP is trading at $2.73, nearly 10% than higher the Government chosen float price, is Key going to call himself out for costing the taxpayer $170 million by undervaluing the stock? Is he going to call English and Ryall ‘wreckers’ for getting this so badly wrong?
I can’t wait for the posts on WO and the Sewer screaming ‘SABOTAGE!’. Can’t be long now ….
Winstone,
as much as political parties would like it, we do not have lifetime terms in our Parliament.
We do have [apparently] changes of government on quite a regular basis. The NZ Power announcement is the most basic mechanism that any new Government could have come up with. Such an obvious hypothesis and no doubt several others were, I am sure, all dutifully considered and priced accordingly. Any risk assessor that failed to factor such a possibility is not earning the thousands of dollars a day/hour/word they were most likely charging.
there was an issue with the ceremonial codpieces not being easily transferable to the daughter,
so they just gave power over to the people
and there were free turnips for all
but they kept the butter
They might as well speculate that the revelations of the mis-management of Solid Energy, including its being “encouraged” to borrow in order to pay larger dividends, put people off investing in a company that has this government as the major shareholder.
Julie Anne spoke eloquently to the Insurance (Prudential Supervision) Amendment Act in Parliament yesterday, placing the increasing environmental risks in context.Like, the 1B government shortfall on claims for red-zoned Christchurch properties and the toxic MDF fire that continues to burn…
p.s, to correct Seven Sharp, Jesus suggested if you are gonna be a toad-in-the-hole, do it discretely.
-Matthew 6:5, And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray publicly on street corners, etc, where everyone can see them. I tell you the truth, that is all the reward they will ever get.
Synthetic clones (analogues) produced and released overnight.
Better the Apache barf than anything associated with the MS puke though huh?
If you arrange things nicely enough, an Apache barf can actually look quite pretty, whereas anything related to sn MS puke takes a lot of cleaning up, alongside the potential risk of litigation as to who owns the resultant psychedelic outpuke.
Barf away all Ye who have created your awesome facility, knowing as Ye do that any opposition (including garage-built, back-yard-developed memory management routines and most other functionality) has LESS to do with undeserving Bill&Melindas (with an eye for the processes of patents and the benefits of credibility-earning philanthropy), than it has do do with those that are the genuine creators of the new mankind.
Barf away as much as you like – the space is free and unincimbered with legalese and underserved rights as to ownership.
Now would be a most excellent time for a journalist to ask John Key the elephant in the room question . .
How did Aaron Gilmore become a List member of the National party?
a: A Bingo game ?
b: you thought you were ringing Ian Fletcher ?
c: he is the son of your good mate in CHCH?
I have only read it here also, but surely [although probably not put forward in quite the same terms] it is a valid question to put to the Party Leader of any Party?
The Wimp-Walloping continues on The Panel
Wimp: DITA DI BONI; Walloper: STEPHEN FRANKS
Radio NZ National, Friday 10 May 2013
Jim Mora’s Panel chat show has definitely returned to the mediocrity it had seemed to climb out of for a few weeks.
Today’s guests are Stephen Franks, the unspeakably cynical, hard-right Wellington lawyer and “legal adviser” to the S.S. Trust, and Dita Di Boni, a shallow columnist best known for being married to Ali Ikram. Today, as a preface to her Soapbox contribution, she giggled winsomely: “As you know, Jim, I am an avid reader of women’s magazines.”
Today, Franks is running amok, and Dita Di Boni, although she is clearly disturbed by his ranting, lacks the confidence to argue against him.
And of course, Mora laughs and offers his slobbering agreement to everything Franks says.
It’s just too, too depressing. This is what happens when you stop people like Gordon Campbell and Bomber Bradbury coming on your programme.
Mediocrity, timidity and sycophancy. What an insult to the listeners. What a wasted opportunity. What a great pity.
They never mention Frank’s political leanings – just that he’s a lawyer.
ACT got 1% of the vote.
What % of Mora’s guests are libertarian ideologues like Franks?
Hello GCSB …….enjoying reading these conversations?
Morrissey: The problem with too many of you on the “left” here is your damned pre-occupation with the crap media on the right, the private side, or even with now rather government friendly RNZ!
You are with these comments and other lack of contributions only serving the damned interests of the very perpetrators you try to expose, ridicule, challenge and beat, without realising it.
The only way to defeat and take a strong stand against the commercial or non commercial RIGHT is to BLOODY WELL MAKE YOUR OWN PROGRAM!
Stop whining and whinging and use the Standard or other forums, to present, to not just discuss, to offer multimedia, like a leftist YouTube, Fakebook and more combined. So there is a damned idea. Make a program that informs, that reveals, that communicates, that presents documentaries and information of value, to counter act this commercial trash we get on the media you are unhappy with. Perhaps have a chat with Lyn Prentice and others about how to establish such alternative media, since You Tube seems to go for pay TV at request now in the US.
More can be done here too, so do not leave it to the shit media we have cater for us now. Just a desperate idea, perhaps. Sorry to upset, but I need to submit some suggestions and ideas here, I feel!
This writer, i.e. moi, received a right old ticking off from our good friend xtasy late last night. I will attempt to address his concerns as best I can…
1.) Morrissey: The problem with too many of you on the “left” here is your damned pre-occupation with the crap media on the right, the private side, or even with now rather government friendly RNZ!
That’s because I, and many others, actually think it’s important to hold their vile behaviour up for inspection. Not just ridicule, mind you, but a serious inspection of what they are up to. So, for instance, when I parse a lunatic NBR editorial by Nevil “Breivik” Gibson or a wasted hour of assiduously trivial chat on The Panel or the insulting and shameless reading out of government PR handouts masquerading as news, I do it in a spirit of seriousness, not simply to make fun of the likes of Breivik Gibson.
2.) You are with these comments and other lack of contributions only serving the damned interests of the very perpetrators you try to expose, ridicule, challenge and beat, without realising it.
Judging by the emails and public admonitions I have received from the likes of Leighton “Ummm Ahhhh” Smith, Larry “Lackwit” Williams, Kerre “Red China” Woodham, Stephen Franks and even Jim Mora himself (he once asked me if I had “any more bile for today?”), these people don’t regard me as enhancing their positions in any way.
3.) The only way to defeat and take a strong stand against the commercial or non commercial RIGHT is to BLOODY WELL MAKE YOUR OWN PROGRAM!
No thanks. I have better things to do with my time. My contributions to this and a couple of other fora take only a small amount of time. I have a job, and I have thousands of books to read. I don’t want to throw my life away just yet.
4.) Stop whining and whinging…
Excuse me? I don’t appreciate such reductive and trivialising attacks—I won’t dignify those lazy epithets by calling them criticism. That’s the kind of thoughtless, indolent stuff I hear coming from the Prime Minister.
…. and use the Standard or other forums [sic] to present, to not just discuss, to offer multimedia, like a leftist YouTube, Fakebook and more combined. So there is a damned idea. Make a program that informs, that reveals, that communicates, that presents documentaries and information of value, to counter act this commercial trash we get on the media you are unhappy with. Perhaps have a chat with Lyn Prentice and others about how to establish such alternative media, since You Tube seems to go for pay TV at request now in the US.
Okay, I’ll try. Lyn, gimme half a million bucks NOW PLEASE! I intend to make a nuclear device with it.
5.) More can be done here too, so do not leave it to the shit media we have cater for us now. Just a desperate idea, perhaps. Sorry to upset, but I need to submit some suggestions and ideas here, I feel!
I share your frustration, my friend, but I think you should take another look at my oeuvre; it doesn’t begin and end with railing against radio and television. My play scripts are, even if I do say so myself, legendary….
wouldn’t it be nice to get the old fashioned reporting where credit and cash were reported seperately.
One is spending your money, one is building debt. ‘Total electonic card spending’ is pointless meaningless and dishonest reporting of expenditure.
Even spending “your own money” is nothing more than spending someone else’s debt, whether its the Government’s borrowed money, money someone got for a house funded from a mortgage, etc.
Hence our debt based monetary system. The banks have set it up so that almost no one can escape.
Like a tunnel that you follow to a tunnel of its own
Down a hollow to a cavern where the sun has never shone
Like a door that keeps revolving in a half forgotten dream
Or the ripples from a pebble someone tosses in a stream http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbWRIJWpCSw
when I first heard Windmills of Your Mind I was struck how it seemed to be about more than just cute redheads. I reckon that Legrand cat was on to something.
Here’s hoping. Robertson showed himself to be an utter coward yet again – a disappointment, but not a surprise – by issuing another press release reassuring Phil O’Reilly that he’ll still obediently plaster lipstick on the neoliberal pig.
Still, if the Greens keep the pressure on, and if it dawns on the careerists that Winston Peters is not their guaranteed Deus Ex Machina and that maybe they actually – OMG – have to earn their votes instead of having them delivered by the proles as fealty, maybe, just maybe, in their dramatic, epic, legendary effort to snatch defeat from the grinning, slavering, dripping, sharp-toothed, bitey, oh my what big teeth you have jaws of victory, the party pretending to be “Labour” might actually, almost by accident, do something right and maybe even win.
