Well this government is not doing a thing about the climate emergencyt. In fact they are going in the opposite direction causing more climate problems.
Last Sunday it was a nice frosty slightly foggy day so I decided to pack my camera gear and go down to Whakamarua and take some shots of the dense plantation forests I have been promising myself for years.
The forest at Whakamaru used to be dense and I suspect this could have been one of the first area’s that got planted in the work schemes of the great depression (no not this one, the one in the 20’s caused by the same rightwing shit that is happening today).
Some of the pine plantations have GONE. We now have a giant dairy farm, no cows on it at the moment but all the infrastructure is in place like races and water troughs.
Bloody brilliant I thought all done for greed. Rip out pine forests that help to suck up the surplus CO 2, that can be harvested about every 20 years, and grown again and again creating less damage to the environment. Replaced by farting cows, polluting all the waterways, plus masses of fertilizer to make the grass grow just to produce MORE milk powder which the world has a glut of.
No thought for the future, with no concern of the consequences.
Well this government is not doing a thing about the climate emergencyt. In fact they are going in the opposite direction causing more climate problems.
Rip out pine forests that help to suck up the surplus CO 2, that can be harvested about every 20 years, and grown again and again creating less damage to the environment. Replaced by farting cows, polluting all the waterways, plus masses of fertilizer to make the grass grow just to produce MORE milk powder which the world has a glut of.
No thought for the future, with no concern of the consequences.
Pie in the sky stuff. If enough people wanted it it would be happening , how many greenies and lefties want to get up and want to toil away in cold ,wet , hot and dirty conditions a small holder has to to make it economic.
Add to that there are so many food safety rules that i couldn’t get a beast killed at at the local home killers to sell to make small scale profitable.
Small block farming in the west is most often the hobby of the wealthy, and the domain of the poor in most other places.
You would have to completely reset the rules around land ownership and food supply rules for it to happen.
Re the beast – can’t you sell it to your mates? That is how the meat eaters in our house get it.
Re no one will do it because they arent already. People used to and i think they will again, maybe through choice maybe necessity but it is coming, and many will take it up.
This idea is a practical way to build resilience and sustainability and option are limited by our timeframes.
Info on HOW to do it would be a good part of a CC post
“Homekill is the slaughter and butchering of your farmed animals for your own consumption or use. Homekill is not subject to the same rigorous regulatory controls that apply to meat purchased from a supermarket or butcher, so homekill is eaten at your own risk. It is illegal to trade or sell homekill meat.”
That came up after a quick google, might pay to keep your meat habit on the down low!
I’ve lifestyle blocked and even with both of us working off (we’re not big earners) progress was glacial.
Yep lucky whānau is wide including non blood family ☺
One of the hardest things I had to get my head around when I did the cows was that in my previous corporate life I could work harder,get the work done quicker, and create space and time for myself. On the farm the cows walk at the pace they walk, the tractor chugs along and there was nothing I could do to speed it up I just had to accept the bitter truth that I wasn’t a master of the universe and I had to fit in not the other way round. Many who move from there lives to the country will find this lesson tough I think.
On a farm or at sea your boss is the cows, plants or the sea.
Both predictable and have a rhythm.
Both don’t care about bullshit, egos or perceptions.
Massaging your bosses ego is a huge part of life in an office.
If you want to dance, sing, ponder the nature of the universe, they don’t care.
You may have your storms, or bulls getting on the race, but it is your competence and preparation that determines the outcome, not others, often false, perceptions.
“On the farm the cows walk at the pace they walk, the tractor chugs along and there was nothing I could do to speed it up I just had to accept the bitter truth that I wasn’t a master of the universe and I had to fit in not the other way round.”
On the button marty.
That’s the reality that global humanity has to come to terms with. We can only go as fast as the world around us, and if we try and go too fast it gets really hard and there are consequences.
On the flipside, I recall what some folks in one or two local eateries have tried to get away with (and been shut down for), and quite frankly I’m thankful that commercial producers are held to mandatory standards rather than being left to their own devices.
I’m not suggesting a free for all, but a could get a beast killed at a home killers and invite 100 people around to eat it but i couldn’t sell it tho those same 100 people. cutting out the middle men could increase profits to small blockers and make meat more affordable.
And quite possibly bump up the e. coli infection rates. If not you, then some lifestyler who has NFI what they’re doing – their boutique “Central Otago” wines are bad enough.
ISTR a friend bought half a cow butchered in little packages last year, arranged with the farmer and a local butcher. Seemed to be legal. Maybe you could do something like that?
To be legal the friend would of had to own the cow for a period of time pre slaughter, and i bet he got it at cut price $5 a kilo carcass weight at best excluding butcher fees.
Where as if home killers where certified so joe small block(not me any more,got sick of the wolf lurking outside the door) could sell easily to locals he could double the price he’d get off the works and it would still be cheaper for the local buyer.
And doing it legal means he could be on the right side of the tax man.
“You would have to completely reset the rules around land ownership and food supply rules for it to happen.”
Yep a bit like Key is trying to reset the rules around land ownership by selling off our land assets offshore and joining the TPPA so that Monsanto and GM can control our future. Don’t forget his idea about forcible farm sales to solve his residential housing crisis so that we can house more ‘farm workers’ and ‘restaurant managers’ who are on our skills shortages immigration criteria.
Apparently something like 50% of the NZ farmers are near bankrupt under Nationals policies….
Probably more like we need to rethink the way we deal with food safety. A lot of the current rules effectively entrench the largest producers, and make it impossible for small producers to retain control of their produce to the consumer.
In beekeeping the food safety has pushed the small producers underground, cash sales and koha, or right out of the game. Big outfits are doing fine, and there’s some big corporates emerging, but when did you last see local honey at the supermarket, or even specialty shop.
+1 Graeme, how about a ‘food miles’ tax and a AGR chemicals tax ….
Of course in NZ this would be sacrilege as we are constantly told how much we need to export food to survive economically.
No one seems to point out that it is sad when many of your own consumers can’t afford a block of cheese and it is more expensive locally than in other countries.
“Food Miles” was really a nationalistic non-tariff trade barrier, and a very simplistic one at that. The outcome was that our farmers saw that there was not really any point in arguing that our low input pastural systems were better, so we may as well go high input as well. And look where that led.
Now they are trying to unwind from high inputs and get production costs back down, which is really why we had the low input systems in the first place.
Another reasonable option – thanks bm. Hopefully they won’t use the super lettuce from the other video to feed the beef cells. Im so glad I don’t eat meat.
Not bad although I wonder about the cost and I could see it helping if it went really big – have to start building and diversifying now. More likely as systems break down simpler rather than more complex solutions will be the option.
+1 Marty mars – yep keep it simple. The idea of people having control over their own food and (shock horror) not needing infrastructure, fuel and power to run it, is obviously very disturbing to those that profit from the current system.
