it’s a pile of rightwing-shite/puffery – except for reason number six – which is a valid one..
(loved this tweet on that front page tho’..)
‘the scots voted to boot out the english – the english voted to work 80 hrs a week in the call-centre while pics of royal baby projected onto their eyeballs’
‘It’s a result that was made possible by a sheeplike, frightened and rancorous population that appears increasingly disposed to believe all the lies that it is told by its vile newspapers. It is an irrational, stupid and fearful vote by an electorate that doesn’t even recognize its own self-interest, let alone the interests of others, that has abandoned any commitment to even the most elementary principles of social justice; that didn’t couldn’t even see that Miliband’s tepid, focus-group-manufactured One Nation ‘fairness’ was still preferable to the dismal social cruelty that the government has already inflicted and which is certain to intensify in the next five years.
In doing so the English have demonstrated extraordinary political cowardice. Lacking the gumption to challenge the powerful, they have preferred to elect a government that victimizes the powerless. This is a population that prefers to doff the cap than bite the hand that it thinks feeds; that expresses its digusts with politicians by voting in the worst of them; that drapes itself in the Union Jack and doffs its collective hat to its masters in the hope that it can be like them; that would rather blame the Scots who want to fight austerity than fight it themselves.’
See my comment at the top. This has combined a number of the left wing nonsensical excuses for their failure to convince the electorate to vote for them.
And yet the SNP put forward more left wing policies to end austerity, tax the rich and protect the welfare state and got 56 out of 59 seats.
The turn out in Scotland was higher.
Offering Tory lite is not the solution. As a Tory yourself Gosman, you want Labour in NZ to come to the conclusion that they should simply mimic National Party policies.
The election results in Scotland and England prove you wrong.
Bland imitation of Tory policies by Labour in England resulted in electoral disaster.
Bold anti -austerity policies by the SNP resulted in a landslide.
I think the SNP’s ‘scottish wash’ of Scotland had far more to do with the first word in their party’s title and the rise of Scottish Nationalism than anything else.
“I think the SNP’s ‘scottish wash’ of Scotland had far more to do with the first word in their party’s title and the rise of Scottish Nationalism than anything else.”
If only there were some way of measuring the actual level of support for Scottish nationalism…
@Felix – turnout was particularly high in the Scottish seats I do not find it surprising that the SNP did so well to piggyback on the strong Scottish nationalism that is running through the country.
I find it strange that so many seem to believe that Labour in the UK only had to come out with more left policies to get over the line when my preferred party in the UK was well to the left of Labour and only secured a single seat.
I believe the first step to change in the UK is to reform the voting platform to make it more representative, however, the last time it was put to the public over there it was voted down convincingly.
when my preferred party in the UK was well to the left of Labour and only secured a single seat.
6.4M votes – a quarter of all votes cast in the election – were taken by the Lib Dems, Greens and UKIP put together. And between them they got just 10 MPs out of 650.
The DUP got a measly 0.18M votes and received 8 MPs.
That’s utterly fucked.
So to my mind Left and Right politics has relatively little to do with it; the unproportional UK electoral system is totally undemocratic.
Of course, UK Labour won’t support the move to a proportional electoral system because they’d lose a couple dozen more seats than they already have.
@CV When you’re a member of the political elite it matters not whether you’re to the right or left, more that you protect the rights and privileges of the political elite and maintain your nose in the trough.
As an example just take a look at our higher salaries commission and annual speakers tour junkets.
Offering Tory lite is not the solution. As a Tory yourself Gosman, you want Labour in NZ to come to the conclusion that they should simply mimic National Party policies.
QFT
The Left would get better results if it showed courage and commitment in it’s own policies rather than just trying to be slightly less to the right than the Political-Right. It is this latter that has had our society becoming ever more unequal and now collapsing under the weight of corruption in both government and private circles.
See my comment at the top. This has combined a number of the left wing nonsensical excuses for their failure to convince the electorate to vote for them.
Oh, I think you’ll find that they’ll be attacking the middle class outright as well so as to induce even more fear in the electorate and lower wages further. The end result being even more working poor and further enrichment of the already rich.
Labour has proposed withholding state support such as tax credits and Working For Families from people who are not enrolled to vote.
Mr Barnett said the submission was from the party, which did not set policy, and wanted the committee to investigate the idea – not necessarily recommend it.
Maybe these submissions from “the party” need to be “investigated” in private. There always seems to be at least one terrible idea for the herald to run with. This just makes Labour look like politicking hypocrites.
I checked out a few bits of what looked like hard info on that site that proved to be moderately accurate when I back checked them.
The people associated with the site are accurate. Phillip Raymond Nottingham was in court when Cameron Slater won his journalism appeal, and lost his ability to protect his sources. From the position of on of them, he was the arsehole who illegally took some photos of me in court that went up on Lauda Finem. I noticed him when he was commenting about how well Cameron Slater was doing, when in fact Slater was making a fool of himself with half baked irrelevant arguments. Apparently the other Nottingham brother was there as well but I didn’t notice him.
I did see Phillip Nottingham talking animatedly with a group of the other supporters of Cameron Slater to the great man himself. Which kind of points to the lie that the Lauda Finem authors don’t know him.
For instance some of the more coherent posts appear to be moderately accurate once you look at the verifiable facts. For instance…
Some of this stuff I’ve checked out over the years, and it appears to be quite accurate at a company level. The companies office runs a great site, and most bankruptcy information is available if you know where to look for it.
However the author of the LaudaFinemScam site appears to be someone with some severe anger issues directed at these two brothers running Lauda Finem. I also suspect that they spend considerable time looking at these two.
They can’t even get Keith Ng’s first name right (or spell Matthew Dentith or Alastair Thompson correctly) so that should be a big hint as to the quality of their information.
Very interesting read today from Laudafinem, very little to do with politics but a lot to do with an old “friend” of The Standard.
Has The Standard just been used to facilitate a conspiracy? Was the whole Rachinger thing just a beat-up to conceal a fraud?
Fascinating read about the underbelly of Auckland “business”.
Why are you taking LF seriously, Arandar?
[lprent: We had an identity hijacker astroturfing this morning – probably from Lauda Finem ]
Scoop has published the transcript of the interview between Lisa Owen and Simon Bridges re Auckland transport.
Lisa is a great interviewer isn’t she? Simon fluffs a great deal when you read his words rather than just listen. It does seem that the Government is blocking progress for Auckland perhaps to wait for a mayor like Banks or some other Right wing nut.
another column from Eric Watson in the NZH ,about Mothers Day this time.Is he trying to reinvent himself as some kind of kind,caring human being and if so…why!