I hope they keep it up. Maybe they’ll realise that this is the direction they have to follow, not trying to snatch NACT voters by being utterly indistinguishable.
Comments like this make me more afraid and convinced, that the reactionary social forces out there are rather pro “national socialist” lines of thinking than anything that used to be “traditional” “left”!
I am sorry, but I feel so many of you guys have and are losing it, you live in little political closets, and you do not have a real sense of the tensions, hatred and competition that goes on out there. I feel you are all losers, living in some past scenario that is long gone. It is now division and blood fight about rights and privileges and so forth. Traditional socialism is DEAD! Hitler’s Socialism may be the future, and I hate it.
That’s my fear too. Rather than bickering over whether the glass is half full or half empty, I’m just hoping that there’s any water left at all. “Labour’s” careerists like Shearer, Robertson et al give me little hope.
While downloading the blueprints may not be illegal, any UK citizen who made and owned such a handgun could face arrest, according to the UK’s Metropolitan Police.
“To actually manufacture any type of firearm in the UK, you have to be a registered firearms dealer (RFD),” it said in a statement.
“Therefore, unless you are an RFD, it would most definitely be an offence to make a gun using the blueprints. It may be legal for an RFD to manufacture a gun this way, as long as they had the necessary authorities.”
One of the biggest headaches for law enforcers is the fact the gun is made from plastic – with only the firing pin made from metal.
Now I write some of this in CAPITALS on purpose, as I want to point out to you guys that Whaleoil seems to have an easy and special access to You Tube, he has heaps of clips loaded on that media venue, and I see none or little of other ones, when it come sot politics, current affairs and so forth, from any other blog or NZ media.
THIS IS DISTURBING! I again write this to raise awareness of the moderators here and affiliated blogs. We have an overly right wing focus on blogs and media in NZ! this is facilitated by commercial interests and government interests making available finance and more to allow this to happen. We are stuffed if we do not take a resolute position and prepare to take a stand to defend against this.
I am only commenting as an observer and part time blogger, but this is so damned serious, I hope and trust all affected will listen, read this and act upon it. Otherwise you may as well close down the “left” and let them do what they want. I am sure nobody here wants that, and I appeal especially to the so many half hearted and passive, wake bloody up and take a stand again, or you will soon face REAL DICTATORSHIP, this is NO joke!
The special access is called time. Because Cameron Slater seems to have been pretty useless at everything he has ever done outside of blogging (and even the effectiveness of that is arguable), he has time on his hands.
Whereas most of the main authors here are holding down fulltime and quite demanding jobs from the ones I know of. So this site gets done in whatever spare time we have.
Farrar is a bit different. He runs a polling company that seems to mainly have conservative political parties as it’s clients. While that gives him more control over his time than someone like I’d have, it clearly does not leave enough to spend time watching lots of YouTube. He virtually never features them. However he is also far more politically effective.
Slater appears to mainly put videos and images up to drive international visits and page views to his site from search engines. While that is probably effective at driving up his advertising revenue, its influence on the NZ political scene is minimal. Reading his site recently has become an exercise in wasting time for anyone interested in local politics.
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The pungent smell of gasoline in your car can be an alarming and potentially dangerous problem. Not only is the odor unpleasant, but it can also indicate a serious issue with your vehicle’s fuel system. In this article, we will explore the various reasons why your car may smell like ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
The Government must commit to the Maitai School building project for students with high and complex needs, to ensure disabled students from the top of the South Island have somewhere to learn. ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey and his Government colleagues have made a meal of their mental health commitments, showing how flimsy their efforts to champion the issue truly are, says Labour Mental Health spokesperson Ingrid Leary. ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
Trade, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has concluded productive discussions with ministerial counterparts in Beijing today, in support of the New Zealand-China trade and economic relationship. “My meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reaffirmed the complementary nature of the bilateral trade relationship, with our Free Trade Agreement at its ...
Asia Pacific Report Students and activist staff at Australia’s University of Sydney (USyd) have set up a Gaza solidarity encampment in support of Palestinians and similar student-led protests in the United States. The camp was pitched as mass graves, crippled hospitals, thousands of civilian deaths and the near-total destruction of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James B. Dorey, Lecturer in Biological Sciences, University of Wollongong Australian teddy bear bees are cute and fluffy, but get a look at that massive (unbarbed) stinger! James Dorey Photography Most of us have been stung by a bee and we ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jen Roberts, Senior Lecturer, School of Humanities and Social Inquiry, University of Wollongong Aussie~mobs/FlickrVictor Farr, a private in the 1st Infantry Battalion, was among the first to land at Anzac Cove just before dawn on April 25 1915. Victor Farr ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Gregory Moore I had the good fortune to care for the sugar gum at The University of Melbourne’s Burnley Gardens in Victoria where I worked for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra BagzhanSadvakassov/Upsplash, CC BY-SA Australia’s inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and it’s now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachel Ong ViforJ, ARC Future Fellow & Professor of Economics, Curtin University Just when we think the price of rentals could not get any worse, this week’s Rental Affordability Snapshot by Anglicare has revealed low-income Australians are facing a housing crisis like ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meighen McCrae, Associate Professor of Strategic & Defence Studies, Australian National University American and Australian stretcher bearers working together near the front line during the Battle of Hamel in 1918.Australian War Memorial While the AUKUS alliance is new, the Australian-American partnership ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tracey Holmes, Professorial Fellow in Sport, University of Canberra When the news broke last weekend that 23 Chinese swimmers had tested positive to a banned drug in early 2021 and were allowed to compete at the Tokyo Olympic Games six months later ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cally Jetta, Senior Lecturer and Academic Lead; College for First Nations, University of Southern Queensland Australian War MemorialAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains names and images of deceased people, as well as sensitive historical information ...
RNZ News Melissa Lee has been ousted from New Zealand’s coalition cabinet and stripped of the Media portfolio, and Penny Simmonds has lost the Disability Issues portfolio in a reshuffle. Climate Change and Revenue Minister Simon Watts will take Lee’s spot in cabinet. Simmonds was a minister outside of cabinet. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Lindenmayer, Professor, Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University laurello/Shutterstock Some reports and popular books, such as Bill Gammage’s Biggest Estate on Earth, have argued that extensive areas of Australia’s forests were kept open through frequent burning by ...
Analysis - Christopher Luxon framing the demotion of two ministers as the portfolios getting "too complex" is a charitable way of saying they weren't up to the job. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra With Jim Chalmers’s third budget on May 14, Australians will be looking for some more cost-of-living relief – beyond the tax cuts – although they have been warned extra measures will be modest. As ...
Analysis: Melissa Lee has lost the media portfolio and her spot in Cabinet after multiple failed attempts to find solutions for a media industry in crisis. On Wednesday, the Prime Minister announced Lee would be losing her spot in Cabinet along with her media and communications ministerial portfolio. The job ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simon Wilmot, Senior Lecturer, Film, Deakin University Among the many Australian who served during the second world war, there is a small group of people whose stories remain largely untold. These are the Muslim men and women who, while small in number, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kelly Saunders, PhD Candidate, University of Canberra There has been much analysis and praise of Justice Michael Lee’s recent judgement in Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation case against Channel Ten. Many people were openly relieved to read Lee’s “forensic” and “nuanced” application of law ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kathy Gibbs, Program Director for the Bachelor of Education, Griffith University zEdward_Indy/Shutterstock Around one in 20 people has attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). It’s one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders in childhood and often continues into adulthood. ADHD is diagnosed ...
The Fairer Future coalition of anti-poverty groups say Whaikaha must be properly funded going forward, and that to argue that poor financial management of the new Ministry is a red herring by the Prime Minister. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is today congratulating Hon. Paul Goldsmith on his appointment as Minister for Media and Communications and urges him to rule out state intervention in the private media sector. ...
Asia Pacific Report The West Papuan resistance OPM leader has condemned Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and US President Joe Biden, accusing their countries of “six decades of treachery” over Papuan independence. The open letter was released today by OPM chairman Jeffrey P Bomanak on the eve of ANZAC Day ...
Welcome to The Spinoff Books Confessional, in which we get to know the reading habits and quirks of New Zealanders at large. This week: writer and one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2024, Lauren Groff.The book I wish I’d writtenIf I wish I’d written a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Fechner, Research Fellow, Social Marketing, Griffith University mavo/Shutterstock Imagine having dinner at a restaurant. The menu offers plant-based meat alternatives made mostly from vegetables, mushrooms, legumes and wheat that mimic meat in taste, texture and smell. Despite being given that ...
“Three Strikes is a dead-end policy proposed by a dead-end government. The Three Strikes law ignores the causes of crime, instead just brutalising people already crushed by the cost of living.” ...