What has really affected farmers for example is being encouraged to go into marginal areas to farm and bring in supplementary feed (like palm oil). The borrow to do this, the stock prices fall or commodities fall, and then the bank owns them…
The joke of Fonterra which is supposed to be owned by the farmers is that their milk payout is dependant on percentage of milk solids indexed to global dairy prices, and the value added payment for consumer products division. Not the overall profit of Fonterra. So although the “company” executives were allowed a bonus, the farmers were given a low payout and many left in debt.
So true and so funny. Bill will be puzzled at the roars of laughter the next time he or Key repeats the mantra. Key said it numerous times this week in QT.
Pat. That is a fascinating splurge from John McTernan the adamant supporter of Blair over Iraq. To him black is white and truth is misreported. A truly weird chap! Worth the time to watch the Aljazeera clip.
fascinating is one word……delusional is another. If he was advising Blair its not so difficult to understand how it all came about, though it doesn’t explain why Blair listened to him.
To the left wingers unwilling to question the 9/11 story we have been told to believe….
Can you produce any evidence that a Boeing 767 equipped with regular engines can fly for almost 2 minutes beyond 800 km / hour in the lowers strata of the atmosphere without suffering any visible structural damage?
Apart from on the morning of 9/11, when this feat was achieved.
seems like all the rules of normal physics were turned on their heads on that day paul …what particularly astonished me was how a plane weighing 300 ton and made largely from aluminum could collide with a massive structure such one of the wtc towers weighing 300 000 tons and fly right inside it like it was made of cheese and ultimately reduce that structure to dust and a compararatively small pile of rubble ..it just doesnt make sense .I look upon 911 like its THE murder mystery of the century and there are just so many angles to it and so many things that dont add up .Im aware of course that any variation of perception from the official conspiracy theory is anathema to most people and the 911 truther label will be applied instantly if one ever questions that there might be more to this story than the 19 highjackers version .Funny that on sites such as this and many others bringing governments to task and keeping them honest and uncovering their bad deeds is daily fare, its beyond the pale to consider that the us gov and those in power arround it might have something to hide about 911 !!!Shock horror !!! the us gov would NEVER keep secrets from its people !!All those secret intelligence agencies and industrial military establishments are engaged in peace making and making the world a better place dont you know ??Theres no such thing as corruption or warmongering or greed or torture .Yeah right
Explain the collapse of WTC7 please.
Name calling is not an argument.
I am glad you are more of an expert than experienced engineers, physicists, pilots and engineers.
People who questioned the official lie about Iraq have been vindicated.
Those who question the lie about 9/11 will be vindicated too.
They have google on the internet now, Paul. You can look up the answer for yourself. You really should try and be a bit more sceptical about right wing conspiracies; they’re engineered to make even good folk like yourself look foolish.
Right wing? You’re kidding me. The only consistent voices questioning 9/11 on this site are cv and myself. Both of us are to the left of the Labour Party.
And who attacked me?
Someone with a non de plume of ‘red delusion’!
And who is challenged by questioning 9/11?
Bush, Cheney and the neocon gang.
Hardly left wingers!
It would appear this is a question of ( like Iraq) the establishment vs those challenging it. And, as usual, Labour Party stalwarts like trp are on the wrong side of history.
Is that your view about Iraq as well?
You are aware about what has happened to the world since 2001 as a direct consequence of 9/11.
I care about the erosion of civil liberties, the invasions of countries around the world.
Don’t you?
Who cares?
The people of Iraq, Syria, Libya, Afghanistan and Yemenwhose countries have been ripped apart as a direct consequence of the official lie about 9/11.
The people of America, Britain and New Zealand, whose civil rights have been curtailed as a direct consequence of the official lie about 9/11.
A lot of people do care.
A lot of people don’t believe the 9/11 lie.
“….Prime Minister John Key’s response was immediate – and betrayed where he stands on the issue of using a supply shock to make housing affordable.
It was “crazy”, would leave people in the market with huge losses and put pressure on developers.
So there we have it.
The leader of the Government is more worried about the short-term fates of leveraged-up speculators and developers than the long-term fate of Generation Rent.
…..”
This is what has often been written on the Standard.
The Metro has an interesting column. Hope it is true.
“Is the age of denial over?By Graham Adams.
“The latest uproar over homelessness, Auckland house prices and immigration marks the end of an era when voters looked the other way at the government’s behest.
… But in 21st century New Zealand so much is denied by the National-led government and so many problems swept under the carpet it has been almost impossible for many people to know what to believe, what is true or even what matters any more……” http://www.metromag.co.nz/current-affairs/is-the-age-of-denial-over/
And this Morning on Media Watch:
“Is a ‘post-truth’ era upon us?
The government has shrugged off events and evidence contradicting claims made by ministers recently, frustrating many journalists. Are we really in a “post-truth” period where the facts don’t matter any more? If so, do the media share the blame?…” http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/201807260
@ Ianmac Yep, we are defiantly in a post-truth period and have been for a long time.
But the good news is, time is a good healer most of the time. Aka Iraq war, what most people always knew and the MSM and politicians always denied – The Iraq war was a sham and Tony Blair was guilty of vanity and relationships to the US president rather than his responsibility to the British people and the UN. They did NOT had to invade as a last resort and they manufactured the reasons for the illegal war.
Blair has gone, but here in NZ we still have our vain and reckless PM who although self proclaimed popularity (like Blair) and ability to control the media, will still not help him in history, which will judge him and his judas sidekicks very harshly as he continues to sell Kiwis out, for magic beans and our land and troops for his own ego to be ‘in the club’ and make money for himself and his financial cronies.
Even Rebstock has been denounced as the neoliberal zealot and crony that she is.
A lot of journo’s and public servants are going to regret what they did, under Key. And we all know he will throw everyone under the bus to save himself as the truth starts coming out.
Soon even Business and farmers will be praying for a change of government to stop the madness of Key.
“Never read the comments” is usually a good rule regarding online newspaper articles, but this is interesting.
The faux-left Blairite Guardian hauls up the corpse of Neil Kinnock and attaches some jumper leads to it to attack Jeremy Corbyn and the readers overwhelmingly against it:
If only Kinnock had been as passionate in his opposition to Thatcher as he is to Corbyn he might have won a Fu**ing election for Labour. Granted, he wouldn’t have been as rich as he is now.
“But one (question) I got today really did puzzle me. They said: are you coping with the pressure that’s on you?
I said: ‘There’s no pressure on me. None whatsoever. The real pressure, the real pressure – real pressure – is when you don’t have enough money to feed your kids, when you don’t have a roof over your head, when you are wondering if you are going to be cared for.”
For those of you who like to fit your tinfoil hats nice and snug in the morning, Donald Trump is seriously considering Lieutenant-General Michael Flynn for Vice Presidential candidate.
Flynn was Chief of the Defence Intelligence Agency under Barack Obama.
I personally don’t mind retired Generals in ceremonial positions, like our own Sir Gerry Mateparae. I also don’t mind them as advisors – Flynn is already a key foreign policy advisor to Trump. And need I say that two-term Bush senior came straight out of running the CIA itself.
There needs to be modicum of separation of military intelligence and political oversight. Bit creepy.
Michael Flynn would be an outstanding choice for VP. A realist on Iraq and Iran, and who understands that US military adventurism has been a disaster for both the American people and people around the world.