‘The Fuller Picture – 2015 UK Elections: Voters abandoning parties or parties abandoning voters?’
(Currently a Research Associate at the INSYTE Group, Dr. Roslyn Fuller has previously lectured at Trinity College and the National University of Ireland. )
“Labour leader Ed Miliband is currently reaping what his predecessor Tony Blair sowed when he sold everyone down the river with the idea of ‘New Labour’ in 1997. New Labour, which Margaret Thatcher would one day wittily name as her greatest achievement turned out to include jumping into a neocon planned war in Iraq, pushing through privatization of public infrastructure, introducing tuition fees for university students, reorganizing the NHS to run like a private company, and giving the Bank of England full operational independence vis-a-vis the nation’s finances.”
New Labour was just an extension of Thatcher’s Conservatism. And here in NZ after Douglas we have just carried on in the same Douglasisms but with different labels. No wonder some voters are apathetic.
+100 agreed….and I think that the Blair ( friend of the Pope and Israel and Bush ) intervention in the Middle East … the “neocon planned war in Iraq” was particularly devastating for the British Labour Party
( Britain is largely secular and its people want peace..it was not their war…but a war imposed upon them)
…it was a BETRAYAL of democracy by a leader of the Labour Party into a war the British people did not want or believe in!…how could they EVER trust a Labour Party leader again after that !? ( better NOT to vote than vote Labour)
…and the British dont easily forget the consequent bombings of British civilians in retaliation in London…the buses and train…Blair brought carnage back on his own British people!….the sooner Blair is tried for crimes against humanity the sooner the wounds will heal …and the British Labour Party can move on…but only if they have a leader who truly represents them…and whom they can trust not to betray them again
the rightwing in UK Labour are going to use this defeat to push Labour Blairite again. The unions are discredited now as Red Ed was their choice and their failure.
Hass was in Australia so I think some folks here were quite onto it and got her across the ditch.
However, it would be great to have a speaking tour with more time to prepare. She deserves a big audience and with more time could probably get one.
At the same time, we need Palestinian activists doing speaking tours – otherwise it looks like they’re helpless victims who need others to speak for them and the only legitimate critics of Zionism are Jewish critics.
Some good news for a change – Auckland Council has voted not to reduce libarary hours and Eastern Bay Energy Trust looks set to become 100% shareholders in Horizon Energy buying out the 23% of share not in its ownership.
No problem. They have obviously picked up your email from somewhere else and used it.
I’ve just been going back through the comments and tagging the ones that are clearly not yours. Since they have been consistently either astroturfing to Lauda Finem posts or running the Whaleoil/Lauda Finem lines, it wasn’t that hard to do.
I have also been putting the emails and IP numbers of the person I think is probably responsible (based on IP and what they are writing) for my personal attention.
Paula Bennett is a machine. She is a programmed puppet. Listening to her fast breathless delivery of her latest hypocritical fudging of cruel, inadequate policies that continue the downward slide in conditions for NZ citizens who don’t have good money to provide their every need makes me ill.
And so does weaselly Nick Smith. They are just two examples of the willing foot soldiers of the economic movement that is taking us back to the poorhouse days, and those of the consignment of any who annoyed the wealthy to some harsh destiny.
Apropos of nothing, can I make a shout out to RDU, Chch’s student station? They’ve just moved into their new studios after years of slumming it in temporary accommodation, post earthquake. It’s taken a lot of work and a lot of hours from volunteers.
RDU is one of the things that makes it great to live in Christchurch and the Sunday arvo trifecta of Vintage Cuts (retro show), Throwing Shapes (americana -sort of) and Dubwise (uptown top ranking reggae and dub) is stonking radio.
There’s a live link on the main page and they’re also on Tune In and Mixcloud. Apparently you get bonus points for being the magic 100th liker of the Throwing Shapes fb page! https://www.facebook.com/throwingshapesradio?fref=ts
Hi Mickey, yes, I’ve deleted the old one and created another. Feckin nuisance. So many sites associated with the old one. But now, it seems, someone can continue to use it. I thought I’d stopped that by deleting it from my end but clearly not. As I said, I barely know which way’s up technically. Feels like I’d theft to me. But again, it’s only being used here as far as I know/hope. Arsehole. As LP said.
You should go back to gravatar on that email key and change the picture to something like this
Do you want me to change the email on all of your comments to your new email? Then when you put in a gravatar on that email all of your comments will update.
I guess changing to the new email would help as long as this bastard doesn’t get hold of it too. And I think Greywarshark’s suggestion that I take a new name/avatar would help too. If I knew how to change the pic/gravatar I would do but I don’t have a clue… will see help from a grandchild or someone else who does!
Arandar There is another way – you could use another name as your signature. It is allowed. I started using one, which then was used by an occasional commenter. I decided it was confusing and changed, which made a number of changes over years.
Your name is your identity, and can’t be changed all the time for that reason. People come to know your thinking and know whether to respect you or be irritated by you, sometimes getting a surprise! So it might be better to change your name/pseudonym if someone else is using it, nuisance as it is.
I forecast that if the social conditions continue to be degraded as at present, the cruise ships that now house thousands of tourists with discretionary cash (up to 6000) will be the jails of the future. The British housed their miscreants in hulks before they were sent to Australia and also to the USA as convicts.
It is estimated that some 50,000 British convicts were sent to colonial America, representing perhaps one-quarter of all British emigrants during the 18th century. The State of Georgia for example was first founded by James Edward Oglethorpe by using penal prisoners taken largely from debtors’ prison, creating a “Debtor’s Colony”…
The British also would often ship Irish and Scots to the Americas whenever rebellions took place in Ireland or Scotland, and they would be treated similar to the convicts, except that this also included women and children.
When that avenue closed in the 1780s after the American Revolution,
Britain began using parts of what is now known as Australia as penal settlements. ..
(Between 1788 and 1868, approximately 162,000 convicts were transported to the various Australian penal colonies by the British government http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convicts_in_Australia)
Bermuda, off the North American continent, was also used during the Victorian period. Convicts housed in hulks were used to build the Royal Naval Dockyard there, and during the Second Boer War (1899-1902), Boer prisoners-of-war were sent to the archipelago and imprisoned on one of the smaller islands.
In colonial India, the British made various penal colonies. Two of the most infamous ones are on the Andaman Islands and Hijli. In the early days of settlement, Singapore was the recipient of Indian convicts, who were tasked with clearing the jungles for settlement and early public works.