By Don Wiseman, RNZ Pacific senior journalist An Australian-born judge in Kiribati could well face deportation later this week after a tribunal ruling that he should be removed from his post. The tribunal’s report has just been tabled in the Kiribati Parliament and is due to be debated by MPs ...
With its clear mandate for police use, political nuances, and nuanced public trust, Denmark's insights provide valuable considerations for Australia and New Zealand. ...
Books editor Claire Mabey reviews poet Louise Wallace’s debut novel. A famous poet once said to me that he’s always suspicious when a poet publishes a novel. I never really understood why but maybe it’s something to do with cheating on your first form. Louise Wallace is a poet. She’s ...
For a few months at the turn of the millennium, TrueBliss burned bright as the biggest pop stars in the country. Alex Casey chats to two superfans who still hold the flame. During a humble backyard wedding in Nelson, 1999, one of the cordially invited guests had to excuse themselves ...
How will the recent wave of job cuts impact ethnic diversity in the media? In November last year, I was working a very busy day in the newsroom of a large online news site, interviewing whānau about their concerns over the imminent closure of one of the few puna reo ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ruth Knight, Researcher, Queensland University of Technology Have you ever felt sick at work? Perhaps you had food poisoning or the flu. Your belly hurt, or you felt tired, making it hard to concentrate and be productive. How likely would you be ...
Despite heavy criticism and an ongoing select committee process, the Police Minister says the Government will forge ahead with a ban on gang patches. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sam Whiting, Lecturer – Creative Industries, University of South Australia Shutterstock Everyone has a favourite band, or a favourite composer, or a favourite song. There is some music which speaks to you, deeply; and other music which might be the current ...
A new survey says ‘outlook not great’ for those charged with building infrastructure, while RMA changes delight farmers and depress environmentalists, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. First RMA changes announced ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Olli Hellmann, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Waikato Getty Images When New Zealanders commemorate Anzac Day on April 25, it’s not only to honour the soldiers who lost their lives in World War I and subsequent conflicts, but also ...
A leaked document shows the Canterbury/Waitaha arm of health agency Te Whatu Ora is scurrying to save $13.3 million by July. The “financial sustainability target”, which was “allocated” to Waitaha, is consistent with what’s happening in other districts, says Sarah Dalton, executive director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists. ...
A look at the state of the previous government’s affordable housing scheme, and what could come next.Remind me: What’s KiwiBuild again?First announced in 2012, KiwiBuild was a flagship policy of the Labour Party heading into both its 2014 and 2017 election campaigns. With Jacinda Ardern as prime minister, ...
Labour in opposition will be shocked to learn which party had six years in power but squandered any chance to make real change. Grant Robertson’s valedictory speech was a predictably entertaining trip down memory lane. The acid-tongued incoming Otago University chancellor administered a sick burn to the coalition government. He ...
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The following interview with former Green Party MP Sue Kedgley came about because she features in the new memoir Hine Toa by activist Ngāhuia te Awekōtuku; the two knew each other at the University of Auckland in the early 70s, when they were both took on leadership roles in the ...
Taiwan’s semiconductor industry is seen some as its ‘silicon shield’ against invasion – but how will overseas expansion affect that protection? The post The state of Taiwan’s silicon shield appeared first on Newsroom. ...
There’s relief for building owners bending under the weight of earthquake strengthening rules – and costs – that came into force seven years ago. Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk has announced a scheduled 2027 review of the earthquake-prone building regulations will now start this year. Owners will also get ...
Opinion: It has been announced that nine percent of roles at Oranga Tamariki will be disestablished, presumably to help fund the tax cuts promised by the coalition Government. I am reminded of the graphics used to illustrate pandemic events, where five thousand people are standing in a field and then ...
After more than two sleepless days, running through savage terrain, Greig Hamilton didn’t know if he was going to finish one of the most gruelling psychological assaults in sport. He was metres away from the finish line, a yellow gate made famous in a Netflix documentary; a race he’d dreamed ...
COMMENTARY:By Murray Horton New Zealand needs to get tough with Israel. It’s not as if we haven’t done so before. When NZ authorities busted a Mossad operation in Auckland 20 years ago, the government didn’t say: “Oh well, Israel has the right to defend itself.” No, it arrested, prosecuted, ...
NEWSMAKERS:By Vijay Narayan, news director of FijiVillage Blessed to be part of the University of Fiji (UniFiji) faculty to continue to teach and mentor those who want to join our noble profession, and to stand for truth and justice for the people of the country. I was privileged to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Three weeks from now, some of us will be presented with a mountain of budget papers, and just about all of us will get to hear about them on radio, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dan Lowry, Ice Sheet & Climate Modeller, GNS Science Hugh Chittock/Antarctica New Zealand, CC BY-SA As the climate warms and Antarctica’s glaciers and ice sheets melt, the resulting rise in sea level has the potential to displace hundreds of millions of ...
The government's plan to reintroduce a three strikes regime is being strongly opposed by lawyers, who argue there is no evidence it reduces crime or helps people rehabilitate. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dan Jerker B. Svantesson, Professor specialising in Internet law, Bond University Do Australian courts have the right to decide what foreign citizens, located overseas, view online on a foreign-owned platform? Anyone inclined to answer “yes” to this question should perhaps also ask ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Giovanni E Ferreira, NHMRC Emerging Leader Research Fellow, Institute of Musculoskeletal Health, University of Sydney Last week in a post on X, owner of the platform Elon Musk recommended people look into disc replacement if they’re experiencing severe neck or back pain. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Hayward, Emeritus Professor of Public Policy, RMIT University anek.soowannaphoom/Shutterstock NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey caught the headlines yesterday, courtesy of a blistering speech condemning the latest GST carve-up. New South Wales, he claimed, would be A$11.9 billion worse off over the ...
While police are "broadly in favour", the government's proposed anti-gang laws are facing pushback from lawyers, rights groups and former gang members. ...
While police are "broadly in favour", the government's proposed anti-gang laws are facing pushback from lawyers, rights groups and former gang members. ...
By Miriam Zarriga in Port Moresby Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has arrived at Kokoda Station, Northern province, at the start of his state visit to Papua New Guinea. Both Albanese and Prime Minister James Marape will meet with the locals and the Northern Provincial government before they begin their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Chris Wallace, Professor, School of Politics Economics & Society, Faculty of Business Government & Law, University of Canberra Shutterstock An important principle was invoked by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese last week in defence of the government’s Future Made in Australia industry ...
Gilmore has been under fire for his treatment of a waiter in Hanmer Springs last month, and his accounts since of what happened.
Key stepped up the pressure yesterday. “If he can’t reconcile what happened on that night in the way that he’s described it to me then the answer would have to be yes,” he said.
“In the end to make a contribution you have to have integrity, and to have integrity there has to be a directness and fullness in your answers.”
—
How does he say this shit with a straight face?
Integrity, directness and fullness in answers?
Obviously a big believer in do as I say, not as I do.
The one who should be under massive pressure to resign should be Key. Gilmore, as the last man on the list and without support, is dispensable. Key is quite prepared to throw him to the wolves to assuage public taste.
To quote Bomber Bradbury: “What a piece of work our prime minister is.”
How long was that list?
http://thestandard.org.nz/an-honest-man/
Maybe Key just wants to keep this issue going to divert the MSM from the GCSB Bill, MRP sale failure, etc.
I wondered also Karol, but it’s a no-win. Gilmore is making Key look impotent as a leader. I rather suspect instead the media are more interested in this grubby story than the big issues.
I hope Gilmore stays. He’s not done anything worth firing (name dropping is a punishing offence, if he’d acted on it that’s firing stuff).
This Aaron belongs Hair
Yeah, some quote about “looking NZers in the face”.
Some people are compulsive liars. Gilmore is just modelling himself on the master of it all.
The corporate media are quite capable of distracting the folk of NZ without Key’s help.
Why now, thanks to the Herald, we have a new talking point. ……George Pie. The NZ Herald look like they’re operating as McDonald’s PR and marketing tool now.
for a man who “does not drink whiskey”, Key sure is developing a blue-tinged nose.
This is from the archives. It shows that not much has changed over the last three years….
Radio NZ newsreader openly expresses disgust at Israeli propaganda
Tuesday 13 July 2010
I listened to Lloyd Scott read the 5 a.m. news on National Radio. Scott is a sensitive and intelligent man, and he was clearly affected by having to read the following: “An Israeli military investigation into its own killing of nine peace workers has found there were errors of planning, intelligence and coordination but the killings were justified. It also rejected calls for an independent inquiry, saying that it would have been biased.” As he read this last sentence out, his voice rose in dismay.
He read some more items and then the weather forecast. Then, several minutes later, Scott returned to the item about the “inquiry” into the murder of nine peace activists. He said: “That last bit really gets me, you know. Especially the last sentence: ‘An independent inquiry would have been biased.’ Does that mean the Israeli report into their own killing of peace activists was NOT biased?’