Flynn contrasts directly with the ‘bombs for humanitarian purposes’ neocons that Killary has gathered around.
BTW did you not approve of Colin Powell as Sec State?
Wondering how this is reflected in NZ. The diminishing importance of the print media, the growth of online news, and the strength of TV. From Politico.
“A separate Pew Research Center report this week exposed the shrinking relevance of print newspapers in stark relief.
Only 20 percent of Americans said they often get news via print newspapers — down from 27 percent just three years ago. That leaves print behind the other major sources of media: television (57 percent), online (38 percent) and radio (25 percent).
The age differences are stark: Only 5 percent of Americans aged 18-29 get their news often from newspapers. And even among older audiences, few read newspapers. Only 10 percent of Americans aged 30-49, and just 23 percent of those aged 50-64, regularly get their news from newspapers. Roughly half of seniors, 48 percent, read newspapers often.
Half of younger Americans — 50 percent of 18-29 year-olds, and 49 percent of those aged 30-49 — said they often get news from online sources. But just 29 percent of those 50-64, and 20 percent of seniors, get their news online.
TV is king — for now. Television news, like newspapers, skews older: A whopping 85 percent of seniors and 72 percent of those aged 50-64 often get their news on television, whether local news, network or cable. But just 27 percent of Americans 18-29, and 45 percent of those 30-49, get their news from TV — a trend that guarantees a volatile media landscape in the years to come.”
there’s one upside to that list…..the media at least appear aware what is occurring and where it could lead…..whether the general public understand that before even more disengage in disgust or it all unravels is yet to be seen.
yeah i like the fact that web based news is kinda mad chaos at the moment, the last thing i want is for the current anarchy to be walled off by big sites like Facebook controlling the message
The last NZ figures I heard were roughly one third print alone as predominant news source, and another third print + online predominant.
The E Tu submission on the print media merger has some good analysis – it’s on the union’s website (plus all submissions to the merger are available on ComCom’s website).
NZ is a bit different from the States, for a start there’s no local news broadcast network.
There’s also potential confusion about how news is produced these days. I daresay many readers think they have seen something ‘on the Standard’ or ‘on Facebook’ but they are clicking linked content.
“Protests have taken place in Warsaw with members of the public angry the Polish capital is hosting a NATO summit. A few hundred demonstrators gathered in the city to march towards the national stadium where the conference was taking place…
The three-day ‘Anti-NATO Summit’ has brought together activists from Poland, the Czech Republic, France, the US, Belgium, Britain and other countries under the motto: “No to War! No to NATO! No to militarism!”
Moved to ‘open Mike’.Too many comments drifting too far from the topic of the post thanks to this comment. – Bill
Women will vote for a women just because of it, so theres no guarantee this coup of the Labour party isnt over yet.
2008 general election:
Other interesting voting behaviour statistics can be found in the Levine and Roberts chapters. For example, in terms of gender, ‘In 2008 – as in all the previous MMP elections – Labour’s vote was disproportionately female…. National’s vote was perfectly balanced in 2008 – half the party’s voters were men; half were women’ (p.37). Meanwhile, ‘Very nearly four-fifths of ACT’s voters are men’ (p.38).
No women don’t vote for women just because of it, and surely you are not saying that no man ever voted for Thatcher and that not women would ever have considered voting for Corbyn.
I’m with Sabine. It IS a stupid sexist statement.
It’s bordering on offensive for Greg to suggest that women put voting for another woman ahead of consideration of the policies and issues.
My point is that we should work together to discourage voting on demographic basis. It undermines the democratic process.
Please think about the memes you promote
Consider that women just obtained the right to vote about a 100 years ago. Until then it was only men voting, often voting only for men!
In the last hundred years since women have been given the vote in NZ they had two Lady PM – one of each side of the isle. Which means that some of the women must have voted for men. Oh, yeah, cause women don’t run that often cause its to hard or something right?
Absolutely !
My message to ALL.
Dont vote for the person who will do the most for your demographic
Vote for the person you believe will work for the good of everyone.
“My point is that we should work together to discourage voting on demographic basis. It undermines the democratic process.”
You still haven’t made the case that large numbers of women vote for women just because (as opposed to say because they feel that a woman might represent them better or support issues they are concerned about).
Really – women will vote for a female just because she’s female? The quote you provide doesn’t suggest that at all.
Women are voting further left – which is maybe not so surprising because they do a substantial part of the unpaid work ( child raising!) and a selfish right wing society derides those who aren’t “me first”.
Citation needed. The bit you already quoted says that more women will vote for Labour under MMP than men. Labour being a political party not a woman.
And just to save us all a lot of time, I’ll note your previous multiple anti-feminist and misogynistic comments in ts as a frame of reference for this conversation. Which means you have a bit of an uphill battle to demonstrate that your comments in this thread are anything other than pushing your sexist agenda again.
Some women will give gender a place in their voting deliberations.
Some men will give gender a place in their voting deliberations.
If there are slightly more women than men of voting age, then it figures that a given party might have more votes coming from women than it does from men.
Even if there’s no difference between the numbers of voting men and women, there’s a fair chance that one party or another will better reflect womens’ general concerns within a given social context, or that one will better reflect men’s concerns within a given social context – particularly in a world shaped by neo-liberal dog shite.
That and a whole pile of other stuff (shite featuring large)- besides no-one with half a mind giving a second’s credence to Greg’s rantings.
In essence, Gregs comments are stinky arse and Xanthe’s seem to be a weird attempt to perform some kind of internet rub-a-dub with them.
And yes, maybe I should have been paying attention to that bit of the thread and shit shoveled it over to ‘open mike’.
“That and a whole pile of other stuff (shite featuring large)- besides no-one with half a mind giving a second’s credence to Greg’s rantings.”
Nevertheless, on a left wing blog, regular anti-feminist and misogynistic comments are a problem that need to be addressed. Greg has form, and he’s been warned before.
Besides, if stupid were a criteria for not responding to a comment, then half the content on ts wouldn’t exists 😉 (am thinking of a chunk of the RW comments for instance).
My post was based on evidence of voting behaviour, read the book.
Go and look at the Guardian link i gave, it claimed what i posted.
vote for me cause im a breeder.
Helen Clark feminism saw he introducing middle class welfare to the breeder.
Now this is the outcome of polices against improving the economy of workers.
“Go and look at the Guardian link i gave, it claimed what i posted.”
I read what you cut and pasted. It didn’t say what you claimed.
And it’s not from the Guardian.
And I have no idea what book you are talking about.
The onus is on you to provide back up. In this case if you want to be taken seriously, you need to cut and paste the parts that you are referring to (not expect people to read whole articles and mindread your intent) as well as linking directly.
You have now established yourself on ts as a misogynist and a class bigot. It’s up to you if you want to address that. I’ll just keep naming it every time I see it.
Bill …Its actually a very serious question about the basis of democracy!
Is democracy where everyone votes for what they believe is the best outcome for their group? (or selves)
Or
Is democracy where everyone votes for what they believe is the best outcome for everyone?