The list of countries that have had penal colonies is large. Some were for prisons to isolate criminals from society. Some were places to send dissidents, activists or enemy citizens during a war. Some were sources of free labour for building infrastructure. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penal_colony
And this will be accepted as it was then before someone with a Name made a sacrifice of time, pleasure and money to work for change. It took a huge effort which I don’t know that can be replicated – I don’t know if now there is a sufficiently large moral group that believe in the nobility and worth of other human beings that would mobilise to do the same. Now it’s go with flow, complacency, self-involvement as presented by that great all-encompassing religion, Neo-Liberal Economics. We need to stop now the greedy, careless, inhuman philosophy that goes against everything we have lived by and the lives our parents worked (and died) to achieve, which they thought was established as a basis of life for ever.
Dunno if anyone’s noticed, but there’s no similarity whatsoever between elections here and in the UK. None. Zip. Scottish Independance issues are not in any way the same as Maori Sovereignty initiatives. What’s the eagerness to suggest connections between two dissimilar populations, histories, and cultures? Might as well say that oranges are just like the Labour Party, and tins of beans are like National, and then argue about how it could be that people buy more beans than oranges. The sheer enormity of facts and influences you’d have to ignore to suggest England’s people are the same as New Zealanders, is staggering.
Observation #2
Anyone alive today saying that “the left should move right, or, the left should be the right” is effectly lamenting their inability to crawl back up their father’s urethra. No one alive who considers themselves in any way materially successful hasn’t benefited from socialist government programs of constructive change. None. Zip. To say they haven’t is pure ignorance, to say they’ve suffered, is pure ignorance bordering on delusion. You can’t profit from selling a state owned asset unless the state once owned it. You can’t spring-board off state subsidies unless the state first subsidises your industry.
Observation #3
The availablity of cheap imported goods was outside the reach of the hoi polloi during the Muldoon era, and I was having a hard time tying down what has become better since we can now access cheap consumer technology. So far, I personally have gained from being able to buy a dishwasher. The idea of hand-washing dishes again, although there may be an undefined ecological or spiritual element over the period of a lifetime that I can’t yet appreciate, isn’t something I’d like to return to. Outside of that, pretty much everything is either the same, or worse, mostly worse – or at least the opportunites to follow alternate paths has been lost. When will we give up the idea of “getting ahead”, measured by material gain?
the reason for the surprising ongoing support for conservative parties here and overseas is due to the state of fear and uncertainty people feel like they are in
A third of the way through the RAID rebuild. It was a bit hairy for speed over the last hour as the RAID system rebuilt the disk array under the running database. Slowed down entering comments and most admin functions quite a lot.
Obama is publicly fighting with Elizabeth Warren over the TPP.
“The president’s rebuttal of Ms. Warren, the Massachusetts Democrat who came to national prominence in part through her work with the Obama administration, underscored the schism within the Democratic Party over the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a 12-nation trade deal.
Ms. Warren, a former Harvard law professor, has become an outspoken leader of those Democrats who argue that the agreement would cost American jobs.
Mr. Obama’s comments came after he delivered a speech at the Nike headquarters in which he lashed out at liberal critics of the agreement, arguing that they were fighting an old fight even though he was negotiating what he called the most progressive trade deal in history.
He seemed most irritated at Ms. Warren’s suggestion that the trade pact could be used as a vehicle to undercut the financial overhaul that Mr. Obama signed in 2010 in response to the Wall Street excesses that led to the recession.”
““The truth of the matter is that Elizabeth is, you know, a politician like everybody else,” he said. “And you know, she’s got a voice that she wants to get out there. And I understand that. And on most issues, she and I deeply agree. On this one, though, her arguments don’t stand the test of fact and scrutiny.”
This is remarkable stuff for Obama. All presidents are forged, in a sense, by the moments at which they come to public life. Obama entered politics during Bill Clinton’s presidency, when urban liberals were growing disgusted with the president’s strategy of “triangulation,” popularly interpreted as the idea that you can win broad support by picking fights with the ideologues in your own party. Obama has always been reflexively averse to anything that might be construed as him pushing back against his friends to score political points with everyone else.
Throughout his presidency, Obama has mostly avoided public feuds with what his first press secretary, Robert Gibbs, liked to call the “professional left” — even when it’s meant sidestepping important disagreements on policy. Democratic politicians and interest groups, in turn, have been cautious in their criticism, offering only muted resistance when Obama stepped up the war in Afghanistan, or when he nearly negotiated a deal that would have restructured entitlements.
But like a marriage in which the spouses pretend to be happier than they really are, Obama’s polite alliance with the populist left appears to be suddenly crumbling under the weight of free trade. The more Warren and Senate colleagues like Bernie Sanders and Sherrod Brown attack the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership, joined by big unions and environmental groups, the more liberated Obama seems to feel in portraying them as reckless and backward-looking, much as Clinton might have done. He evidences none of the self-doubt or conflicted loyalty that seemed plain when they criticized him for being too cautious on Wall Street reform or health care.”
Sad to see 8 die on our roads in a single day at the end of “Road safety week”.
“Road safety week” is about as effective as the 101km/hour fine stunt the cops pulled in summer when the road toll climbed significantly because drivers were distracted by their speedometers.
Solution: Upgrade the roads instead of running ineffective marketing and revenue gathering campaigns.
“To me I wasn’t really emotional on it, but I thought it was a good buy. When I saw that couple, especially the girl burst out crying, I felt really really terrible.”
This story will have no impact whatsoever on the right, on the John Key voters, aside from the reality TV feel-good factor in the same vein that Stuff had framed the article.
To me however it screams out loud the dominance of the speculator in the market at the expense of real people and it screams that said speculator ordinarily could not give a shit about real people until one of them sees the distress first hand.
This story, the story that ordinary folk who want to buy are being outbid by speculators and Chinese with cheap money has been told for several years now.
John Key and Blinglish will call it the price of progress.
John Key and Blinglish will call it the price of progress.
They’ll call it anything except what it is – a housing bubble. And they’ll have to do that because to do anything else is to admit that the economy is in recession and that the housing bubble is probably the only thing keeping us out of a deflationary spiral.
@ weepus beard
I heard on Radionz last week, a man who is a recent resident in NZ, who had wanted to be in the running for a $400,000 residential land purchase. People queued up at the site sleeping in their cars and eventually were handed numbers to show their priority, but this man had missed out as his wife had to take their car and drop the children to school. Not being in a car he was left out of the priority list apparently. He was terribly upset. It is so hard in our competitive society to get a living and secure a home.
Another man said that he and another from his family had waited all night to ensure they were in the running. It seems the way in the NZ and the neo-lib western world that those who have the time and means can advantage themselves further while those who are struggling get locked out.
Auckland housing bubble. I don’t get that its a bubble…..