Scott’s open disagreement with the content of his script was unusual. Other newsreaders and journalists on New Zealand radio and television often indicate their dissent at having to read out what are often little more than propaganda broadcasts and PR releases for Israel, but they are usually forced to be a little more circumspect. Greg Boyed on TV1 is adept at raising an eyebrow to undermine the nonsense he is forced to read out, and Peter Williams, Alastair Wilkinson, Cameron Bennett, Mark Crysell, Warwick Burke as well as many other newsreaders have clearly struggled to hide their visceral disgust at Israeli brutality and criminality while being forced to read words that have been crafted by others to disguise or excuse it.
More dependably servile this morning was the BBC’s Adam Mynott, who read out the official Israeli statement without betraying even a quiver of emotion.
Interestingly, the BBC’s news coverage of this latest Israeli outrage—not only murdering unarmed civilians, but murdering sense itself by calling the murderers “brave” and their unarmed victims “aggressors”—was followed, a couple of items later, by the announcement that Sudan’s President Bashir has a warrant out for his arrest—for war crimes and crimes against humanity. It is not insignificant that these items were separated—somebody at the BBC obviously decided it would have been too embarrassing for Israel to have the two items juxtaposed, therefore highlighting the absurd gulf in treatment of the two outlaw regimes.
One wonders if the BBC would read out a self-serving justification of the Janjaweed militia’s depredations in the same dutifully “neutral” manner as it read out Giora Eiland’s preposterous “report”.
As much as many on here are enjoying the Aaron Gilmore situation, it seems to me that we are unable to remove list Mp’s who prove themselves to be complete arseholes who seem to be solely in it for the ego trip and the pay packet. (Whilst I accept you could argue there are many unsuitable list Mp’s and who they are is probably dependent on which side of the spectrum you are on)
I would propose that we make list MP’s subject to employment law so in the case that someone behaves like a complete pillock there is a process where they can be removed or formally warned about there behavior.
The power to initiate proceedings could perhaps sit with the speaker or clerk and any Mp who felt the process was unfair could seek remedy in the employment court.
Someone like Gilmore could be for example removed for bringing parliament into disrepute whilst someone Brendan Horan would perhaps be able to remain as an independent as there have been no charges or anything provable that I am aware of.
Whilst we don’t want a party leader to be able to give a list mp the arse just because they disagree on something we do need a mechanism to remove one that proves to be entirely unsuitable. Parties would still be free to kick an mp out of the party but it would be out of their control as to whether or not they are allowed to remain as an independant.
It’d help if political parties ensured they had good reason to believe the people they put on their lists are capable of being competent MPs.
hypothetical scenario time:
Perhaps a regulatory body could set up a little test for incoming MP’s, or those wanting to be. Undertaken by a suitably qualified Polygraph expert. 🙂
1: As an MP, Who do you work for?
2: In the House, will you vote for what is best for the Country or best for your Party?
3: Do you have the ability to work honestly on non-partisan issues?
perhaps others have some ideas for further questions ?
Are you a dick?
Are you sure?
Should we believe you?
Is your mother good friends with my mother ?
has anyone heard details about Aaron Gilmore getting on the Nat list because of his father’s close friendship with Mr Slippery PM ??
“It’d help if political parties ensured they had good reason to believe the people they put on their lists are capable of being competent MPs.”
Especially key, when the nats are so good at finding the right people to be spy bosses and race relations commissioners.
Hey 19. Still Mobile across the Atlantic
or riding a one-track Houston your Grace,
Crank it Up.Land Ho! for The handsome Changeling.
Basslines. simultaneous Doors with our names in Electrolites
Baling out before we meet The Reapers’ four whisker cuts
Sleeptalkin’, Sidewalkin’, J-Hawking
No More Heroes anymore, just a dear suck of the pong
Spinning The Circle Blackwards, Toogood
Page Who “only love can bring the rain”.
To The War In Spain. It Starts and Ends With You
per Suede;It’s so easy getting through these times
If you don’t have the answer you don’t have to lie”.
“Too many people going Underground”
“going 60 miles an hour”
So Fast So Numb
the scratch by twitching it! 😉
“Hey 19. Still Mobile across the Atlantic
or riding a one-track Houston your Grace,
Crank it Up.Land Ho! for The handsome Changeling.”
Command, I’m showing Green across the board. HLM, initiate launch sequence on my mark… Mark.
Storeee 😀
Lol, sadly not yet. I’ve just got a fertile imagination to match my faith in Human (r)evolution.
“I got soul, but I’m not a soldier”
One More Son
“All these things that I’ve done”
I’m getting tired, but I do it ’cause I have to.
Ta 😉
Just need to bring back the Waka Jumping law then any list MP who misbehaves can be kicked out of the party and loses their seat at the same time.
Someone who comes into parliament via the list is there because the party was voted for, not them. This means that if they stay on as an independent the party has lost part of the representation that it was voted which would be an injustice.
Then we need the power of recall so that electorate MPs can be kicked out by their constituents.
Agreed. I can’t see any good reason for a list MP to stay once they change party. In fact, this should probably apply to electorate MPs as well. I suspect most of them get in on a party vote. Recall would be a great idea, with maybe a 90 day option on beginner’s rates.
“Just need to bring back the Waka Jumping law then any list MP who misbehaves can be kicked out of the party and loses their seat at the same time.”
Except we need MPs with conscience to be able to vote against their party. Remember Marilyn Waring?
Stuff.co has posted Gilmore’s “inappropriate” emails from where he previously worked:
http://static.stuff.co.nz/files/AaronGilmoreEmails.pdf
Exactly, Hence making it subject to employment law, Basically you have to be a complete tit that would in any reasonable case get the arse card. Simply disagreeing would not be one of those reasons…
But wouldn’t voting against one’s party’s legislation be akin to publicly and directly working against the wishes of one’s employer? It’s not about simply disagreeing with them, it’s about taking actions that fundamentally undermine your employer’s main business.
If the person can’t represent the party’s wishes then they probably shouldn’t be there anyway and kicking someone out is up to the party, not the leader of the party.
Marilyn Waring didn’t leave NAct. I can’t see any problem with conscience votes. Confidence and supply could cause problems.
No, but under MMP with waka hopping legislation, and the suggestions being made here, she could have been forced out of parliament. The National Party would simply have kicked her out of the party.
And parties have whips to prevent the politicians from voting out of line.
Key blames MMP for not being able to sack Gilmore – if Gilmore was a FPP MP Would Key really truly sack the dickhead and force a bye election? Why doesn’t the media ask him that ?
Indeed.
Ok, news from the internal ranks are now that trying to dump Aaron has not quite worked and could have been better handled. If required, Key will take another angle, play it down and shrug it off. Aaron was getting talked to about shutting up and staying low. Key and Dipstick want next week to be about the budget.
It’s a bullshit distinction he’s making anyway. List MPs, just like any other MPs, are sent to parliament according to the will of the voters.
In Gilmore’s case, by every single fuckwit who party-voted National in 2011.
I wonder how many of those people are now basking in their promised ‘brighter future.’
If you vote for a slogan, what do you expect?
“If you vote for a slogan, what do you expect?”
Unfortunately, thanks to a dysfunctional media, and aided and abetted by politicians and political parties, that’s all that many are capable of these days.
Brand Election
It ain’t gonna change till people get their “brand” spirit back as well as a few basic “learnings” * such as the value of protest, questioning and critique, and the realisation that (as someone once said) – democracy is only as good as its opposition.
* or until they’re directly affected by any adverse effects, the result of those they elected (or DIDN’t elect)
Well yeah, but in Gilmore’s case there’s the added wrinkle that he didn’t get in based on the vote on election day. He’s a legitimate MP, but he’s there because National sent Lockwood to London.
National put him on the list, National knew he was next on the list when the sent Lockwood north.
I always find that argument to be a bit hollow. No votes, or doesn’t vote, for a party based on their list past about the first 20-30 people on it.
they do that largely because they are sold the idea that the Party has a leadership which many folk assume to mean the Party has made an intelligent and reasoned selection of the best available candidates for the positions on the list.
This is proving to be an increasingly misguided understanding of what actually happens
Even if true, which you can’t know (there are some fucking tragics out there I tell you what), it doesn’t matter.
The fact is that MPs are elected off the list. They are duly elected MPs, like any other.
Saying the party should have a retroactive veto over an MP’s status is just as fucked up for list MPs as it is for electorate MPs. Most voters, I’d be prepared to wager, vote for electorate MPs based on their party affiliation. If that wasn’t the case, then we wouldn’t have safe seats, we wouldn’t see nationwide swings against a party reflected in electorate results, and we’d see more, (or indeed even some) independent MPs.
So the same aergument that applies to List MPs applies to electorate ones. If you can throw out a list MP because it turns out you don’t like them for some reason, then why not an electorate MP. this bullshit about how ‘oh but they were elected as an M<P off their own merits" is belied by history and reason.
When was the last time an electorate MP who was kicked out of the party, or not reselected, voted back in as an independent?