And which of these two outcomes does each of us encourage in our actions?
This question cuts to the heart of this discussion. Please dont belittle it with talk of “rubadub”
Is democracy where everyone votes for what they believe is the best outcome for their group? (or selves)
Or
Is democracy where everyone votes for what they believe is the best outcome for everyone?
I hate to break it to you, but lots of peopel vote from self-interest.
As for people who vote for women, there are many reasons and at least some of those easily fall into the ‘best outcome for everyone’ category.
Agreed lots of people do vote for what they think is self interest. Our task is to convince them that their interest ultimatly lies in participating in democracy for the good of all
Agreed also that people do support representitives of all demographic as best for all
Bill.. Not quite ready to let go of representitive democracy yet even tho it demonstraively isnt working “for the good of all” at this time, I feel that direct democracy at this time would be worse!
The reasoning behind that is because untill we deal with the organised misinformation, lies, misdirection, fearmongering, and quasiscience . That currently pretends as news media, democracy of any stripe wont work.
oh dear wouldn’t want to try that strategy with too many topics but I suppose it doesn’t matter if 1 man maybe changes their distorted and obnoxious thinking.
I’m seeing it a bit like how all those UK TV celebrities suddenly discovered they’d never liked Jimmy Savile after all…like Michael fucking Aspel claiming he’d never had anything to do with him and then, upon being shown a clip from “This is Your Life” (that he hosted) claiming he had no memory and certainly never thought JS was anything other than a very nasty and unlikable piece of work.
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Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Changes in the May 14 budget will cut the student debt of more than three million people, wiping more than $3 billion from what people owe. The government will cap the HELP indexation rate ...
Asia Pacific Report The prosecutor’s office at the International Criminal Court (ICC) has appealed for an end to what it calls intimidation of its staff, saying such threats could constitute an offence against the “administration of justice” by the world’s permanent war crimes court. The Hague-based office of ICC Prosecutor ...
By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk A women’s union in New Caledonia has staged a sit-in protest this week to support senior Kanak indigenous journalist Thérèse Waia, who works for public broadcaster Nouvelle-Calédonie la Première, after a smear attack by critics. The peaceful demonstration was held on ...
New Zealand Food Safety is monitoring overseas recalls of Indian packaged spice products manufactured by MDH and Everest due to concerns over a cancer-causing pesticide. ...
By Stephen Wright and Stefan Armbruster of BenarNews Fiji’s ranking in a global press freedom index has jumped into the top tier of countries with free or mostly free media after its government last year repealed a draconian law that threatened journalists with prison for doing their jobs. Fiji’s improvement ...
We might be in Invercargill but all anyone can talk about is Gore. Specifically, Salford Street. That’s where three-year-old Lachlan Jones lived, south of the centre of town, between the A&P Showgrounds and the Mataura River. Roughly 1.2 km away from the single level home he lived in with his ...
MONDAY I lined up the latest round of civil servants from city hall against the wall, and signalled for the firing squad to drop their rifles. I stepped up onto a wooden crate to look at the office workers in the eye. But that didn’t feel right, so I found ...
Keen hiker and second-year MSc student Liam Hewson wears two hats when he’s in the great outdoors. “The scientist in me appreciates nature and goes, ‘Oh, there’s that thing and there’s another thing,’ but then the tramper and the outdoorsy person in me thinks, ‘Cool bush.’” Born and bred in ...
After a long and illustrious career as a goal kicker, Dan Carter’s favourite way to unwind is… kicking goals. Why can’t he get enough of it? And what it’s like to watch him do it for an hour straight? A semicircle of people wielding cameras and phones has formed in ...
Dame Susan Devoy takes us through her life in television, including late night ER debriefs, her proudest CTI moment and the show she watches in secret. Quite aside from her four world champion squash titles, Dame Susan Devoy will likely go down in history as one of the best Celebrity ...
Hera Lindsay Bird reveals the best places in Ōtepoti to score more for your apocalypse-prep book hoard.Sometimes I get the feeling I’ve been killed in a car crash, and this second half of my life is just the brain unspooling itself, like one of those episodes of a hospital ...
ThreeNow’s new murder mystery series takes us on a dark, damp journey into the Australian wilderness.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. High Country is ThreeNow’s new Australian eight-part crime drama, set in a remote part of the Victorian highlands. It tells ...
Introducing a new way to read The Spinoff every weekend. After nearly 10 years of being an online magazine, we’re finally embracing the weekend liftout. Despite our best efforts to convince you otherwise, writers and editors at The Spinoff don’t work weekend. It is through the sheer power of technology ...
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Great stuff about the housing. What about the climate emergency?
Any feedback or reports on this?
Well this government is not doing a thing about the climate emergencyt. In fact they are going in the opposite direction causing more climate problems.
Last Sunday it was a nice frosty slightly foggy day so I decided to pack my camera gear and go down to Whakamarua and take some shots of the dense plantation forests I have been promising myself for years.
The forest at Whakamaru used to be dense and I suspect this could have been one of the first area’s that got planted in the work schemes of the great depression (no not this one, the one in the 20’s caused by the same rightwing shit that is happening today).
Some of the pine plantations have GONE. We now have a giant dairy farm, no cows on it at the moment but all the infrastructure is in place like races and water troughs.
Bloody brilliant I thought all done for greed. Rip out pine forests that help to suck up the surplus CO 2, that can be harvested about every 20 years, and grown again and again creating less damage to the environment. Replaced by farting cows, polluting all the waterways, plus masses of fertilizer to make the grass grow just to produce MORE milk powder which the world has a glut of.
No thought for the future, with no concern of the consequences.
Unfortunately, not just the nats.
http://www.greenpeace.org/new-zealand/en/press/dairy-expansion-action/
http://www.greenpeace.org/new-zealand/en/news/reforesting-dairy/
http://www.greenpeace.org/new-zealand/en/press/Greenpeace-halts-forest-conversion-to-dairy/
http://www.greenpeace.org/new-zealand/en/campaigns/climate-change/smart-farming/Deforestation-for-dairy/
I think today is about Housing Jenny, it’s Labour’s birthday conference, not their main one that they hold.
Andrew is accused of being “muddled” if he tries to talk about more than one thing in an interview, how to get it right?
One policy at a time…
Leftie, and WN. If that is the strategy, that is great.
And undoubtably the housing policy is good one.
I can’t wait for the release of the climate change policy.
My hope is that it is as good.
UN Report Says Small-Scale Organic Farming Only Way to Feed the World
http://www.technologywater.com/post/69995394390/un-report-says-small-scale-organic-farming-only
Pie in the sky stuff. If enough people wanted it it would be happening , how many greenies and lefties want to get up and want to toil away in cold ,wet , hot and dirty conditions a small holder has to to make it economic.
Add to that there are so many food safety rules that i couldn’t get a beast killed at at the local home killers to sell to make small scale profitable.
Small block farming in the west is most often the hobby of the wealthy, and the domain of the poor in most other places.
You would have to completely reset the rules around land ownership and food supply rules for it to happen.