I know fuck all about economics- but I did read a couple of things over the years about house prices which stuck with me-
Thing one- Irish bubble was created by irish people frenziedly selling Ireland to themselves- and using the ‘profits’ to leverage huge loans to outbuild the imaginary demand- like a self designed Ponzi scheme.
Thing two- a quote I heard- ” The bubble must burst? Ask anyone with property in Manhattan NY if the bubble must burst? It’s been going for a hundred years!”
So can I respectfully offer the following statement-
The Auckland housing crisis is not a bubble- because the demand is driven by NEW/fresh money coming in from Asia- I mean if everyone in China wanted a house in Auckland they’d be selling for a Billion each. As long as the Chinese are willing to pay more- then the bubble will grow- but it will never burst, until we build more houses than the Chinese need.
The logical end for how things are going is that Auckland ends up a ChinaTown full of Billionaires, and we end up with a country full of multi-millionaires who sold their Auckland houses to the Chinese- but its still not a bubble…
Aucklanders being ‘priced out’ of the market is nothing new- it happened in Ponsonby, Epsom, Tamaki, ( fuck- even Ranui, Swanson, Riverhead!! )anywhere in fact where the house prices are high. And it was Aucklanders who did it to them.
All I know is that there have been other housing bubbles in NZ which have cost people an arm and a leg. They may have ended up living in a camping ground while they paid off a mortgage for a property they know longer owned because it had been sold at the new lower valuation by the bank when the bubble burst.
We must realise that we are living on borrowed money. Our economy is like a ponzi scheme. We keep getting foreign investment, and it is not just Chinese, but it is they who at present seem to have most of the new money. And not only is foreign investment in houses, its businesses also. This puts money into our economy but is virtually a loan, and the profits are repatriated back to the investors preferred tax haven. So we have to make exports increase to ensure that we can balance the outflow of profits from NZ, and to pay for all the imports of dross and heavy machinery and cars that we borrow money from Australian banks to spend our money on. The government is borrowing all the time to make up the shortfall in our exports to meet the payments required of us overseas.
If there is a spanner in the works for even a short period the house of cards is likely to topple, a depression start and credit would be withdrawn and the whole thing collapses. Pop! That is the bubble bursting. Houses used to be regarded as desirable investments for ordinary people and cost about four times the average annual salary or something like that. If the average salary is $70,000 as I read today, then that would be $280,000.
Houses can’t be considered as playthings for the rich. They can spend their bloody excess money on Picassos at $64 million or such, but it is wrong for people to have lose ability to have a home by outbidding by high-flyers from overseas or in NZ. The rentier financiers are screwing up our basic financial system to line their own pockets, making up their own laws and systems as they go.
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TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
Te Rangi e tu nei (The sky above us) Te Papa e takoto nei (The land beneath us) Tatou katoa te hunga ora (To us all the living) Tena koutou katoa (Greetings) ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
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http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2015/05/10-delusions-about-labour-defeat-watch-out
Much of that can be applied to what people here state about why the left in NZ is not doing so well.
it’s a pile of rightwing-shite/puffery – except for reason number six – which is a valid one..
(loved this tweet on that front page tho’..)
‘the scots voted to boot out the english – the english voted to work 80 hrs a week in the call-centre while pics of royal baby projected onto their eyeballs’
heh..!
so thanks 4 that chuckle there – chuckles..
on the replay of the nation – you can get to see m. hooten having one of his super-dickhead moments..
..it’s about/around houses vs. apartments..
..and his snarl at the gen-zero spokesperson – is his ‘moment’..
You referring to this episode?
A better synopsis of the British Election.
‘It’s a result that was made possible by a sheeplike, frightened and rancorous population that appears increasingly disposed to believe all the lies that it is told by its vile newspapers. It is an irrational, stupid and fearful vote by an electorate that doesn’t even recognize its own self-interest, let alone the interests of others, that has abandoned any commitment to even the most elementary principles of social justice; that didn’t couldn’t even see that Miliband’s tepid, focus-group-manufactured One Nation ‘fairness’ was still preferable to the dismal social cruelty that the government has already inflicted and which is certain to intensify in the next five years.
In doing so the English have demonstrated extraordinary political cowardice. Lacking the gumption to challenge the powerful, they have preferred to elect a government that victimizes the powerless. This is a population that prefers to doff the cap than bite the hand that it thinks feeds; that expresses its digusts with politicians by voting in the worst of them; that drapes itself in the Union Jack and doffs its collective hat to its masters in the hope that it can be like them; that would rather blame the Scots who want to fight austerity than fight it themselves.’
http://infernalmachine.co.uk/election-the-horror/
See my comment at the top. This has combined a number of the left wing nonsensical excuses for their failure to convince the electorate to vote for them.
And yet the SNP put forward more left wing policies to end austerity, tax the rich and protect the welfare state and got 56 out of 59 seats.
The turn out in Scotland was higher.
Offering Tory lite is not the solution. As a Tory yourself Gosman, you want Labour in NZ to come to the conclusion that they should simply mimic National Party policies.
The election results in Scotland and England prove you wrong.
Bland imitation of Tory policies by Labour in England resulted in electoral disaster.
Bold anti -austerity policies by the SNP resulted in a landslide.
I think the SNP’s ‘scottish wash’ of Scotland had far more to do with the first word in their party’s title and the rise of Scottish Nationalism than anything else.
it wasn’t only that tinfoil..
..i found the echoes between scotland and northland to be potent..
..both regions had been neglected by successive tory and labour govts..
..and both are regions where poverty/inequality bites hard..
..that explains why the strong anti-austerity policies from snp went down so well..
..labour here cd do worse than take those policies as homework to be done..
“I think the SNP’s ‘scottish wash’ of Scotland had far more to do with the first word in their party’s title and the rise of Scottish Nationalism than anything else.”
If only there were some way of measuring the actual level of support for Scottish nationalism…
oh wait
@Felix – turnout was particularly high in the Scottish seats I do not find it surprising that the SNP did so well to piggyback on the strong Scottish nationalism that is running through the country.
I find it strange that so many seem to believe that Labour in the UK only had to come out with more left policies to get over the line when my preferred party in the UK was well to the left of Labour and only secured a single seat.
I believe the first step to change in the UK is to reform the voting platform to make it more representative, however, the last time it was put to the public over there it was voted down convincingly.
6.4M votes – a quarter of all votes cast in the election – were taken by the Lib Dems, Greens and UKIP put together. And between them they got just 10 MPs out of 650.
The DUP got a measly 0.18M votes and received 8 MPs.
That’s utterly fucked.
So to my mind Left and Right politics has relatively little to do with it; the unproportional UK electoral system is totally undemocratic.