+1 PB. Slippery slope to start shoving out MPs who were fairly elected because we ‘don’t like’ them. Gilmore’s not committed a crime (apparently). Neither did Horan. The media has tried them. I hope Gilmore stays.
Because the owners of the media does not like MMP because it is too democratic ; sometimes this means it does not guarantee a pliant government for their continuing plunder of the country.
Nope, because he can’t. He could, possibly, remove him from the party but that’s about it. Philip Field was removed from the party but Labour couldn’t remove him from parliament.
So what is the difference re John Key’s bitching about MMP here?
Key is just bitching about his inability to hold his MPs to account. It’s got nothing to do with MMP. Labour had a list MP resign from their position when they were accused of impropriety.
Sure, Key would find it easier if he could legally fire Gilmore but the fact is that the problem is Key’s lack of standing within National itself.
Yep. John Key sets the example of rorting the system, lying to get what you want, and generally playing everyone. Then he expects the narcissistic sociopaths he brings in as useful idiots to act with integrity and resign when things go pear-shaped.
This is no different from First Past the Post is it? Couldn’t sack an MP then so it is not MMPs fault Mr Key!
The PM says the sale of assets has been a “triumph”.
113 000 people. 3% of the population.
Maybe he should have amended this to “a triumph for me, my rich mates and the corporations who put me in power.”
FIFY Mr Key.
He’s got 1.3B of money off people for an asset they already own, you bet it’s a triumph for a big swinging dick Banksta like shonkey.
Triumph….2000 or 2500? Bit of a dog wouldn’t you say?
stick with Tridents and Speed Triples
It was a triumph – for the rich. It was a hell of a loss for the rest of us.
Idly flicking through some of Sir Alex Ferguson’s best quotes and this one stood out. Talking to his former player Paul Ince, who had just got his first big managerial job, Fergie offered this piece of wisdom:
“The only advice I can give you is don’t let players take the mickey out of you.”
Think Key, think Gilmore.
In football, they talk about losing the dressing room; that is, the gaffer’s authority goes from absolute to absolutely zero the moment they start taking the piss out of him. I suspect Key lost the dressing room yesterday when Gilmore turned up in Parliament and Key couldn’t do a damn thing about it.
What nonsense. Key is as hamstrung by MMP as Fergie has been by player contracts.
What has Fergie done in the past when a player has behaved like a nob to the point he doesn’t want them around anymore. He puts them in the corner and ignores them untill their contract expires or they get the hint and fuck off.
Nice to see your ignorance extends to football, KK. Famously Ferguson actually sells or loans out players who annoy him ASAP. Check Cantona, Keane, Beckham, C. Ronaldo and a host of lesser lights. All gone in a heartbeat.
Ferguson doesn’t let them stink up the joint making him look bad. Which is my point about Key. He is stuck with the Gilmore curls in his particular dressing room, and has no way of getting him out. Gilmore is going to be a daily reminder to the rest of the blue team that Key has no effective power to discipline them, because the majority in Parliament is so tight, he can’t take the risk.
So compare those actions with Clarke and Taito Field, a great lesson in leadership there , not.
Field was told to resign from Parliament and expelled from the Labour Party, but Gilmore’s offence is political, not criminal, so the comparison has limited usefulness.
“Field was told to resign from Parliament and expelled from the Labour Party”. but lets be honest, it took wee while didn’t it. Not exactly following TRP’s model of fast determined leadership.
Yes it did but there’s a difference between a consensual political environment and a dictatorial corporate environment.
What environment are you applying to labour? Fast acting determined leadership ie Man U as detailed by TRP. Or the Carter / Field scenario as detailed by history?
I thought that would have been apparent even to idiots like you.
So?
I thought Key said he was better than labour?
In Key’s National party, he sits above the fray saying there’s nothing he can do, while National party minions feed the press with threats of what will come out next if he doesn’t resign, making mention of the guy’s family.
Thug life eh?
Bone Thugs, then Harmony.
Yeah, due process and fair treatment can be a bitch like that.
It was a very long time indeed.
As a matter of fact he never did resign from Parliament and remained an MP until he was defeated in the 2008 election.
So much for a “determined” Helen Clark getting him to do anything.
He got kicked out of the party and that was all that could be done. The problem that you’re identifying is that the electorate couldn’t kick him out until the next election which they subsequently did hence the need for recall.
You are quite right that that was all that could be done.
However I would note that it took at least a year before even that was done and it appeared at the time to be an enraged reaction from HC to the fact that Field had upstaged an announcement she was going to make by saying he would stand against Labour in the next election.
On the other hand I note that at about midday today you seem to be saying that Key’s inability to do what she failed to do is “Excuses, excuses” See your own post at 6.1.2 just below this.
Key’s blaming MMP and that isn’t the problem at all. The immediate problem is that Key or the caucus has no control of an individual MP which is a matter of standing within that party. Labour had a similar issue and they got their list MP to resign so it can be done it’s just that Key/National can’t do it.
Excuses, excuses – exactly what I’ve come to expect from National and its sycophants.
TRP, how long will it take for the nation’s dressing room to lose confidence in the PM?
Fascinating to see Colin King, the National MP for Kaikoura, and another poor performer, laughing with Gilmore in the House yesterday. (I wonder, as an aside, whether Colin King sent a message of sympathy to his threatened and disrespected constituent in Hanmer? If I was that hotel worker seeing his MP laughing with his abuser, I’d be highly pissed off.) Gilmore was also laughing with another MP to the seat to his left.
It did not look like Gilmore had been sent to Coventry by his colleagues- either that, or a new spirit of generous forgiveness has overtaken the National back bench.
Contrast that with John Key in interview saying that Gilmore’s return to caucus or membership of the list or party could scarcely be tolerated.
Well spotted, mac1. I note too that Tau Henare, another disaffected Nat, has been acting as Gilmore’s minder in the house.
It can’t have escaped the attention of Key’s MP’s that chiding Gilmore for being shifty is a bit rich coming from a bloke whose every utterance is untrustworthy. And there will be a few of them who don’t even understand what Gilmore did wrong in the first place, given that he was just behaving as a born to rule Tory is supposed to when being given cheek by their lessers.
As for the country’s confidence, well, I’d say Key has now moved into Arsene Wenger territory; still respected but tarnished by his failure to actually win anything worth winning in recent years. Taxi for Mr Key?
Remembering Margaret Thatcher
1. She supported the retention of capital punishment
2. She destroyed the country’s manufacturing industry
3. She voted against the relaxation of divorce laws
4. She abolished free milk for schoolchildren (“Margaret Thatcher, Milk Snatcher”)
5. She supported more freedom for business (and look how that turned out)
6. She gained support from the National Front in the 1979 election by pandering to the fears of immigration
7. She gerrymandered local authorities by forcing through council house sales, at the same time preventing councils from spending the money they got for selling houses on building new houses (spending on social housing dropped by 67% in her premiership)
8. She was responsible for 3.6 million unemployed – the highest figure and the highest proportion of the workforce in history and three times the previous government. Massaging of the figures means that the figure was closer to 5 million
9. She ignored intelligence about Argentinian preparations for the invasion of the Falkland Islands and scrapped the only Royal Navy presence in the islands
10. The poll tax
11. She presided over the closure of 150 coal mines; we are now crippled by the cost of energy, having to import expensive coal from abroad
12. She compared her “fight” against the miners to the Falklands War
13. She privatised state monopolies and created the corporate greed culture that we’ve been railing against for the last 5 years
14. She introduced the gradual privatisation of the NHS
15. She introduced financial deregulation in a way that turned city institutions into avaricious money pits
16. She pioneered the unfailing adoration and unquestioning support of the USA
17. She allowed the US to place nuclear missiles on UK soil, under US control
18. Section 28
19. She opposed anti-apartheid sanctions against South Africa and described Nelson Mandela as “that grubby little terrorist”
20. She support the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia and sent the SAS to train their soldiers
21. She allowed the US to bomb Libya in 1986, against the wishes of more than 2/3 of the population
22. She opposed the reunification of Germany
23. She invented Quangos
24. She increased VAT from 8% to 17.5%
25. She had the lowest approval rating of any post-war Prime Minister
26. Her post-PM job? Consultant to Philip Morris tobacco at $250,000 a year, plus $50,000 per speech
27. The Al Yamamah contract
28. She opposed the indictment of Chile’s General Pinochet
29. Social unrest under her leadership was higher than at any time since the General Strike
30. She presided over interest rates increasing to 15%
31. BSE
32. She presided over 2 million manufacturing job losses in the 79-81 recession
33. She opposed the inclusion of Eire in the Northern Ireland peace process
34. She supported sanctions-busting arms deals with South Africa
35. Cecil Parkinson, Alan Clark, David Mellor, Jeffrey Archer, Jonathan Aitkin
36. Crime rates doubled under Thatcher
37. Black Wednesday – Britain withdraws from the ERM and the pound is devalued. Cost to Britain – £3.5 billion; profit for George Soros – £1 billion
38. Poverty doubled while she opposed a minimum wage
39. She privatised public services, claiming at the time it would increase public ownership. Most are now owned either by foreign governments (EDF) or major investment houses. The profits don’t now accrue to the taxpayer, but to foreign or institutional shareholders.