Re the beast – can’t you sell it to your mates? That is how the meat eaters in our house get it.
Re no one will do it because they arent already. People used to and i think they will again, maybe through choice maybe necessity but it is coming, and many will take it up.
This idea is a practical way to build resilience and sustainability and option are limited by our timeframes.
Info on HOW to do it would be a good part of a CC post
“Homekill is the slaughter and butchering of your farmed animals for your own consumption or use. Homekill is not subject to the same rigorous regulatory controls that apply to meat purchased from a supermarket or butcher, so homekill is eaten at your own risk. It is illegal to trade or sell homekill meat.”
That came up after a quick google, might pay to keep your meat habit on the down low!
I’ve lifestyle blocked and even with both of us working off (we’re not big earners) progress was glacial.
Yep lucky whānau is wide including non blood family ☺
One of the hardest things I had to get my head around when I did the cows was that in my previous corporate life I could work harder,get the work done quicker, and create space and time for myself. On the farm the cows walk at the pace they walk, the tractor chugs along and there was nothing I could do to speed it up I just had to accept the bitter truth that I wasn’t a master of the universe and I had to fit in not the other way round. Many who move from there lives to the country will find this lesson tough I think.
I don’t know about that.
On a farm or at sea your boss is the cows, plants or the sea.
Both predictable and have a rhythm.
Both don’t care about bullshit, egos or perceptions.
Massaging your bosses ego is a huge part of life in an office.
If you want to dance, sing, ponder the nature of the universe, they don’t care.
You may have your storms, or bulls getting on the race, but it is your competence and preparation that determines the outcome, not others, often false, perceptions.
“On the farm the cows walk at the pace they walk, the tractor chugs along and there was nothing I could do to speed it up I just had to accept the bitter truth that I wasn’t a master of the universe and I had to fit in not the other way round.”
On the button marty.
That’s the reality that global humanity has to come to terms with. We can only go as fast as the world around us, and if we try and go too fast it gets really hard and there are consequences.
did this policy proceed, then theirs no inspectors
http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/psa-protests-handover-inspections-meatworkers-130729
On the flipside, I recall what some folks in one or two local eateries have tried to get away with (and been shut down for), and quite frankly I’m thankful that commercial producers are held to mandatory standards rather than being left to their own devices.
I’m not suggesting a free for all, but a could get a beast killed at a home killers and invite 100 people around to eat it but i couldn’t sell it tho those same 100 people. cutting out the middle men could increase profits to small blockers and make meat more affordable.
And quite possibly bump up the e. coli infection rates. If not you, then some lifestyler who has NFI what they’re doing – their boutique “Central Otago” wines are bad enough.
ISTR a friend bought half a cow butchered in little packages last year, arranged with the farmer and a local butcher. Seemed to be legal. Maybe you could do something like that?
To be legal the friend would of had to own the cow for a period of time pre slaughter, and i bet he got it at cut price $5 a kilo carcass weight at best excluding butcher fees.
Where as if home killers where certified so joe small block(not me any more,got sick of the wolf lurking outside the door) could sell easily to locals he could double the price he’d get off the works and it would still be cheaper for the local buyer.
And doing it legal means he could be on the right side of the tax man.
I think it was a grand all up for half the animal in little packets. dunno the details.
“You would have to completely reset the rules around land ownership and food supply rules for it to happen.”
Yep a bit like Key is trying to reset the rules around land ownership by selling off our land assets offshore and joining the TPPA so that Monsanto and GM can control our future. Don’t forget his idea about forcible farm sales to solve his residential housing crisis so that we can house more ‘farm workers’ and ‘restaurant managers’ who are on our skills shortages immigration criteria.
Apparently something like 50% of the NZ farmers are near bankrupt under Nationals policies….
Probably more like we need to rethink the way we deal with food safety. A lot of the current rules effectively entrench the largest producers, and make it impossible for small producers to retain control of their produce to the consumer.
In beekeeping the food safety has pushed the small producers underground, cash sales and koha, or right out of the game. Big outfits are doing fine, and there’s some big corporates emerging, but when did you last see local honey at the supermarket, or even specialty shop.
+1 Graeme, how about a ‘food miles’ tax and a AGR chemicals tax ….
Of course in NZ this would be sacrilege as we are constantly told how much we need to export food to survive economically.
No one seems to point out that it is sad when many of your own consumers can’t afford a block of cheese and it is more expensive locally than in other countries.
“Food Miles” was really a nationalistic non-tariff trade barrier, and a very simplistic one at that. The outcome was that our farmers saw that there was not really any point in arguing that our low input pastural systems were better, so we may as well go high input as well. And look where that led.
Now they are trying to unwind from high inputs and get production costs back down, which is really why we had the low input systems in the first place.
That’s not the future, this is
Where are the COWs BM
Another reasonable option – thanks bm. Hopefully they won’t use the super lettuce from the other video to feed the beef cells. Im so glad I don’t eat meat.
Maybe we don’t even need to go to that much trouble…
http://www.vox.com/2016/7/7/12106708/impossible-foods-ezra-klein-show
Not bad although I wonder about the cost and I could see it helping if it went really big – have to start building and diversifying now. More likely as systems break down simpler rather than more complex solutions will be the option.
+1 Marty mars – yep keep it simple. The idea of people having control over their own food and (shock horror) not needing infrastructure, fuel and power to run it, is obviously very disturbing to those that profit from the current system.
What has really affected farmers for example is being encouraged to go into marginal areas to farm and bring in supplementary feed (like palm oil). The borrow to do this, the stock prices fall or commodities fall, and then the bank owns them…
The joke of Fonterra which is supposed to be owned by the farmers is that their milk payout is dependant on percentage of milk solids indexed to global dairy prices, and the value added payment for consumer products division. Not the overall profit of Fonterra. So although the “company” executives were allowed a bonus, the farmers were given a low payout and many left in debt.
The scary thing is that you don’t know anymore if this is a spoof or actually what Bill English really said!
https://boonman.wordpress.com/2016/07/09/bill-english-we-were-the-first/
Haha…It isn’t too far from what he actually said.
The lying scuzz ball.
So true and so funny. Bill will be puzzled at the roars of laughter the next time he or Key repeats the mantra. Key said it numerous times this week in QT.
Chilcott has shown the deception behind the Iraq war.
Now the left must challenge the original lie that made Iraq possible.
9/11.
large river in Africa…..
http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/upfront/2016/07/tony-blair-punished-iraq-war-160708122829653.html
Pat. That is a fascinating splurge from John McTernan the adamant supporter of Blair over Iraq. To him black is white and truth is misreported. A truly weird chap! Worth the time to watch the Aljazeera clip.
fascinating is one word……delusional is another. If he was advising Blair its not so difficult to understand how it all came about, though it doesn’t explain why Blair listened to him.
Yes Pat. Maybe McTernan is carrying a load of guilt so like Blair he is in denial. The truth might be too tough for him to cope with.
To the left wingers unwilling to question the 9/11 story we have been told to believe….