Of course, UK Labour won’t support the move to a proportional electoral system because they’d lose a couple dozen more seats than they already have.
@CV When you’re a member of the political elite it matters not whether you’re to the right or left, more that you protect the rights and privileges of the political elite and maintain your nose in the trough.
As an example just take a look at our higher salaries commission and annual speakers tour junkets.
QFT
The Left would get better results if it showed courage and commitment in it’s own policies rather than just trying to be slightly less to the right than the Political-Right. It is this latter that has had our society becoming ever more unequal and now collapsing under the weight of corruption in both government and private circles.
See my comment at the top. This has combined a number of the left wing nonsensical excuses for their failure to convince the electorate to vote for them.
Badgering… 👿
No. Accidentally posted twice.
Fair enough…
and this one is funny…
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/may/08/political-zombies-pick-over-election-bones-on-lawn-of-the-dead
and this one details what the tory-shites will do now..
open warfare on the poor..
..both the unemployed and the working-poor..
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/may/08/tories-conservatives-12bn-welfare-cuts
Oh, I think you’ll find that they’ll be attacking the middle class outright as well so as to induce even more fear in the electorate and lower wages further. The end result being even more working poor and further enrichment of the already rich.
System failure, Gossie.
London Protests: Violence Feared As Anti-Tory Demonstrations Meet Police
http://www.ibtimes.com/london-protests-violence-feared-anti-tory-demonstrations-meet-police-1915527
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11445759
Maybe these submissions from “the party” need to be “investigated” in private. There always seems to be at least one terrible idea for the herald to run with. This just makes Labour look like politicking hypocrites.
Labour lost because people have realised left wing silliness for what it is.
you’ve clearly been doing some deep thinking/analysis there..eh..?
..heh..!
(..rightwing and dumb as a sack of hammers..that one..)
welcome..!..we need as much humour-factor as we can get..
(..and a good name if thinking of becoming a blues/country-singer..
..’jimmy johnson plays/sings the blues’..
..as political-analysis/commentary clearly hasn’t worked out that well for you – can you hold a tune..?..)
“left wing silliness for what it is.”
And what is that then sunshine?
all praise the herb..!
jamaica has legalised pot..
http://www.alternet.org/drugs/jamaica-set-roll-out-green-carpet-pot-tourists
and while i am at it – there were some cool pot-stories while i was away..
http://whoar.co.nz/?s=marijuana
paula bennet giving a skin-crawling interview on q & a..
Good to see one of the panel reminded everyone that she pulled the ladder up on other people in her situation.
[lprent: someone hijacking a email address. Adding to permanent bans. By the look of it some kind of arsehole from Lauda Finem ]
Ahh yes – Lauda Finem…
https://laudafinemscam.wordpress.com/
Holy shit, hadn’t seen that before. Is the content style and dog’s breakfast design meant to mimic LF, or is that just how it is?
No idea really, but it seems to me a similar quality of “reporting” to LF.
I checked out a few bits of what looked like hard info on that site that proved to be moderately accurate when I back checked them.
The people associated with the site are accurate. Phillip Raymond Nottingham was in court when Cameron Slater won his journalism appeal, and lost his ability to protect his sources. From the position of on of them, he was the arsehole who illegally took some photos of me in court that went up on Lauda Finem. I noticed him when he was commenting about how well Cameron Slater was doing, when in fact Slater was making a fool of himself with half baked irrelevant arguments. Apparently the other Nottingham brother was there as well but I didn’t notice him.
I did see Phillip Nottingham talking animatedly with a group of the other supporters of Cameron Slater to the great man himself. Which kind of points to the lie that the Lauda Finem authors don’t know him.
For instance some of the more coherent posts appear to be moderately accurate once you look at the verifiable facts. For instance…
https://laudafinemscam.wordpress.com/2013/12/01/dermot-nottingham-habitual-criminal-recidivist-troll-blogger-known-scammer/
https://laudafinemscam.wordpress.com/2014/08/23/dermot-nottingham-conman-on-international-scam-site/
Some of this stuff I’ve checked out over the years, and it appears to be quite accurate at a company level. The companies office runs a great site, and most bankruptcy information is available if you know where to look for it.
However the author of the LaudaFinemScam site appears to be someone with some severe anger issues directed at these two brothers running Lauda Finem. I also suspect that they spend considerable time looking at these two.
They can’t even get Keith Ng’s first name right (or spell Matthew Dentith or Alastair Thompson correctly) so that should be a big hint as to the quality of their information.
Very interesting read today from Laudafinem, very little to do with politics but a lot to do with an old “friend” of The Standard.
Has The Standard just been used to facilitate a conspiracy? Was the whole Rachinger thing just a beat-up to conceal a fraud?
Fascinating read about the underbelly of Auckland “business”.
Why are you taking LF seriously, Arandar?
[lprent: We had an identity hijacker astroturfing this morning – probably from Lauda Finem ]
Just a more subtle style of tr$&ling is the m.o. of arander IMO.
Ever notice Arandar how LF attacks the same people Slater attacks?
[lprent: We had an identity hijacker astroturfing this morning – probably from Lauda Finem ]
Scoop has published the transcript of the interview between Lisa Owen and Simon Bridges re Auckland transport.
Lisa is a great interviewer isn’t she? Simon fluffs a great deal when you read his words rather than just listen. It does seem that the Government is blocking progress for Auckland perhaps to wait for a mayor like Banks or some other Right wing nut.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1505/S00101/the-nation-transport-minister-simon-bridges.htm
it was one of her best..
corin dann also does well in his interview of bennett..(mainly by asking ‘just what is the problem you are trying to solve?’..)..
..and showing how that policy also is ideologically-driven..
and robertson..in the main..is just spouting aspirational-shite..
..and yes..the bone has been well and truly pointed at the capital gains tax policy..
..robertson pours a bucket of blame on it for losing two elections..
..(how reassuring/comforting it must be for robertson/labour to have such a handy scapegoat for their collective-failures..eh..?..
..no mention of how toxic the raising super age policy was..what a vote-killer that was..)
..and he’s just killed the sth island vote..
..threatening to send coloured-folks/’furriners’/immigrants their way..
..they like being/staying ‘white’ down there..
‘johnny foreigner’ causes sth islanders to just narrow their eyes..
another column from Eric Watson in the NZH ,about Mothers Day this time.Is he trying to reinvent himself as some kind of kind,caring human being and if so…why!
Tony Blair’s Toxic Legacy ?
‘The Fuller Picture – 2015 UK Elections: Voters abandoning parties or parties abandoning voters?’