40. She cut 75% of funding to museums, galleries and other sources of education
41. In the Thatcher years the top 10% of earners received almost 50% of the tax remissions
42. 21.9% inflation
Enough?
Why don’t you just provide the link ?
Prediction: MRP shares are going to go high because of overseas demand.
http://news.msn.com/us/for-some-detroit-services-call-the-diy-dept
I don’t know when you added the spell and other similar auto-checks to the commenting function, LPrent, but thanks 😀
The Electoral Commission has published the 2012 donation returns from registered political parties. They appear to reveal a major breach of electoral law by the Labour Party.
Donations over $15,000 only have to be disclosed annually, but donations over $30,000 must be disclosed within 10 working days of receipt.
Labour’s return shows they received $430,259.33 from the estate of Brian Dalley (ironically a professional property investor who made his riches from capital gains) between April and July 2012. They were required to disclose this to the Electoral Commission within 10 working days, but the Commissions say they were only notified on 9 May 2013. Their disclosure is 12 months late.
You mean to say Labour may have broken electoral law? Well blow me down with a pledge card.
Yeah it’s more uselessness.
Weird though. What’s with you clowns when you pop in with the latest thing you are excited about and you can’t be arsed with linking?
Is it eagerness to be frst!, just can’t delay hitting submit for the time it takes to C&P a link?
UnPCNZCougar there couldn’t even be arsed typin the comment, just cut and pasted DPF’s post:
http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2013/05/labour_hides_430000_donation_for_over_a_year.html
tools.
Very sorry to have offended you Pascal. Duly noted. Will make sure I do that next time.
Yes, it is unusual to be eager here at The Standard. Perhaps you could do that for all eager posts without references in your polite manner and we will all learn to behave.
Don’t “behave”
But maybe put forward some original thinking, if you can be bothered to come up with something yourself.
Sure Colonial. As much as I don’t like John Banks and I do believe he knew about the donations, this oversight of some $400k makes life difficult for Labour to walk the moral high ground. And I seriously wonder wtf is wrong with the lot of them. I believe that all this nonsense that is thrown around in the mainstream media just turns voters off, hence I think as I have said before it encourages apathy as a virtue. Unless something drastic happens in the next 18 months I doubt that voter turnout is going to improve at the next election.
My husband decided a couple of years ago to become apolitical as he was over it. To the point that during local body elections he gives me the form to fill out and I had to make him go and vote last election.
Voters will rally behind politicians with great convictions. That we do not have at the moment from any party.
Not offended cougar. Just curious.
I’d never think to just plagiarise something.
“Yes, it is unusual to be eager here at The Standard. Perhaps you could do that for all eager posts without references in your polite manner and we will all learn to behave.”
Do you understand the difference (technically and ethically) between posting without references, and plagiarism?
Yes I do. It was an error and I apologise. Happens to the best sometimes too. Perhaps you too could help everyone behave by pointing these things out every time they happen. Have a great weekend.
Lol
Shades of gilmour’s shifting apology
What a joke, there are two options, either they are so incompetent and thick that it didnt occur that it may be considered a donation and should be declared within the ten days or they decided to try and hide it deliberately. Presumably they are just incompetent and thick which is only slightly better than being deliberate. With this and Shrearer forgetting his US account Labour have lost any integrity critiquing Banks, in both cases it could hardly be worse, it wasn’t a back bench MP that forgot to put something on the register it was the leader, and it wasn’t a small donation a little over the limit it was 400k+, I’m astonished they just can’t get the basics right and while they keep messing it up they give the NATZ free rein to wreck havoc, pathetic.
Local Boy Tim Flannery on Climate Change.
He has that relaxed conversational style aussies are good at but describes some sobering facts about the great changes happening on our Planet:
http://therealnews.com/t2/component/hwdvideoshare/viewvideo/76153
Unacceptable
Quoted in full as it was short enough.
Going to have to agree with I/S on that. It is unacceptable and Labour better cough up one way or the other.
What has happened to our party?
This is disgraceful and absolutley indefensible.
How the hell does this happen.
It just makes us look like fools when challenging the government for their continuing incompetence and corruption.
Heads must roll over this.
Well, yes, but only of people want to believe that any entity inside the current political sham, could possibly be a part of any turn around, for NZ!
Relax guys, we’ll just say “We haven’t read that report,” and everything will be fine.
Perhaps it is time for a central processor for party donation deposits. Run the whole thing through Kiwi Bank which has full integration with all necessary banking services. People cruise in, pick up their Party Donation card, fill in the details as per anonymity/disclosure rules and whambam a much more open and accountable system. Party event bucket collections and donations of smaller figures can be processed as they currently are, as block donations, and are deposited usually within a few days of collection anyway. All larger donations are transferred or deposited via the register as they arrive. On line Banking of course makes it even simpler. Even the great PayWave [the RFID scammers wunderkind] can be easily adopted to the process.
Each registered Party supplies the central body with one bank account number and all funds get deposited into that specific account. The account deposit details are cross fed to a public register that is automatically updated. This simple operation already exists in all banking/payment transaction services, so the systems are in place to do it. The question is does the will exist?
Why will people poo poo this common sense resolution to transparency in our democracy?
Simply because there is no good reason for it not to be implemented.
Good idea but doubt it will happen. Such a system surely would require some outside auditing. Imagine the Nat consternation knowing some of their shadiest donation deals might become known and get into the public arena. They would crawl over broken glass with bare feet and hands to stop any law requiring such a system.
My best answer to what happened is similar to the revelation a couple of years ago that Labour did not have a secure email system and the ‘slimy one’ ended up with members’ personal details. In other words, the left hand still doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.
To be fair it’s another example why political parties need to be funded from the public purse. It’s well known Labour’s Head Office is under-funded and under-staffed.
with an open donation deposit scheme such as outlined above the auditing is as straightforward as it gets. One account per party, regardless of where the money comes from, is an auditor’s dream. It matters not if the deposits are physical or electronic, there is no way to avoid the required protocols, regardless of amount, the depositor or the Party.
I/S has just added an update to this post on NRT
Update: According to NewstalkZB’s Felix Marwick, the Electoral Commission has accepted Labour’s excuse of “confusion as to whether a bequest counts as a donation” and there will be no referral to police. So the law means nothing again. What is the point of electoral law if it is never enforced?
What the hell else could it be?
To make it look like our democracy is upstanding?
Labour plays the same game as NAct and Farrar is just jealous because he thinks his Tories are entitled to that money. I don’t expect Labour to be paragons of virtue, but I would like them to get an inspiring leader so they can contribute to the next coalition government.
But yeah, this is an unforgivable level of incompetence.
You know, this was definitely a time when the left wanted the media to stop hammering Key’s lying bullshit. Providing another gobsmacking example of the Labour Party’s inability to manage money will totally win back those centrist voters.
Greens appear to bear the Integrity
The $40k fine was intended to be labour’s way of foreshadowing a bequest tax? 🙂
There are serious attempts by the NAct Govt to promote Northland as a “mecca” for gold and silver mining, plus oil drilling in the seas off the coastline. We believe both will have a disastrous effect on the environment in the north, and could well be very damaging to the farming and tourism industries already in existence. The following article – published the other day in the local daily paper – gives you some idea of what we are up against. And with our current govt changing first The Crown Minerals Act, and next the Resource Management Act, to make it much, much easier for mining companies to come in and do their work without regard for the environment, or for the adverse social consequences that will flow on from there, we have quite a battle on our hands.
This message is just to let you know what is going on (ie all the people who read and post on The Standard). I will keep you informed of developments.
Jenny Kirk
Puhipuhi Mining Action Group
” Spectre of pollution ”
Nickie Muir
8th May 2013 Northern Advocate
“Last month far away in a village not unlike Whangarei, something extraordinary happened. The Argentine town of Esquel celebrated 10 years of community solidarity, sustainability and true democracy.
“Thousands of people came out onto the streets to remember an unlikely victory for a town of only 30,000 people, against toxic mining that had threatened their town water supply. To understand what is so remarkable about this is to know that Argentina was in economic meltdown and unemployment was three times as high as what Northland’s is today.
“In 2003 the massive open pit mine in Catamarca – the Alumbrera, in the north, was still being hailed as the gold bullet which would save the economy (it took until this February for a massive uprising of illiterate small holding farmers there to rebel against contamination in the air and waterways).
“Esquel is also at the other end of the country from where decisions get made.
“But Esquel proved problematic for the mining PR men mainly because unlike their countrymen to the north, the residents are the educated middle class escaping the capital to establish environmentally sustainable businesses around the natural resources there. Instead of taking the environmental impact report from the mining company at face value the residents hired scientists from the University of Patagonia and found that the original EIR was deeply flawed.
“They formed an apolitical neighbourhood association to better inform the community of the true costs of the mine as well as looking at a hard business case for it.