Can you produce any evidence that a Boeing 767 equipped with regular engines can fly for almost 2 minutes beyond 800 km / hour in the lowers strata of the atmosphere without suffering any visible structural damage?
Apart from on the morning of 9/11, when this feat was achieved.
seems like all the rules of normal physics were turned on their heads on that day paul …what particularly astonished me was how a plane weighing 300 ton and made largely from aluminum could collide with a massive structure such one of the wtc towers weighing 300 000 tons and fly right inside it like it was made of cheese and ultimately reduce that structure to dust and a compararatively small pile of rubble ..it just doesnt make sense .I look upon 911 like its THE murder mystery of the century and there are just so many angles to it and so many things that dont add up .Im aware of course that any variation of perception from the official conspiracy theory is anathema to most people and the 911 truther label will be applied instantly if one ever questions that there might be more to this story than the 19 highjackers version .Funny that on sites such as this and many others bringing governments to task and keeping them honest and uncovering their bad deeds is daily fare, its beyond the pale to consider that the us gov and those in power arround it might have something to hide about 911 !!!Shock horror !!! the us gov would NEVER keep secrets from its people !!All those secret intelligence agencies and industrial military establishments are engaged in peace making and making the world a better place dont you know ??Theres no such thing as corruption or warmongering or greed or torture .Yeah right
Look out conspiracy nutter alert
Explain the collapse of WTC7 please.
Name calling is not an argument.
I am glad you are more of an expert than experienced engineers, physicists, pilots and engineers.
People who questioned the official lie about Iraq have been vindicated.
Those who question the lie about 9/11 will be vindicated too.
Please explain how WTC 7 collapsed.
They have google on the internet now, Paul. You can look up the answer for yourself. You really should try and be a bit more sceptical about right wing conspiracies; they’re engineered to make even good folk like yourself look foolish.
Right wing? You’re kidding me. The only consistent voices questioning 9/11 on this site are cv and myself. Both of us are to the left of the Labour Party.
And who attacked me?
Someone with a non de plume of ‘red delusion’!
And who is challenged by questioning 9/11?
Bush, Cheney and the neocon gang.
Hardly left wingers!
It would appear this is a question of ( like Iraq) the establishment vs those challenging it. And, as usual, Labour Party stalwarts like trp are on the wrong side of history.
How about this angle Paul – who gives a fuck. Really why should anyone care – what does it tell us about our world that we don’t already know?
“what does it tell us about our world that we don’t already know?”
marty, that is the single best insight I have ever seen into the pointlessness of the 9/11 truthers.
Is that your view about Iraq as well?
You are aware about what has happened to the world since 2001 as a direct consequence of 9/11.
I care about the erosion of civil liberties, the invasions of countries around the world.
Don’t you?
“I care about the erosion of civil liberties, the invasions of countries around the world.
Don’t you?”
Of course I care – what has that got to do with anything?
These things happened as a direct result of the official 9/11 story being believed.
Who cares?
The people of Iraq, Syria, Libya, Afghanistan and Yemenwhose countries have been ripped apart as a direct consequence of the official lie about 9/11.
The people of America, Britain and New Zealand, whose civil rights have been curtailed as a direct consequence of the official lie about 9/11.
A lot of people do care.
A lot of people don’t believe the 9/11 lie.
Architects and engineers.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_nyogTsrsgI
Look out cognitive dissonance alert !!
If only they had MMP!
Green party’s Jill Stein invites Bernie Sanders to take over ticket
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jul/08/jill-stein-bernie-sanders-green-party
Sorry to post so much, but this is something positive!
New Zealand: Maori pop song with serious message knocks Justin Timberlake off No 1
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/09/new-zealand-maori-pop-song-with-serious-message-knocks-justin-timberlake-off-no-1
Wonderful, just wonderful. Heart felt thanks for this link savenz. A really uplifted Sunday now. Wow.
Love it thanks savenz. Uplifting as!
New Zealand Prime Minister John Key – working for property developers and speculators?
No surprises there , in my opinion, given John Key is a former Wall Street banker and current shareholder in the Bank of America.
Bernard Hickey – calls ‘a spade a spade’ :
http://m.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11671668
“….Prime Minister John Key’s response was immediate – and betrayed where he stands on the issue of using a supply shock to make housing affordable.
It was “crazy”, would leave people in the market with huge losses and put pressure on developers.
So there we have it.
The leader of the Government is more worried about the short-term fates of leveraged-up speculators and developers than the long-term fate of Generation Rent.
…..”
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.
Key is not betraying anything at all. He’s being utterly loyal to his roots as a money changer.
This is what has often been written on the Standard.
The Metro has an interesting column. Hope it is true.
“Is the age of denial over?By Graham Adams.
“The latest uproar over homelessness, Auckland house prices and immigration marks the end of an era when voters looked the other way at the government’s behest.
… But in 21st century New Zealand so much is denied by the National-led government and so many problems swept under the carpet it has been almost impossible for many people to know what to believe, what is true or even what matters any more……”
http://www.metromag.co.nz/current-affairs/is-the-age-of-denial-over/
And this Morning on Media Watch:
“Is a ‘post-truth’ era upon us?
The government has shrugged off events and evidence contradicting claims made by ministers recently, frustrating many journalists. Are we really in a “post-truth” period where the facts don’t matter any more? If so, do the media share the blame?…”
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/201807260
@ Ianmac Yep, we are defiantly in a post-truth period and have been for a long time.
But the good news is, time is a good healer most of the time. Aka Iraq war, what most people always knew and the MSM and politicians always denied – The Iraq war was a sham and Tony Blair was guilty of vanity and relationships to the US president rather than his responsibility to the British people and the UN. They did NOT had to invade as a last resort and they manufactured the reasons for the illegal war.
Blair has gone, but here in NZ we still have our vain and reckless PM who although self proclaimed popularity (like Blair) and ability to control the media, will still not help him in history, which will judge him and his judas sidekicks very harshly as he continues to sell Kiwis out, for magic beans and our land and troops for his own ego to be ‘in the club’ and make money for himself and his financial cronies.
Even Rebstock has been denounced as the neoliberal zealot and crony that she is.
A lot of journo’s and public servants are going to regret what they did, under Key. And we all know he will throw everyone under the bus to save himself as the truth starts coming out.
Soon even Business and farmers will be praying for a change of government to stop the madness of Key.
A lot of journo’s and public servants are going to regret what they did, under Key
Oh it will be a lot like the years after Muldoon; you could find no bastard who ever voted for him!
Another ghastly report from ‘The True Neverending Horror Story of teamkey’s Nightmare for so many in New Zealand’:
https://dimpost.wordpress.com/2016/07/09/the-sheer-awful-dumbness-of-what-they-have-wrought/
Unbelievable callousness from low life people…..the national party apparently!
All ‘teamkey patched ‘ members if I remember correctly.
Can’t help but feel angered and emotional about this disgraceful housing situation.
someone who hits the nail on the head……unlike some other high profile individual
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/sunday/audio/201807688/darrin-hodgetts-welfare-with-a-big-stick
“Never read the comments” is usually a good rule regarding online newspaper articles, but this is interesting.