(Currently a Research Associate at the INSYTE Group, Dr. Roslyn Fuller has previously lectured at Trinity College and the National University of Ireland. )
“Labour leader Ed Miliband is currently reaping what his predecessor Tony Blair sowed when he sold everyone down the river with the idea of ‘New Labour’ in 1997. New Labour, which Margaret Thatcher would one day wittily name as her greatest achievement turned out to include jumping into a neocon planned war in Iraq, pushing through privatization of public infrastructure, introducing tuition fees for university students, reorganizing the NHS to run like a private company, and giving the Bank of England full operational independence vis-a-vis the nation’s finances.”
http://rt.com/op-edge/256481-uk-elections-voters-parties/
( Lessons for the New Zealand Labour Party?)
New Labour was just an extension of Thatcher’s Conservatism. And here in NZ after Douglas we have just carried on in the same Douglasisms but with different labels. No wonder some voters are apathetic.
+100 agreed….and I think that the Blair ( friend of the Pope and Israel and Bush ) intervention in the Middle East … the “neocon planned war in Iraq” was particularly devastating for the British Labour Party
( Britain is largely secular and its people want peace..it was not their war…but a war imposed upon them)
…it was a BETRAYAL of democracy by a leader of the Labour Party into a war the British people did not want or believe in!…how could they EVER trust a Labour Party leader again after that !? ( better NOT to vote than vote Labour)
…and the British dont easily forget the consequent bombings of British civilians in retaliation in London…the buses and train…Blair brought carnage back on his own British people!….the sooner Blair is tried for crimes against humanity the sooner the wounds will heal …and the British Labour Party can move on…but only if they have a leader who truly represents them…and whom they can trust not to betray them again
the rightwing in UK Labour are going to use this defeat to push Labour Blairite again. The unions are discredited now as Red Ed was their choice and their failure.
Oh for sure. That is why I am picking Chuka Ummana for the leadership. One of the prominite Blairites.
The irony is that there was still a lot a Blairite influence of the party’s policies. Somee of them even went further than Blair went.
Seems like the light blue pseudo-tory party in the UK is about to become slightly deeper blue.
You have to admire how effective the right wing are at this game.
+111
It’s just amazing that the executives in the Left parties don’t see it or perhaps they do and are helping it along.
Interesting take-down of O Winfrey….as a neolib shill…and perhaps pertinent to the way elections go here and in, topically :-), the UK
http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2015/may/09/oprah-winfrey-neoliberal-capitalist-thinkers
Israeli journalist Amira Hass has been doing a small speaking tour of NZ, speaking about dissidence in times of Bantustanisation. A fascinating talk. There’s a report on her Auckland meeting here:
https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/05/08/amira-hass-israeli-jewish-dissidence-in-times-of-bantustanisation/
+100…Yes and this is a good article too
‘The Israeli architecture of destruction – and the ‘hidden violence’ against Palestine’
By Dr David Robie
– See more at: http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2015/05/09/the-israeli-architecture-of-destruction-and-the-hidden-violence-against-palestine/#sthash.k9BMljSw.dpuf
Hass was in Australia so I think some folks here were quite onto it and got her across the ditch.
However, it would be great to have a speaking tour with more time to prepare. She deserves a big audience and with more time could probably get one.
At the same time, we need Palestinian activists doing speaking tours – otherwise it looks like they’re helpless victims who need others to speak for them and the only legitimate critics of Zionism are Jewish critics.
Phil
+100 the Palestinian side is one full of bravery in a mighty struggle up against the might of Israeli and it’s backers.
They give the bird to all and sundry who challenge it’s right to continue expansion into occupied territory.
Some good news for a change – Auckland Council has voted not to reduce libarary hours and Eastern Bay Energy Trust looks set to become 100% shareholders in Horizon Energy buying out the 23% of share not in its ownership.
Baltimore socialists on the anger in Baltimore:
https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/05/06/the-anger-in-baltimore/
FGS! The comment above is not me! I’m not happy that it’s possible for someone to use my name and photo to say what I’d not say – ever.
[I see you have had some difficulty in the past. Do you have another email address you can use? – MS]
Thank you Lynn. Appreciate your prompt attention.
No problem. They have obviously picked up your email from somewhere else and used it.
I’ve just been going back through the comments and tagging the ones that are clearly not yours. Since they have been consistently either astroturfing to Lauda Finem posts or running the Whaleoil/Lauda Finem lines, it wasn’t that hard to do.
I have also been putting the emails and IP numbers of the person I think is probably responsible (based on IP and what they are writing) for my personal attention.
Paula Bennett is a machine. She is a programmed puppet. Listening to her fast breathless delivery of her latest hypocritical fudging of cruel, inadequate policies that continue the downward slide in conditions for NZ citizens who don’t have good money to provide their every need makes me ill.
And so does weaselly Nick Smith. They are just two examples of the willing foot soldiers of the economic movement that is taking us back to the poorhouse days, and those of the consignment of any who annoyed the wealthy to some harsh destiny.
Apropos of nothing, can I make a shout out to RDU, Chch’s student station? They’ve just moved into their new studios after years of slumming it in temporary accommodation, post earthquake. It’s taken a lot of work and a lot of hours from volunteers.
RDU is one of the things that makes it great to live in Christchurch and the Sunday arvo trifecta of Vintage Cuts (retro show), Throwing Shapes (americana -sort of) and Dubwise (uptown top ranking reggae and dub) is stonking radio.
http://www.rdu.org.nz/
There’s a live link on the main page and they’re also on Tune In and Mixcloud. Apparently you get bonus points for being the magic 100th liker of the Throwing Shapes fb page! https://www.facebook.com/throwingshapesradio?fref=ts
Too bad UCSA privatised it…
Hi Mickey, yes, I’ve deleted the old one and created another. Feckin nuisance. So many sites associated with the old one. But now, it seems, someone can continue to use it. I thought I’d stopped that by deleting it from my end but clearly not. As I said, I barely know which way’s up technically. Feels like I’d theft to me. But again, it’s only being used here as far as I know/hope. Arsehole. As LP said.
You should go back to gravatar on that email key and change the picture to something like this
![](http://i60.tinypic.com/ru9n9l.jpg)
Do you want me to change the email on all of your comments to your new email? Then when you put in a gravatar on that email all of your comments will update.
I guess changing to the new email would help as long as this bastard doesn’t get hold of it too. And I think Greywarshark’s suggestion that I take a new name/avatar would help too. If I knew how to change the pic/gravatar I would do but I don’t have a clue… will see help from a grandchild or someone else who does!
@ Arndar
As the famous Marx Bros said –
A child of five could understand this. Send someone to fetch a child of five.”
― Groucho Marx
Have a look at http://thestandard.org.nz/faq/gravatar/#GravatarSignup
Just pick something arbitrary for your “email address” here.