“Consultation with the company broke down over a lack of integrity in the discussions. Namely, the mine sued residents over a leaked tape of PR and mining execs discussing “hiring community leaders to sway opinion and persuade hard liners” to accept the mine and it’s proximity to the waterways despite the environmental risks. This upset more than a few and more than 8000 people turned out to protest. The mayor – sensing a tide change – called for a referendum to decide whether or not the mine would go ahead and 81 per cent of the people of Esquel voted against the mine and eventually passed a local bill banning all toxic mining in the province.
“Esquel’s solidarity inspired other small communities throughout Latin America but it also became a case study for mining companies to ensure that it didn’t happen again. There was too much lead time for the community to get informed – they were educated and organised. Esquel and its fishing, skiing and national parks are today a thriving centre of sustainable business based on the vision of the genuine community leaders from 10 years ago.
“De Grey has exploration rights now in two areas – the sparsely populated, arid and impoverished province of Santa Cruz in Argentina, and rights to 6000ha 30km north of Whangarei, in Puhipuhi.
“There has been no clear public information on whether this area is in the catchment for the town water supply. The Ngati Hau report on behalf of Fonterra states that the Waiariki Stream in Puhipuhi is already high in mercury “to a level that indicates that adverse effects of mercury on the biota living within the sediments could potentially occur frequently”. Ironic that De Grey’s info pack on Puhipuhi has dairy cows on the cover.
“There is no mention in Stephen Joyce’s Economic Activity Report on how toxic mining could affect the production of Northland’s real white gold – milk powder. Or that it regularly floods there.
” Instead, local politicians and PR men tell those who ask to “trust us – we know what we’re doing”. They told the residents of Catamarca and Esquel the same.”
an illustration for perspective of how serious this situation is
https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash/65683_503063696417793_1597992975_n.jpg
locals report closed roads and hundreds if not thousands of trees have already been felled
here is a FB group that I understand to be run by a local
https://www.facebook.com/mininginnorthland
Thanks Freedom – that map is a different one from others we have – so its really useful to have.
Jenny
Christine Rankin. Families Commissioner and newly appointed CEO of The Conservative Party.
Conflict of interest much?
is that a late April fool’s joke?
Nope.
prayerfully, another nail in their earlobes.(salmon on toast repeated as I read this).
Well done “Steve” + collegue from Work and Income Willis St, who was seen yesterday on the streets of Wellington asking those begging for money for food if Work and Income could help – your excellence is showing!
My God, listen to this: the proposed GCSB law change and Winston Peters on “Citizen A” – Selwyn Manning and Chris Trotter.
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/
Um, this one?
Thanks Anne but now I will have nightmares! That GCSB law change is very serious but we little people are easily riled by the Gilmores or the price of pies or milk but the enormity of what faces our NZ society is too hard to manage. Perhaps Mr Gilmore is running a deliberate deflection?
42 seconds of trotter being pretty damn on to it here
http://www.infinitelooper.com/?v=FRsi34awlYM&p=n#/785;823
After listening to Manning and Trotter, I think we can more than safely say… now we know why John Key was so determined to have Ian Flectcher take on the role of the GCSB boss.
thx anne, agree re Fletcher .. we are in trouble with this and it makes the TPPA even more dangerous imho
exactly, but they are all nice people in multinational corporations, they would never try to use information for influence or steal cultural or private institutions from people. I am sure Aotearoa has nothing to worry about in the TPPA, nothing at all
http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/8658222/Backlash-to-Disney-trademark-attempt
Bernanke’s Neofeudal Rentier Economy
Now what does that remind me of…
Oh, that’s right, selling state assets.
Given that MRP is trading at $2.73, nearly 10% than higher the Government chosen float price, is Key going to call himself out for costing the taxpayer $170 million by undervaluing the stock? Is he going to call English and Ryall ‘wreckers’ for getting this so badly wrong?
I can’t wait for the posts on WO and the Sewer screaming ‘SABOTAGE!’. Can’t be long now ….
Because the Greens (not even bothering to count Labour) had nothing to do with the share price at all…
These are actual numbers, as opposed to speculation.
That’s not what you were saying the other day, Winston.
Winstone,
as much as political parties would like it, we do not have lifetime terms in our Parliament.
We do have [apparently] changes of government on quite a regular basis. The NZ Power announcement is the most basic mechanism that any new Government could have come up with. Such an obvious hypothesis and no doubt several others were, I am sure, all dutifully considered and priced accordingly. Any risk assessor that failed to factor such a possibility is not earning the thousands of dollars a day/hour/word they were most likely charging.
Was there a problem with the hereditary right to rule?
depends on who you star; be backward and enter forwards.
there was an issue with the ceremonial codpieces not being easily transferable to the daughter,
so they just gave power over to the people
and there were free turnips for all
but they kept the butter
Butter butlers better
They might as well speculate that the revelations of the mis-management of Solid Energy, including its being “encouraged” to borrow in order to pay larger dividends, put people off investing in a company that has this government as the major shareholder.
Julie Anne spoke eloquently to the Insurance (Prudential Supervision) Amendment Act in Parliament yesterday, placing the increasing environmental risks in context.Like, the 1B government shortfall on claims for red-zoned Christchurch properties and the toxic MDF fire that continues to burn…
p.s, to correct Seven Sharp, Jesus suggested if you are gonna be a toad-in-the-hole, do it discretely.
-Matthew 6:5, And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray publicly on street corners, etc, where everyone can see them. I tell you the truth, that is all the reward they will ever get.
Synthetic clones (analogues) produced and released overnight.
The Bible – has the best quotes.
Drat. apache barfed again.
Look at the logs again tonight.
the force is with you
and you
Better the Apache barf than anything associated with the MS puke though huh?
If you arrange things nicely enough, an Apache barf can actually look quite pretty, whereas anything related to sn MS puke takes a lot of cleaning up, alongside the potential risk of litigation as to who owns the resultant psychedelic outpuke.
Barf away all Ye who have created your awesome facility, knowing as Ye do that any opposition (including garage-built, back-yard-developed memory management routines and most other functionality) has LESS to do with undeserving Bill&Melindas (with an eye for the processes of patents and the benefits of credibility-earning philanthropy), than it has do do with those that are the genuine creators of the new mankind.
Barf away as much as you like – the space is free and unincimbered with legalese and underserved rights as to ownership.
Aaron Gilmore ON CUE
Now would be a most excellent time for a journalist to ask John Key the elephant in the room question . .
How did Aaron Gilmore become a List member of the National party?
a: A Bingo game ?
b: you thought you were ringing Ian Fletcher ?
c: he is the son of your good mate in CHCH?
do we know anything about ‘c’ ? have read it elsewhere but nothing to support it … lovely if true and able to be proved !!
I have only read it here also, but surely [although probably not put forward in quite the same terms] it is a valid question to put to the Party Leader of any Party?
Claire Trevett is a marvelous ‘knucklehead’ for this .. just updated ..
Happy Gilmore in his true light … I think I shall call it Aaron Borealis
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10882819
*clap*
He has this thing about threatening peoples employment opportunities. Where the fuck does that come from?
The Wimp-Walloping continues on The Panel
Wimp: DITA DI BONI; Walloper: STEPHEN FRANKS
Radio NZ National, Friday 10 May 2013
Jim Mora’s Panel chat show has definitely returned to the mediocrity it had seemed to climb out of for a few weeks.
Today’s guests are Stephen Franks, the unspeakably cynical, hard-right Wellington lawyer and “legal adviser” to the S.S. Trust, and Dita Di Boni, a shallow columnist best known for being married to Ali Ikram. Today, as a preface to her Soapbox contribution, she giggled winsomely: “As you know, Jim, I am an avid reader of women’s magazines.”
Today, Franks is running amok, and Dita Di Boni, although she is clearly disturbed by his ranting, lacks the confidence to argue against him.
And of course, Mora laughs and offers his slobbering agreement to everything Franks says.
It’s just too, too depressing. This is what happens when you stop people like Gordon Campbell and Bomber Bradbury coming on your programme.
Mediocrity, timidity and sycophancy. What an insult to the listeners. What a wasted opportunity. What a great pity.
They never mention Frank’s political leanings – just that he’s a lawyer.
ACT got 1% of the vote.
What % of Mora’s guests are libertarian ideologues like Franks?
Hello GCSB …….enjoying reading these conversations?
“They never mention Frank’s political leanings – just that he’s a lawyer.”
If they did, they’d say his political leanings were ‘centre-right’, just as the Herald states John Banks is centre right.
It’s ACT, for goodness sake, the Herald even states that he’s the ACT leader in the article – how can that possibly be ‘centre-right’?
Morrissey: The problem with too many of you on the “left” here is your damned pre-occupation with the crap media on the right, the private side, or even with now rather government friendly RNZ!
You are with these comments and other lack of contributions only serving the damned interests of the very perpetrators you try to expose, ridicule, challenge and beat, without realising it.