The faux-left Blairite Guardian hauls up the corpse of Neil Kinnock and attaches some jumper leads to it to attack Jeremy Corbyn and the readers overwhelmingly against it:
https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2016/jul/08/neil-kinnock-interview-brexit-corbyn-labour
Priceless comment here:
If only Kinnock had been as passionate in his opposition to Thatcher as he is to Corbyn he might have won a Fu**ing election for Labour. Granted, he wouldn’t have been as rich as he is now.
Some of us still have memories eh!
aye to that!!!
“But one (question) I got today really did puzzle me. They said: are you coping with the pressure that’s on you?
I said: ‘There’s no pressure on me. None whatsoever. The real pressure, the real pressure – real pressure – is when you don’t have enough money to feed your kids, when you don’t have a roof over your head, when you are wondering if you are going to be cared for.”
Jeremy Corbyn
For those of you who like to fit your tinfoil hats nice and snug in the morning, Donald Trump is seriously considering Lieutenant-General Michael Flynn for Vice Presidential candidate.
Flynn was Chief of the Defence Intelligence Agency under Barack Obama.
I personally don’t mind retired Generals in ceremonial positions, like our own Sir Gerry Mateparae. I also don’t mind them as advisors – Flynn is already a key foreign policy advisor to Trump. And need I say that two-term Bush senior came straight out of running the CIA itself.
There needs to be modicum of separation of military intelligence and political oversight. Bit creepy.
Things improved in America under this General,
https://www.quora.com/Why-is-Dwight-Eisenhower-so-highly-rated-as-a-president
If Dwight can do it, why cant Key for New Zealand,
=another term to go.
Michael Flynn would be an outstanding choice for VP. A realist on Iraq and Iran, and who understands that US military adventurism has been a disaster for both the American people and people around the world.
Flynn contrasts directly with the ‘bombs for humanitarian purposes’ neocons that Killary has gathered around.
BTW did you not approve of Colin Powell as Sec State?
+100 CV
I don’t know Flynn’s views yet – I don’t want the military that close to executive authority on principle.
You didn’t approve of Winston Churchill then? Dwight Eisenhower? JFK? Bush snr? Teddy Roosevelt?
Flynn was head of the DIA. He wasn’t just a grunt general.
Wondering how this is reflected in NZ. The diminishing importance of the print media, the growth of online news, and the strength of TV. From Politico.
“A separate Pew Research Center report this week exposed the shrinking relevance of print newspapers in stark relief.
Only 20 percent of Americans said they often get news via print newspapers — down from 27 percent just three years ago. That leaves print behind the other major sources of media: television (57 percent), online (38 percent) and radio (25 percent).
The age differences are stark: Only 5 percent of Americans aged 18-29 get their news often from newspapers. And even among older audiences, few read newspapers. Only 10 percent of Americans aged 30-49, and just 23 percent of those aged 50-64, regularly get their news from newspapers. Roughly half of seniors, 48 percent, read newspapers often.
Half of younger Americans — 50 percent of 18-29 year-olds, and 49 percent of those aged 30-49 — said they often get news from online sources. But just 29 percent of those 50-64, and 20 percent of seniors, get their news online.
TV is king — for now. Television news, like newspapers, skews older: A whopping 85 percent of seniors and 72 percent of those aged 50-64 often get their news on television, whether local news, network or cable. But just 27 percent of Americans 18-29, and 45 percent of those 30-49, get their news from TV — a trend that guarantees a volatile media landscape in the years to come.”
The upside is that the corporate MSM narratives are getting less traction
The downside is that media is dumber than ever before, and fragmented into isolated bubbles of ideology.
At least Mediawatch has diagnosed the problem
https://twitter.com/MediawatchNZ/status/751895116957097985
Here’s another “reporter” being useless at her job and sucking up to Key:
https://twitter.com/DawgBelly/status/751872795538132992
And an excellent (factual) rant by Bomber
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2016/07/10/the-nz-medias-farcical-new-critique-of-the-opposition-why-you-should-show-it-contempt/
there’s one upside to that list…..the media at least appear aware what is occurring and where it could lead…..whether the general public understand that before even more disengage in disgust or it all unravels is yet to be seen.
yeah i like the fact that web based news is kinda mad chaos at the moment, the last thing i want is for the current anarchy to be walled off by big sites like Facebook controlling the message
The last NZ figures I heard were roughly one third print alone as predominant news source, and another third print + online predominant.
The E Tu submission on the print media merger has some good analysis – it’s on the union’s website (plus all submissions to the merger are available on ComCom’s website).
NZ is a bit different from the States, for a start there’s no local news broadcast network.
There’s also potential confusion about how news is produced these days. I daresay many readers think they have seen something ‘on the Standard’ or ‘on Facebook’ but they are clicking linked content.
Used to be…
‘Anti-NATO crowds march through Warsaw amid alliance summit (VIDEO)’
https://www.rt.com/news/350331-nato-protest-poland-greece/
“Protests have taken place in Warsaw with members of the public angry the Polish capital is hosting a NATO summit. A few hundred demonstrators gathered in the city to march towards the national stadium where the conference was taking place…
The three-day ‘Anti-NATO Summit’ has brought together activists from Poland, the Czech Republic, France, the US, Belgium, Britain and other countries under the motto: “No to War! No to NATO! No to militarism!”
Moved to ‘open Mike’.Too many comments drifting too far from the topic of the post thanks to this comment. – Bill
Women will vote for a women just because of it, so theres no guarantee this coup of the Labour party isnt over yet.
2008 general election:
Other interesting voting behaviour statistics can be found in the Levine and Roberts chapters. For example, in terms of gender, ‘In 2008 – as in all the previous MMP elections – Labour’s vote was disproportionately female…. National’s vote was perfectly balanced in 2008 – half the party’s voters were men; half were women’ (p.37). Meanwhile, ‘Very nearly four-fifths of ACT’s voters are men’ (p.38).
http://liberation.typepad.com/liberation/2010/02/key-to-victory-levine-and-roberts-new-book.html
It seems likely that we are going to get another woman British Prime Minister. Lucky Brits.
Should be a huge improvement on David Cameron. Right.
@Greg
Women will vote for a women just because of it,
Men will vote for a man just because of it……:)
No women don’t vote for women just because of it, and surely you are not saying that no man ever voted for Thatcher and that not women would ever have considered voting for Corbyn.
Stupid, sexist statement.
Sorry sabine it is real and it does happen.
Stupid and sexist….. yes but it does happen and it is significant in the results
I’m with Sabine. It IS a stupid sexist statement.
It’s bordering on offensive for Greg to suggest that women put voting for another woman ahead of consideration of the policies and issues.
But it still happens
Yes and some men vote for men just because they are men. What’s your point?
My point is that we should work together to discourage voting on demographic basis. It undermines the democratic process.
Please think about the memes you promote
so are you saying this to the men aswell?
Consider that women just obtained the right to vote about a 100 years ago. Until then it was only men voting, often voting only for men!