Arandar There is another way – you could use another name as your signature. It is allowed. I started using one, which then was used by an occasional commenter. I decided it was confusing and changed, which made a number of changes over years.
Your name is your identity, and can’t be changed all the time for that reason. People come to know your thinking and know whether to respect you or be irritated by you, sometimes getting a surprise! So it might be better to change your name/pseudonym if someone else is using it, nuisance as it is.
That works. We don’t require a valid email. Just a shared secret known between you and the site.
I forecast that if the social conditions continue to be degraded as at present, the cruise ships that now house thousands of tourists with discretionary cash (up to 6000) will be the jails of the future. The British housed their miscreants in hulks before they were sent to Australia and also to the USA as convicts.
It is estimated that some 50,000 British convicts were sent to colonial America, representing perhaps one-quarter of all British emigrants during the 18th century. The State of Georgia for example was first founded by James Edward Oglethorpe by using penal prisoners taken largely from debtors’ prison, creating a “Debtor’s Colony”…
The British also would often ship Irish and Scots to the Americas whenever rebellions took place in Ireland or Scotland, and they would be treated similar to the convicts, except that this also included women and children.
When that avenue closed in the 1780s after the American Revolution,
Britain began using parts of what is now known as Australia as penal settlements. ..
(Between 1788 and 1868, approximately 162,000 convicts were transported to the various Australian penal colonies by the British government
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convicts_in_Australia)
Bermuda, off the North American continent, was also used during the Victorian period. Convicts housed in hulks were used to build the Royal Naval Dockyard there, and during the Second Boer War (1899-1902), Boer prisoners-of-war were sent to the archipelago and imprisoned on one of the smaller islands.
In colonial India, the British made various penal colonies. Two of the most infamous ones are on the Andaman Islands and Hijli. In the early days of settlement, Singapore was the recipient of Indian convicts, who were tasked with clearing the jungles for settlement and early public works.
The list of countries that have had penal colonies is large. Some were for prisons to isolate criminals from society. Some were places to send dissidents, activists or enemy citizens during a war. Some were sources of free labour for building infrastructure.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penal_colony
And this will be accepted as it was then before someone with a Name made a sacrifice of time, pleasure and money to work for change. It took a huge effort which I don’t know that can be replicated – I don’t know if now there is a sufficiently large moral group that believe in the nobility and worth of other human beings that would mobilise to do the same. Now it’s go with flow, complacency, self-involvement as presented by that great all-encompassing religion, Neo-Liberal Economics. We need to stop now the greedy, careless, inhuman philosophy that goes against everything we have lived by and the lives our parents worked (and died) to achieve, which they thought was established as a basis of life for ever.
Observation #1
Dunno if anyone’s noticed, but there’s no similarity whatsoever between elections here and in the UK. None. Zip. Scottish Independance issues are not in any way the same as Maori Sovereignty initiatives. What’s the eagerness to suggest connections between two dissimilar populations, histories, and cultures? Might as well say that oranges are just like the Labour Party, and tins of beans are like National, and then argue about how it could be that people buy more beans than oranges. The sheer enormity of facts and influences you’d have to ignore to suggest England’s people are the same as New Zealanders, is staggering.
Observation #2
Anyone alive today saying that “the left should move right, or, the left should be the right” is effectly lamenting their inability to crawl back up their father’s urethra. No one alive who considers themselves in any way materially successful hasn’t benefited from socialist government programs of constructive change. None. Zip. To say they haven’t is pure ignorance, to say they’ve suffered, is pure ignorance bordering on delusion. You can’t profit from selling a state owned asset unless the state once owned it. You can’t spring-board off state subsidies unless the state first subsidises your industry.
Observation #3
The availablity of cheap imported goods was outside the reach of the hoi polloi during the Muldoon era, and I was having a hard time tying down what has become better since we can now access cheap consumer technology. So far, I personally have gained from being able to buy a dishwasher. The idea of hand-washing dishes again, although there may be an undefined ecological or spiritual element over the period of a lifetime that I can’t yet appreciate, isn’t something I’d like to return to. Outside of that, pretty much everything is either the same, or worse, mostly worse – or at least the opportunites to follow alternate paths has been lost. When will we give up the idea of “getting ahead”, measured by material gain?
You may disagree.
#Idontcare.
observation #lastone:
the reason for the surprising ongoing support for conservative parties here and overseas is due to the state of fear and uncertainty people feel like they are in
And the inability of other parties to get serious about concrete change which addresses peoples economic fears and uncertainties.
So ‘Arandar’ over and out. With thanks to all who leapt to help and advise.
Back one day – a new/old me. Cheers.
A third of the way through the RAID rebuild. It was a bit hairy for speed over the last hour as the RAID system rebuilt the disk array under the running database. Slowed down entering comments and most admin functions quite a lot.
# cat /proc/mdstat
Personalities : [raid6] [raid5] [raid4] [linear] [multipath] [raid0] [raid1] [raid10]
md0 : active raid6 sda[10] sdf[8] sdc[6] sdd1[2] sdb[3] sde[7]
7813523456 blocks super 1.2 level 6, 512k chunk, algorithm 2 [6/5] [UUUU_U]
[======>…………..] recovery = <b>33.5%</b> (656097088/1953380864) finish=1097.8min speed=19694K/sec
bitmap: 4/15 pages [16KB], 65536KB chunk
unused devices: <none>
[/code]
Incidentally that bit of bash reporting was inserted using the short codes for https://wordpress.org/plugins/syntaxhighlighter/
I think it should work for everyone.
Attention Auckland!
Re the coming housing bubble:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CEmAwhSUUAAxjiL.jpg:large
Sharon Murdoch
The #housingbubble explained. @SundayStarTimes
The roots of Syria’s civil war.
http://symboliamag.tumblr.com/post/87016370523/yearsoflivingdangerously-this
http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2015/03/02/study_climate_change_helped_spark_syrian_civil_war.html
Veteran activist Don Franks on Tim Barnett’s proposal to punish people for not registering to vote:
https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/05/10/labour-party-obey-or-starve/
https://www.yahoo.com/politics/why-obama-is-happy-to-fight-elizabeth-warren-on-118537612596.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/10/us/politics/obama-calls-elizabeth-warren-absolutely-wrong-on-trans-pacific-trade-deal.html?_r=0
Obama is publicly fighting with Elizabeth Warren over the TPP.
“The president’s rebuttal of Ms. Warren, the Massachusetts Democrat who came to national prominence in part through her work with the Obama administration, underscored the schism within the Democratic Party over the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a 12-nation trade deal.