The only way to defeat and take a strong stand against the commercial or non commercial RIGHT is to BLOODY WELL MAKE YOUR OWN PROGRAM!
Stop whining and whinging and use the Standard or other forums, to present, to not just discuss, to offer multimedia, like a leftist YouTube, Fakebook and more combined. So there is a damned idea. Make a program that informs, that reveals, that communicates, that presents documentaries and information of value, to counter act this commercial trash we get on the media you are unhappy with. Perhaps have a chat with Lyn Prentice and others about how to establish such alternative media, since You Tube seems to go for pay TV at request now in the US.
More can be done here too, so do not leave it to the shit media we have cater for us now. Just a desperate idea, perhaps. Sorry to upset, but I need to submit some suggestions and ideas here, I feel!
This writer, i.e. moi, received a right old ticking off from our good friend xtasy late last night. I will attempt to address his concerns as best I can…
1.) Morrissey: The problem with too many of you on the “left” here is your damned pre-occupation with the crap media on the right, the private side, or even with now rather government friendly RNZ!
That’s because I, and many others, actually think it’s important to hold their vile behaviour up for inspection. Not just ridicule, mind you, but a serious inspection of what they are up to. So, for instance, when I parse a lunatic NBR editorial by Nevil “Breivik” Gibson or a wasted hour of assiduously trivial chat on The Panel or the insulting and shameless reading out of government PR handouts masquerading as news, I do it in a spirit of seriousness, not simply to make fun of the likes of Breivik Gibson.
2.) You are with these comments and other lack of contributions only serving the damned interests of the very perpetrators you try to expose, ridicule, challenge and beat, without realising it.
Judging by the emails and public admonitions I have received from the likes of Leighton “Ummm Ahhhh” Smith, Larry “Lackwit” Williams, Kerre “Red China” Woodham, Stephen Franks and even Jim Mora himself (he once asked me if I had “any more bile for today?”), these people don’t regard me as enhancing their positions in any way.
3.) The only way to defeat and take a strong stand against the commercial or non commercial RIGHT is to BLOODY WELL MAKE YOUR OWN PROGRAM!
No thanks. I have better things to do with my time. My contributions to this and a couple of other fora take only a small amount of time. I have a job, and I have thousands of books to read. I don’t want to throw my life away just yet.
4.) Stop whining and whinging…
Excuse me? I don’t appreciate such reductive and trivialising attacks—I won’t dignify those lazy epithets by calling them criticism. That’s the kind of thoughtless, indolent stuff I hear coming from the Prime Minister.
…. and use the Standard or other forums [sic] to present, to not just discuss, to offer multimedia, like a leftist YouTube, Fakebook and more combined. So there is a damned idea. Make a program that informs, that reveals, that communicates, that presents documentaries and information of value, to counter act this commercial trash we get on the media you are unhappy with. Perhaps have a chat with Lyn Prentice and others about how to establish such alternative media, since You Tube seems to go for pay TV at request now in the US.
Okay, I’ll try. Lyn, gimme half a million bucks NOW PLEASE! I intend to make a nuclear device with it.
5.) More can be done here too, so do not leave it to the shit media we have cater for us now. Just a desperate idea, perhaps. Sorry to upset, but I need to submit some suggestions and ideas here, I feel!
I share your frustration, my friend, but I think you should take another look at my oeuvre; it doesn’t begin and end with railing against radio and television. My play scripts are, even if I do say so myself, legendary….
http://groups.google.com/group/nz.general/browse_thread/thread/12b9f5fd0ac5230f/68c61ee7dd2cb368?lnk=gst&q=bernadine+morrissey+breen#68c61ee7dd2cb368
http://www.sporttaco.com/rec.sport.rugby.union/Incident_at_Perth_Bayswater_Friday_4_June_3754.html
hidden talents, the pair of you 😀
OK, points taken are acknowledged. Thanks M!
“Sleep Talkin’
“Side Walkin’
“J-hawking”
Talk about a weighty Paradox; Neilson finds consumer confidence fall, yet card spending climbs.If in doubt, max it out!
wouldn’t it be nice to get the old fashioned reporting where credit and cash were reported seperately.
One is spending your money, one is building debt. ‘Total electonic card spending’ is pointless meaningless and dishonest reporting of expenditure.
Even spending “your own money” is nothing more than spending someone else’s debt, whether its the Government’s borrowed money, money someone got for a house funded from a mortgage, etc.
Hence our debt based monetary system. The banks have set it up so that almost no one can escape.
Voters think Tories can make tough decisions, but UK Labour “lacks courage”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/may/09/labour-election-victory-2015-distant-prospect
NZ Power is just a start to turning the image around…
Here’s hoping. Robertson showed himself to be an utter coward yet again – a disappointment, but not a surprise – by issuing another press release reassuring Phil O’Reilly that he’ll still obediently plaster lipstick on the neoliberal pig.
Still, if the Greens keep the pressure on, and if it dawns on the careerists that Winston Peters is not their guaranteed Deus Ex Machina and that maybe they actually – OMG – have to earn their votes instead of having them delivered by the proles as fealty, maybe, just maybe, in their dramatic, epic, legendary effort to snatch defeat from the grinning, slavering, dripping, sharp-toothed, bitey, oh my what big teeth you have jaws of victory, the party pretending to be “Labour” might actually, almost by accident, do something right and maybe even win.
I hope they keep it up. Maybe they’ll realise that this is the direction they have to follow, not trying to snatch NACT voters by being utterly indistinguishable.
Comments like this make me more afraid and convinced, that the reactionary social forces out there are rather pro “national socialist” lines of thinking than anything that used to be “traditional” “left”!
I am sorry, but I feel so many of you guys have and are losing it, you live in little political closets, and you do not have a real sense of the tensions, hatred and competition that goes on out there. I feel you are all losers, living in some past scenario that is long gone. It is now division and blood fight about rights and privileges and so forth. Traditional socialism is DEAD! Hitler’s Socialism may be the future, and I hate it.
That’s my fear too. Rather than bickering over whether the glass is half full or half empty, I’m just hoping that there’s any water left at all. “Labour’s” careerists like Shearer, Robertson et al give me little hope.
After the fracking starts, I suggest avoiding the water.
3D printed firearms back in the media…
While downloading the blueprints may not be illegal, any UK citizen who made and owned such a handgun could face arrest, according to the UK’s Metropolitan Police.
“To actually manufacture any type of firearm in the UK, you have to be a registered firearms dealer (RFD),” it said in a statement.
“Therefore, unless you are an RFD, it would most definitely be an offence to make a gun using the blueprints. It may be legal for an RFD to manufacture a gun this way, as long as they had the necessary authorities.”
One of the biggest headaches for law enforcers is the fact the gun is made from plastic – with only the firing pin made from metal.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22464360
“Blueprints for 3D-Printed Liberator Gun Have Been Downloaded 100,000 Times in Just Two Days”
http://inhabitat.com/blueprints-for-3d-printed-liberator-gun-have-been-downloaded-100000-times-in-just-two-days/
Now I write some of this in CAPITALS on purpose, as I want to point out to you guys that Whaleoil seems to have an easy and special access to You Tube, he has heaps of clips loaded on that media venue, and I see none or little of other ones, when it come sot politics, current affairs and so forth, from any other blog or NZ media.
THIS IS DISTURBING! I again write this to raise awareness of the moderators here and affiliated blogs. We have an overly right wing focus on blogs and media in NZ! this is facilitated by commercial interests and government interests making available finance and more to allow this to happen. We are stuffed if we do not take a resolute position and prepare to take a stand to defend against this.
I am only commenting as an observer and part time blogger, but this is so damned serious, I hope and trust all affected will listen, read this and act upon it. Otherwise you may as well close down the “left” and let them do what they want. I am sure nobody here wants that, and I appeal especially to the so many half hearted and passive, wake bloody up and take a stand again, or you will soon face REAL DICTATORSHIP, this is NO joke!
The special access is called time. Because Cameron Slater seems to have been pretty useless at everything he has ever done outside of blogging (and even the effectiveness of that is arguable), he has time on his hands.
Whereas most of the main authors here are holding down fulltime and quite demanding jobs from the ones I know of. So this site gets done in whatever spare time we have.
Farrar is a bit different. He runs a polling company that seems to mainly have conservative political parties as it’s clients. While that gives him more control over his time than someone like I’d have, it clearly does not leave enough to spend time watching lots of YouTube. He virtually never features them. However he is also far more politically effective.
Slater appears to mainly put videos and images up to drive international visits and page views to his site from search engines. While that is probably effective at driving up his advertising revenue, its influence on the NZ political scene is minimal. Reading his site recently has become an exercise in wasting time for anyone interested in local politics.
VIVA el CHILE Socialista –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eo9coAursQ&NR=1&feature=endscreen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=MhwHgsUmZWw&NR=1
and more via those links, wake up NZ!
No voce and no more comment:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=Fpd5zJLF5_s&feature=endscreen