In the last hundred years since women have been given the vote in NZ they had two Lady PM – one of each side of the isle. Which means that some of the women must have voted for men. Oh, yeah, cause women don’t run that often cause its to hard or something right?
Absolutely !
My message to ALL.
Dont vote for the person who will do the most for your demographic
Vote for the person you believe will work for the good of everyone.
“My point is that we should work together to discourage voting on demographic basis. It undermines the democratic process.”
You still haven’t made the case that large numbers of women vote for women just because (as opposed to say because they feel that a woman might represent them better or support issues they are concerned about).
“Please think about the memes you promote”
What memes?
and then theirs population stats,
I’m not being sexist for pointing it out.
gee, its like shooting the messenger bring bad news,
I voted for Helen, and I’m a swinging voter.
I provided the data link to 2008 election showing where women voted,
its not a sexist statement, Helen was a popular polling PM leader,
But lost the election in a landslide.
Do you want a link to population stats, hint men are in the minority.
Please explain what you meant by “just because of it”
He means that women have a hive mind and are too stupid to see that voting for a woman is a bad thing.
“Women will vote for a women just because of it”
Wondering how he is going to explain how “its not a sexist statement”
I’m guessing he’s frantically searching for (yet more) links to try and justify what he wrote.
that must be the reason John Key is loosing.
Really – women will vote for a female just because she’s female? The quote you provide doesn’t suggest that at all.
Women are voting further left – which is maybe not so surprising because they do a substantial part of the unpaid work ( child raising!) and a selfish right wing society derides those who aren’t “me first”.
read the book,
Helen Clark 100% female vote, what isnt it saying,
“Women will vote for a women just because of it…”
Citation needed. The bit you already quoted says that more women will vote for Labour under MMP than men. Labour being a political party not a woman.
And just to save us all a lot of time, I’ll note your previous multiple anti-feminist and misogynistic comments in ts as a frame of reference for this conversation. Which means you have a bit of an uphill battle to demonstrate that your comments in this thread are anything other than pushing your sexist agenda again.
Gosh that small truth really got under your skin !
Do you feel some responsibility?
Feel free to present some actual evidence to support your argument. Or try addressing the actual points I made.
You guys want to draw a line under this?
Some women will give gender a place in their voting deliberations.
Some men will give gender a place in their voting deliberations.
If there are slightly more women than men of voting age, then it figures that a given party might have more votes coming from women than it does from men.
Even if there’s no difference between the numbers of voting men and women, there’s a fair chance that one party or another will better reflect womens’ general concerns within a given social context, or that one will better reflect men’s concerns within a given social context – particularly in a world shaped by neo-liberal dog shite.
That and a whole pile of other stuff (shite featuring large)- besides no-one with half a mind giving a second’s credence to Greg’s rantings.
In essence, Gregs comments are stinky arse and Xanthe’s seem to be a weird attempt to perform some kind of internet rub-a-dub with them.
And yes, maybe I should have been paying attention to that bit of the thread and shit shoveled it over to ‘open mike’.
“That and a whole pile of other stuff (shite featuring large)- besides no-one with half a mind giving a second’s credence to Greg’s rantings.”
Nevertheless, on a left wing blog, regular anti-feminist and misogynistic comments are a problem that need to be addressed. Greg has form, and he’s been warned before.
Besides, if stupid were a criteria for not responding to a comment, then half the content on ts wouldn’t exists 😉 (am thinking of a chunk of the RW comments for instance).
Shifting to OM might be a good idea.
My post was based on evidence of voting behaviour, read the book.
Go and look at the Guardian link i gave, it claimed what i posted.
vote for me cause im a breeder.
Helen Clark feminism saw he introducing middle class welfare to the breeder.
Now this is the outcome of polices against improving the economy of workers.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/81788403/the-struggle-to-balance-budgets-for-todays-working-poor
Will Labour make a difference, I doubt it, unless they improve workers bottom line, because it all just make workers poorer
“Go and look at the Guardian link i gave, it claimed what i posted.”
I read what you cut and pasted. It didn’t say what you claimed.
And it’s not from the Guardian.
And I have no idea what book you are talking about.
The onus is on you to provide back up. In this case if you want to be taken seriously, you need to cut and paste the parts that you are referring to (not expect people to read whole articles and mindread your intent) as well as linking directly.
You have now established yourself on ts as a misogynist and a class bigot. It’s up to you if you want to address that. I’ll just keep naming it every time I see it.
Bill …Its actually a very serious question about the basis of democracy!
Is democracy where everyone votes for what they believe is the best outcome for their group? (or selves)
Or
Is democracy where everyone votes for what they believe is the best outcome for everyone?
And which of these two outcomes does each of us encourage in our actions?
This question cuts to the heart of this discussion. Please dont belittle it with talk of “rubadub”
Voting for representatives is no basis for democracy.
Is democracy where everyone votes for what they believe is the best outcome for their group? (or selves)
Or
Is democracy where everyone votes for what they believe is the best outcome for everyone?
I hate to break it to you, but lots of peopel vote from self-interest.
As for people who vote for women, there are many reasons and at least some of those easily fall into the ‘best outcome for everyone’ category.
Agreed lots of people do vote for what they think is self interest. Our task is to convince them that their interest ultimatly lies in participating in democracy for the good of all
Agreed also that people do support representitives of all demographic as best for all
Bill.. Not quite ready to let go of representitive democracy yet even tho it demonstraively isnt working “for the good of all” at this time, I feel that direct democracy at this time would be worse!
The reasoning behind that is because untill we deal with the organised misinformation, lies, misdirection, fearmongering, and quasiscience . That currently pretends as news media, democracy of any stripe wont work.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jul/09/andrea-leadsom-remarks-childless-theresa-may-not-naive
if i said something like Leadsom did, and its her voter market,
what would Weka say,
heh, i vote out of self interest now,
Why not just delete it – what purpose does it hold, what does it offer for the left – nothing imo. Leaving it up just encourages more of it.
Maybe. Or maybe someone who was quietly thinking such thoughts has read the responses and altered their view.
oh dear wouldn’t want to try that strategy with too many topics but I suppose it doesn’t matter if 1 man maybe changes their distorted and obnoxious thinking.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11671955
Blairo might end up in court yet, his own dp has changed sides!
He’s just covering his arse.
I’m seeing it a bit like how all those UK TV celebrities suddenly discovered they’d never liked Jimmy Savile after all…like Michael fucking Aspel claiming he’d never had anything to do with him and then, upon being shown a clip from “This is Your Life” (that he hosted) claiming he had no memory and certainly never thought JS was anything other than a very nasty and unlikable piece of work.
This is seriously good…Tell Grandma and Grandpops about the ‘naughty drugs’
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/201807210/science-commentator-malvindar-singh-baines
“Neuroscientist, Dr Malvindar Singh-Bains, discusses new research about psychoactive drugs and the applications they might have for neurological diseases.”
Thought it was weird the youth turnout was supposedly very low in the EU referendum, and it turns out that was wrong – it was actually nearly twice as high as the first figure:
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jul/09/young-people-referendum-turnout-brexit-twice-as-high