Ms. Warren, a former Harvard law professor, has become an outspoken leader of those Democrats who argue that the agreement would cost American jobs.
Mr. Obama’s comments came after he delivered a speech at the Nike headquarters in which he lashed out at liberal critics of the agreement, arguing that they were fighting an old fight even though he was negotiating what he called the most progressive trade deal in history.
He seemed most irritated at Ms. Warren’s suggestion that the trade pact could be used as a vehicle to undercut the financial overhaul that Mr. Obama signed in 2010 in response to the Wall Street excesses that led to the recession.”
““The truth of the matter is that Elizabeth is, you know, a politician like everybody else,” he said. “And you know, she’s got a voice that she wants to get out there. And I understand that. And on most issues, she and I deeply agree. On this one, though, her arguments don’t stand the test of fact and scrutiny.”
This is remarkable stuff for Obama. All presidents are forged, in a sense, by the moments at which they come to public life. Obama entered politics during Bill Clinton’s presidency, when urban liberals were growing disgusted with the president’s strategy of “triangulation,” popularly interpreted as the idea that you can win broad support by picking fights with the ideologues in your own party. Obama has always been reflexively averse to anything that might be construed as him pushing back against his friends to score political points with everyone else.
Throughout his presidency, Obama has mostly avoided public feuds with what his first press secretary, Robert Gibbs, liked to call the “professional left” — even when it’s meant sidestepping important disagreements on policy. Democratic politicians and interest groups, in turn, have been cautious in their criticism, offering only muted resistance when Obama stepped up the war in Afghanistan, or when he nearly negotiated a deal that would have restructured entitlements.
But like a marriage in which the spouses pretend to be happier than they really are, Obama’s polite alliance with the populist left appears to be suddenly crumbling under the weight of free trade. The more Warren and Senate colleagues like Bernie Sanders and Sherrod Brown attack the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership, joined by big unions and environmental groups, the more liberated Obama seems to feel in portraying them as reckless and backward-looking, much as Clinton might have done. He evidences none of the self-doubt or conflicted loyalty that seemed plain when they criticized him for being too cautious on Wall Street reform or health care.”
Sad to see 8 die on our roads in a single day at the end of “Road safety week”.
“Road safety week” is about as effective as the 101km/hour fine stunt the cops pulled in summer when the road toll climbed significantly because drivers were distracted by their speedometers.
Solution: Upgrade the roads instead of running ineffective marketing and revenue gathering campaigns.
Stop people driving – just get computers to do the driving for them.
Anyone else think this story is an acute and vivid snapshot of the struggle in Auckland?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/home-property/68324088/good-samaritan-investor-takes-pity-on-young-auckland-buyers
The startling quote for me was this…
This story will have no impact whatsoever on the right, on the John Key voters, aside from the reality TV feel-good factor in the same vein that Stuff had framed the article.
To me however it screams out loud the dominance of the speculator in the market at the expense of real people and it screams that said speculator ordinarily could not give a shit about real people until one of them sees the distress first hand.
This story, the story that ordinary folk who want to buy are being outbid by speculators and Chinese with cheap money has been told for several years now.
John Key and Blinglish will call it the price of progress.
They’ll call it anything except what it is – a housing bubble. And they’ll have to do that because to do anything else is to admit that the economy is in recession and that the housing bubble is probably the only thing keeping us out of a deflationary spiral.
@ weepus beard
I heard on Radionz last week, a man who is a recent resident in NZ, who had wanted to be in the running for a $400,000 residential land purchase. People queued up at the site sleeping in their cars and eventually were handed numbers to show their priority, but this man had missed out as his wife had to take their car and drop the children to school. Not being in a car he was left out of the priority list apparently. He was terribly upset. It is so hard in our competitive society to get a living and secure a home.
Another man said that he and another from his family had waited all night to ensure they were in the running. It seems the way in the NZ and the neo-lib western world that those who have the time and means can advantage themselves further while those who are struggling get locked out.
Auckland housing bubble. I don’t get that its a bubble…..
I know fuck all about economics- but I did read a couple of things over the years about house prices which stuck with me-
Thing one- Irish bubble was created by irish people frenziedly selling Ireland to themselves- and using the ‘profits’ to leverage huge loans to outbuild the imaginary demand- like a self designed Ponzi scheme.
Thing two- a quote I heard- ” The bubble must burst? Ask anyone with property in Manhattan NY if the bubble must burst? It’s been going for a hundred years!”
So can I respectfully offer the following statement-
The Auckland housing crisis is not a bubble- because the demand is driven by NEW/fresh money coming in from Asia- I mean if everyone in China wanted a house in Auckland they’d be selling for a Billion each. As long as the Chinese are willing to pay more- then the bubble will grow- but it will never burst, until we build more houses than the Chinese need.
The logical end for how things are going is that Auckland ends up a ChinaTown full of Billionaires, and we end up with a country full of multi-millionaires who sold their Auckland houses to the Chinese- but its still not a bubble…
Aucklanders being ‘priced out’ of the market is nothing new- it happened in Ponsonby, Epsom, Tamaki, ( fuck- even Ranui, Swanson, Riverhead!! )anywhere in fact where the house prices are high. And it was Aucklanders who did it to them.
Am I wrong?
All I know is that there have been other housing bubbles in NZ which have cost people an arm and a leg. They may have ended up living in a camping ground while they paid off a mortgage for a property they know longer owned because it had been sold at the new lower valuation by the bank when the bubble burst.
We must realise that we are living on borrowed money. Our economy is like a ponzi scheme. We keep getting foreign investment, and it is not just Chinese, but it is they who at present seem to have most of the new money. And not only is foreign investment in houses, its businesses also. This puts money into our economy but is virtually a loan, and the profits are repatriated back to the investors preferred tax haven. So we have to make exports increase to ensure that we can balance the outflow of profits from NZ, and to pay for all the imports of dross and heavy machinery and cars that we borrow money from Australian banks to spend our money on. The government is borrowing all the time to make up the shortfall in our exports to meet the payments required of us overseas.
If there is a spanner in the works for even a short period the house of cards is likely to topple, a depression start and credit would be withdrawn and the whole thing collapses. Pop! That is the bubble bursting. Houses used to be regarded as desirable investments for ordinary people and cost about four times the average annual salary or something like that. If the average salary is $70,000 as I read today, then that would be $280,000.
Houses can’t be considered as playthings for the rich. They can spend their bloody excess money on Picassos at $64 million or such, but it is wrong for people to have lose ability to have a home by outbidding by high-flyers from overseas or in NZ. The rentier financiers are screwing up our basic financial system to line their own pockets, making up their own laws and systems as they go.